Global Marketing Strategy & Planning - Sony Corp - Case Study Example

Running Head: Marketing Plan Marketing Plan Customer’s Name: Customer’s Course Tutor’s Name November 9th, 2012. Executive summary Sony a major producer of household electronics markets Digital cameras as part of its wide range of products offering. In recent times digital cameras have become mass products and are offered by many electronic producers the world over. Sony is among the leading manufacturer and marketer of digital cameras in the Global. This report explores the marketing activities of Sony with emphasis on the digital camera industry. First, it gives a brief overview of Sony Corp the producer and marketer of high quality household electronics. Secondly, the report employs a situational analysis of Sony Corporation with emphasis on the opportunities available for Sony in the Digital camera industry. Thirdly, the report analyzes the current marketing strategies used by Sony to market its line of Digital cameras. The report recommends two strategies that Sony can use to gain a competitive edge over rivals in the digital imaging business. These recommendations include: Focusing on the digital Camera segment instead of dispersed marketing efforts across it whole product range. More stringent quality control measures to avoid occurrence of marketing crisis. Takeover of smaller firms to expand market share. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 6 Company overview 7 Employees 7 Situational analysis 8 Micro environment 8 Customers 9 Competitors 9 Media 9 Suppliers 10 Distributors 10 SWOT 11 Marketing strategies 13 Select Target Markets 13 Sony Product Strategies 13 Pricing and Positioning Strategy 14 Distribution Strategy 14 Promotion Strategy 15 Public Relations and Publicity 17 Implement and control of the marketing plan 18 Action plan 18 Responsibility 19 Measurement and control 19 Recommendations 19 Focus on Digital Cameras 19 Strategic takeovers 20 Enhancing the Quality of their Product offering through more stringent Quality control 20 Conclusion 20 References 22 Armstrong, L. (2000). A Picture-Perfect Digital Camera. Business week, (3694), 22 22 Armstrong, L. (2001). Digital Cameras That You Can Afford. Business week, (3737), 152-153. 22 Bulik, B. (2004). Sony, Kodak lead U.S. battle for share in digital cameras. Advertising Age, 75(22), 12. 22 Effron, M. Gandossy, R. & Goldsmith M. (2003). Human Resources in the 21st Century. United States. Wiley. 22 Guidry, M. (2011). Marketing Concepts that Win! Save Time, Money and Work by Crafting Concept Right the First Time, Texas: Live Oak Book Company. 22 Hart, S. (2008, April). Editorial. Journal of Marketing Management. pp. 241-244. 22 Harvard Business Review (2000). Harvard Business Review on Business and the Environment. Harvard. Harvard Business School Press. 22 Hasouneh, A. I., & Alqeed, M. (2010). Measuring the Effectiveness of E-mail Direct Marketing in Building Customer Relationship. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 2(1), 48-64. 22 Kay, B. & Fogg, L. (2012). The Basics of Affiliate Success: Running a Business (Top Secrets of Successful Affiliate Marketing). Amazon: Amazon Digital Services. 22 Kim, C. & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant. USA: Harvard Business Review Press. 22 Li Yann, L. (2007). South East Asia: Stars come out for Sony. Media: Asia's Media & Marketing Newspaper, 85. 22 Luther, W. M. (2011). The Marketing Plan: How to Prepare and Implement It. New York. Amacom. 22 O'Reilly, L. (2012). Sony shakes up marketing in turnaround plan. Marketing Week (Online Edition), 10. 22 Otubanjo, O., & Lim, L. (2011). A Corporate Brand in the Technology Road-Map: Sony. IUP Journal Of Brand Management, 8(3), 60-73. 22 Peter, J. P. and Donnelly, J. H. (2007). Marketing Management. 6th Ed, New York: McGraw-Hill. 23 Russell, S. (2007). Sony gets creative with Cyber-shot launch. B&T Weekly, 57(2604), 6. 23 Sathish, A. S., & Venkatesakumar, R. (2011). CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT AND STORE LOYALTY IN CORPORATE RETAILING - WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO "SONY WORLD". Annamalai International Journal of Business Studies & Research, 3(1), 67-76 23 Song, I., & Chintagunta, P. (2003). A Micro-model of New Product Adoption with Heterogeneous and Forward-Looking Consumers: Application to the Digital Camera Category. Quantitative Marketing & Economics, 1(4), 371-407. 23 Sony group (2012). Sony corporate website. Retrieved November 9, 2012, from http://www.sony.net/ 23 Sony Group Annual Report (2012). Sony Annual Report. Retrieved November 9, 2012, from http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/ar/2012/common/docs/EAR.pdf 23 Tarr, G. (2010). Sony Sets Plans for Alpha Ultra-Compact Hybrid Cameras. TWICE: This Week in Consumer Electronics, 25(6), 36. 