Image-Making Strategy of PlayStation Company - Essay Example

Image-Making In business, it is crucial to create an image that is pleasant to the target audience as it guarantees a good market for the product or service. Therefore, in most of the organizations, one of the main priorities is image-making, which is mostly done through advertising. Advertising is described as a form of communication used in marketing to persuade, encourage or influence an audience to start or continue using a certain product or service. The advertisers may be classified into commercial and non-commercial segments. The commercial advertisers use different techniques such as branding to give their product a certain image, with hopes that the qualities associated with the product or service will be appealing to the customers (Egendorf 98). The non-commercial advertisers include advertisers who create an image for other items apart from consumer products and services. The products and services they advertise include government agencies, political parties, religious organizations and interest groups, among others. All investors undertaking a certain business venture seek to make profits as they increase sales. The ability to achieve this goal lies in the firm’s/company’s ability to attract new customers while making efforts to retain the current customers (Malefyt & Moeran 90-103). This enables the firm to stand out against its competitors. The competitive advantage may be attributed to the company’s advertising strategies, its monopolistic nature or the company’s personnel or maybe the differentiation of products either through proliferation or other means to boost sales and profits. The launch of Play Station 3 by Sony was determined to maximize sales and profits. This time, the company had several strengths since the consumers were quite expectant of Sony’s new product. Therefore, the company had projected to raise and boost sales to a figure that PlayStation 2 had not attained (Oravasaari). Consistent business growth and business development requires a process that is suitable for evaluating all business processes. Sony was founded in 1945 at the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. Sony had become the largest radio manufacturers in the 1950s. This made the company to expand to other forms of entertainment such as televisions and stereos. For a long time, the company was reluctant to license its technologies to the competitors, a move that slowed down innovation and lead to a loss of market share to other inferior technologies. The PlayStation was launched in 1995 and it was widely accepted. By the year 2005, PlayStation was the best-selling gaming console in history with total sales of up to 100 million units and over 7000 games in its library (Oravasaari). Sony has been known for a very long time for the production of the best gaming consoles in history such as the PS2. It was, therefore, expected that the company would take the world by storm upon the launch of PlayStation 3. However, this was not the case since by the time Sony was ready to release PS3, Microsoft’s X-box, its competitor, had already conquered the market. This situation made Sony seem unprepared as the high expectations pressured them. An advertising strategy of over $160 million was formulated for the pre-launch period asking the people to wait for the console to be released. Sony decided to air a commercial, which they hoped would have a grip on all the loyal gamers it once had. They aired a commercial in the US during the World Series of Baseball with an advantage of up to 16 million viewers (Oravasaari). The commercial involved a floating PS3 and a crying baby doll. It was aimed at capturing everyone’s attention and curving out memorable commercial worth among consumers. On the contrary, the commercial was viewed as a joke in the media and Sony ended up losing most of its fans. This was a serious mistake by Sony considering the fact that the console went at $599. After realizing the mistake they had done, Sony decided to release a series of advertisements focusing on the key features offered by the system. They also came up with a new market line dubbed “PLAY B3YOND”. In Europe, the commercial that announced the release dates was accompanied by a message urging the audience to be patient and wait for the console. The launch of PS3 was delayed to the beginning of 2007. The ad was a success since Sony’s marketing in Europe was now on the front page of the most creative online publications. This was followed by the release of a series of more ads focusing on the console and its unique features, which kept the audience more interested. Back in the US, Sony dropped its prices and came up with more interesting commercials that changed the image that most people had regarding the PS3. This went on throughout 2008 to 2009 where they finally gained momentum. The ‘Dear PlayStation’ adverts aired in 2009 and were the breakthrough for the PS3 as it became more popular and sales went up (Oravasaari). In any organization, it is the managements duty to identify and carryout activities with the aim of achieving the organizational goals and objectives (Malefyt & Moeran 67). The management also considers the unforeseen variables, situations and occurrences for precaution measures. It is also the managements duty to keep the corporation in the right direction. There are several factors that influence the companys strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning. For example, in Sony, the main ones include quality, cost, and schedule. Customer satisfaction is a factor that ties the other three factors together. The quality of products and services is important to both the customer and the company. However, the company is further concerned with the quality of output ascribed to its staff. Their efforts towards ensuring high quality as one of the largest and most successful companies in the market, ensures customer satisfaction through the delivery of high-quality products and services. According to Egendorf, the company is also open to ideas that may improve their level of service delivery (230). In order to ensure financial stability and maximum profits, the company should control its costs and expenses such that they do not exceed the returns. To ensure strategic, operational, tactical and contingency planning, there must be efficient and effective scheduling of operations. All of these factors are always planned in a consistent manner such that they ensure maximum customer satisfaction. The customers provide information about the nature of the company’s products and any areas of improvement (Bellis). Customer feedback also helps to cut down unnecessary costs associated with the production process. A company might take into consideration all the essential functions and factors ascribed to the production of their products and services but without a proper image, it would be all for nothing (Wolf, 44). The best suitable image-making strategy for this kind of a company or product would be first analyzing the market before making any kind of product promotions. The best strategy for the marketing and sale of Sony’s PlayStation 3 is the sales analysis. According to Wolf, sales analysis involves the use of data from sales, based on demographics, to determine the best products for a given market (26). Through the study of the demography and their needs, Sony will be able to determine what their consumers expect from their product and hence produce a product that suits and satisfies their needs. Through the determination of emerging trends, Sony can also determine what the consumer expects and what they hope to get in the product. By knowing this information then Sony may be able to develop their product and attract more customers. For example, the consumers expect that the PlayStation 3 should have better graphics and a bigger RAM than the PlayStation 2. Therefore, Sony should aim to produce a product with better graphics and an improved RAM to capture these markets. With this at hand, Sony should then aim at making a new and interesting image for the new product. This information is also important, as it will help the organization understand their competitors and hence, develop better advertising strategies and also produce a product that is better than that of their competitors. This will help gain the trust of the consumers and the customers will not mind the products’ prices provided they are good quality products (Callen 231). Also through demographic information, the company can determine the markets in which the new product will attract large amounts of buyers. The company will also understand the preferences of its customers and therefore, will set prices that are favorable to both itself and the consumer. When carrying out the market analysis, the company will be able to determine the market growth rate. For example, the rates at which sales have grown in the past three years and the expected rate in the current and future years. This market analysis should be able to provide feedback to the firm on how the product is performing in the current market. The information helps the firm to formulate better production and marketing plans in the future (Callen, 54). Work cited Callen, Barry. Managers Guide to Marketing, Advertising, and Publicity. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010 Egendorf, Laura K. Advertising. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Print. Bellis, Mary. History of Playstation. 19 November, 2014 Malefyt, Timothy D. W, and Brian Moeran. Advertising Cultures. Oxford: BERG, 2003.  Oravasaari, Dan. The History of Playstation Ads: PS3. 4 March, 2012. 19 November, 2014 Wolf, Mark J. P. The Video Game Explosion: A History from Pong to Playstation and Beyond. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2008 Read More