Sony Mm Final

8/14/2019 Sony Mm Final

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Sony Corporation

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The completion of the project

not only brings an appreciatedrespite from many months ofdemanding effort, but also

provides a welcome opportunity toacknowledge in writing the soulwho helped all along the way, MISS AMISHA who is our MARKETINGMGMT MAM who provided overall

guidence regarding the project.Herhelp was willingly and expertlygiven at the time of great

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pressure and need, so I am greatlythankful to her.

index

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SR.NO PARTICULARS PG.NO

1 Introduction 52 History 63 Marketing Mix 94 Marketing

Environment18

5 Facts and Figures 22

6 Conclusion 227 Bibliography 23


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INTRODUCTION

Sony Corporation is a multinationalconglomerate corporation headquartered in Tokyo,Japan, and one of the world's largest media

conglomerate with revenue of US$88.7 billion (asof 2008) based in Minato, Tokyo. Sony is one of theleading manufacturers of electronics, video,communications, video game consoles andinformation technology products for the consumerand professional markets. Its name is derived fromSonus, the Greek goddess of sound.

Sony Corporation is the electronics business unitand the parent company of the Sony Group, whichis engaged in business through its five operatingsegmentselectronics, games, entertainment

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(motion pictures and music), financial services and

other. These make Sony one of the mostcomprehensive entertainment companies in theworld. Sony's principal business operations includeSony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.),Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony ComputerEntertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment,and Sony Financial Holdings. As a semiconductor

maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20Semiconductor Sales Leaders. The company'sslogan is Sony. Like no other.

HISTORY

Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tobei.gifhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tobei.gif


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In 1945, after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a

radio repair shop in a bombed-out building inTokyo. The next year, he was joined by hiscolleague Akio Morita and they founded a companycalled Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., which translatesin English to Tokyo TelecommunicationsEngineering Corporation. The company builtJapan's first tape recorder called the Type-G.

In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in theUnited States and heard about Bell Labs'invention of the transistor. He convinced Bellto license the transistor technology to hisJapanese company. While most Americancompanies were researching the transistorfor its military applications, Ibuka looked to

apply it to communications. Although theAmerican companies Regency and TexasInstruments built the first transistor radios,it was Ibuka's company that made themcommercially successful for the first time. InAugust 1955, Tokyo TelecommunicationsEngineering released the Sony TR-55, Japan's firstcommercially produced transistor radio. Theyfollowed up in December of the same year byreleasing the Sony TR-72, a product that won favorboth within Japan and in export markets, including

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teens had begun buying portable transistor radios

in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledglingindustry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1968.

Sony's headquarters moved to Minato, Tokyo fromShinagawa, Tokyo around the end of 2006.

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MARKETING MIX1)SONY ProductsThe first market mix element is Product. A productis anything that can be offered to a market for

attention, acquisition, use or consumption thatmight satisfy a need or want.Product decisionnormally base on brand name, Functionality,Styling, Quality, Safety, Packaging, Repairs andSupport, Warranty, accessories and Services.These product attributes can be manipulateddepending on what the

target market wants. Also, customers always lookfor new and improved things, which is whymarketers should improve existing products,develop new ones, and discontinue old ones thatare no longer needed or wanted by thecustomer.Sony has a variety of products rangingfrom electronic devices, games and entertainment.

So, briefly Sony products can be categorized in thefollowing major product categories:i. Television and Projectors.( Bravia LCD TV)ii. Home video.( Blue-ray disc player,DVD Player)

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iii. Home Audio.( Hi-Fi Systems)

iv. Home Theatre system.(Accessories)v. Digital Photography.( Cyber-shot Digital Camera)vi. Hand cam video camera.( Handycam highdefinition video Camera)vii. Computer & Peripheral.( VAIO laptops)viii. Portable Audio.( Walkman mp3 series)ix. Game.( PSP,PS2,PS3)

x. Storage and Recording media.( Memory Stick)

VARIOUS SONYPRODUCTS

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2)SONY Promotion

Promotion is a key element of marketing program

and is concerned with effectively and efficientlycommunicating the decisions of marketing