23 Worthington, I. & Britton, C. (2003). The Business Environment. New York. Prentice Hall. 23 Introduction All marketing plans are usually designed with the certain marketing objectives in mind. Marketing objectives describes what an organizations needs to achieve with their marketing activities (Harvard Business Review, 2000). The major marketing objectives of Sony in the marketing of their digital cameras are: Increase the awareness of digital cameras among the prospective target market notify the target audience about the advanced features and the benefits that are associated with the digital cameras decrease potential customer resistance to purchasing the digital cameras from Sony deliver company value to the customers as well to their partners Like any other business Sony has a mission which related to the offering of a great level of experience as well as joy of applying and at the same time advancing the technology for the benefit of the public they are serving and offering the products to. The digital camera opportunity that is available for Sony fits well with the company overall mission as well as the business portfolio this is mainly based on the fact that with the development of the digital cameras Sony was in line with their mission of offering the joy of going forward and applying technology for the gains of the general public that purchases goods from them. Company overview For more than forty years now, the northern sphere of America has had a great and enduring love with Sony as a brand. During this period of time, the company has been able to create a range of products as well as technologies in the aim of making the lives of their consumers easier, enjoyable and at the same time productive. Also in the same duration of time, Sony has been able to earn a reputation for reliability, quality stylish design and innovation (Sony Group, 2012). As a matter of fact, the Harris poll has recognized Sony to be among the list of the top brands in America this is mainly based on the fact that the company has been able to sustain the top three positions in the past twelve years which also includes been in the first position for a period of nine years. Sony electronics seems to be among the largest component of Sony Corporation in America. Since its establishment the company has aimed at being in the forefront in terms of technological advancement, building of continuously on its achievements in the aim of creating new lifestyles for all the people in the world. The company has also fostered groundbreaking businesses, adopted innovative approach in the aim of facing the challenges that trend to exceed regional as well as national boundaries (Sony Group, 2012). Employees Sony is aware of the fact that for it to have an ongoing ability to offer dream inspiring products as well as services and exciting lifestyles all over the world depends on the company’s ability to secure, foster and retain talented employees who possess a wide range of personalities and values, irrespective of their nationalities, race, age, culture, gender or the absence or presence of some physical limitations (Effron, Gandossy & Goldsmith 2003). Being guided by the concepts of inclusion as well as diversity, the company recruits employees from different backgrounds. As of 31st march 2012, Sony group had a total employee base of 162,700. Figure 1: total number of employee working in Sony as of 31st March 2012 Situational analysis Micro environment The micro environment of a company is made up of all the stakeholders that the organization has usual transactions with. The way in which the relationships develop with these stakeholders tend to have a major influence on the success, quality and costs of the products that are manufactured by the company (Worthington & Britton, 2003). These stakeholders include: suppliers, competitors, customers, distributors and the media. Customers The main customers of the digital cameras are those individuals who like adventure. This category of customers are mostly fascinated by nature and like to keep memoires life and this is usually achieved through taking of photos and recording of videos. These people are usually between the ages of 15 years to 30 years. There also exist other groups of people and they are mainly between all other age groups. Competitors With no competitors in a market the customers tend to be exploited with high prices while at the same time they are also offered with low quality products. Competitors tend to drive innovation and at the same time keep new ideas and procedures which moves forward the organization (Worthington & Britton, 2003). In their digital market the company. With the heated competition that is prevalent in the industry. Sony has a number of competitors in the digital camera market with the main ones being Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Samsung and Eastman Kodak co. despite their quite and brilliant entry into the global market they were not able to overtake Sony. Irrespective of that Sony needs to keep up with the manufacturing of quality and innovative digital cameras so as to keep their customers. Sony will have no option but to offer their customers with the greatest as well as the latest digital cameras so as to sustain them and attract new ones (Kay and Fogg, 2012). Media The media had a great interest in Sony even before their entry into the digital camera market. They assist Sony a lot in the promoting the digital cameras to the prospective customers. On the other hand, it can be termed as the major reason behind the sales decrease that is been experienced in the organization. It just a matter of what the media decides to focus on in a certain period of time. In either way, the media is seen as been a major reason why individuals about the new innovations in the industry. Suppliers Suppliers provide some goods as well as services to the vendors and in exchange the vendors offers them with the agreed upon compensation (Worthington & Britton, 2003). An organizations relationship with its major suppliers has over time become an