CHAPTER 1: Introduction

Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing strategy includes all basic and long-term activities in the field of marketing that deal with the analysis of the strategic initial situation of a company and the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented strategies and therefore contributes to the goals of the company and its marketing objectives.

Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results. Commonly, marketing strategies are developed as multi-year plans, with a tactical plan detailing specific actions to be accomplished in the current year. Time horizons covered by the marketing plan vary by company, by industry, and by nation, however, time horizons are becoming shorter as the speed of change in the environment increases. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned. See strategy dynamics.

Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments. Internal environmental factors include the marketing mix, plus performance analysis and strategic constraints. External environmental factors include customer analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of any elements of the technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment likely to impact success. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement.

Once a thorough environmental scan is complete, a strategic plan can be constructed to identify business alternatives, establish challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain these goals, and detail implementation.[4] A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to create a plan to monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the implementation of the plan. Marketing strategy thus refers to how a companys products or services its trade is presented to consumers in an effective manner as to gain loyal customers. Strategy can be used in different ways, one of which is through marketing. Using strategy in marketing makes it more convincing and effective. Strategy makes sure that nothing wrong happens in the marketing process in the company. Marketing strategy is a way to capture a niche in the consumer market. Businesses utilize it to gain following and exploit their maximum and/or optimal profit capabilities. Strategic marketing is the way company sells the product it has with less difficulty and more readiness to face competitors. Strategic marketing makes sure that the company uses all of its resources to counter its competitors. Strategic marketing planning is a procedure wherein the strategies used to sell product is carefully studied and analyzed so that the company can compete well and have advantage with rivals.

Product marketing deals with the first of the "7P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, Promotion, Packaging, Positioning & People.

Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing tasks (in the older sense of the phrase). For example, product management deals with the nuts

and bolts of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as marketing communications ("marcom"), online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, public relations, etc.

A Product market is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the general public. The people you are trying to make your product appeal to is your consumer market. For example: If you were pitching a new video game console game to the public, your consumer market would probably be the adult male Video Game market (depending on the type of game). Thus you would carry out market research to find out how best to release the game. Likewise, a massage chair would probably not appeal to younger children, so you would market your product to an older generation.

Product market definition focuses on a narrow statement. It focus on the product type, customer needs (functional needs), customer type, and geographic area.

1.1 Meaning of Product Marketing

Product marketing deals with the first of the "4P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion. Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing tasks. For example, product management deals with the nuts and bolts of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as Marcom or marketing communications, online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, etc.

A Product Market is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the general public. The people you are trying to make your product appeal to is your consumer market. For example: If you were pitching a new playstation game to the public, your consumer market would probably be a younger/teenage market (depending on the type of game). Thus you would carry out market research to find out how best to release the game. Likewise, a massage chair would probably not appeal to younger children, so you would pitch your product to an older generation

1.2 Role of Product Marketing

Product marketing in a business addresses four important strategic questions:[1]

* What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)? * Who will be the target customers (i.e., the boundaries of the market segments to be served)? * How will the products reach those customers (i.e., the distribution channels to be used)? * Why will customers prefer our products to those of competitors (i.e., the distinctive attributes and value to be provided)?

1.3 Product Marketing vs. Product Management

Product marketing frequently differs from product management in high-tech companies. Whereas the product manager is required to take a product's requirements from the sales and marketing personnel and create a product requirements document (PRD),[2] which will be used by the engineering team to build the product, the product marketing manager can be engaged in the task of creating a marketing requirements document (MRD), which is used as source for the product management to develop the PRD.

In other companies the product manager creates both the MRDs and the PRDs, while the product marketing manager does outbound tasks like giving product demonstrations in trade shows, creating marketing collateral like hot-sheets, beat-sheets, cheat sheets, data sheets, white papers, and case studies. This requires the product marketing manager to be skilled not only in
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competitor analysis, market research, and technical writing, but also in more business oriented activities like conducting ROI and NPV analyses on technology investments, strategizing how the decision criteria of the prospects or customers can be changed so that they buy the company's product vis-a-vis the competitor's product, etc.

