Strategic Marketing Communications for Sony Play Station 3 - Essay Example

Strategic marketing communications approach for Sony Play Station 3 Grade (March 14th, Strategic marketing communications approach for Sony Play Station 3 Introduction Integrated marketing communication is a marketing concept that requires that an organization applies a combination of different methods of promotion which are well coordinated, so that they can comprehensively enable the organization to realize its marketing objectives (Arifin, 2012:147). To realize an integrated marketing approach, different methods that are applied by an organization must reinforce each other, such that at the end, the whole marketing campaign becomes successful. Through the combination of different marketing promotional methods, the organization is able to communicate to its customers persuasively. The fundamental principle towards achieving a successful integrated marketing strategy for a product entails both the combination of the traditional and the non-traditional marketing promotional methods, to enhance the synergies of different promotional tactics, such that together, they can produce brand equity for the product. The creation of a synergy for different promotional tactics ensures that the weakness associated with one promotional tactic is offset by the strengths of the other promotional methods, thus building a marketing strategy for a brand that is consistent, clear and easily understandable, and which increases the impact of the marketing campaign (Zvobgo & Melewar, 2011:12). Thus, this discussion seeks to establish Strategic marketing communications approach that can be applied towards ensuring the success of Sony and its SP3 product, with a view to applying a combination of different promotional strategies, to tell the overall product story of (PlayStation 3) to the market. To achieve this, the discussion will seek to establish the weakness associated with each of the available promotional tactics for the products and determine how each of the weaknesses is offset by the application of an integrated system of various marketing promotional tactics. Discussion Devised APPD marketing approach The suitable marketing approach that has been devised for Sony is the APPD approach. The APPD marketing approach focuses on the application of four key marketing strategies; Advertising, Personal selling, Public Relations and Direct marketing as the basis of a product promotion. Under this strategic marketing approach, both the traditional and the non-traditional marketing tactics are applied, to enhance a synergy that increases the impact of the advertising and promotional campaign. Advertising Advertising is one of the marketing tactics that will be combined with the other three components of the devised APPD marketing approach for SP3 product, to create a synergy that will increase the overall marketing impact of the product. This refers to the non-personal paid promotion method of ideas, goods and services to the audience, through the application of different media, which may include mass media, print media, the internet or any other form of outdoor advertising (Winther, 2013:84). The application of Advertising as one of the promotional tactics for the Sony PS3 is due to the fact that; the product is marketed globally, covering a range of demographic characteristics in terms of age, considering that Sony PS3 is a suitable entertainment center for the whole family. Thus, the application of advertising as one of the integrated marketing communication strategies will enhance the ability of the promotional campaign to reach a large and geographically diverse audience (Bulut, 2013:261). According to the Institutional Marketing Theory, the outcomes of an organization and the outcome of its products performance in the market is influenced by the knowledge, belief and attitudes that characterize the organization in the minds of the target customers (Csordás, & Gáti, 2014:22). This being the case, the application of advertising as a marketing and communicational strategy is a fundamental step towards increasing the knowledge, belief and a positive attitude in the minds of the target customers for Sony PS3. This is because; one of the major strength associated with the Sony PS3 product, according to the undertaken SWOT analysis is that, both Sony and its PS3 product are strong brand names globally, which means that the product has the potential of being received positively in the market, owing to the fact that both the organization and the product brand have already established a strong brand identity amongst the audiences from different parts of the world. Sony got into the gaming console market in 1994, and then launched the Sony PS3 both in Japan and USA in 2006. This serves to indicate that the brand has been in the market for a relatively long period of time, stretching to two decades now, and thus it is a brand that is well known globally. In this respect, the application of the advertising strategy will ensure that the promotional campaign and the promotional message will reach a large audience spread globally at a lower cost per exposure (Wilken & Sinclair, 2011:7). This is because, a single media advertising campaign can be aired throughout the world, since the target market for Sony PS3 extends to the whole family, thus here is no need to alter the advertising message to suit a specific demographic target market niche. The essence of combining the advertising strategy with the other components of APPD marketing approach that has been devised for this product is that; personal selling will help to offset weakness of lack of channels for direct feedback associated with advertising strategy, through ensuring that the organization can be able to get the feedback in relation to the advertising message and its effectiveness in the market (DeBar, et al., 2009:53). Secondly, the combination of advertising with the Public Relations component of the devised APPD marketing approach will help to offset the discriminative weakness of advertising strategy, which may only reach those people with access to TVs, Radios, Internet and Newspapers. Public relations help through reaching the prospects that have been bypassed by the advertising strategy directly. Finally, the combination of the advertising strategy with the Direct Marketing component of the APPD Marketing approach will serve to offset the non-interactive weakness of advertising, through providing a platform for direct interaction of the organization and its product with the customers (Quebra, Bick & Abratt, 2013:619). Personal selling Personal selling is another marketing strategy that will be combined with the other three components of the devised APPD marketing approach to the SP3 product, to ensure that the overall synergy created by the combination will promote the product maximally. Personal selling is the most appropriate marketing strategy for building the buyers conviction and preferences (Fang, 2013:67). According to the Game