SUCCESS STORY-JAPANESE STYLESUCCESS STORY-JAPANESE STYLE
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT PROJECT
MADE BY:MADE BY:PRIYA SHARMAPRIYA SHARMA
6868BMS-BBMS-B
CONTENTS
● EXTRACT OF THE PROJECT
● AKIO MORITA'S LIFE
● STORY BEHIND FORMATION OF SONY COMPANY
● HISTORY OF SONY CORPORATION
● AMERICAN AND JAPANESE STYLE(THE DIFFERENCE)
● OTHER AFFILIATIONS AND AWARDS
● ABOUT SONY MARKETING PLAN- BACKGROUND ,AIM , CHALLENGE , THREATS OPPURTINITIES , COMPETITOR ANALYSIS , PRODUCT STRATERGY , TARGET MARKET ,DIFFERENTIATION , POSITIONING,PROMOTIONAL STRATERGY , MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS.
● PORTET'S FIVE FORCES AND SWOT ANALYSIS OF SONY
● HISTORY OF SONY ERICSSON AS A COMPANY
● MOTIVATION BEHIND JOINT VENTURE
● OBJECTIVES AND STRATERGIES
● PROBLEMS THE JOINT VENTURE HAS ENCOUNTERED SINCE THE FORMATION
● WHY JOINT VENTURE IS NOT SUCCESSFUL?
● STRATEGIES THEY USED TO ADDRESS THE JOINT VENTURE PROBLEMS
EXTRACT OF THE PROJECT
Shortly after world war II , a small group gathered in a burned out dept. store in devastated Tokyo. There they found a company to develop the technologies that might rebuild japan's economy.
The company they founded was sony and one of them,a young engineer named Akio Morita,become its chairman.
Born :Nagoya, Aichi, JapanDied:- October 3, 1999 (aged 78) Tokyo, JapanCause of death:- Pneumonia
AKIO MORITA
AKIO MORITA'S LIFE
The first son and 15th-generation heir to a sake-brewing family (sake means ‘Japanese wine') in kosugaya village near Nagoya in Japan.
In 1944 he graduated from Osaka imperial university with a degree in physics and later commissioned as a lieutenant in the imperial Japanese navy, and served in world war II. During service, he met his future business partner Masaru Ibuka in the navy's wartime research committee.
He became chairman of board & CEO of sony corporation in Jan, 1976
STORY BEHIND FORMATION OF SONY COMPANY
During World War II,military authorities in Japan were aware that their military projects were not destined to succeed because they were lacking in resources and in time, both.
On August 6, 1945 when Americans dropped atom bomb at Hiroshima.This incident also gave a solid impression & belief to Japanese that the
Japan's military tech. was at least 20 years behind Americans. Raids over Tokyo-Yokohama area almost every day and every night in July and
August of 1945, Morita's family was also deeply concerned that with the aggressiveness of Japan military that it would only leave a trail of bloody war but like most Japanese he had sensed for a long time that War was lost, but they had no idea as how it would end and what would happen after, however Morita had a feeling that War wouldn't continue longer.
TO BE CONT...
Only, after announcement from Emperor Hirohito on August 15, 1945 that was war was over, most of the Japanese like Morita was relieved.
After the war,he was called by his physics teacher Professor Hattori to teach at Tokyo Institute of Technology, due to shortage of faculty.
During this period, Morita also managed to establish contact with Masaru Ibuka, a brilliant engineer with whom he had worked earlier on a research project team. Ibuka was also opening a new lab in Tokyo called Nihon Sokuteiki or Japan Measuring instrument company, employed about fifteen hundred people that was into making small mechanical elements that controlled the frequency of radar devices. However, Ibuka didn't feel professionally satisfied with merely producing components in large quantities in the country side.
TO BE CONT...
Thus, on the eve of May 7, 1946 some 20 people gathered on the 3rd floor of a bombed-out & burned-out department store building in a war-devastated downtown Tokyo to establish a new company: Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp., lead by Ibuka which was later to become the Sony Corporation.