In smaller high-tech firms or start-ups, product marketing and product management functions can be blurred, and both tasks may be borne by one individual. However, as the company grows someone needs to focus on creating good requirements documents for the engineering team, whereas someone else needs to focus on how to analyze the market, influence the "analysts", press, etc. When such clear demarcation becomes visible, the former falls under the domain of product management, and the latter, under product marketing. In Silicon Valley, in particular, product marketing professionals have considerable domain experience in a particular market or technology or both. Some Silicon Valley firms have titles such as Product Marketing Engineer, who tend to be promoted to managers in due course.

1.4 Types of Marketing Strategy

Market Expansion - This strategy looks to grow overall sales in one of two ways:

Grow Sales with Existing Products - With this approach the marketer seeks to actively increase the overall sales of products the company currently markets. This can be accomplished by: 1) getting existing customers to buy more; 2) getting potential customers to buy (i.e., those who have yet to buy); or 3) selling current products in new markets.

Grow Sales with New Products - With this approach the marketer seeks to achieve objectives through the introduction of new products. This can be accomplished by: 1) introducing updated versions or refinements to existing products; 2) introducing products that are extensions of current products; or 3) introducing new products not previously marketed.

Market Share Growth - This strategy looks to increase the marketer's overall percentage or share of market. In many cases this can only be accomplished by taking sales away from competitors. Consequently, this strategy often relies on aggressive marketing tactics.

Niche Market - This strategy looks to obtain a commanding position within a certain segment of the overall market. Usually the niche market is much smaller in terms of total customers and sales volume than the overall market. Ideally this strategy looks to have the product viewed as being different from companies targeting the larger market.

Status Quo - This strategy looks to maintain the marketer's current position in the market, such as maintaining the same level of market share.

Market Exit - This strategy looks to remove the product from the organization's product mix. This can be accomplished by: 1) selling the product to another organization, or 2) eliminating the product

1.5 Advantages of a Marketing Strategy

Every marketing strategy will have advantages and disadvantages. In the world of business, there is no such thing as the perfect marketing strategy. A business owner should examine each marketing strategy and weigh the benefits against the costs. Successful marketing might depend upon using different strategies to produce the best overall result.

Development

In order to develop a marketing strategy, each aspect must be examined for both advantages and disadvantages. During the process, cost is usually factored into weighing the pros against the cons of a strategy. Although an advantage might be to bring in new customers, the disadvantage to the strategy could be it could cost too much to gain the new customers.

Distribution

If a marketing strategy concerns itself with distribution, examining and accessing the cost of different distribution methods will reveal if the strategy should be implemented. For example, one way to distribute information is through email marketing. Although the advantage is email
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marketing is relatively inexpensive, the disadvantage is that because of the high volume of spam junk mail, many Internet service providers have set up elaborate filters to keep out unsolicited emails.

1.6 Disadvantages of a Marketing Strategy

Viral

One marketing strategy that has gained popularity in the new media world is "viral marketing." In viral marketing, a clever or emotional campaign begins to spread quickly through the Internet. This is usually accomplished through word-of-mouth means, as well as through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The advantage to this marketing strategy is that it gets a widespread awareness of the product or service, but the disadvantage is that there is no control over how the material spreads.

Decisions

In deciding on a marketing strategy to use (or a combination), it is necessary to examine the advantages of each strategy and the disadvantages. In many cases, if there is a greater advantage over a disadvantage to a strategy, it could probably be implemented. However, it is also a matter of personal choice in some cases. For example, although an effective marketing strategy for a product might include TV advertising with programs that have high audience ratings, a disadvantage to that could entail sponsoring a program that some might find offensive or in questionable taste, which might lead to a boycott of the product or service. Deciding whether to
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alienate one group over enticing another group would need to be determined by the team behind the marketing strategy and the company itself.

