Marketing Plan Phase
Running head: Marketing Plan – Phase I Paper Sony Electronics – SONO Stick University of Phoenix MKT/421 – Marketing Facilitator: Chris Ross April 23, 2007 Sony Electronics – SONO Stick Introduction The introduction of any new product can be and intense process for any company. The Sony organization is a large world wide corporation that since its inception has proven to work towards electronics innovation.
The new product that Sony is reviewing is the Sono-stick and prior to the development of this product several items will be reviewed; the overview of existing organization, a description of the product, the importance of marketing, SWOT analysis and the market research approach. The full marketing plan for this product will be enhanced by obtaining a full understanding of the product, its strengths and weaknesses and the research needed to identify if there is a viable marketplace in which to produce and sell the Sono-stick at a profitable rate within the Sony family.
Overview of Existing Organization The Sony Corp. was founded on May 7, 1946 and has its global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. The name Sony was based on the combination of two words. The two parts were the two words, “Sonus” which is the Latin for sonic and “Sonny” which means small size or small boy. The name is pronounced the same in almost every language spoken in the world.
(Sony. net. 2007) The first product line from Sony Corp. was a wire recorder. Since then, they have expanded their product lines by many folds.
The next major product line was the transistor radio. Sony was the first Japanese company to produce transistor radios. Televisions were next and followed by the video tape recorders. The walkman and mini disc technologies followed after the video tapes and recording equipment. Now, the Sony Corp.
has grown from one plant in Tokyo to a world wide organization. Today, they offer personal and professional audio and video equipment as well as divisions in entertainment and financial services. (Sony. net. 2007)
The major product lines for Sony currently are their gaming systems like PlayStation 3, televisions lead by their HDTV flat screens, and entertainment operations like CBS Records and Columbia Pictures.
Their distribution channels are now worldwide and their products are marketed through their region operation on every continent except for Antarctica. (Sony. net. 2007) New Product Description (WAITING ON NICHOLAS) Importance of Marketing Marketing is an important tool for any organization. Organizations use marketing in attempts to further their company as well as their profits.
Marketing is an important determining factor of a company’s success with new products developments and distributions. Sony first realized international marketing success with the introduction of the Walkman in the early 1980’s. Sony started this by distributing the product to several celebrities and using their images along with the product as free marketing, and focusing their efforts on younger and active consumers. This was a successful marketing tactic for this product. In comparison Sony has made several mistakes with its digital rights management and the Playstation 3.
Sony made the first mistake with Playstation three when in their haste they marketed the next generation game console, that came equipped with technology that was expensive to reproduce and far head of cost effective PC technology.
The second marketing error was with the digital rights management. Sony installed a DRM rootkit on its compact disks. This became an issue and Sony responded by saying Most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it? ” (Marson, 2005). This was a mistake as Sony suffered from negative marketing.
If Sony had not been a successful company these marketing blunders could have had a severe financial impact on the company.
Not only is marketing important to any organization, correct marketing strategies are even more important. Marketing is what will take the organization forward and allow for the products to be not only known but also sought after. An organization that knows not only its target market but has also researched the best way to market the products to this target market. This will ensure the products are known and purchased.
This helps the company to increase revenue and also to obtain funds for future product development and marketing strategies.
SWOTT Analysis The Sono-Stick’s strengths are to replace the current CD-Stereos we have in our vehicles. Rather than a CD player, it would read storable static memory cards, like the ones in cameras and cell phone. Currently consumers are carrying around cables and external speakers because they can’t find the needed connections. The Sono-Stick would solve that problem with its small size and fast data transfer speed. The Sono-Stick’s weaknesses may be the size. It can easily be misplaced.
The Sono-Stick’s opportunities will alleviate current connections to IPod’s and other MP3 players to stereos, that require a cord and will only work on certain stereos. This Sono-Stick is like the “thumb-drive” or USB-drive currently used for data storage, but would have a different connector and would act as a keychain. Since there are no moving parts, the stereo can be any shape or size, needing only a display for the driver and passenger interface. Consumers can load their favorite mix of 1000 songs where ever they go, rather than have a box of CD’s, or worry that a stereo is not compatible with your MP3 player.
The Sono-Stick’s threats may be a bit more expensive than comparable drives from competitors, but well worth the premium for its simplicity, functionality and style. The Sono-Stick’s trends are compatible with other Sony USB-drives that have a very good flash drive.
It is simply a plug-in and play device. In addition it has software which can compress files, so it can expand its storage capacity three times. Market Research Approach Researching for the Sono-stick will be a crucial step. Because this product will be new to the marketplace, it is important that Sony gets a good idea of how it will be accepted and who will buy it.
Thus, it is essential that Sony develops a research marketing plan to follow when it is conducting research to ensure it will accomplish its goal.
The research process, as presented at QuickMBA. com, goes as follows: (1) define the problem, (2) determine research design, (3) identify data types and resources, (4) design data collection forms and questionnaires, (5) determine sample plan and size, (6) collect the data, (7) analyze and interpret the data, and (8) prepare the research report (QuickMBA. com, 2007).
Following this process, Sony will know the problems they are trying to solve, how they are going to solve the problem, where they will find the data to solve it, and what to do with the data after it is collected. Since this is a new product Sony will need to exploratory research and collect primary data. Only some secondary information will be used.
It is important that the company learns who will buy the product—manufacturers, installers or consumers. So, to find all of the information needed to make a successful marketing plan Sony will need to access several different resources.