The TTEC, co. was formed with 20 employees and initial capital of ¥190,000 (USD $ 500) that Morita's family invested in TTEC, a forerunner of Sony.
After formation of their company Ibuka had limited resources both in terms of cash and products so to get the cash flow ticking but at the same time they wanted to build something new along with establishing a financial base for the company. So, the group 2 decided to work on a simple rice cooker but they never perfected it, although they made several models.
They did manage to get some cash flow with selling the home made heating pad made by wives of the employees of the company. TO BE CONT...
●His next attempt was to produce AM short wave received, which was little expensive but become popular, after generous promotion given by newspaper Asahi Shimbun Akio offered to help Masaru Ibuka, who had dire needs for funding for paying to employees of his company.
●Since,Akio already had a family business and thus by permission from Morita's father, Ibuka's and Akio started working together on their new business, while Akio younger brother volunteered to take over as Sake brewer of his family business.
● Most of funding to their company was raised with loan given by his father who in-turn received the stocks in the company. Ibuka & Akio attempted to create a wire recorder but they couldn't achieve it as no manufacturer was willing to provide a raw material, which too expensive to produce but had too little customer.
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TO BE CONT...
Next attempt was to build a large broadcasting and mixing unit for NHK,(NHK ( 日 本 放 送 協 会 Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai?, official English name: Japan Broadcasting Corporation) was appreciated by their customers.
While delivering mixing unit, Ibuka spotted American made Wilcox-Gay tape recorder, which was superior than their Wire recorder design . This gave them idea to work on tape recorder design and they managed to convince their colleagues.
Subsequently, they attempted to develop the tape base material on their own by using indigenous technology and got orders from IBM in 1965, when IBM decided to use magnetic tape as storage in their computer devices. However, they had a rude awakening because that the tape recorder was so new to Japan that no one was aware and most of people couldn't see as why they should buy it. As a result, they couldn't sell it in Japan though they produced 50 units at a time.
TO BE CONT...
Morita began to engage customers in an American style of selling which was in form of verbal communication and audio/visual training that lead him to successful selling of products and also attempted for product improvisation for their target customers.
In a process, they also filed patents for AC Bias Systems, which prohibited any tape record makers to sell tape recorders in Japan without obtaining the license from them and earning them a royalty fees.
These were times, when Morita fought with some American companies like Balcom Trading Company and Armour Research, trying to refute the claims and patents, which he won through lawsuits giving mandate in the favor of Morita & Ibuka co. In course of settlement, they also claimed rights to use Armour's patent in US and therefore could export without paying a license fee.
Both Ibuka & Akio after getting initial success with tape recorder, started eyeing international market for the products made by their company TTEC, K.K. . With Ibuka's vision, Akio had his Eureka!, foreseeing the future of the transistor-based microelectronics that was, of course, at heart of Sony's success in transistor radios, but is also core tech. of entire computer & consumer electronics revolutions of that times.
HISTORY OF SONY CORPORATION
● In 1949, company developed magnetic recording tape and
● In 1950, sold the first tape recorder in Japan.
● In 1957,produced a pocket-sized radio (the first fully-transistorized).
● While exploring international market like US, Morita experienced that it was tough for customers to pronounce the Japanese name of his company and hence in 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to rename their company Sony (sonus is Latin for sound, and Sonny-boys is Japanese slang for "whiz kids” with “young and pioneering spirits” ) .
● Hence Morita set the goals for radio redesign using transistors, as small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. Hence, their products design philosophy was not just to make portable products but also „pocket-able products, which surely attracted many customers in Japan.‟
● American business is in contrast to Japanese management style and philosophy .
● Japanese business is driven by long range and collective e.g. making profit for the purpose of continued employment and improving livelihood of the workers whereas American business is driven by assured return to the investors and yearly profits.
