Sony Corporation: Analysis Of Market Segmentation, Sustainability, And Global Strategies

Market Segmentation of Sony Corporation

Sony Group Corporation is known as a popular Japanese Multinational Conglomerate Organization and the headquarter of this company is in Minato, Tokyo (sony.co 2022). In the year 1946, Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita established this company and the total revenue of this organization is 9 lakh crores JPY. The CEO of this organization is Kenicehiro Yoshida. Sony Corporation is a large global organization with deep local roots, which provides a unique ability to realize local customers and adapt to several changes quickly to their preferences. Sony company is trying to increase its profit rate by expanding its new product PS5. PESTLE analysis can be defined as an effective framework or tool that is imperative for the organizations such as Sony because it helps to better realize market dynamics and improve the business continuously.  Sony corporation has already announced that the company is going to launch a new product Play Station 5 or PS5 (sony.co 2022).

According to several authors such as Madein (2020), when almost every organization is making improvements towards sustainability, Sony corporation has also taken several initiatives for improving its sustainable performance. Sony has become one of the most sustainable brands in this world that focuses more on innovation. Developed by different IT experts at the organization’s center in Japan, Play Station 5 or the new product will have a perfect balance between smooth operations and advanced technology that people love. Especially, the children may enjoy this new gaming equipment or console with improved technologies and Xbox series and these inclusions can attract more customers who really love to play online games. According to different authors such as Nishimura (2019), Sony corporation has a good practice of recycling and many NGOs appreciate and praise the organization’s steps such as effective supply chain management, zero carbon emission, and others. Earthquake prone regions of Japan may affect the business performance of Sony corporation that may lead to decreased quality of the new product.

Sony corporation is a global brand and it operates business in many countries such as China, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines, and others and the political environment and government regulations of these countries make several impacts on this brand (Hesmondhalgh and Meier 2018). So, the organization must follow all local rules or laws of those countries. Sony corporation should focus on the political environment of a country while launching a new product (PS5) otherwise, it may lead to serious problems. The government is showing several initiatives and investing more funds for encouraging online commerce in this specific segment. The government is also increasing efforts for data security and such an initiative can help to improve the business of Sony Corporation.

Sony corporation is a global brand and it deals with different types of exchange rates in several countries and a small change in the exchange rate may impact on revenues of the organization. According to Oliinyk et al. (2018), the profit and growth stream of Sony Corporation in the electronics business is generally moving in an upward direction and it also increased its sales rate by almost 9 percent to 83.3billion USD (JPY9.00 trillion) in the year 2020 and the organization is expecting that it will achieve a 20% increase in sales by promoting this new product. The improvement in the electronics business explores several opportunities for Sony corporation to improve its sales rate in this specific category.

Sustainability Initiatives

The organizations mainly segment their markets based on their needs and behaviors. Sony corporation has also segmented its target market into main four categories: geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, and behavioral segmentation. Geographic segmentation mainly refers to the climate and weather of the markets and it may be international, or local in some countries.  Sony corporation mostly targets New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, North America, and North Korea for promoting its new product “PS5”. This new product of Sony corporation targets customers of all types of genders, ages, occupations, and incomes and it is not a product that is valuable for high-class customers. Anyone may use this new product and it is available for all customer groups.

Fig1: Market Segmentation

(Source: Created by Author)

One of the main determining factors is the lifestyle and personality of the customers. Recently Sony corporation has decided to provide a gaming product with improved technology and advanced software to all clients who generally prefer to play online games. Sony corporation targets the urban, rural, and international customers of 15 years and above 15 years including females and males both (De Villiers, Tipgomut and Franklin 2020). Employees, students, and professionals anyone can enjoy this new product. Psychologically, all of the clients are aware of their social classes and lifestyles. So, Sony corporation follows a differentiated marketing strategy and it also differentiates its markets by targeting various customers through traditional and online platforms. According to Burak (2021), Sony corporation company meets all demands of several market segments by researching continuously all of these segments and this organization utilizes both quantitative and qualitative analysis for evaluating customers' demands. Compared to other electronics companies, Sony corporation spends more on the research and development (R&D) sector. The behavioral segmentation of Sony corporation is based on attitude, awareness, and knowledge of the customers. By following concentrated marketing, Sony corporation has achieved a strong market position because the company has a good knowledge of all of their customers. Apart from this, Sony corporation also provides 24*7 customer support so that the consumers or clients can easily solve their queries or doubts (sony.co 2022).

According to various authors such as Czinkota, et al. (2021), advancement in technologies has brought several changes in the electronics business and Sony corporation always maintains its loyalty by promoting quality products and providing excellent service. The mission of Sony corporation is to fulfill the curiosity of the customers and this objective also helped this organization to make a strong and leading position in the local markets as well as foreign markets.  So, from the above analysis of segmentation, it can be stated that the market segmentation of Sony corporation is based on gender, income, age groups, and education, and the target customers of this new product of Sony corporation would be almost the same as the existing customer profile.

