Advertising for SONY - Essay Example

Introduction Sony Company is an electronic and communications manufacturer. It is based in Tokyo Japan and recorded revenue of eighty eight billion dollars during the year 2008. The company offers a variety of products such as video game merchandises, video items for consumption, IT products, electronics and communication devices. These commodities are produced under the following five categories; entertainment, electronics, games and financial services. Its business operations are Sony Financial Holdings, Sony Ericsson, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Electronics. (Howard, 2000) Situation analysis Environmental Audit A situational analysis of Sony Corporation can be conducted through the SWOT analysis as shown below; Strengths One element that makes Sony stand out in the industry is its originality. The company has created standards for their products as depicted in the Betamax system of video recorders. Besides innovation, Sony is a multinational corporation. This gives the company access to a large pool of clients thus complementing sales in one country with those in another. (Collett, 1999) Weaknesses The Sony marketing department seems to be getting on the wrong side of the moral divide as they have been criticised by some media critics. This was brought up by the controversial advertisements that the company has aired. One such example was with regard to a racially charged advertisement. In addition, Sony Company failed to comply with marketing ethics by hiring a marketing critic to praise the performance of their commodities. However, this did not fare well with the real marketing critics. All these bad marketing decisions have tainted the Sony name. Sony's management has been overwhelmed by the technological changes characteristic of the electronic and IT industry. Consequently, the company has had to fire a substantial number of employees who were not familiar with new production technologies and replaced them with a fresh batch. This move has met a lot of criticism from consumers. As matter of fact, some people attribute the company's declining quality in some of its products to this issue. (Collett, 1999) Opportunities The company needs to invest in its employees. High employee turnover is hurting the company's corporate social responsibility image. On top of that, the company is compromising on the quality of the products by frequently firing their employees. The new employees who join the company may not be familiar with some of the production process. In order to curb this problem, the Sony should train its employee regularly in order to prevent these problems. Threats Sony' major threat is being out-competed by its counterpart due to a failure to adapt to technology adequately. This was seen when Sony used Immersion Company's technology to create their play station 3 video game units. The company was forced to pay royalties to Immersion for doing this. Such kinds of approaches to technologies will harm the company in the future; instead, the company should focus on developing their own formats. (Collett, 1999) Review of advertising brand and competitors The adverting brand under consideration is the new online game division for Sony. Sony has a strong brand name that has placed it above other competitors such as JVC. The company dedicated a lot of time trying to come up with the most appropriate name for their products. There are many reasons why this name made a mark for the company. First of all, it is easy to pronounce; many Japan-based companies may settle for difficult names that make it difficult for international consumers to relate to. Additionally, the brand name is easy to remember as very few companies out there have such a name. On top of that, it has the ability to attract people who may not be as well versed with technology as others. Many electronic manufacturers use acronyms instead of full names from their brands thus repelling non-technical consumers. (Howard, 2000) The company's key competitors come from a variety of industries. Some may be producers of electronic companies while others may specialize in communication devices such mobile telephones and others may be producers of video games. The major competitors include Philips, Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sanyo. Matsushita is an electronic company based in Japan and one of the largest electronic manufacturers in the world. Its products are distributed all over the world and they have secured a name for themselves through the efforts of their production team. The company's products are top quality and they have very good distribution channels. The other competitor that Sony needs to watch out for is Sanyo. This company has a similar name to Sony and consumers from other parts of the world may confuse their products. Their brand name gives them an unfair advantage owing to the fact that it can attract clients who were interested in Sony's products. Despite the brand name, Sony is the leading producer of electronics. Its products are recognised both within Japan- its headquarters and also in other parts of the world. (Murray, 1989) Philips electronics is a Netherlands based electronic manufacturer. Philip's product portfolio is very similar to Sony's. Consequently, it will be necessary for Sony to stay ahead of this company. This can be achieved by diversifying the product package and staying ahead of this counterpart in technological