● American business pride themselves on being rational in their business judgment which is derived from total logic of American business schools that seems to be cold, deemphasizing the human element.
American and Japanese Styles (The difference)
TO BE CONT...
● But according to Akio it requires more patience, cultural alignment to do business with Japanese co. , that to achieve high efficiency and productivity, it is necessary to Maintain a close cordial relationship with the employees that helps to upkeep high moral of the employees.
● American business focuses too much on short-term profits, such as moving manufacturing overseas, while sacrificing long term overall livelihood. Employees in Japanese companies form a tight community, so overall results are better.
Morita was vice chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations), and was a member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group, also known as the "Wise Men's Group". He was also the third Japanese chairman of the Trilateral Commission.
AWARDSAWARDS● In 1982 was awarded the Albert Medal by the UK's Royal Society of Arts ,
the first Japanese to receive the honor. ● In 1984, he received the prestigious Legion of Honour.● In 1987 received International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from
University of Manitoba . ● In 1991, was awarded Ist Class Order of Sacred Treasure from Emperor of
Japan.● In 1993, was awarded an honorary British knighthood (KBE). ● In 1999,was posthumously awarded Grand Cordon of Order of Rising Sun
OTHER AFFILIATIONS & AWARDS
● GLOBAL REACH OF THE SONY COMPANY : Asia Pacific, Australia, China ,Hong Kong,India,Indonesia,Korea Malaysia, New Zealand,Philippines,Singapore Taiwan , Thailand,Vietnam, Middle East Bahrain,Iran,Iraq,Kuwait,Lebanon,Oman,Pakistan, Qatar,Saudi Arabia ,United Arab Emirates,South Africa, Angola,Egypt,Ghana,Kenya Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda.
● PRODUCT OF THE SONY : Television , Home Audio,Home Theater System,Compact Digital Camera , Computer, Tablet, Smart phone's
ABOUT SONY MARKETING PLAN
● Sony Company BackgroundSony Corporation has been a leader in motion picture, television, computer entertainment, music and online businesses.
In the past year, annual sales in the fiscal year end of March 31, 2008 estimated $88.7 billion, and it employs 180,500 people worldwide.
With a high level of brand awareness amongst most consumers, Sony has become a widely recognized global brand.
Company operates globally in over 204 countries across Japan, North America,Europe, and Asian countries
TO BE CONT...
Their marketing team is focused on increasing sales for Sony’s electronic products, as well deliver corporate value to their customers and partners.
Because the electronic consumer market is such a large industry, there is a great opportunity for Sony to capture a large share of this market, despite the economic down turn in the U.S.
TO BE CONT...
Sony Marketing Objective
• Sony has experienced declining sales in consumer electronics, which in-turn, has forced company to respond to declining unit price. Overall, this has resulted in size reduction of TV screens, as well as fierce price-cutting competition.
• Elimination of more than 16,000 jobs, a shutdown of a total of 6 production bases.
• Joint-ventures including Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications & Samsung LCD panels.
• Price increases in both raw materials & parts will be a challenge to manufacture electronic devices & maintain competitive pricing.
TO BE CONT...
Sony Marketing Challenge
• Business Reorganization
• Allocate management resources
• Divest, downsize, withdraw from certain areas
• Large scale, world wide layoffs
• Partnership with FIFA
• Sponsorship includes 2010 & 2014 World Cups
• Enhance brand awareness, recognition, and trust
• Expand Consumer Electronics Market
• Industry expected growth of $171 billion in 2009
• Blu-Ray DVDs expected sales more than $1.2 billion for 2009TO BE CONT...
Sony Opportunities
Sony Threats
• Integration of joint ventures & alliances
• Aligned with Samsung to market S-LCD panels
• Result was net loss of $100 million for fiscal year 2005-2006
• Increasing price of raw materials
• Unstable supply & demand conditions
• Currency exchange risk
• Expected increase of $350 million for 2008-2009 fiscal year (little Sony can do about it)
• Counterfeit goods
• Intense competition
TO BE CONT...