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strategy, to favorably influence target customers

perceptions to facilitate exchange betweenthe marketer and the customer that may satisfythe objective of both customer and the company.Acompanys promotional efforts are the onlycontrollable means to create awareness amongpublics about itself, the products and services itoffers , their features and influence their attitudes

favorably.Sony Marketing Communication Mix:Sony India will spend Rs 200 crore in this financialyear on advertising and promotion (PromotionalBudget) of the entire range of consumerelectronics, out of which Rs 60 crore will be spentonly on digital imaging products.The majorelements of promotion mix include advertising,personal selling,sales promotion, direct marketing,and publicity. Sony Corporation has used all ofthese marketing communication mix elements.

a) Advertising

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal mass

communication through various media to presentand promote product, services and ideas etc. by anidentified sponsor.So far, SONY has advertised its

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products through many different ways and media.

Through TV we have seen different advertisementsof its products such as Bravia televisions or Sonywega TV. Sony also advertise its products bytargeting those favorable television programs, likesports, series and also it has its own channel calledSony TV channel. Sony uses some events like MissIndia 2008 to promote its products.Also, Sony has

advertised its games like Playstation 3, Playstation2 and PSP using sports like football in Englandpremiere league.Through newspapers like Times ofIndia, Sony has advertised a wide range ofproducts it offers to its customers. And alsothrough Posters a message has been sent to a lotof people to be aware of the products which Sonyoffers.Sony also uses direct response advertising. Thisis type of advertising that encourages theconsumer to respond either by providing feedbackto the advertiser or placing the order with theadvertiser either by telephone, mail or theinternet. Such advertising is done through directmail or catalogues.Sony incorporates co-operative

advertising in its advertising process.Sonycorporation provides the dealers (e.g. Sony World)with the materials and guidelines to develop ads

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for print, television or radio commercials. This

ensures that message is in line with, what themanufacture wants to communicate. The companyand the dealers usually share the media costs andhence, the name co-operative advertising.

b) Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is a marketing discipline thatutilizes a variety of incentives techniques tostructure sales related programs targeted tocustomers, trade, and/or sales levels that generatea specific, measurable action or response for aproduct or service. Sales promotions for exampleincludes free samples, discount, rebates, coupons,contents and sweepstakes, premiums, scratchcards, exchange offers,early bird prizes, etc. Sony has promoted itsproducts through different sales promotionalstrategies. For example after the release of the

Sony BRAVIA television sets,Sony promoted them by early bird prizes by sayingthat all BRAVIA full HD LCD TVs purchased during

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July 2008 and registered within two weeks of

purchase qualify for a Bonus Playstation 3 as longas the customer claims is one of the first 35,000received and validated by Sony.Also Sony has promoted its Sony Ericsson P1iphones by including a scratch cards which givesthe customer the offer to download 10 freesoftware application for that mobile phone.Sony

Ericsson has also promoted its Sony Ericsson K550iMid-Range Cyber-shot Phone that if you buy it youget a free Bluetooth headset with one yearmanufacturers warranty.

c) Public Relations and Publicity

Public relations is a broad set of communicationactivities employed to create and maintainfavourable relationship with employees,shareholders, suppliers, media, educators,potential investors, financial institutions,governmentagencies and officials and society ingeneral.Through its website, Sony corporation has

its provided contacts for those customers who willbe in need of any information from the company.In this way Sony can create a mutual relationship

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with its customers and ensure that it serves the

wishes and demands of its customers.Unpleasantsituations arising as a result of negative eventsmay precipitateunfavorable public reactions for an organization.To minimize the negative effect of such situationsleading to unfavorable coverage, the company haspolicies and

procedures in place to manage help any suchpublic relation problems.For example, Sonyreleased an ad depicting a man smiling towardsthe camera and wearing on his head a crown ofthorns with button symbols (, O, X,). At thebottom, the copy read as "Ten Years of Passion".This supposedly took advantage of the publicityfrom the Mel Gibson film The Passion of theChrist.The advertisement outraged the Vatican aswell as many local Catholics,prompting comments such as "Sony went too far"and "Vatican ex-communicates Sony". After theincident, the campaign was quicklydiscontinued.Another example is that, In July 2006,Sony released a Dutch advertising

campaign featuring a white model dressed entirelyin white and a black model garbed in black. Thefirst ad featured the white model clutching the face

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of the black model. The words "White is coming"

headlined one of the ads. The ad has been viewedas racist by critics. A Sony spokespersonresponded that the ad does not have a racistmessage, saying that it was only trying to depictthe contrast between the black PSP model and thenew ceramic white PSP. Otherpictures of the ad campaign include the black

model overpowering the white model.So its theduty of the public relation department of Sony tosolve such issues as mentioned above so as toensure that it maintains a good public relation withthe public.