developments. Other specialty companies also pose a threat to Sony's excellent performance as these companies have perfected their products. Some of them include Panasonic and JVC. Review of existing and potential consumers The company has quite large market share as indicated by the following graph. Source; www.sony.com The company's market share is widely attributed to its transformation from GPRS technologies to wireless technologies. As it can be seen from the graph above, the country with the most positive response towards Sony's products is China while the country with the least response to Sony's products is South Africa. Sony's market is moistly segmented according to its products offering i.e. it has product segmentation. Due to the production of communication technologies such as the Sony Ericcson brand, Sony has managed to attract numerous mobile phone users. This market segment is very competitive but the company has secured a name for themselves through their friendly prices and simplicity of phone use. The other product segment is the computer related items. Sony is one of the most well known manufacturers of computer storage devices such as flask disks, other consumers are computer and laptop buyers, and it has therefore attracted this category of buyers. Others are interested in the company's digital cameras. Other product segments are the video game related consumers where play-station units and other games fall under this category. The other segment is entertainment. This is the most profitable market segment of all. The company has managed to attract consumers in the film industry, music industry and also in the internet world. This segment encompasses all the CDs, DVDs, batteries, memory sticks, television sets and other smaller components such as semiconductors that the company produces. These clients have been the most active in terms of purchasing their products. Consequently, a lot of attention has been placed with regard to that segment. (Howard, 2000) There are still other market segments that Sony ought to exploit in order to capture the attention of clients who they have not yet garnered. For instance, the company could extend its green initiatives to most of its other products. For instance, the company could offer energy saving personal computers and laptops. It has already managed to do this with television screens. For instance, as of June 2008, the company introduced a flat screen television set that uses up to seventy percent less energy than the other television sets. The same technology should be extended to the technological sector and should therefore be embraced. Besides the latter strategy, the company should focus on merging some of its products with other companies. This could attract a large portion of the international market. For instance, the company's mobile company should liaise with internet service providers to give special discounts on Sony Eriksson phones with certain local networks. Additionally, the company could work with other financial institutions to offer monetary transfer services. This could attract consumers from the financial services sector and would go a long way in making the company exceptional. (Howard, 2000) Advertising strategy complete proforma The first step in the advertising plan is to identify the potential consumers of the product. In this case, the division under consideration is online video games. The most frequent users of this product are young consumers probably between the ages of ten to twenty years. While there may be other age groups that fall outside this group, majority of the clients will be coming from that particular segment. (Assmus and Farley, 1984) Thereafter, the company will perform a research based on the latter market segment. The first aspect that needs to be covered is the issue of creating a theme for the advertisement. Thereafter, there will need to be an assessment of the copy platform. This will then be followed by a short test of the advert to the target market. The purpose of doing this is to test initial market response to the company's advertisement approach. It would be extremely wasteful for the company to dedicate resources in mass production when the advertisement will not even sell. There should be a listing of the objectives of the advertisement. In this case, the advertisement's objectives will be to inform consumers about the online video products to boost sales of the online product to improve the level of distribution of this product After ironing out the objectives, then there should be a concept for the product line. This should be done in such a manner that it reflects current trends in the industry. The concept should also reflect Sony's principles of innovation and exceptionality. The slogan for the advertisement will be 'Sony; the place where champs live!' This theme will govern the media outlets used for the advertisements. The slogan captures the theme in any online video game; that is to defeat one's adversaries. This slogan is also supposed to create excitement amongst the potential consumers who would probably want to win all the games the play online. (Assmus and Farley, 1984) This theme also emphasises the idea of spontaneity and individuality. Because of the fact that it emphasises victory, then it is supposed to capture the young audience that are normally very competitive even when not playing. Besides this, the advertisement should not be very serious as the audience