Theory of marketing, organizations are rational utility maximizing entities, which strive to ensure that they get the most preferred maximized outcome out of the resource investment (Kerr & Drennan, 2010:21). In this respect, Sony, being an entity that seeks to maximize its outcome from the resource utilization under the promotional function, needs to enlist the benefits of personal selling, which would ensure that the company is able to get direct means of building customer conviction and understanding the buyer preferences, through building on personal-based relationships and established long-term relationship commitment with the buyers (Arifin, 2012:147). Since the SP3 product offers high multimedia support, which would enable the customers to access media advertising, personal selling will enhance the ability of the Sony organization to understand the direct needs of the customers in relation to the product, and thus incorporate them. The combination of Personal selling with the other components of the devised APPD marketing approach to SP3 product will ensure maximum advertising outcome is realized. This is because; the advertising component will help to offset the high-cost weakness associated with the personal selling strategy, through reaching many people at a lower cost per exposure, as opposed to personal selling that is not able to meet a huge audience, unless at very high costs (Smith, 2013:508). On the other hand, Public relations component of the APPD marketing approach will also help to complement the direct contact function of Personal selling, while also offsetting the high expenses associated with it. Finally, the combination of Personal selling with the direct marketing component of the devised APPD marketing approach will complement the direct interaction function of personal selling Smith, 2013:508). Overall, the combination will give a high marketing impact. Public Relations Public Relation is a highly reliable and very believable marketing strategy that forms a component of the devised APPD marketing approach to SP3 product. This marketing strategy is relatively inexpensive, but capable of reaching many people that have been missed by the other methods of marketing, such as advertising (Porcu, Del Barrio-García, & Kitchen, 2012:332).Further, the Sony PS3 product targets the whole family as another market niche, considering that due to its ability to play games, movies, music videos and photos, the Sony PS3 forms a comprehensive entertainment center for a family. Due to these product characteristics, the most suitable integrated marketing communication approach for the Sony PS3 is the APPD marketing approach. This means that the application of Public relations will go a long way in ensuring that stories, the features and the events related to the product will suit the family preferences, since it is more difficult to target such Public relation functions to a niche market, than it is when targeting the whole family unit. The combination of this marketing strategy with the other components of the devised APPD marketing approach to SP3 product will enhance the marketing impact, since it will complement the Personal selling component through ensuring personal contact with customers and direct feedbacks, while reducing the high-cost associated with personal selling (Wilken & Sinclair, 2011:15). Additionally, the combination of this method with the advertising component will help to ensure that the low frequency of reaching customers through this method has been offset by the high frequency of the advertising strategy. Finally, the combination of this component of the APPD approach with direct marketing will serve to achieve the non-public benefit associated with direct marketing, which misses in the Public relations component that is a direct customer-contact method. Direct Marketing This marketing strategy as a component of the APPD marketing approach consists of telephone marketing, direct mail or online marketing, and is characterized by direct interaction with the customers, being nonpublic means of marketing and offering customized marketing opportunities to the specific targeted market (Fang, 2013:67). Sony launched its PlayStation 3 (PS3) in the United States in November 17, 2006, but the performance of this version of product compared to its previous product was not as good. The Sony PS3 was introduced in two versions, consisting of the 20GB hard drive model that sold at $499 and the 60GB premium model that sold at $599. PS3 does not only play games and movies, but it is an advanced version that can also hold music videos and photos. The target market for the PS3 is gamers between the age of 12 and 35 years. Therefore, the application of direct marketing strategy will be easier, considering that the product has been in the market for relatively long, and thus the organization has developed contact with specific target customers. This way, it is possible to keep interacting with such customers in a platform that is not public, to get an understanding of their specific needs, and hen target the product towards satisfying such needs (Wilken & Sinclair, 2011:11). The application of this component of the APPD marketing approach that has been devised for the organization will serve to offset the weaknesses of advertising that does not offer direct customer interaction and feedback (Kerr & Drennan, 2010:24). Combining this marketing strategy with personal selling will complement the direct customer contact objective of the strategy, while ensuring to lower the costs associated with personal selling marketing strategy. Finally, the combination of direct marketing component with Public relations marketing strategy will serve to offset the non-customization weakness of public relations, through providing an avenue for the product to market differently to the most valued customers of the product (Smith, 2013:512). Conclusion Integrated marketing communication is a marketing approach that ensures the combination of several marketing strategies towards ensuring a comprehensive synergy is achieved in marketing. This in turn serves to increase the marketing impact on the customers, through the combination of both traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies. Sony’s Play Station 3 is a product that has been in the market for long. Thus, APPD approach has been devised for the organization to be able to market its SP3 product effectively, especially while targeting the family unit as its major target group. Through this integrated marketing approach, Sony will be able to reach its customers far and wide, while ensuring to lower the costs of promoting the product to the customers. Thus, the outcome of the approach will increase the influence of the marketing campaign adopted by Sony. References Arifin, Z 2012, analysis of green marketing strategy on real estate company to achieve competitive advantage’, International Journal Of Academic Research, 4, 1, pp. 145-149. 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