increasingly vital in the overall context of companies which are operating in the 21st century. Over time organizations have reduced the number of suppliers that they have in the aim of developing long term relationships with the few ones that they have been left with. Sony has also responded in the same way. Sony relies greatly on the company suppliers so as to get the raw materials as well as some pre-constructed parts that they use in the development and production of their digital cameras. Sony has over time established long and strong relationship with all the suppliers and they have over time understood the significance of the relationships with the customers. Distributors Distributors play an important role in today market place in that they assist a lot in maintaining the lines between the users and the manufacturers of the products. They at times expedite the response time, create value added packages and at times enhance the company’s reach (Sony Group, 2012). Sony sells its own digital cameras. However the greatest amount of sales are made the companies distributors and they include but are not limited to Amazon, Wal-Mart and many more. SWOT SWOT analysis is termed as a helpful tool for understanding the strengths, threats, opportunities and weaknesses. When applied in a business framework SWOT analysis assists a lot in curving a sustainable position in the marketplace. SWOT analysis is more concerned with the specification of the objectives of an organization as well as the identification of the external and internal factors that trend to be unfavorable and favorable in the achievement of the objective (Guidry, 2011). The weaknesses and strengths are usually derived from the in-house marketing examination while the opportunities and threats are usually derived from the external marketing audit examination. The table below clearly shows the SWOT analysis of Sony in their digital camera area. Strengths Brand image – Sony has a strong brand image and it usually act as strength for them when marketing their products. In relation to the strong brand image a greater number of customers will tend to buy the digital cameras that are manufactured by Sony (Sony Group, 2012). Global operations – Sony has a global presence in that it has operations in a number of countries thus making it certain that they have a greater number of customers to sell their products to. In relation to this the sale of digital camera will tend to be high since the target market is widely available in the globe. Professional design and R & D team- the employees working at Sony are professional and they perform their duties diligently. With their knowledge they are able to develop new and advanced equipments such as the digital cameras (Sony Group, 2012). Weaknesses High price of the products – this seems to be a major weakness facing Sony in that they use high prices raw materials in the creations of their products and especially in the creations of their digital cameras. This seems to be a weaknesses since some people are not able to afford the money to buy the highly priced cameras. Opportunities Partnership with FIFA- a new partnership that has been formed with FIFA enables the organization to promote its products and more precisely the digital cameras. Threats Increased price of the raw materials- this seems to be a major threat that is facing the organization in that they with the increase in the price of raw materials, the price of the final product will therefore tend to increase. Unstable supply and demand condition- organization tend to operate well with a stable supply and demands condition. With a heightened instability in terms of the supply and demand the company at times tends to incur losses. Intense competition- there has been a number of new entrants into the digital markets which tends to present intense competition to Sony. Economic downturn - with the economic downturn the number of customers making purchases tend to decrease and for those who make purchases they tend to do it under moderation. Marketing strategies Select Target Markets Sony is a leader in using new innovative technologies to always keep up with customers changing technological demands. Unlike, most of Sony’s technologies aimed at the age are 15-30 market Sony line of Digital cameras is for almost everyone (Russell, 2007). The digital Camera market is estimated to be currently worth over $ 30 billion and over 2.5 billion people own a digital camera (Bulik, 2004). The Market is predicted to continue its growth trend in the future creating a great marketing opportunity for manufacturers of digital cameras like Sony. The Various segments of the digital camera market can be classified into the following segments (Armstrong, 2001): Photo lovers and hobbyist. Professional photographers. Aspiring professional photographers. People who like to take photographs to mark occasions. Sony Product Strategies Sony’s digital cameras offer their consumers distinct benefits when compared with the products of competitors. The Sony range of digital cameras always reflects the consideration of the Company for excellent design. The size and weight of Sony range of cameras makes them easily portable and convenient to carry around. Sony’s Digital cameras come loaded with a range of features incorporated in their characteristic small compact design. Sony Digital Cameras have the ability to easily connect to a number of computing devices including