Sony Corporation History - Essay Example

?Introduction SONY CORPORATION was founded on 7th May 1946. Its headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The present Chairman is Howard Stringer, Kazuo Hirai is the CEO and President and the Vice Chairman is Ryoji Chubachi. There are six broad categories of products that SONY produces: audio, video, televisions, information and communications, semiconductors and electronic components. In the audio category there is home audio and portable audio, in video category there are video cameras, digital still cameras, and DVD-Video players/recorders, and Digital-broadcasting receiving systems. It makes LCD televisions in the Television category and PC, printer system, broadcast and professional use audio/video/monitors and other professional-use equipment in the information and communications category. It manufactures CCD, LCD and other semiconductors as well. The electronic components that it makes are optical pickups, batteries, audio/video/data recording media, and data recording systems (SONY CORP, 2012). Two people, Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita started the Tokyo Tsushin Kenkyujo or Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute in 1946 and the main aim of this company was to research and develop new products in their efforts to always bring something new to the customer’s plate and create value for the customer. The company tried to balance innovation with the consumer benefit and convenience because customer satisfaction was its top priority. With its success and expansion the title Sony Corporation came into being in 1958 and has been there since then. The word Sony was a coined by combining two Latin words, sound and sonny. Sonus signifies sound or something that is sonic while sonny means son. Sony is a short word which has the advantage of quick recall and can also be read in any language and is a sign of freedom and open-mindedness. The variety of high quality products that SONY offers makes it one of the market leaders of digital entertainment (Louwel, 2011). It is a company that banks upon the opportunities provided by innovation and new technology. It is a company that is characterized by a forward mentality and a desire to lead and be the first one to introduce something new to the customer. The competitive products and services offered by Sony give it a lasting edge over its competitors. The factors that account for Sony’s growth and success are its strategic thinking, talented people and e-commerce (Louwel, 2011). Sony operates globally in 204 countries in three continents North America, Europe and Asia. Because of its quality and innovation, SONY has achieved brand awareness and recognition over the years. Sony’s sales in 2008 were $88.7 billion and 180,500 people worked under the umbrella of Sony Corp. In the wake of the 2008-09 economic crunch Sony experienced falling sales, 16000 jobs were lost and 6 production bases were discontinued. The prices of its raw materials and parts also increased due to which it became very difficult for SONY to maintain competitive prices (Giusti, 2009). Methodology Sony’s innovation is not restricted to its products and services only. It has also changed the way that marketing is done globally by international companies. It gives a very participative environment to employees so that they experiment and come up with new ideas, the rich corporate culture provides employees an opportunity to stay focused, and the marketing approaches adopted by the top management have helped the overall organization. The product designers are given the leverage to come up with new products that they think are fit to keep up the good name of the Sony Corporation. There is a lot of cohesion and coordination in the organization. This democratic management style has enabled the company to introduce premium, unique and futuristic products and this coupled with the corporate culture at Sony, gives it a sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors. Sony has not restricted itself to one marketing approach only as it is a progressive organization and has been changing its marketing approaches as per the needs/requirements of present markets and consumers. When Sony was still a budding brand, it paid special attention to marketing approach and positioned itself as an innovative brand which used technology to make customers’ life easier (Didi, 2010). Sony has the advantage of being the world’s fifth largest conglomerate with a worth of $77.2 billion. Sony has six branches that are Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial (Suriya, 2011). SPE and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) had issues with marketing because they had scattered marketing material. SPE has a huge digital library that contains all the marketing material and this library is repository for marketing teams of SPE globally. This has increased the pace of servicing, distribution, approval related to entertainment marketing. SPHE has marketing teams that are assigned the task of supplying marketing material to over 60 areas. The time to market products is decreasing because of competition and so SPHE has to make sure that in a short span of time, it is able to reach customers by marketing effectively. There is a whole marketing body at SPHE which includes its marketing pros, agencies and printing companies and these are locating globally to provide integrated marketing (Locke, 2007). Main Findings In 2009, Sony started its integrated marketing campaign to promote Sony as a leader in terms of quality. Sony uses its quality factor to differentiate itself from its competitors and establish a particular brand image. This helps consumers in decision-making at retail outlets and they end up buying Sony products because of its quality. Sony is confident that consumers tend to link quality with the name Sony and so using ‘quality’ as a tool to reach consumers is effective and fruitful for Sony. There is also a fact that quality is the first thing that consumers look for in consumer electronics and quality affects a consumer’s purchase decision regarding electronics. Under the integrated marketing campaign, Sony