Samsung is one of the leading electronics companies in this world based on its market share and this organization had already sold approximately seventy million units worldwide (samsung.com 2022). This company always focuses on the production of a wide variety of industrial and consumer electronics including digital media, integrated systems, memory chips, gaming consoles, and others (samsung.com 2022). In all over the world, Samsung is mainly known for its high quality and improved technologies. Samsung company follows a mid-premium pricing strategy that mainly targets the middle and upper-class people. On the other hand, Panasonic is known as a popular electronics company established in the year 1918 and it is mainly known for its electronics products (holdings.panasonic 2022). But the sales of this company were severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic situation. The slowdown of the sales of Panasonic company was due to supply chain disruption caused by the lack of efficient labor and proper planning. But Panasonic is expecting that they will normalize this situation by 2022. The Philips company is a well-known Dutch electronics company and it manufactures different products like sound systems, headphones, television, and others (philips.co 2022). But the products of Sony Corporation have been considered as fat better than the products of Philips. On the other hand, the sound system of Philips company does not offer a soothing experience but the price of its products is high. Philips company always used a value-based pricing strategy and this year, Philips has increased the price of its products by three to five percent on some selected products in 2018 (philips.co 2022). Qualcomm is an American multinational organization and it creates wireless technologies, software, and semiconductors. The main competitive advantage of Qualcomm is that it addresses needs of the submarkets with customization as required by the customers (qualcomm.com 2022). The company sets the products' prices economically for attracting various customer segments.

Global Strategies

Fig2: Perceptual Map

(Source: Created by Author) 

Sony and Samsung both are strong competitors in the electronic market and Panasonic has a masculine and energetic perception and it is distributed heavily across several countries. But the strategy of Sony corporation focuses more on prominent customer desires or needs to support the organizations that are ethically and environmentally concerned. Samsung corporation always targets old clients with new products and the success of this company depends on the process of its brand management. According to Samsung electronics company, it wants to target almost all people on this planet including teenagers, millennials, and others (samsung.com 2022). Samsung mainly follows an aggressive marketing strategy for targeting its customers. Philips company did many things for the community and this organization aims to deliver social impacts by improving the well-being and health of the people or community. This organization is highly committed to improving the caring process for underserved and vulnerable communities (philips.co 2022). 

Fig3: Perceptual Map

(Source: Created by Author) 

Sony corporation must follow a diversification strategy while launching a new product in local as well as international markets. This strategy can help this organization target new markets and customers (Miralles?Quirós and Nogueira 2019). Sony corporation has decided to introduce PS5 recently in North and South Korea, Australia, India, New Zealand, and North America. This strategy can help Sony corporation to enter new markets with the help of new products. For promoting this new product, Sony corporation must follow both product and market development that can help to mitigate several risks through a related diversification strategy. Product development is also an effective strategy that helps to target existing markets and customers. Sony corporation must invest more funds in its R&D department for improving the quality of its new product. So, with the help of diversification and product development strategy, Sony corporation can target the new and existing customers.

Sony corporation has finally made its dream true with the promotion of its new product PS5 and this product will offer a perfect balance between customers’ needs and improved technology that people love (Tomczak, Reinecke and Kuss 2017). Surveys across several countries have represented that people are much more interested to experience this high-tech gaming console. So, with this new product, Sony corporation can help them to embrace an improved and high-tech gaming console.

Sony corporation generally provides different types of products that generally respond to the changing needs of the customers and this company offers an average price because of strong competition with other competitors (Thabit and Raewf 2018). Sony corporation may follow a penetration pricing strategy because this strategy sets a certain mentality of “dependable quality and low cost equals high demands”.

Sony corporation always comes up with creative marketing strategies and this organization employs different media including billboards, television, online advertisements, and print commercials (Hadi and Hafnidar 2019). Sony corporation can focus more on social media marketing strategy for attracting more customers and it may also help to increase the sales rate of its new product Play Station 5 or PS5.

Conclusion

Sony corporation mainly targets North and South Korea, Australia, India, New Zealand, and North America to promote its new product and the organization is also trying to expand its product in almost every country. The organization is expecting that its new product will be available soon in local stores or outlets and online marketplaces.

The customer decision-making process can be determined as the combination of five major steps and the customers follow these steps to determine which products will fulfill their needs. The five major steps are listed below,

1. Problem recognition
2. Information search
3. Alternative evaluation
4. Purchase decision
5. After-purchase evaluation

This is the first phase of the customer decision-making process and it can be defined as the needs of a product or service.  Once, customers recognize their wants, they require to collect information or data to realize how these products can fulfill their needs (Lynch and Barnes 2020). Developing successful brand campaigning to improve brand image and awareness can help to make a good relationship between the customers and the organization.  As an example, the customers who love to play online games always want a smooth control and PS5 can provide such flexibility to the customers. As a result of it, they will prefer the new product (PS5) of Sony Corporation.

While researching more about a certain product, the customers or buyers depend on external and internal factors and past interaction with a brand or product, both negative and positive. In this stage, the customers browse several online resources for collecting more information about the new product (Zhang, Zhao and Gupta 2018). So, it is recommended for Sony corporation to introduce several contents or information about its new product PS5.  It can help those customers to get all kinds of information about a new product.

In this stage, the buyers or customers have developed a criterion for what they are looking for in a certain product or service. After collecting all information about a product, the customers weigh their choices against different comparable alternatives. Alternatives may be available in a form of additional product benefits, lower prices, and product availability (Nilashi et al. 2021). So, the marketing activities of this organization must be geared toward convincing customers that its new product “Plat Station 5 can help to fulfill more needs of the customers compared to its main competitors.

It is the most important phase of the customer buying process in which consumers actually purchase. After collecting all information or details including feedbacks from the previous customers. Lastly, the customers arrive at a conclusion to buy that product (Albalaki and Majeed 2018). If Sony corporation ensures a safe and high-quality product, then the customers will recognize properly that this new product is a better option to purchase.  

This phase of the customer decision-making process includes reflection from the seller and the customer. Sony corporation must evaluate whether the customers are happy with its new product or not and how more customers can be engaged with this organization (Wang and Yu 2017). The post-purchase phase includes discount coupons, newsletters, follow-up emails, and others to entice consumers to make additional purchases. With the help of this feedback system, Sony corporation can better understand the responses of the customers about the quality of its new product. So, Sony corporation can start an online review system for collecting the feedback of the customers. 

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