Computers, printers and other cameras. Sony Cameras come with rechargeable batteries that last longer than those of competitors enhancing their reliability. Furthermore they are fault tolerant and durable adding further to Sony value preposition. Sony’s Digital cameras are available in a number of diverse designs and colors to fit various customers’ individual preference. Pricing and Positioning Strategy According Song and Chintagunta (2003), prices are the most easily adjustable factors of a products marketing mix. Sony uses its pricing tactics as part of its positioning strategy. Price variations are important factors in determining the marketing success of any product. These variables include discounts, dealer prices, allowances, credit arrangement and offers. Sony Digital Cameras are priced on a sliding scale with the most low quality product being priced at the bottom of the prices. Sony also reduces the prices of their products as it progressively with time to shield them from comparative pricing strategies of competitors. The use of a sliding scale is a response to customer’s belief that the quality of an item is directly related to its quality. Sony market position does not allow the firm to price its products below a certain range to maintain the image of its products as premium quality products. Sony thus offers its Digital Cameras at high or moderately high prices. Distribution Strategy Sony strives to ensure that its digital cameras are available to their consumers wherever they are and whenever they want to purchase a Sony digital Camera. Sony employs different distribution strategies depending on the region of operation and the perceived effectiveness of the distribution strategy the company uses. Sony employs exclusive distributorship when it comes to some high-end digital cameras. For Sony to maintain its position as a company that offers the very best in quality it must align itself with companies that project this image of Sony’s products. Among one of the exclusive distributors of Sony’s high-end products is SONY world (Otubanjo and Lim 2011). However, Sony also needs some of its lower end products to extensively penetrate the market. Intensive market coverage is used in these cases to establish a greater foothold in grey markets. Products that are offered to grey markets do not qualify for additional services like warranties and guarantees which are offered by Sony. Sony uses several distribution channels to take its various products to locations where it is convenient for them to shop. These channels include the zero-level channel, the one-level channel and finally, the two-level channel. A channel like distributors is chosen because of its effectiveness and the margin of return it brings to the firm (Hasouneh and Alqeed, 2010). In India, Sony employs the one-level distribution channel to move their product from the manufacturers to the final consumers (Hart, 2008). In this case, Sony certifies a number of dealers, who obtain their products from Sony and in turn customers obtain their Sony products from them. Recently, Sony has started to integrate IT in its distribution strategy to enhance the way their customers find the product they want from Sony. Through, the World Wide Web a Customer who needs to find a Sony product only need to know the product he intends to purchase. A customer then inputs the above information on Sony’s official website and then the site returns information of the nearest Shop where the product can be purchased. Promotion Strategy Promotion is one of the most important factors in the marketing strategy of any product more so of electronics. Sony uses the promotion strategies to sway their consumers to perceive their products positively. Promotion provides Sony with the only means of creating awareness of their products that the company can control. Promotion enables Sony avail information on the company, its products and offers that influence the perception of customers positively. Sony uses advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing, and publicity. Sony carries out advertising campaigns through the media and other ways of communicating trough paid advertisement. Advertisement of Sony’s digital cameras uses different advertising to get influence their customers to purchase Sony products (Tarr, 2010). Sony uses television advertisement which is slotted in breaks on the programs that are most likely to influence the customers to associate the lifestyle trends in the program with Sony products. To further influence the perception of consumers who are television fans, Sony has its own TV channel: Sony TV. Sony has sponsored events like Miss India which implies that the great photo shoots of the event are associated with Sony products. Sony also participates in advertisement deals with major sporting associations like English premier league clubs which allows them to advertise to the thousands who attend football matches and the millions who watch the matches on television (Li Yann, 2007). Sony places numerous print ads in various high profile newspapers all over the world. In India for example Sony uses the Times of India to address their advertisement to Indian consumers. Additionally, Sony distributors place catalogues in Newspapers all over the global especially in the period towards major holidays like Christmas. Sony also employs telephone, mail or internet communication to carry out direct response advertising. In direct response