3)SONY Place (Distribution)

MANUFACTURERRETAILERCUSTOMERDecisions with respect to distribution channelfocus on making the product available in adequatequantities at places where customers are normallyexpected to shop for them to satisfy their needs.Depending on the nature of the

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product, marketing management decides to put

into place an exclusive, selective or intensivenetwork of distribution, while selecting theappropriate dealers or wholesalers.Sony being thecompany which positions itself as a seller ofdurable and high-end products, it is practicingselective distribution of its products from theselective dealers i.e. SONY World. Apart from this

there are grey-markets in India and other countrieswhere a practice ofintensive market coverage ispracticed, and the products in these kind ofmarkets normally do not posses all the featuresand benefits which Sony offers e.g. warranty andguarantee.Sony distributes its products in variouschannels. It uses Zero-level channel, one levelchannel and two-level channel.In India, Sony hasused the method ofone-level distributionchannel.This means that, customer buy their Sonyproduct from the retailers recognized by Sony, andthese retailers buy the products directly from thecompany itself.i.e.Through the internet, Sony has helped itscustomers to find the nearest retail shop where

they can buy the Sony products. All you have to dois to go to their website e.g.

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www.sony.co.in/section/shop and specify the

product andlocation. Then it will display all the nearest retailshop available.

4)SONY Price

Pricing decisions are almost always made inconsultation with marketing management. Price isthe only marketing mix variable that can bealtered quickly.Price variables such as dealer price,retail price, discounts, allowances, creditterms etc. influence the development of marketing

strategy, as price is a major factor that influencesthe assessment of value obtained bycustomers.Customers directly relate price toquality, particularly in case of products that areego intensive of technology based. Sony being acompany whichemphasize product quality, it tends to sell itsproducts with price range from moderately-high tohigh-prices, depending on the use and thetargeted customers.

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For example, Lets consider Sony series of VAIO

laptops. Sony has tried to categorize the laptopsaccording to style, user, purpose, mobility andperformance, and each a corresponding price.Thelaptops sold by Sony in India include a series ofSony VAIO, this are VAIO SR, VAIO FW, VAIOtokage, VAIO CR, VAIO NR, VAIO TZ and VAIO SZ.VAIO SR, boast on the excellence in mobility and

perfection in performance. This laptop wasdesigned for businessmen and its price is aroundRs. 75,000/- VAIO FW, boast of theatricalexperience and world class performance. Thismodel was designed mainly for home user orcasual user of laptops who aims on mediaplayback. The price of it is around Rs. 80,000 andRs.1,25,000.VAIO CR, boast on style and texture.Depending on the configuration, the prices arefrom Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 65,000.VAIO NR, boast ofnatural, chic design. It was designed to meetcustomers ambiance and lifestyle. For this reasonthe Sony corporation has decided the price of thelaptop to be Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 50,000 dependingon the configuration.VAIO TZ, boast of elite

lifestyle, and high class performance. The laptopwas designed purposely for business as it is lightweight, high processing speed,and flash memory

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storage and longer backup power. For all this facts

Sony has priced it to be between Rs. 1,15,000 andRs. 1,40,000.VAIO SZ, boast of premier mobilityand executive excellence. This laptop wasdeveloped by Sony to target executives andbusiness people who are mobile. The laptop isfitted with hybrid hard disk drive and motion eyecamera and Bluetooth compatible headset with

applications for increasing mobility and videoconferencing. Its price is about Rs. 1,24,000.

Marketing Environment

In the evolving economy of 21st Century in an evermore linked world, companies must be excellent incustomer relationship management to keep upwith the expectations of the customers, clients andthe external environment of the company.However to do this,businesses should understandits inside and outside environment beforebeginning the

marketing process which will influence thebusiness and its relation with the target buyersas,Marketing environment consists of the factors

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and forces outside marketing that affect marketing

managements ability to build and maintainsuccessful relationships with target customers(what does Marketing Environment mean,2009).The marketing environment includes MACRO andMICRO factors, the external and internal analysisof the business.