Sony Competitor Analysis
• Huge competitors in every business at every level (consumer electronics, music industry,movies, games)
• Low PBR (price-to-book ratio)
• LCD TVs are Sony’s leading revenue driver
• At a disadvantage since they don’t make LCD panels (all their competitors do)
• Toshiba and Sharp top competitors in Japan
• Panasonic net income, profit, operating profit ALL increased in fiscal year 2007-2008
• Sony operating income down 57.2% for same periodTO BE CONT...
Sony Product Strategy • Sony has been a leader in motion picture, television, computer entertainment, music and online businesses.
• The product that demonstrates this leadership is Sony’s new BRAVIA XBR9 series televisions.
• Major Features: • Ethernet connection that gives the largest selections of free and premium movies, TV shows, and sports out there. Full HD vibrant screen
• Sony’s new Motion flow 240Hz technology, which delivers exceptionally crisp and detailed images by quadrupling the frame rate of conventional LCD TVs. TO BE CONT...
Sony Target Market
• Demographics
• Sony is a diverse brand that provides products and services for a wide variety of people.
• Sony will focus on expanding their segments in the women’s market.
• Women make up over half the sales in consumer electronics and influence over 80% of purchases.
TO BE CONT...
Sony Differentiation
• Quality
• Sony strives on innovative products that are easy for consumers to use.
• Market Leader
• Sony is the market leader in electronics.
• In particular Sony is the number one leader in television market share.
TO BE CONT...
Sony Positioning
• Sony is one of the world’s greatest brand in the eye of the consumer.
• Sony products are considered to be high quality, unique, and convenient.
• Mainstream culture has embraced Sony’s innovation.
TO BE CONT...
Sony Promotional Strategies
• No interest and no payments for 24 months if the customer applies for the new Sony Financial Services Card at point of purchase.
• Save up to $360 when they bundle the BRAVIA XBR9 series LCD HDTV with the new BDP-S360 Blu-ray Disc Player ($299.99 retail $360 for the 55”, $300 for the 46”, $280 for the 40”
TO BE CONT...
Sony Managerial Implications & Recommendations
• Sony will have to retool their products, and overall marketing attitudes to suit different demographics, and capture the growth opportunities in technology developments .
• Decrease the number of materials and parts required to manufacture, and keep costs down.
• Bring a strong presence to e-products & innovative devices, which will provide an opportunity to capture a large share of the electronic market.
TO BE CONT...
PORTER’S FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS OF SONY
● Threats of new Entry (Low): Electronic industry needs huge capital amount. High scale economy & constant innovation is another barrier to new entrant. However govt. policy acts as entry barrier for a new company.
● Bargaining Power of Buyer (High): For Sony Corp. product bargaining power of buyer is very high as there is almost no switching cost from one brand to another. And IT provides customers wide range of alternatives.
● Bargaining Power of Supplier (Low):Sony has a global band of suppliers giving the suppliers no upper hand (bargaining power) over Sony. Moreover suppliers are comparatively small entity than Sony so suppliers have weak bargaining power. It usually negotiates directly with its supplier to obtain high quality product in low price.
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● Threat of Substitute Products (Low): Sony’s varied range of products has no substitute or a very few that seems to be obsolete or have on foot out of the door. Thus the possibility threat of substitutes is moderately low. Considering that Sony has built a good reputation and strong customer loyalty, it effectively positions the company’s products against product substitute to some extent; this is a surplus for the company.
● Intensity of Rivalry (High):Industry rivalry is high due to relatively intense competition and high exit cost. It is also largely due to the numerous and equally balanced competitors in the markets, generally short product life cycle as well as high R&D, fixed andstorage costs. The growth is slow and thus the intensity of competition.
SWOT ANALYSIS OF SONY
HISTORY OF SONY ERICSSON AS A COMPANY
● Joint Venture of Sony Ericsson starts from October 1st, 2001.