1.7 : Marketing strategy and sectorial tactics and actions

A marketing strategy also serves as the foundation of a marketing plan. A marketing plan contains a set of specific actions required to successfully implement a marketing strategy. For example: "Use a low cost product to attract consumers. Once our organization, via our low cost product, has established a relationship with consumers, our organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the consumer's interaction with the low-cost product or service." A strategy consists of well thought out series of tactics. While it is possible to write a tactical marketing plan without a sound, well-considered strategy, it is not recommended. Without a sound marketing strategy, a marketing plan has no foundation. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. It is important that these objectives have measurable results. A good marketing strategy should integrate an organization's marketing goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole. Many companies cascade a strategy throughout an organization, by creating strategy tactics that then become strategy goals for the next level or
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group. Each group is expected to take that strategy goal and develop a set of tactics to achieve that goal. This is why it is important to make each strategy goal measurable. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned

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CHAPTER 2: Product marketing strategies of Sony Playstation3 2.1 Introduction of Sony Corporation
Sony Corporation, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Knan Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It ranked 87th on the 2012 list of Fortune Global 500. Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics products for the consumer and professional markets.

Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its four operating segments Electronics (including video games, network services and medical business), Motion pictures, Music and Financial Services. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Mobile Communications (formerly Sony Ericsson), and Sony Financial. Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders and third-largest television manufacturer in the world, after Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

The Sony is a Japan-based corporate group primarily focused on the Electronics (such as AV/IT products and components), Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding and electronics), Sony Computer Entertainment (game), Sony Pictures Entertainment (motion pictures), Sony Music Entertainment (music), Sony/ATV Music Publishing (music publishing), Sony Financial Holdings (financial services) and others.
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Its founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka derived the name from sonus, the Latin word for sound, and also from the English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be "sonny boys", a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men.

2.2 History of Sony

Sony found its beginning in the wake of World War II. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a bomb-damaged department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total of eight employees. The next year, he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G. In 1958 the company name was changed to Sony (see also Origin of name, below).

In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor. He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company, for use in communications. Ibuka's company made the first commercially successful transistor radios. According to Schiffer, Sony's TR-63 radio "cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid 1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5 million units by the end of 1968.

Sony co-founder Akio Morita founded Sony Corporation of America in 1960. In the process, he was struck by the mobility of employees between American companies, which was unheard of in
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Japan at that time. When he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged employees of other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining Sony. The company filled many positions in this manner, and inspired other Japanese companies to do the same. Moreover, Sony played a major role in the development of Japan as a powerful exporter during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It also helped to significantly improve American perceptions of "made in Japan" products. Known for its production quality, Sony was able to charge abovemarket prices for its consumer electronics and resisted lowering prices.

In 1971, Masaru Ibuka handed the position of president over to his co-founder Akio Morita. Sony began a life insurance company in 1979, one of its many peripheral businesses. Amid a global recession in the early 1980s, electronics sales dropped and the company was forced to cut prices. Sony's profits fell sharply. "It's over for Sony," one analyst concluded. "The company's best days are behind it." Around that time, Norio Ohga took up the role of president. He encouraged the development of the Compact Disc in the 1970s and 80s, and of the PlayStation in the early 1990s. Ohga went on to purchase CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989, greatly expanding Sony's media presence. Ohga would succeed Morita as chief executive officer in 1989.

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Sony Group Headquarters at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo

Under the vision of co-founder Akio Morita and his successors, the company had aggressively expanded into new businesses. Part of its motivation for doing so was the pursuit of "convergence," linking film, music, and digital electronics via the Internet. This expansion proved unrewarding and unprofitable, threatening Sony's ability to charge a premium on its products as well as its brand name. In 2005, Howard Stringer replaced Nobuyuki Idei as chief executive officer, marking the first time that a foreigner has run a major Japanese electronics firm. Stringer helped to reinvigorate the company's struggling media businesses, encouraging blockbusters such as Spider-Man while cutting 9,000 jobs. He hoped to sell off peripheral business and focus the company again on electronics. Furthermore, he aimed to increase cooperation between business units, which he described as "silos" operating in isolation from one another. In a bid to provide a unified brand for its global operations, Sony introduced a slogan known as "make. Believe" in 2009. Despite some successes, the company faced continued struggles in the mid- to late-2000s. It became known for its stagnancy, with a fading brand name. In 2012 Kazuo Hirai began as CEO and president.