under consideration is quite young, consequently, it should have some elements of humour in it. Research conducted in online games indicted the fact that most people use the product for entertainment and fun. Some people consider online games as a hobby. Consequently, the theme should reflect these ideas and this is exactly what the advertisement has captured. The advertisement will then be created and then tested to a small focus group. This group will be made up of the target audience- probably persons between ten and twenty. They will watch the advisement and then asked what they remember about it or what they disliked about it, whether they understood it or whether it is boring. After the mock set up, the advertisement will then be aired on the medium of choice. While the advertisement is in the public, then there will be an assessment of its effect on consumer. This will be assessed by the sales of the product; if there are a large number of consumers who want to play the Sony online video products, then the company can conclude that their advertisement is yielding results. This can also be done by questionnaires where consumers give their opinions about the product if they have tried it. If the results are satisfactory, then the company can continue running this advertisement. (Assmus and Farley, 1984) In other words, the company will be doing an ad track. This means that as the advertisement matures, the company will be checking on consumer response towards it. The main purpose of this kind of approach is to measure change in consumer perception. Here a plot of consumer perception will be made against the number of times the advertisement will be exposed to the public. If there is positive correlation, then the advertisement will be working. Creative solutions campaign executions The advertisement will involve three major actors in computer graphical animations. One of them will be a lady and the other actors will be men. The lady should be very attractive but tiny. The male characters will be tall and huge and will be monsters. Their faces will be covered with rough green skin while the rest of their body will be covered with tiny red bumps. Their facial features will be exaggerated as they will have extremely large noses and extremely large lips. These two monsters will be chasing the lady in the middle of a rainforest. After a while, the lady will get tired of running and will turn towards the monsters, she will pick up a sword beside her and engage in a short bout with the monsters. She will emerge as the victor after exterminating the two monsters. She will then look at the camera and someone will say 'Sony; the place where champs live' This advertisement will be aired as it is owing to the fact that it is tailored towards the younger audience, most of the time, video games have a large number of fictitious characters such as monsters. Therefore, the audience will relate to it. On top of that, the advertisement will be utilising computer animations which are very relevant to the product since most of the individuals playing the online games will be online. On top of that, the advertisements indicates an unconventional character wining the battle, this will be seen as something unique since it can capture the imagination of the audience under consideration. (Assmus and Farley, 1984) Media solutions strategy and plans One of the prime forms of media to be utilised in this advert is television. The main reason behind this is that almost all households in the target audience have television sets. Consequently, there will be chances of capturing them easily. On top of that, the television set is realistic in contrast to an advertisement placed in a magazine or another form of media. Television sets have sound, action and colour too. This form of media will also be useful in that it is repetitive hence exposing the advertisement to the target audience repeatedly. It will remind the audience about the product and it will also allow them to understand its content. Others ideas and recommendations Another media solution that the company should consider using is wall posters. The company could disperse the image of the lady holding a sword on one hand while stepping on one of the fallen monsters. This poster should be displayed colourfully in play-stations of the world. (Murray, 1989) Timetables production and media Month1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Creation of Advertisement script Shooting advertisement and mock audience Airing the advertisement Ad tracking Conclusion The advertisement plan for an online video game ought to capture the imagination and minds of the youth. Consequently, the slogan chosen has reflected this. On top of that, the media solutions should also reflect the younger audience. On top of that, the characters chosen in the advert also depict this kind of idea. If this advertisement plan is followed to the letter, Sony can be the leader in online video games. Reference Collett, S. (1999): SWOT Analysis; Computerworld; New York; John Wiley & Sons; Vol.33; 19-43 Howard, S. (2000): Sony's Business Mission; retrieved from; www.sony.com accessed on 6th Aug 2008 Murray, A. (1989): Top management group heterogeneity and firm performance. Strategic Management Journal Vol. 10, Special issue, summer. Pp125-140 Assmus, G U. and Farley, D.L (1984): How Advertising Affects Sales: Meta-analysis of Econometric results Journal of Marketing Research 65-74 Read More