● The basic ambition behind this joint venture is to provide their expertise for the establishment of Sony Ericsson products in the mobile phone manufacturing industry.
● Sony was the marginal player in the mobile phone market with the share of less than one percent, but Ericsson was at 3rd position and was successful in mobile phone manufacturing industry.
● Due to fire at the Phillips factory who were the single source supplier of Ericsson, this incident creates a huge impact at the performance of Ericsson.
● Company couldn't fulfill the dead lines of orders completion and due to this Ericsson's market share fell down, because they were relining on only one supplier.
MOTIVATION BEHIND THIS JOINT VENTURE
● Joint venture often taken place due to Transaction Cost Economics,as in this cost of sole ownership of an org. is greater than the joint ownership of an org.
● Main reason of this joint venture as Sony wanted some edge in mobile phone industry & Ericsson wanted to save its mobile phone manufacturing business.
● Resource-based view is another factor that motivates Sony and Ericsson to make a joint venture.
● According to this point of view firm make alliance because of tangible and intangible valuable resources this creates a unique competitive edge in the industry that couldn't be imitable by any other competitor; this could also help for the improvement of performance.
● Sony wanted technical knowhow of communication tech. from Ericsson and Ericsson's wanted new tech. of Sony that will help them in the market competition, that's why they start's work together and make combo of both company technologies.
● Another motivational factor is organizational learning/knowledge as it also motivates Sony & Ericsson for making this alliance. With the help of this company's could easily acquire each other's skills & capabilities that could also help organizations to make a new & innovative product with low cost which is Sony Ericsson's objective of alliance.
● Strategic Management is also the motivational factor of this alliance, which were used by both companies. They make this alliance as they wanted to make a competitive edge in the mobile phone manufacturing industry & also to maximize profits. That's why they design symmetrical strategy for the attainment of final goal.
● Sony were interested in this joint venture because they wanted to entire in mobile phone manufacturing industry and Ericsson entered in this joint venture because they were world's number three mobile phone maker and they were facing huge loss due to fire at Philips plant who was the sole supplier of Ericsson, so they wanted to become a successful in mobile phone manufacturing industry. Sony knows that Ericsson have access knowledge about technology in communication sector and this could help them in entrance of this industry. Sony Ericsson after making this joint venture stopped making their separate mobile products and starts working together. Sony form alliance with LM Ericsson. Before formal announcement of this joint venture, many news papers published that this joint venture will cover the wide range of areas such as development, manufacturing and marketing of mobile phones.
OBJECTIVES AND STRATERGIES
● Aim of joint venture - “to develop alliance that would allow Eric. to reduce spending on costly development of next generation mobile phones at a time when many European telecom co. see their inventories piling up as the world's cell phone market is growing slowly.”
● Strategy-To release models capable of digital photography as well as other multimedia capabilities such as downloading & viewing video clips & personal info. management capabilities. When they start as a Sony Ericsson co. they released many models which were new & innovative mobiles,features of were digital photography, downloading facilities etc.
● Key innovations are cheap camera, phones, OS experimentation & milestone handsets are Sony Ericsson T610, Sony Ericsson P900 in 2003,Sony Ericsson W800i in 2005, Sony Ericsson K800i Cyber-shot ,Sony Ericsson W910i in 2007.Till 2008 No. of employees are approx. 9,400 worldwide & their employees on contract bases are 2,500. Since Oct. 2009, president of co. is Bert Nordberg & CEO & President is Sir Howard Stringer Chairman of Sony Corp.
● Losses in the start, their targeted date of making profit were shifted from 2002 to 2003. They couldn't fight the main competitors of mobile phone manufacturing industry and came at fifth position in the market.
● Misrepresentation of their product in the market. It's necessary that companies go for innovations and provide satisfied product to customers but it's also important that we should also know that customers always want something new and different. So to provide them new and different mobiles company should always go for best R&D tools and techniques. Because if your R & D department is not up-to-date, it means that you are not providing products to customers which they really want.
