Name : Fawwas Hamdi

TP Number : TP034298

Intake : UC3F1610IT(ISS)

Lecturer : Mr. Tajuddin Bin A. Rashid

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 2
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3
2. Product Newness ..................................................................................................................... 5
3. Innovation of the New Product ................................................................................................ 6
3.1 Problem Addressed .......................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Uniqueness ....................................................................................................................... 6
4. Commercial Viability .............................................................................................................. 7
4.1 Market Demands .............................................................................................................. 7
4.2 Revenue Model ................................................................................................................ 7
5. Levitts Idea in Product Development ..................................................................................... 8
5.1 Core Level ........................................................................................................................ 8
5.2 Actual Product .................................................................................................................. 9
5.3 Augmented Product .............................................................................................................. 9
6. Platform in New Product Development................................................................................. 10
7. Competitive Strategy ................................................................................................................ 12
7.1 Product Differentiation ....................................................................................................... 12
7.2 Positioning .......................................................................................................................... 12
8. Ansoff Matrix............................................................................................................................ 13
8.1 Market Penetration .............................................................................................................. 14
8.2 Market Development .......................................................................................................... 15
8.3 Product Development.......................................................................................................... 16
8.4 Diversification..................................................................................................................... 17
9. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 18
References ..................................................................................................................................... 19

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Executive Summary

Sony Corporation is a company focused on the production of electronic, games, entertainment,

and financial services sectors. Sony not only has a wide range of businesses, but also keeps the
uniqueness in running its business. The purpose of this company is to fully take advantage of this
uniqueness aggressively in carrying out their convergent strategy so that they can continue to touch
their customers emotionally and make them satisfied.

Currently, the company developing a new product called Sony 360 camera which is integrated
with a directional sensor that capable to sense a new direction to continue the shot continuation for
360 panoramic photo and videos. In this project, also the researcher will be discussed more on the
product newness, problem addressed, uniqueness and commercial viability. Levitts idea and
product platform will be discussed inside this report to support the development of the new
product. Lastly, Ansoff Market analysis will be used to analyse the company growth strategy and
market strategy to identify the risk of the new developed product.

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 1. Introduction

Sony Corporation is started back in 1945 with a workshop as a started point for this company.
Later, the founder of Sony Masaru Ibuka make new facilities which is Tokyo telecommunication
research institute. This new research institute is for preparing radio throughout japan because of
the war that happen between japan and America. Because of the demand for preparing radio
transistor is very huge this generate a huge profit for this company. Finally, Sony began to spread
to various businesses in other fields, and finally until this year the business that they handle up to
8 business unit (referenceforbusiness.com, 2017).

Sony entered the camera section back in 1996, at that time Sony introduce the first Cyber-shot
camera. And then in 2006 Sony entered the market for Single-lens reflex camera when they
acquired Konica Minolta company. Sony then shifted their focus to the camera as it will be the
alpha line for this company. Sony now is the thirds largest manufacturers of cameras right behind
Canon and Nikon (Hall, 2017).

In 2015 Sony is holding up to 35 % market share in image sensors increasing the percentage by 8
% increase since 2014. (Clarke, 2016) this is showing that Sony has a dedication in this section by
always increase their product quality and with good branding strategy that make this increment
possible.

Figure 1 Sony Market Share

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The increment from the market share also affect the revenue of Sony with the percentage of growth
31% in 2015, as shown below on Figure 2.

Figure 2 Revenue

This shows that with the development of a new product which is Sony 360 camera will stimulate
the increase in revenue and market share of Sony. The new product which focuses on taking 360
panoramic photo and videos with the help of directional sensor. An existing product only allow
the 360-panoramic photography with the help of wide lens and a tripod to manually set the
panoramic view to the camera. The new product will help the user to capture a 360 panoramic
photos and video with the help of directional sensors that allow the camera to sense the direction
of the lens and compare it the database if the image of the current direction is already been taken.

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 2. Product Newness

According to (Radford, et al., 2011) Understanding new products may include original products,
enhanced products, modified products, and new brands developed through research and
development efforts. It can also be based on the consumer's view of the product. The product
newness will be visible if there is a new thing that embedded to the product, as figure 3 shown
below

Figure 3 Product Newness

The development of the new product will be penetrating a new section for Sony corporation. The
new product will be targeted for customers who search for a high spec camera with the new feature
like 360 panoramic photo and video without needing a tripod and wide lens like the other existing
camera on the market. The new product will be embedded with a directional sensor to take a photo
or a video while rotating in 360 degrees. The directional sensors will determine if an image is
already taken by the determine the lens direction. The sensors will search the image from a
direction and compare it if the lens is facing the same direction. Then the sensors will move the
camera to a new direction to shoot until its full 360 degrees. The new product also has a software
that support the 360-panoramic camera. This software will help the user to edit and polish the
photo or the video. The other features are including the 42 megapixels from the A99 II Sony with
the capabilities to shoot 4k video and lastly the camera will come with a base design that able to
rotate following the directional sensors from the camera.

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 3. Innovation of the New Product

3.1 Problem Addressed

Resolution Problem.
Many existing 360 cameras product offer a maximum resolution to shoot in a flat raw image. This
flat raw image allow user to edit a raw material that recorded by the camera. The purpose of the
flat raw image is to enhance the shooting results in a form of editing, raw image is very easy to be
modified because of the image or video shoot in this resolution tent to have a very bad quality and
make the user should edit the image to improve the image quality (ORELLANA, 2016).

