Over View of Company

Sony is a Japanese corporation and its headquarter is in Tokyo and one of the largest media in
the world with revenue US$72 billion according to 2003 survey. Sony is a best and leading
manufacturer of electronics, games, videos and information technology products for their
customers and other professional markets. These things make Sony one of the successful
entertainment company in the world. Sony has a long range of games, entertainment and
electronic products. Sony become a consumer electronics company since 1946[ CITATION
CRA17 \l 1033 ].

Sony, with its 50 percent market share in the image sensor market, is among the semiconductor
sales leaders and, as of 2015, the fifth-largest television manufacturer in the world by annual
sales figures. It is the world's largest player in the premium TV market, a market for a television
of at least 55 inches with a price higher than $2,500. “Revenue of Sony in Year 2020 is ¥8.259
trillion”[ CITATION Son20 \l 1033 ].
Marketing plan of Sony

Marketing plan of Sony consists of the following framework

1. Purpose and Mission

2. Situational Analysis
3. Marketing Strategy and Objectives
4. Additional Consideration

This marketing plan is aimed at highlighting one of the product line extensions of Sony
Corporation. It mainly focuses on the internal and external environment of Sony Corporation.
Apart from that this plan include the marketing strategies, brand promotion strategies, marketing
mix involved and various initiatives which Sony Corporation took. SWOT analysis one of the
major content which is included in this marketing plan.

Purpose and Mission

The main purpose of this marketing plan is to analyze various aspects of product-line extension
by Sony Corporation. Here the chosen product-line extension is Sony-Bravia. The mission of this
plan is to find out whether Sony-Bravia has met Sony-Corporations expectations before
launching this product in the market. Sony-Corporation is one of the world’s leading digital
entertainment brands, offering an outstanding portfolio of exciting multimedia content.

Sony’s mission is to commit to develop a wide range of innovative products and multimedia
services that challenge the way consumers’ access and enjoy digital entertainment. By ensuring
synergy between businesses within the organization, Sony is constantly striving to create
exciting new worlds of entertainment that can be experienced on a variety of different products.

In developing Bravia, Sony brought together its most advanced design, manufacturing and sales
capabilities. Sony incorporated newly developed Sony Panels and other technologies for
outstanding image quality and devised a high impact advertising program. Bravia currently holds
the worldwide No. 1 position for LCD TVs. Sony aimed to communicate a simple message – that
the color you see on these screens is ‘like no other’. This was the message given by Sony
Corporation while launching Sony-Bravia.
Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategies used by Sony Corporation is very effective that it has created value in
consumer’s mind to the product offered by them. Sony has targeted its product-line Bravia.
Sony’s Marketing Mix consists of

 Product
 Price
 Promotion
 Place

Product

Product is a tangible thing which is used to satisfy a particular want. Sony Corporation
launched a product called Sony-Bravia. Bravia is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition
LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors, along with its home cinema range under
the sub-brand Bravia Theatre. The Bravia name is an acronym of “Best Resolution Audio Visual
Integrated Architecture”.

In providing a wide range of products and services with high quality, Sony has by far influenced
most of the its customer’s perception favorably towards its products

Price

Pricing decisions are almost always made in consultation with marketing management.
Price is the only marketing mix variable that can be altered quickly. Price variables such as
dealer price, retail price, discounts, allowances, credit terms etc. influence the development of
marketing strategy, as price is a major factor that influences the assessment of value obtained by
customers.

Sony being a company which emphasizes product quality, it tends to sell its products with price
range from moderately-high to high-prices, depending on the use and the targeted customers.
Even though the prices imposed by Sony seems to be fair with consideration of the quality of the
products and services offered, the only problem is that, Sony has priced its products too
expensively for a middle or lower class customer to afford to buy those products. Apart from that
Sony has targeted its market mainly to urban customers who can afford such expensive products.
Sony has to create also some of low end products with low prices which can be affordable to low
income users.

Place

SONY’s electronics products and services except the gaming products are marketed
globally through its trademark SONY. This trademark has been registered in 200 countries and
territories. Its global business is divided into six regions – Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America,
North America and Oceania. The warranty service of SONY covers 53 countries and regions.
Sony also has a wide distribution net globally in the areas where its products are sold. Apart from
its authorized retailers in the various nations, SONY products are also sold through the online
channels. Online retailers like Amazon.com and Camera.com are also among its authorized
retailers that sell its products online.