1) Macro EnvironmentThe vital roles of ecological issues result inbusinesses adapting to green practices andextensive use of the PEST structure. PEST analysisthoroughly reflects the MACROenvironments influence on political, economical,social and technological factors.

a)PoliticalPolitical factors include the governments ideologytowards the business, the legislations to gothrough and the governments support for thebusiness. The rules and regulations like taxes,subsidies and minimum wage acts affectbusinesses in both optimistic and pessimistic ways.Subsidies or the financial grants may facilitate thebusiness to expand whereas trade restrictions

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might have a negative affect for a globally

operating company like Sony.b)EconomicalEconomic factors consist of the income level,pattern of consumption, exchange rates andinflationary level of the economy. As now the worldeconomy is in a bad shape, people will have lessbuying power and the pattern of consumption of

people or how often people buy will be less.Furthermore, exchange rates have been fallingpersistently making Sony importers and Sonysuffers badly for the first time in history. Thecompany blames the global economic downturnand the strength of the yen for a lesser demand forits products(Sony's first loss in 14 years, 2009).c)SocialSocial factors include the demographic and thebehavioral aspects in an economy. In other wordssocial factors are all about people. It consists ofpopulation growth rate, agedistribution and cultural aspects. As Vaio laptop isalso targeted for business people,economys

working age group and their income level alsoshould be taken into consideration.Social factorsalso include working for economys best interests

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like Sony has been promoting science education

for children as stated among the socialcontribution activities inits official website.TheSony Corporation and its subsidiaries immediatelydonated 4 million dollars to disaster relief funds. Itdonated 3 million to the American Red CrossDisaster Relief Fund (NYchapter), as well as 1million to the Twin Towers Fund, which benefits

emergency personnelaffected by the tragedy (Sony, 2001)d)TechnologicalFinally the technological factors include theresearch and development activities. Laptopindustry is represented as ongoing developmentsin high quality and design resulting inseveral introductions of new products. Like in 2006Sony produced the World's first Blu-ray equippednotebook just weeks after the launch of ToshibasQosmio G30 notebook (Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP,2006). Hi-tech technology is being used to improveworking process through new machinery,softwares etc... to keep up with the speeding andhigh turnover of laptop products establishing cost

effective ways of inventing high quality.

2) Micro Environment

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Businesses should not merely focus on building

relations with their external environment but alsothey should have good relations among theinternal environment of the business, the MICROenvironment. Internal factors have direct impacton organizations strategy, counting consumers,employees, suppliers, competitors and media.

a)CustomersWhy no customers? No clients? There is nobusiness when there are no customers and noclients. Sony can only survive on the basis ofmeeting the expectations of Sony customersworldwide. Failure to do so will result in disastrousbusiness approach.b)SuppliersAs boost in raw material prices have a knock onaffect on the marketing mix strategy of anycompany like Sony, keeping closer relationshipsamong the suppliers guarantee that theyformulate competitive and quality products to thecompany.c)Competitors

The competitor market should be evaluated togrant a better product and uphold the position inthe market. And in a market economy, it is only

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through competition that the true price of anything

can be determined. Among Sonys competitorscomprise the Dell Company with Ultra-slim AdamoNotebook, HP with HP Pavilion G60-120US andApple with its MacBook Wheel, competing in thelaptop market.d)EmployeesEmployees are the back bone of any business.

Keeping these staffs motivated is an essential partof Sony, as training and development plays anessential role in consumer electronicsindustry. Their staffs are well trained for it.

Facts & figures

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CONCLUSION

On balance, as a globally operating company inconsumer electronics, Sony is a successfulcompany with a good brand image with victoriousproducts including its VAIO series,Cyber-shotdigicams,Walkman mp3 players,Play stationportable(PSP),Play station,Bravia LCD TVs andmany more which we talked about in thebeginning. The company had ups and downs asany other company in its marketing practices allover the world.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.sony.comwww.sony.co.in

www.wikipedia.org

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http://www.sony.com/http://www.sony.co.in/http://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.sony.co.in/http://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.sony.com/


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Sony Mm Final

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