advertising, Sony seeks to encourage feedback from its consumers by engaging them in conversations. Another method used by Sony to advertise includes posters and billboards. Cooperative advertising with dealers include directions and materials on how to advertise their products. Sony must ensure the messages contained in their advertising are aligned with their positioning strategy and thus they control advertising by their dealers closely. In cooperative advertising the Sony dealer and the firm bear the cost of advertising. Sony also employs sales promotions as an incentive for consumers to purchase Sony products. Sales promotion target customers and sales level for the company. Sales promotions are aimed at generating a specific, measurable response for the product of offer. Sales promotions include rebates, coupons, sweepstakes, premiums, early bird prize, exchange offers, samples and discounts (Sathish and Venkatesakumar, 2011). Sony employs one of these promotional methods depending on the objective of the promotion Public Relations and Publicity Public relations refer to a set of activities by a firm involving communication that are aimed at creating and maintaining a good image in the eyes of the stakeholders of the business. These stakeholders include Suppliers, Media, potential investors, government agencies, officials, employees and the society in general. Among the publicity initiative include it official websites that provides the information needs of customers and its stakeholders. Through its interactive official website, Sony can create better relationship with its customers by serving their demands and wishes (Armstrong, 2000). Sony handles marketing crisis pre-emotively to make sure they do not precipitate negative reaction from the media. Sony already has policies and procedures in place to handle any marketing crisis to maintain good public relations. One of Sony adverts for its digital Cameras seemed to Depict Jesus with a crown of thorn smiling at a Sony camera. The advertisement was accompanied by the phrase “Ten Years of Passion” (Sathish and Venkatesakumar, 2011). The advertisement was a bid by Sony to tap the Publicity generated by the film with a similar theme. The advertisement left the Vatican and followers of the Catholic faith outraged by Sony’s perceived mockery of Christ. The Story was sensationalized by the media which carried headings such as “Vatican ex-communicates Sony. The negative publicity like this off course affects the sales of Sony products as Catholics form a substantial percentage of the World’s population and thus Sony’s global appeal was reduced by the controversy. Elsewhere, in the Netherlands, Sony has been blamed for using racist advertisement By adopting the recommendations of this report Sony will be able to establish the largest share of the Digital Camera market while ensuring its favorable perception among consumers of its products remains intact Implement and control of the marketing plan Action plan In the aim of ensuring that there are available units of digital cameras, Sony is working towards ensuring that there are always enough digital cameras in their shelves. They have also undertaken some advertisements which are aimed at promoting the digital cameras to their prospective customers in the hopes that people will buy the digital cameras because of the features that are in it and the flexibility that it offers to its users (Luther, 2011). They have also added some components as well as capabilities to their cameras in the aim of competing favorable in the market so that to further pursue the customers of their products. In the aim of increasing the sales that they make when it comes to their digital cameras, the company has also developed different kinds of cameras for different users and some of them also have some additional features such as high movie definitions (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005) . Some cameras are also designed with certain setting which tends to allow a higher and dynamic range of photos and movies that are taken. This assists a lot in showing how in-depth the digital cameras of Sony could potentially be. Responsibility Sony recognizes the fact that its business activities have an indirect as well as a direct impact in the society in which they operate. In relation to the environment Sony offers products that edn to be more environmental friendly while at the same time leveraging their innovation and superior technology to minimize all harmful effects on the surrounding environment (Sony Group Annual Report, 2012). The organization also contributes towards meeting the needs of the communities and this is usually done through a number of their field of expertise in the aim of harnessing their innovation, products and technology that they use (Sony Group Annual Report, 2012). Measurement and control Beyond the sales figures that show how many units of digital cameras are sold, they also assist in knowing how the customer perceives their products and changes that may need to be done on the cameras so as to satisfy the customer fully (Peter and Donnelly, 2007). For example they may develop cameras with high resolution and with high member capacity so as to assist in the storage of pictures and movies. Recommendations Focus on Digital Cameras Sony’s diverse range of products means specialized competitors like Canon are at an advantage when it comes to digital photography. Sony main disadvantage