Environmental record
In November 2011, Sony was ranked 9th (jointly with Panasonic) in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics. This chart grades major electronics companies on their environmental work. The company scored 3.6/10, incurring a penalty point for comments it has made in opposition to energy efficiency standards in California. It also risks a further penalty point in future editions
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for being a member of trade associations that have commented against energy efficiency standards. Together with Philips, Sony receives the highest score for energy policy advocacy after calling on the EU to adopt an unconditional 30% reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Meanwhile, it receives full marks for the efficiency of its products. In 2007, Sony ranked 14th on the Greenpeace guide. Sony fell from its earlier 11th place ranking due to Greenpeace's claims that Sony had double standards in their waste policies. Since 1976, Sony has had an Environmental Conference. Sony's policies address their effects on global warming, the environment, and resources. They are taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that they put out as well as regulating the products they get from their suppliers in a process that they call "green procurement". Sony has said that they have signed on to have about 75 percent of their Sony Building running on geothermal power. The "Sony Take Back Recycling Program" allow consumers to recycle the electronics products that they buy from Sony by taking them to eCycle (Recycling) drop-off points around the U.S. The company has also developed a biobattery that runs on sugars and carbohydrates that works similarly to the way living creatures work. This is the most powerful small biobattery to date. In 2000, Sony faced criticism for a document entitled "NGO Strategy" that was leaked to the press. The document involved the company's surveillance of environmental activists in an attempt to plan how to counter their movements. It specifically mentioned environmental groups that were trying to pass laws that held electronics-producing companies responsible for the clean up of the toxic chemicals contained in their merchandise

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2.3 Sony Computer Entertainment (Playstation)

Sony Computer Entertainment is best known for producing the popular line of PlayStation consoles. The line grew out of a failed partnership with Nintendo. Originally, Nintendo requested for Sony to develop an add-on for its console that would play Compact Discs. In 1991 Sony announced the add-on, as well as a dedicated console known as the "Play Station." However, a disagreement over software licensing for the console caused the partnership to fall through. Sony then continued the project independently. Launched in 1994, the first PlayStation gained 61% of global console sales and broke Nintendo's long-standing lead in the market. Sony followed up with the PlayStation 2 in 2000, which was even more successful. The console has become the most successful of all time, selling over 150 million units as of 2011. Sony released the PlayStation 3, a high-definition console, in 2006. It was the first console to use the Blu-ray format, although its expensive Cell processor made it considerably more expensive than competitors Xbox 360 and Wii. Early on, poor sales performance resulted in significant losses for the company, pushing it to sell the console at a loss. The PlayStation 3 has generally sold more poorly than those competitors, although not by a large margin. It later introduced the PlayStation Move, an accessory that allows players to control video games using motion gestures. Sony extended the brand to the portable games market in 2005 with the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The console has sold reasonably, but has taken a second place to a rival handheld, the Nintendo DS. Sony developed the Universal Media Disc (UMD) optical disc medium for use on the PlayStation Portable. Early on, the format was used for movies, but it has since lost major studio support. Sony released a disc-less version of its PlayStation Portable, the

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PSP Go. The company went on to release its second portable video game system, PlayStation Vita, in 2011 and 2012. Sony Online Entertainment operates online services for PlayStation, as well as several other online games. In 2011 hackers broke into the PlayStation Networkonline service, stealing the personal information of 77 million account holders.

