The Sony Corporation

Extract

[...] Since this is already part of Sony's long term plan, it is easy to see a bright future for the Sony Corporation as long as they continue to be as innovative in their marketing strategies as they are in their product development. References McGovern, Gail and John Quelch. "Outsourcing Marketing." Harvard Business Review. Elie Ofek and Miklos Sarvaary. Marketing, and the Success of Next- Generation Products." Marketing Science, Vol No (Summer, 2003), pp. 355-370 Cusumano, Michael A. Yiorgos Mylonadis and Richard S. [...]

[...] This outsourcing of marketing was an innovative step that many companies would not have taken for fear of corporate espionage, or the outsourcing being perceived by the public as a sign of corporate weakness (McGovern) Going back to the PS3 example, Sony used a strategy similar to what the makers of other video game consoles used. Sony has joined with their competitors in a new marketing strategy where limited numbers of consoles are released to stores. The strategy says that it is better to have fewer units available then to have units sitting on the shelves unsold. [...]

[...] Strengths The Sony Corporation saw its first video game console, the PlayStation, become a huge hit in the US, Europe, and Asia. It quickly surpassed Nintendo for game sales and became a staple in living rooms across the world. The PlayStation offered incredible graphics for its time, but more importantly offered CD-based games instead of cartridge based games that were currently popular with the Nintendo systems. The Sony games were able to offer full audio tracks for games - audio tracks that often became as popular as the game itself. [...]

[...] The Sony product is not the cheapest electronic device on the shelf, and it probably never will be. Getting a Sony product means spending more, but many consumers recognize that spending more may be better in the long term durability of a product. A consumer wants to know that a company will stand behind their products, and that is why a Sony may leave the shelves a little more often than other brands. Evaluating a Sony product involves some consideration of the innovation of the product. [...]

[...] (Sanderson 2000) The other side of the argument is that Sony is spending too much on research and development to always have the next generation product ready to go. In other words, Sony spends millions of dollars developing products or improvements that may not always pan out. For example, the rice cooker that was technically Sony's first innovative product. The two founders of the company spent money of supplies and developing a prototype. However, because of the inconsistency of quality in rice at the time, the two men were not able to create a product they could market. [...]