that arises from the lack of focus on a particular product is dispersal of resources needed for its products to maintain an edge over rivals in the market (O'Reilly, 2012). Digital Cameras represent one of the fastest growing mass market products, and Sony stands to benefit immensely if it focuses its resources on this market which has enormous potential. Strategic takeovers Once Sony concentrates on the digital cameras business it should aggressively takeover competing firms. By takeovers Sony will be able to establish a large enough market share to control prices, take advantage of economies of scale. New acquisitions also provide Sony with patents and proprietary technology that could assist Sony further differentiates their digital Cameras. Sony should target smaller companies in the Digital Camera business for possible takeover or technological giants like Kodak who are in financial trouble. Enhancing the Quality of their Product offering through more stringent Quality control The positioning strategy of Sony requires the Firm to constantly maintain the quality and reliability of their products. However, some of Sony’s products have had to be recalled after faults were discovered well after they have been released to the public for consumption. In 2006, the quality problems affected the eight of their Digital cameras models as they had a “Problem with image pick-up” problem (Li Yann, 2007). Even where the Sony product in question is not a digital camera, the quality perception of Sony’s Digital cameras is affected negatively as consumer suppose the quality problems affect all Sony products. Furthermore, faults in their electronics expose Sony to costly lawsuits and Media mockery. Conclusion Sony wide range of digital cameras and services of high quality enables Sony to stay among the top sellers of Digital Cameras in the Globe. The ability of the firm to influence the customers to perceive their firm as quality stands as the firm’s most important competitive edge. Sony has achieved this through its positioning, pricing, products and promotions strategies. Sony has been able to continuously innovate its products and communicate the idea that the quality of their products keep improving annually. As a provider of high quality products, Sony is justified by offering their Digital cameras at premium prices. Sony justification comes from the fact that the quality of the Cameras is higher in comparison to those of most of its competitors within the same price range. If Sony continues to maintain high quality it will be sure to its customers will still be willing to pay premium prices for the company’s digital cameras. References Armstrong, L. (2000). A Picture-Perfect Digital Camera. Business week, (3694), 22 Armstrong, L. (2001). Digital Cameras That You Can Afford. Business week, (3737), 152-153. Bulik, B. (2004). Sony, Kodak lead U.S. battle for share in digital cameras. Advertising Age, 75(22), 12. Effron, M. Gandossy, R. & Goldsmith M. (2003). Human Resources in the 21st Century. United States. Wiley. Guidry, M. (2011). Marketing Concepts that Win! Save Time, Money and Work by Crafting Concept Right the First Time, Texas: Live Oak Book Company. Hart, S. (2008, April). Editorial. Journal of Marketing Management. pp. 241-244. Harvard Business Review (2000). Harvard Business Review on Business and the Environment. Harvard. Harvard Business School Press. Hasouneh, A. I., & Alqeed, M. (2010). Measuring the Effectiveness of E-mail Direct Marketing in Building Customer Relationship. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 2(1), 48-64. Kay, B. & Fogg, L. (2012). The Basics of Affiliate Success: Running a Business (Top Secrets of Successful Affiliate Marketing). Amazon: Amazon Digital Services. Kim, C. & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant. USA: Harvard Business Review Press. Li Yann, L. (2007). South East Asia: Stars come out for Sony. Media: Asia's Media & Marketing Newspaper, 85. Luther, W. M. (2011). The Marketing Plan: How to Prepare and Implement It. New York. Amacom. O'Reilly, L. (2012). Sony shakes up marketing in turnaround plan. Marketing Week (Online Edition), 10. Otubanjo, O., & Lim, L. (2011). A Corporate Brand in the Technology Road-Map: Sony. IUP Journal Of Brand Management, 8(3), 60-73. Peter, J. P. and Donnelly, J. H. (2007). Marketing Management. 6th Ed, New York: McGraw-Hill. Russell, S. (2007). Sony gets creative with Cyber-shot launch. B&T Weekly, 57(2604), 6. Sathish, A. S., & Venkatesakumar, R. (2011). CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT AND STORE LOYALTY IN CORPORATE RETAILING - WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO "SONY WORLD". Annamalai International Journal of Business Studies & Research, 3(1), 67-76 Song, I., & Chintagunta, P. (2003). A Micro-model of New Product Adoption with Heterogeneous and Forward-Looking Consumers: Application to the Digital Camera Category. Quantitative Marketing & Economics, 1(4), 371-407. Sony group (2012). Sony corporate website. Retrieved November 9, 2012, from http://www.sony.net/ Sony Group Annual Report (2012). Sony Annual Report. Retrieved November 9, 2012, from http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/ar/2012/common/docs/EAR.pdf Tarr, G. (2010). Sony Sets Plans for Alpha Ultra-Compact Hybrid Cameras. TWICE: This Week in Consumer Electronics, 25(6), 36. Worthington, I. & Britton, C. (2003). The Business Environment. New York. Prentice Hall. Read More