History of Sonys Playstation

PlayStation was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who had just come out of his hardware engineering division at that time and would later be dubbed as "The Father of the PlayStation". The console's origins date back to 1988 where it was originally a joint project between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-ROM for the Super Nintendo .[14] The PlayStation made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991 when Sony revealed its console, a Super Famicom /SNES with a built-in CD-ROM drive (that incorporated Green Book technology or CDi). However, a day after the announcement at CES, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Philips instead but using the same technology. The deal was broken by Nintendo after they were unable to come to an agreement on how revenue would be split between the two companies. The breaking of the partnership infuriated Sony President Norio Ohga, who responded by appointing Kutaragi with the responsibility of developing of the PlayStation project to rival Nintendo.

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At that time, negotiations were still on-going between Nintendo and Sony, with Nintendo offering Sony a "non-gaming role" regarding their new partnership with Philips. This proposal was swiftly rejected by Kutaragi who was facing increasing criticism over his work with regard to entering the video game industry from within Sony. Negotiations officially ended in May 1992 and in order to decide the fate of the PlayStation project, a meeting was held in June 1992, consisting of Sony President Ohga, PlayStation Head Kutaragi and several senior members of Sony's board. At the meeting, Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had been working on which involved playing video games with 3D graphics to the board. Eventually, Sony President Ohga decided to retain the project after being reminded by Kutaragi of the humiliation he suffered from Nintendo. Nevertheless, due to strong opposition from a majority present at the meeting as well as widespread internal opposition to the project by the older generation of Sony executives, Kutaragi and his team had to be shifted from Sony's headquarters to Sony Music, a completely separate financial entity owned by Sony, so as to retain the project and maintain relationships with Philips for the MMCD development project (which helped lead to the creation of the DVD) The original PlayStation released in December 1994 was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices. It has included successor consoles and upgrades including the Net Yaroze (a special black PlayStation with tools and instructions to program PlayStation games and applications), "PSone" (a smaller version of the original) and the PocketStation (a handheld which enhances PlayStation games and also acts as a memory card). It was part of the fifth generation of video game consoles competing against the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64. By March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PSone had shipped a

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combined total of 102.49 million units, becoming the first video game console to sell 100 million units.

PSone (2000) Released on July 7, 2000, concurrently with its successor the PlayStation 2, the PSone was a considerably smaller, redesigned version of the original PlayStation video game console. The PSone went on to outsell all-other consoles, including its successor, throughout the remainder of the year. It featured two main changes from its predecessor, the first being a cosmetic change to the console and the second being the home menu's Graphical User Interface.

PlayStation 2 (2000) Released in 2000, 15 months after the Dreamcast and a year before its other competitors, the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube, the PlayStation 2 is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles, and is backwards-compatible with most original PlayStation games. Like its predecessor, it has received a slimmer redesign, and was also released built-in to the PSX DVR and the Sony BRAVIA KDL22PX300 HDTV. It is the most successful console in the world, having sold over 150 million units as of January 31, 2011. On November 29, 2005, the PS2 became the fastest game console to reach 100 million units shipped, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch. This achievement occurred faster than its predecessor, the PlayStation, which took "9 years and 6 months since launch" to reach the same figure.

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Slimline Model (2004) Released in 2004, four years after the launch of the original PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 2 Slimline was the first major redesign of the PlayStation 2. Compared to its predecessor, the Slimline was smaller, thinner, quieter and also included a built-in Ethernet port (in some markets it also has an integrated modem). In 2007, Sony began shipping a revision of the Slimline which was lighter than the original Slimline together with a lighter AC adapter. In 2008, Sony released yet another revision of the Slimline which had an overhauled internal design incorporating the power supply into the console itself like the original PlayStation 2 resulting in a further reduced total weight of the console.