PROBLEMS THE JOINT VENTURE HAS ENCOUNTERED
SINCE THE FORMATION
● They could not catered different markets effectively,as after making joint venture they starts working without get to know that what really customer needs and wants are. So due to lack of info. their products starts facing losses and then they had to remove their product line from the markets. Like in 2002 they stop manufacturing CDMA mobile phones for the market of US and starts focusing on GSM as a dominant technology, due to this change in US and Germany number of jobs cut in R& D dept.
● They invest a lot without get to know what market situations now-a-days are. As in 2003 phone prices starts declining but still Sony Ericsson were making expensive mobiles, due to this they couldn't make as much profits as they were expected. They are facing problems as they are focusing at cost-cutting programs & job losses.
● In June 2008, they were having 12,000 employees and after launched this cost-cutting program it had slashed its global workforce by around 5,000 people.
● R & D is an important department for any organization and it play an important role for mobile phone manufacturing companies, but Sony Ericsson take this as a cost and closed R & D departments which were working globally like Chadwick House,Birchwood (Warrington) in UK; Miami, Seattle, San Diego and RTP (Raleigh, NC) in the USA; the Chennai Unit (Tamil Nadu) in India; Hassleholm & Kista in Sweden and operations in the Netherland, UIQ centers,London and Budapest were also closed. Due to this change they couldn't manufacture innovative products for customers and this is the main reason behind the failure of this jv.
● Joint ventures often failed as company not build customer base products, due to which customers switched to other competitive products that provides them more reliable & innovative products. This is also the main reason of failure of joint venture of Sony Ericsson.
● They were providing innovative products but marketing strategy was not as much effective that they could attract customers.
● They were not providing the advanced versions of mobiles as much early as other competitors of mobile phone manufacturing were providing. There R & D was slow as compared to other mobile phone manufacturers.
● Joint venture always successful if company set a target, because it shows that in which direction they are moving. Sony Ericsson also faces the problem of not meeting the set date profit, due to which they face loss. So it's necessary that target should already be explained and company works together for the achievement of target.
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WHY JOINT VENTURE IS NOT SUCCESSFUL?
● This joint venture is also not as much successful as Sony wants results as early as possible & Ericsson's were not making profits as per expectations, so due to this they starts cut number of jobs and also remove R& D dept. which were working globally, due to this they couldn't make innovative products according to customer needs. And when any technical business don't have R & D department that helps organization in the development then how they could move in the industry successfully.
● Another reason for not as much successful is that they were not working for the goals attainment which were designed after the joint venture, both were worried for their individual goals like Sony was worried because they wanted market share in mobile phone manufacturing industry and Ericsson was worried because they wanted their industry reputation back. So that's why they were facing problems.
Acc. to analysis Sony Ericsson must follow these strategies that will help them to gain a longterm market share and will also help them to make a successful joint venture in future:
● Firstly they should have to take place that they conduct the depth analysis of different markets according to different countries, that will help them to know that what particular region related customers are expected from them and what they could provide them according to customer expectations.
● Good coordination among all business units to bring a product that will satisfy needs of customers and that will be unique.
● Strong marketing campaign that will create a positive impact on overall business,because good representation of product attract
● Use of social marketing outlets like Facebook, Google etc for the promotion of their products; this will enhance its public exposure.
STRATEGIES USED TO ADDRESS THE JOINT VENTURE PROBLEMS
● Better connection with customers which help them to get market share in the mobile phone manufacturing industry.
● They should have to conduct regular meetings to their customers, to know that what their customers really think about their business, what type of products they really want and how they could provide them products according to their perceptions that satisfies them.
● By listening process they could find that what potential needs are of customers and how they could provide them effective solutions.
● By using feedback technique they could also remain in connection to their potential customers, this could be more effective if it could be done periodically.
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