also hired a panel of celebrity experts as its brand ambassadors to guide consumers regarding its products at retail stores. These panelists or brand ambassadors educate consumers about Sony’s products, why they should buy them and what makes them different from competitors’ products. Besides that, these brand ambassadors lighten the consumer’s mood by using humor and making them feel at home. Sony’s advertising agency 180, Los Angeles designed this campaign for Sony. In 2009, the campaign became larger and more celebrities were included in the panels. More celebrities were hired to focus on the US market and connect with consumers there. Celebrities from different industries like sports (Peyton Manning) and music (Justin Timberlake) were hired. This was to attract consumers with possible idols from all fields like photography, music, fashion and sports etc. The reason for celebrity endorsement was that these celebrities were leaders in their respective fields and this was used to imply that just like them Sony was also a market leader or all market leaders approve Sony because of its excellence and better quality. Sony also increased the breadth of its product categories to satisfy more consumer demands and be diversified e.g. Sony BRAVIA, Cyber Shot, SLR cameras and VAIO notebooks were the new editions. This integrated campaign extended to all consumer touch-points and markets so that Sony was not limited in its reach. Mass media was also used as part of this campaign and sports commercials were shot with Sony cameras and promoted likewise. Besides that radio, online banner ads and news print were used to promote Sony and celebrate its quality (Sony, 2012). This marked the new wave of marketing of electronics across the world and Sony being the innovative company once again took advantage of a new opportunity. In 2004 Sony wanted to do something different from routine internet marketing and so it came up with giving tutorials for digital photography to retain its customers and attract prospective customers (Beal, 2006). Sony once introduced the VAIO Boutique which was a fancy laptop store in Russia after substantial market analysis. The reason why Sony started a luxurious laptop store was because of the high purchasing power of consumers in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Sony’s strategy has always been to analyze the market effectively and then come up with a viable marketing plan to attract particular segments of the market. The products sold at this boutique were customized as per the standards set in that particular market. These boutiques became popular rapidly and became a success in the Russian market. As per Sony’s Brand Manager Tadato Kimura, one has to read the pulse of the market and gauge the demand before taking action. When Sony introduced and launched 3D products in India, it conducted road shows to promote, create awareness and interest in the consumer’s mind. This helped Sony to engage its customers and ultimately boosted the sales in India. Creative and media agencies have formed an integral part of Sony’s advertising and promotion. They bring new ideas and convey the company’s message to the consumer. The creative agency is responsible for choosing the communication and right media in order to meet the goals of the client effectively while the media agency negotiates the media rates that are most economical and purchases media on behalf of the company. These agencies develop a brand in the market from its introductory phase to its maturity. Digital media is very important for Sony as many of its customers use it to find out about new products and innovations. Customers use digital media to read product reviews and then make a purchasing decision. There is a team of digital experts at Sony that is responsible for social media activation, website updation and reputation management (Kimura, 2012). Conclusion Sony has always stayed ahead of its competitors in terms of product innovation, diversification and marketing. It came up with the idea of integrated marketing and implemented it successfully. All the six branches of the Sony Corp are progressive in terms of marketing and have come up with effective marketing strategies. Recommendations As mentioned earlier, Sony should always try to analyze the market effectively and find out what are the consumer tastes, preferences and purchasing power. Using the same marketing strategy becomes monotonous for the company and consumers both so Sony should make sure it comes with a new marketing strategy regularly in order to retain existing customers and attract the prospective ones. Sony is a reliable brand because of its quality and hence future marketing strategies should highlight how quality-oriented Sony is and how reliable its products are. Consumers trust Sony with quality and hence Sony should always try to maintain the same quality. Bibliography Beal, B., 2006. Secret. [Online] Available at: http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/1190460/Tutorials-Sony-s-new-Internet-marketing-secret Didi, 2010. Marketing Approaches Adopted By Sony. [Online] Available at: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Marketing-Approaches-Adopted-By-Sony/531598 Giusti, S., 2009. Sony. [Online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/StephenGiusti/sony-marketing-plan-slide-show Kimura, T., 2012. Brand Boss: Tadato Kimura, General Manager - Marketing of Sony India. The Economic Times, 15 February. Locke, B., 2007. Sony's Digital Realm. [Online] Available at: http://www.aiim.org/Resources/Archive/Magazine/2007-May-Jun/33463 Louwel, J., 2011. Hrm - Sony Corporation. [Online] Available at: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Hrm-Sony-Corporation/610597 SONY CORP, 2012. SONY Corp. Info. [Online] Available at: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/ Sony, 2012. SONY INTEGRATED MARKETING CAMPAIGN CUTS THROUGH THE RETAIL NOISE. [Online] Available at: https://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_room/corporate_news/release/41385.html Suriya, B., 2011. Sony Corporation. [Online] Available at: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Sony-Corporation/613007 Read More