Introduction
Sony is a multinational corporation that was established as a telecommunication engineering firm in 1946 by Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka, and Tamon Maeda. The firm began by producing the first Japanese tape recorder in 1950 and has grown over time to diverse its lines of production to include various products including Television, music systems, and game consoles among other products offered by the firm. The firm has diversified its markets to include the global market where it markets its products in both developed and underdeveloped countries. The music system of Sony is one of the many product lines pursued by the firm and it has gained much recognition across the globe (Mills, 2002). The music system of Sony should be sold in the markets in developing countries. The developing countries should be the focus for the marketing strategies of Sony to increase its market share and sales revenues in the sector. Sony faces competition in the marketing of its music systems from other global companies such as Samsung and Philips.
The Sony Music Systems Market
The market of Sony’s Music systems as argued earlier in the entire developing world. This includes many countries that are distributed across the globe. From the general perspective, the developing world does not have developed economies, but economies that are increasingly working toward economic sustainability. The markets in developing countries are not saturated and the firm will easily venture into the markets and aim at increasing the market share through increased awareness, music system promotions, and selling the products at lower prices to gain the loyalty of the market. The common economic systems in the markets of the firm are free-hand capitalism where the levels of demand and supply are determined by the forces of demand and supply (Schultz, et al. 2007).
Developing markets are significant for the music system f Sony because the economies are growing and the countries have large numbers of consumers that desire listening to good music. The growth of the economies is a significant indicator that the consumers are endowed with purchasing power.
Market Analysis
The Sony system’s market is distributed across the globe with the industry having many competitors. The music system in developing countries is dominated by other competitors such as Samsung and Philips among others that increase the level of competition. The developing market is large and distributed in many developing countries. The industry is characterized by free entry and exit implying that although Sony and Samsung may dominate the market, other competitors constantly reduce the share of the dominant corporations in the industry. Sony music systems are among the best in the industry and they make Sony one of the dominant firms in the market. The dominant position is significant for Sony Corporation because it enables the firm to gain a competitive edge over its rivals. First, it has resources to undertake any venture that could turn out to be beneficial to the firm.
Marketing Tactics for Sony Music Systems
Sonny could apply various marketing strategies to increase the sales revenue of its music systems. However, the best strategy is the utilization of integrated marketing communication strategies. The first step in the establishment of the IMC strategies for Sony music systems is the increase in the awareness of the products being offered by Sony through its outlets distributed in the target markets. The awareness could be created through increased promotion of the music system and the advertisements of the systems in the media. The media could be print, audio, or broadcast media. Increased awareness is one of the initial steps in establishing a good brand name for Sony music systems. Print media such as newspapers and tourism magazines could be used to increase awareness. The electronic media could be used where the firm could develop a blog on its website specifically for marketing its Sony music systems (Porter, 1998). Electronic advertisements could increase awareness of the firm among many lovers of good music systems. In addition, Billboards could be used. These could be placed in various cities such as Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, Johannesburg in South Africa, and Hong Kong among many other target markets.
Differentiation from Competition
Product differentiation is a significant characteristic of the monopolistic competition marketing structure that is neither a monopoly nor perfect competition. The music systems of Sony could be differentiated from other music systems sold by the firm’s competitors through means such as color, the level of output of the systems, packaging, and pricing among others. For instance, the firm should produce products that fit directly into the market needs for the consumers such as the pricing needs. As noted by Kitchen and De Pelsmacker (2004), differentiation of the music system could help Sony distinguish better systems from bad systems.
Effectiveness of the Program
The effectiveness of the marketing plan for Sony Corporation could be well established through monitoring after its implementation. First, Sony should begin by implementing the strategy in one of its target markets such as Brazil with a pilot study being undertaken for 6 months. The effectiveness of the program in the country will be a signal for the effectiveness of the program in other developing countries. To measure the effectiveness, the company could establish the financial performance of the subsidiary since its launch to the period in which the pilot study ends. Other measures could include the satisfaction that customers obtain in the purchase of Sony’s music system and surveying the firm’s dominance. Program control measures could include the firm being constantly on-site to oversee the implementation of the program.
Conclusion
This paper has examined the marketing program of Sony Corporation. The firm would like to venture into other developing markets such as Brazil and China to sell its music system. Sony, a leader in the manufacture of technology products is significant in the production line of the music systems in the industry. Other competitors in the industry are Philips, Sanyo, and LG Electronics among others. Sony should venture into the developing economies markets to market its products using integrated marketing communication strategies. Under these strategies, there will be increased awareness of the music systems of the firm, which could be achieved through increased advertisements in the print media, broadcast, and electronic media. The IMC strategies are significant to Sony since they will enable Sony to increase its market share. The marketing plan of Sony should be maintained through frequent evaluation, monitoring, and control of various marketing strategies.
References
Kitchen, P. & De Pelsmacker, P. (2004). Integrated marketing communications: A primer. London, Routledge.
Mills, G. (2002). Retail pricing strategies and market power. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing.
Porter, M. (1998). Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Schultz, D. et al. (2007). In search of a theory of integrated marketing communication. Journal of Advertising Education, 11(2), 21-31.