2.4 Introduction of Playstation 3

Playstation 3 was released on November 11, 2006, the PlayStation 3 is the third and current iteration in the series. It competes with the Xbox 360 and the Wii in the seventh generation of video game consoles. It is the first console in the series to introduce the use of motion controls in games through the use of the SIXAXIS Wireless Controller along with other features, such as Blu-ray Disc (BD) and Full High-definition resolution graphics capability. The PlayStation 3 comes in 20 GB, 40 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, 120 GB, 160 GB, 250 GB, and 320 GB, with only the 160, and 320 being the current models. Like its predecessors, a slimmer redesigned model of the console has been released. According to Sony Computer Entertainment, the PlayStation 3 has sold 63.9 million units worldwide as of March 31, 2012.

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Slim Model (2009)

Released in 2009, the redesigned model of the PlayStation 3 is the only model in production. The redesigned model is 33% smaller, 36% lighter, and consumes 34% to 45% less power than previous models. In addition, it features a redesigned cooling system and a smaller Cell processor which was moved to a 45nmmanufacturing process. It sold in excess of a million units within its first 3 weeks on sale. The redesign also features support for CEC (more commonly referred to by its manufacturer brandings of BraviaSync, VIERA Link, EasyLink and others) which allows control of the console over HDMI by using the remote control as the controller. The PS3 slim also runs quieter and is cooler than previous models due to its 45 nm Cell. The PS3 Slim no longer has the "main power" switch (similar toPlayStation 2 slim), like the previous PS3 models, which was located at the back of the console. It was officially released on September 1, 2009 in North America and Europe and on September 3, 2009 in Japan, Australia and New Zealand

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2.5 External Environment

Customers The main customers for Sonys PS3 are the hardcore gaming community. These people are usually men from the ages of 15-30. However, with the Playstation 3s support for Blu-ray technology, the secondary customers would be those interested in the highest quality of movie entertainment; this group could be anyone of any age.

Competitors Sonys two big rivals in the gaming industry are Nintendo (who have been in the gaming business for over 20 years) and Microsoft (who have only been in the console gaming business for less than 10 years). With this heated competition, Sony is forced to give their customers the latest and greatest in gaming technology and experience.

Media The media has had their eyes on Sony long before they began in the gaming industry. The media can help promote Sonys games and hardware; however, it can also be the reason sales decrease. It all depends on what the media happens to be focused on that week. Either way, the media is one big reason why people know about the work Sony is doing in the gaming industry.

Suppliers Sony relies heavily on its suppliers to get their raw materials and some pre-constructed parts so they can develop and produce their gaming hardware and software. Some of these suppliers

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include Nvidia (graphics cards), IBM (processor), and Terra Soft Solutions (operating system). Sony has had a long relationship with most of its suppliers and has understood the importance of those relationships.

Distributors Sony does sell some of its own hardware and software from online. However, the largest amount of their sales come from distributers such as Wal-Mart, GameStop, Amazon, and more.

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CHAPTER 3: SWOT

Strengths 1. Always giving their customer the latest and greatest gaming hardware and software.

2. High-quality hardware outlasts most of its competitors hardware.

3. Attuned to what their hardcore gamers wants are.

Weakness 1. Their high-quality hardware = high prices (PS3 starting price was $600).

2. Their gaming software being on the new Blu-ray format causing PS3 software prices to be $60-70 each.

Opportunity 1. With Nintendo unable to meet demand for their Wii, the PS3s lower price could convince people waiting for Wiis to buy available PS3s instead.

2. If they are able to get a higher customer turnout, they may be able to lower their prices to other game standards on software to increase PS3 software sales.

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3. With the recent movie format war being over between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, Sony could get more movie companies onboard with Blu-ray to increase the PS3s attractiveness to movie buffs.

Threats 1. People who were interested in PS3s are quickly turning to the Xbox 360 to meet their budget gaming needs.

2. The economy is hurting the sales to gamers everywhere. Currently, Nintendo is feeling this in their handheld market, but this could quickly threaten the PS3s sales.

