Question

Sony Corporation – Since its founding in 1960, Sony was always known for innovation and market leadership. But in the last 20 years, troubling issues have emerged to partially counter the many successes along the way. Research Sony and its subsidiaries, and answer the following questions:

3. Should Sony’s R&D efforts be focused on a limited number of core products, or should it aim to be the leader in each business segment it operates in?

4. Some say Sony Entertainment “runs the show” now, because one very successful movie returns massive profits. Do you think excessive diversification is Sony’s problem? They usually target the upscale high-end consumer groups. Should they change strategies?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Little history on Sony’s journey (irrespective of year): When Sony Corporation entered into the business for electronics good, the market was very much new for these products. Even Sony was not having the potential competitors in business. From the beginning, Sony was continuously working in research and development of products to in order to fulfill costumer needs. They were good in both innovation and inventions. Sony was only the one contact for many potential brands like Microsoft, Motorola etc for their requirement for Electronic chips, MOSFETs, Amplifiers, Power supplies etc. In consumer sector, the development history in their Walkman product is remarkable. But as time passes, the competition has increased for Sony as Apple and Samsung came with same product line. These competitors were more aggressive in research and development. Samsung and Apple became a face of innovation developing products which are commonly used by the end user costumers (non-industrial). These product are Mobile Smart Phone, LED TV, LCD TV, and Music Players. Samsung started giving solution for Video surveillance system in industries and also come out with product like smart washing machine, fridge. While Apple started selling innovative operating systems.

The biggest example (from costumer reviews), Apple’s Smart Phone’s camera is better than Sony’s even they are using Sony’s lenses.

3. Should Sony’s R&D efforts be focused on a limited number of core products, or should it aim to be the leader in each business segment it operates in?

Answer: They should aim to be the leader of each business segment. Below are the advisable strategic approach,

· Collaboration/ partnership or merging expert companies in their field. The strong support to this statement is, Sony was having a much appreciated Mobile phone product line “Sony Ericsson”. Sony and Ericsson was together running this partnership. The partnership was ended up in year 2011 but people are still demanding the products made in this era because of flawless quality of this product line. The biggest fall down observed in quality of product and as well as in selling counts.

· Strongly follow their one of the popular slogan (Make.Believe): This slogan is very expressive in the prospective of innovation and quality of innovation. Sony is having proven culture and history in innovation. The thing they need to do is observe the Market demand and needs of end user.

· Clarity of Market: They have to do some kind of external surveys as well as internal surveys to understand the situational condition of electronics market.

· Change way of Advertisement: People believe in Sony and its quality from long time. Almost, every decade’s generation is aware of Sony’s history. Sony have emotional touch with costumer as they are serving market from long time with expected quality. Sony has to express the emotional feeling through advertisement/ promotions of product to regain the trust.

· Focus of small-small needs: Sony is in market with small product (low price product) like Compact Disk (CD), Memory Cards. But now a days because of higher prizing, people have diverted to other products. The reason of high prizing is unknown but it can be lower down to make them competitive enough. This way, Sony can re-build the image in market.

· Value for Money: It has been observed that Sony’s product is expressive as compare to the same feature product of Samsung, LG, and Sansui. It can be lower down with effective marketing management.

· Branding and Promotions: The more exclusive showroom need to be opened. The showrooms shall be located in approach of major populations.

· Realizing quality with feeling of product: The Camera, Music Amplifier, LED Monitor has to displayed in such a manner that costumer should able to feel the quality Output.

4. Some say Sony Entertainment “runs the show” now, because one very successful movie returns massive profits. Do you think excessive diversification is Sony’s problem? They usually target the upscale high-end consumer groups. Should they change strategies?

Answer: No, strategies should not be changed. Sony is always an upscale consumer brand. The brand selection of Upscale High-end consumer attracts to Low scale High-end Costumer to use same product. Product using by upscale High-end costumer is itself a big promotion and branding. The movie (Jumanji) in which they have done promtion was really a choice of up-scale costumers. The movie (Jumanji) in which they have done promotion was really a choice of up-scale costumers. The same way of branding is advisable to be continued.