Promotion

SONY spends heavily on marketing and advertising. As per an online resource its 2016
advertising budget was $3.7 billion. It uses several channels for marketing including traditional
and modern. However, digital marketing is the central focus of its promotional strategy. The
social media too has an important place in the overall marketing and promotional strategy of
SONY. It also makes use of television and the print media in plenty in the Asian markets to
promote its brand and products. It is known for making creative TV ads that are highly
engaging. In Asian markets its ads are generally focused on products and highlight their
outstanding features and quality. Social media also has an important place in its marketing
strategy and promotions. It uses social media extensively to target its customers and to engage
them. It has separate Facebook pages for its different products and its Play-Station page has
particularly very high number of followers. The level of customer loyalty that the brand enjoys
is evident from the high number of fans and followers SONY has. Apart from Facebook, it has
used Pinterest, Google Plus, and Twitter for customer engagement and for promoting its brand.
 Developing Integrated Marketing Communication Program

Advertising

It is any paid form of non-personal mass communication through various media to present &
promote product, services & ideas, etc. by an identified sponsor. We will advertise Sony through
various forms of media.

 Through TV we will advertise Sony products.

 Advertise on different festivals or league, like PSL,
 We will direct-response advertising thus encouraging the consumer to respond by
providing feedback to the advertiser. This is usually done through mails & catalogues.
 It also incorporates co-operative advertising by providing the dealers with materials
guidelines to develop ads for print & radio commercials.

Direct Marketing

Digital/ Internet Marketing

It is an all-inclusive term for marketing products and/or services online and like many all-
inclusive terms. Internet marketing means different things to different people.

Essentially, though, Internet marketing refers to the strategies that are used to market a product
or service online, marketing strategies that include search engine optimization and search engine
submission, copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, web site design strategies,
online promotions, reciprocal linking, and email marketing – and that’s just hitting the
highlights.

Online marketers are constantly devising new Internet marketing strategies in the hopes of
driving more traffic to their Web sites and making more sales; witness the increasing use of
blogs as marketing tools for business, for instance.

“We found that more than 60% of our audience is brand-loyal to Sony and more than 80% would
recommend the program to a friend”.

Sales Promotion
It’s a marketing discipline that utilizes a variety of incentive techniques to structure sales-related
programs targeted to customers, trade and sales levels that generate a specific, measurable action
or response for a product or service.

 Free samples
 Discount Rebates Coupons
 Scratch cards
 Exchange offers

Public Relations

Personal Selling
 Monitor, evaluate, and control integrated marketing communications program

The final stage of the promotional planning process is monitoring, evaluating, and controlling
the promotional program. It is important to determine how well the promotional program is
meeting communications objectives and helping the firm accomplish its overall marketing goals
and objectives. The promotional planner wants to know not only how well the promotional
program is doing but also why. For example, problems with the advertising program may lie in
the nature of the message or in a media plan that does not reach the target market effectively.
The manager must know the reasons for the results in order to take the right steps to correct the
program.

This final stage of the process is designed to provide managers with continual feedback
concerning the effectiveness of the promotional program, which in turn can be used as input into
the planning process. As already mentioned in the previous points we have discuss almost six
IMC tools but our main focus on the three IMC tools i.e Direct marketing, Advertising & the
third one is digital marketing which help us to get the effective feedback from our targeted
audience .

As a result, many people who work in advertising, direct marketing, & digital marketing channel
tend to approach marketing communications problems from the perspective of their particular
specialty. An advertising person may believe marketing communications objectives are best met
through the use of media advertising; a digital marketer says that this is a technological era so the
communication purpose can be easily fulfilled through this platform because today's time
everyone is linked to different social media channels. similarly a person who use direct
marketing technique he used to say that the communication through direct marketing is the best
way ,by using this technique we can access individuals personally and get their special
responses. These orientations are not surprising, since each person has been trained to view
marketing communications problems primarily from one perspective.

We will examine all the promotional-mix elements and their roles in an organization's integrated

marketing communications efforts. Although media advertising may be the most visible part of
the communications program, understanding its role in contemporary marketing requires
attention to other promotional areas such as the Internet and interactive marketing, direct
marketing, sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling. Not all the promotional-mix
areas are under the direct control of the advertising or marketing communications manager.

We examine each of the promotional-mix variables, beginning with advertising. Our detailed
examination of advertising includes a discussion of creative strategy and the process of
developing the advertising message, an overview of media strategy, and an evaluation of the
various media (print, broadcast, and support media). The discussion then turns to the other areas
of the promotional mix: direct marketing, Digital marketing, sales promotion, public
relations/publicity, and personal selling. Our examination of the IMC planning process concludes
with a discussion of how the promotional program is monitored, evaluated, and controlled.
Particular attention is given to measuring the effectiveness of advertising and other forms of
promotion.

The final part of the text examines special topic areas and perspectives that have become
increasingly important in contemporary marketing. We will examine the area of international
advertising and promotion and the challenges companies face in developing IMC programs for
global markets as well as various countries around the world. The text concludes with an
examination of the environment in which integrated marketing communications operates,
including the regulatory, social, and economic factors that influence, and in turn are influenced
by, an organization's advertising and promotional program.