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3.1 Product Marketing Objectives

The first year of the PS3 has been a little less than expected. The high price of the hardware is partly to blame for this. To approach this issue, Sony has lowered the price of the hardware in recent months in hopes of increasing hardware and software sales. With demands for the Nintendo Wii not being met, this lowered price will hopefully steal away some of the market share from Nintendo. Also with the video format being over, Blu-ray sales should increase and more film companies should jump onboard with Sonys Blu-ray format; this should in turn increase PS3 sales since its price is lower than many or comparable to stand-alone Blu-ray players. This will help expand the PS3s customer reach.

3.2 Marketing Strategies

Select Target Markets and Positioning Sony uses the newest and greatest technology to appeal to their customers. The people who are most interested in staying up-to-date with the newest technology are usually men of the ages 1530. To reach that market, they make games that are attractive to men of those ages; these games tend to be the shooters and high action games such as Kill Zone and God of War. However, they do make games for younger children; these games have a more adventure based game play such as Jak and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot.

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Beyond gaming, Sony also hopes to reach movie buffs with their high-definition movie playback thanks to Blu-ray technology. Blu-ray offers the latest advancement in movie entertainment experience. The detail of these movies is so good that you can literally see individual pores on peoples faces. As you might expect, this means detail on everything is very high and movie buffs love this.

Product Strategies

The PS3 offers the most advanced visuals and audio of any other game console and most computers. Hardcore gamers want their games to be more visually pleasing, and that is exactly what Sony has given them. They have changed very little about control setup except they have added some motion sensitivity (after they saw Nintendo unveil this feature in the Wii); this means that people who have played PS1 and/or PS2 wont have to learn how to hold and use the controller all over again. Also, there are a lot of classic games available for download via the Playstation Network (for a price of course). Also, later models offered backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2 games. They have included Blu-ray playback as a feature on the PS3. This will tempt people on the market for a Blu-ray player to potentially buy the PS3 instead since its price is very close or cheaper than current Bluray players.

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Promotional Strategies Beyond the great graphics and familiar game play, the main selling point of the PS3 is the Bluray playback. The fact that you can buy a gaming system and are able to watch movies on it too is a great thing. This was the same way with the PS2; thousands were sold worldwide just as a DVD player since it was backed by Sonys nice warranty and was made with the wonderful Sony touch. Sony also has the Playstation Network that offers downloadable games. This feature allows them to sell point cards containing point which can be used to download classic PS1 titles, custom games, and sometimes downloadable features such as extra songs for games like Guitar Hero. This same feature also allows players in two different countries to play a multiplayer game against each other via Wi-Fi.

The PS3 also offers many games that have link support for using the PSP (Playstation Portable) for extra features or as a substitute controller via wireless. Sony also supports backwards compatibility with PS1/PS2 games.

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Supply Chain Strategies Sony buys parts from different suppliers to construct the PS3s. Sony then constructs the PS3 units in Japan. After repeated testing, Sony begins selling the PS3 in Japan and in the US shortly after, and soon. From here, they are taken and sold at the different distributors

Sony Place (Distribution)

Decision with respect to distribution channel focus on making the product available in adequate quantities at places where the customers are normally expected to shop for them to satisfy their needs. Depending on the nature of the product, marketing management decides to put into place and exclusive, selective or intensive network of distribution, while selecting the appropriate dealers or wholesalers.

Sony being the company which position itself as a seller of durable and high-end products, it is practicing selective distribution of its products from selective dealers i.e Sony World. Apart coverage is practiced, and the products in these kind on markets normally do not possed all the features and benefits which Sony offers e.g. Warranty and guarantee.

Sony distributes its products in various channels. It uses Zero-Level Channed, One Level Channel and two-level channel.

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Through the internet, Sony has helped its customers to find the nearest retail shop where they can buy the Sony Products. All you have to do is to go to their website e.g. WWW.Sony.co.in/section/shop and specify the product and location. Then it will display all the nearest retail shop available.

