Sony Ericsson Marketing Plan

Content:

Sony ericsson Description:

Sony Ericsson is a joint venture established in 2001 by the Japanese company
Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to
make mobile phones. Both companies have stopped making their own mobile
phones. The reason for this merger is to combine Sony's consumer
electronics expertise with Ericsson's technological leadership (see Ericsson
Mobile Platforms) in the communications sector.The company's global
management is based in Hammersmith, London. It also has research &
development teams in Sweden, Japan, China, Canada, the Netherlands, the
United States, and the United Kingdom. Sony Ericsson has approximately
8,000 employees worldwide. The current President is Miles Flint and the
Corporate Executive Vice President is Anders Runevad. Ericsson, which had
been on the forefront of cellular phone innovation for decades, decided to
divest its mobile phone business in 2001 following huge losses. Ericsson had
decided to source chips for its phones from a single source, a Philips facility
in New Mexico. In March 2000 a fire at the Philips factory contaminated the
sterile facility. Philips assured Ericsson and Nokia (the other major customer
of the facility) that production would be delayed by less than a week. Nokia
began buying available chips from alternate sources and when it became
clear that production at the Philips factory would be compromised for
months, Ericsson was faced with a serious shortage. This compromised
Ericsson's ability to compete by preventing the launch of new handsets and
production of current models. Sony its first joint products in March 2002 and
now has a full product portfolio covering all target groups. Sony Ericsson
introduced the Walkman-branded W series music phones in 2005 (fourteen
models to date: W200, W300, W550, W600, W610, W700, W710, W800,
W810, W830, W850, W880, W900 and W950). The Sony Ericsson W-series
music phones are notable for being...

Sony Global Strategy

Introduction

Over several decades, there are several forces and rapid change in worldwide businesses
which have been driven companies around the world attempting to survive in this
uncontrollable changing.

Such factors are tariff reduction, non-tariff barrier, free trade agreement, maturity in
domestic market, threat from worldwide competitors and the rise of newly industrializing
counties (NICs) such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and so on where able to back up
for sophisticated manufacturing operations with low labor costs. These examples force
worldwide companies to act more and more globally in order to be able to stay in the
high competitive level in the rapidly change in global businesses and also to exploit the
benefits from globalization.

Consequently, many companies have come up with several global strategies. Currently,
many worldwide companies being enjoy the benefits through their global strategies.
However, to success in the global markets only good global strategies are not adequate;
balancing a degree of using global strategies is also importance. This is because local
culture and taste are significant factors which cannot be ignored.

There is undisputed that Japanese companies are good examples for worldwide
companies to benchmark the way they doing business globally. Japanese companies
always come up with the effective global strategies and eventually can conquer many
western markets and also US markets.

This report will mainly focus on Sony Corporation which has been successful over
several decades to exploit the benefits from globalization. The example of their global
strategies and benefits which they have exploited from those strategies will be discussed
in this paper.

Globalization Definition

To success in developing global strategy, understanding the meaning of globalization is a

significant requirement for every company. The term “globalization” describes the
increased mobility of goods, services, labors,...
Evaluation Of Sony Corporation’S Strategy
Evaluation of Sony Corporation’s strategy

Sony have successfully created an incredible brand name previously, however, its legend
seem to be falling apart recently. In fact, Sony’s net profit for the July-September quarter
for 2006 falling 94% to 1.7 billion Yen, compared to 28.5 billion Yen for the same period
last year (Benson, 8th Nov 2006). The major reasons for the declining profit are affected
by the critical strategic issues faced by Sony which became a main drawback for them.

The first strategic issue faced by Sony was the inefficient manufacturing structures which
decrease Sony’s quality that badly affects their reputation and caused a decline in product
competitiveness. DeWit & Meyer (2004: p192) argue that “the essence of most uniquely
Japanese management practice will be they productivity improvement, TQC (Total
Quality Control) activities, QC (Quality Control) circles, or labour relation – can be
reduced to one word: Kaizen”. They also argue that “the implication of TQC or CWQC
(Company Wide Quality Control) in Japan have been that these concepts have helped
Japanese Companies generate a process-oriented way of thinking and develop strategies
that assure continuous improvement” (p192). However, in the case of Sony, they did not
make any improvement or perform well in Kaizen or implement an efficient
manufacturing structure that ensure high product quality which affect their product
quality and caused a massive damage to the company. For example, there is the recall of
9.6 million Sony Laptop batteries which were liable to overheat and potentially burst into
flames where Sony even failed to fully study the problem (Forbes.com, 2nd October
2006) and there are complaints from Japan’s consumer about PS3’s new system
(Wonova.com, 15th Nov 2006) which will affect the compatibility and status of Sony
badly.

The failure of Sony in effectively implements Kaizen or sustain an effective

manufacturing structure to ensure that they have high quality...
Sony Ericsson Sales Project
KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE AND EVERYTHING RELATED
TO IT, IS A PREREQUISITE FOR SUCCESS IN PERSONAL SELLING

1) I agree with the above statement.

You have to outsmart your competitors, and the only way is to know your product,
consumers and even your competition.

It is absolutely essential that the salesperson has done enough research about the relevant
product or that he/she has been well informed. If this is achieved, the salesperson will be
well equipped to inform customers or even to answer questions correctly about the
product. This will help boost the sales of the specific product and this simple action will
have spurred on the following processes:

• Economic growth
• Job opportunities
• Satisfying a demand for a certain product
• Optimum production

With the correct knowledge the salesperson can now, with confidence and enthusiasm,
approach potential customers. If he knows his product well, he will easily be able to
distinguish the facts and advantages off the product and compare it with that of the
competitor, who might be selling a similar product.

If the salesperson is knowledgeable about the company itself, and not only the product,
he/she could inform potential customers about e.g. money being donated towards a
charity every time a product is purchased. Also it builds trust and loyalty in the company.