Public relations and Publicity

Public relations is a broad set of communication activities employed to create and maintain favorable relationship with employees, Shareholders, Suppliers, Media, educators and potential investors, Financial Institutions, government agencies and official and society in general

Through its website, Sony Corporation has provided its contacts for those customers who will be in need of any information from the company. In this was Sony can create a mutual relationship with its customers and ensures that it serves the wishes and demands of its customers

Unpleasant situation as a result of negative events may precipitate unfavorable public reactions for organization. To minimize the negative impact of such situations leading to unfavorable coverage, the company has policies and procedures in place to manage help in any such problem related to public relations

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For example, Sony released an ad depicting a man smiling towards the camera abd wearing on his head a crown of thorns with button symbols of Playstation Joystick. At the bottom, the copy read as Ten Years of Passion. This supposedly took advantage of the publicity from the Mel Gibson film the passion of the Christ. The advertisement outraged the Vatican as well as many local Catholics, prompting comments such as Sony went too far and Vatican excommunicates Sony. After the incident, the campaign was quickly discontinued.

Another example is that, In July 2006, Sony released a Dutch advertising campaign featuring a white model dressed entirely in white and a black model garbed in black. The first featured the white model clutching the face of the black model. The words White is coming headlined one of the ads. The ad has been viewed as racist by critics. A Sony spokesperson responded that the ad does not have a racist message, saying that it was only trying to depicit the contrast between the black PSP model and the new ceramic white PSP. Other picture of the ad campaign include the black model overpowering the white model.

So its the duty of the public relation department of Sony to solve such issues as mentioned above so as to ensure that it maintains a good public relation with the public.

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3.3 Implement and Control the Marketing Plan

Action Plans Taking full advantage of the shortage of Wii units, Sony is trying to make sure there are PS3 on shelves at all times. Also, they have lowered their prices since their release in hopes of getting people to buy PS3 instead for all of its features. Prior to the release of the PS3, Sony saw Nintendos innovative idea for motion sensitivity; after this, they went back to the drawing board and added some motion sensitivity support to their controller.

In an effort to increase sales vs. the Xbox 360, Sony is pushing the point that they have had third-party support for great games such as Metal Gear Solid series and the long line of Final Fantasy titles. The fact that PS3 Blu-ray disks hold nearly five times the amount of information as the other two systems disk (both Nintendo and Microsoft stuck with normal double layer DVDs), this helps show how in-depth thePS3 games could potentially be.

Responsibility Since Sony knows the importance of solving problems such as Alzheimers and cancer, Sony has built a feature into the PS3 (that can be disabled) that, when your PS3 is not in use and has a high speed connection, allows Stanford University to use your PS3s hardware to help conduct research on their Folding@home project. This project has been around since 2000 and has been using peoples (who signed up) computers to help in this research. Since a lot of computers go unused and left on around the world, Stanford uses that technology to help in computational

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research on these and other diseases. This feature will not only help fight diseases, but will give the PS3 owner a since of satisfaction knowing they are helping fight these diseases and are helping get one step closer to finding a cure. This information was provided by an article by Mike Nagle.

Measurement and Control

Beyond just the sales figures telling Sony how well their PS3 hardware is selling, sales figures for their games, Wi-Fi connection activity levels, the number of downloaded games, and customer feedback let Sony know how well the PS3 hardware is really being received by the consumers. From this feedback, they make needed software fixes in the form of system update.

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Bibliography

See: http://www.mbaknol.com/management-case-studies/marketing-strategy-of-sonycorporation/

See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_marketing

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_different_types_of_marketing_strategy_involved_in_mark eting#ixzz27IOI6xm0

Read more: Advantages and Disadvantages of a Marketing Strategy | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7763350_advantages-disadvantages-marketingstrategy.html#ixzz27IVxVfEi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony CNN. Fortune 500 2007. CNN. 2008. 13 April 2008. <Money.cnn.com> Nagle, Mike. Sony PS3 Powers Alzheimer's Research. Labtechnologist.com. 20 March 2007. 13 April 2008. www.labtechnologist.com Sony: Corporation. 2008. Sony Entertainment. 13 April 2008. <Sony.net>

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