Result of the 360 cameras

To merge all the image and video that is shoot using 360 cameras is very hard thing to do because
of the quantity of image and footage that must be merged is enormous. Many programs offered by
various of company selling 360 cameras is cannot fulfil the user needs. The result must be
combined perfectly for user to see the actual photo or video that they already taken in a perfect
condition (ORELLANA, 2016).

3.2 Uniqueness

The product uniqueness come from the directional sensors. The directional sensor will be
embedded in the camera allow the camera to move to a certain direction for taking a picture or
shoot a video. Directional sensor is a new type of sensors that allow an item that embedded with
it to follow a certain algorithm coded to it (Ma, et al., 2009). Sony 360 camera that will be
embedded with directional sensors will help many dedicated users who needs a 360 camera with
their needs. Directional sensors make the camera to sense a new direction to take a picture or video,
by following certain rules such as, comparing an image with the lens direction, movement of the
camera will be helped by a rotating small motor that connect with the base design that allow the
camera to go up, left, right, down, and rotate. The result of the camera will be automatically stitch
by the software from the Sony, allow user to see the result and to edit the result as they like. 4k
features from Sony A99 II will increase the end result of the video shooting of the camera leaves
behind the fear of the result bad quality that occurs on the other existing product.

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 4. Commercial Viability

4.1 Market Demands

Market demands for Sony 360 camera is based on market environment that Sony focuses on.
Because of the increase demand of the cameras with a higher pixel density this is a great market
for Sony to introduce their new product. With the market environment of Sony that lead to the
camera section, Sony 360 camera will be targeted for those who love to travel and take an aerial
photography or video (Sony.net, 2016). Platform like YouTube and Facebook are now supporting
a 360 photos and videos to be uploaded to their website. With these two-giant platforms that
support the use of 360 photos and videos, Sony can utilize this situation to promote their new
product.

4.2 Revenue Model

According to (Sony.net, 2016) revenue business model of Sony is to generate a sustainable profit
growth. This by means that Sony need to focus to what section from their business units that brings
a profit to their company. With the market share of Sony in 2015 up to 35%, Sony need to introduce
their new product with a reasonable price. Because of Sony 360 camera following some of the
features that Sony A99 II has, then the pricing will be under A99 II from 3,198 $. Sony 360 camera
will be slightly below which is 2,500 $ with basic accessories like rechargeable battery, charging
adapter, and camera bag. And for 3,000 $ the customer will get rechargeable battery, charging
adapter, insurance up to 2 years, extra SD card, and the application to stitch the footage from the
camera.

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 5. Levitts Idea in Product Development

According to (marketingstudyguide.com, 2017) stated that the consumers need to analyse the
product on a different level with the intention to identify what the customer needs from the product,
the marketer will have a different point of view towards the competitor product, how to design the
product to meet the market requirements, and how to differentiate the product in the market.

5.1 Core Level

According to (marketingstudyguide.com, 2017), the core level will show to the customer the
benefit of the product that can fulfil the basic of the user needs. In this case the camera will have
to able to take a picture and shoot a video.

Camera Level Details Target Market

Core Level Comprises general basic Normal and Professional
features of the Sony A99 II customers.
such as:
42MP Full Frame
BIONZ X Image
Processor
Internal UHD 4K
Video
Hybrid Phase
Detection AF System
ISO 102400 and 12
fps Shooting with AF
5-Axis Steady Shot
INSIDE Stabilization
3.0" 1,228.8k-Dot
Tilting LCD Monitor
Built-In Wi-Fi.

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 5.2 Actual Product

According to (marketingstudyguide.com, 2017), the actual product which include all of the basic
product design and the new product features that developed.

Camera Level Details Target Market

Actual Level Directional Sensor Photographers, Vloggers and
Rotate base design Travelers customers.
Integrated with
stitching software
42MP Full frame
Shoot while rotate at
a certain direction
Quite motor
movement
Port for external
LCD Monitor

5.3 Augmented Product

According to (marketingstudyguide.com, 2017) The augmented product will define what are
possible feature that might be included to the new product. This level will be presenting the extra
features and additional services that come with the product to give more value to the customers.

Camera Level Details Target Market

Augmented Level Built-In Wi-Fi. Photographers, Vloggers and
Two batteries Travelers customers.
Touchscreen LCD
Mobile App
integration
Water Proof

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 6. Platform in New Product Development

The platform that will be used for new product development is product platform approach.
According to (Hagel, et al., 2016) To meet the basic needs and fragmented preferences of the
customers, manufacturers can build flexible product platforms to help products faster and with less
investment. In product platforms, core products are typically designed to be modular and flexible
with an easy and simple look. It shifts the focus solely to preserve intellectual property by
balancing intellectual property by developing and growing diverse environment. Innovative and
help improve core product performance. By using the product platform approach, Sony might be
able to gain several benefits which is:

Benefit of Product Platform Approach Benefit to Canons new product development

New ability to make a product that meet the Additional cost can be reduced in addressing
requirement of the market and fulfill the the market needs and the individual customers
customers needs. by using platform approach
Reduced development cost and time of the new New product on the development process does
product not required to be tested for other development
process. This benefit come from the platform
because of utilizing the process to be
implemented on another development process.
Reduced manufacturing cost and production Economical scale will be achieved by
investment producing a larger volume of the common
parts as well as to utilize the machinery
equipment, tooling, and the engineer to support
the development process.

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 Reduced development system complexity and Reducing the number of parts and processes
risk taken can cut the cost in the development process,
and help to simplify the development process.
A simple development process can lead to
lower risk taken because of the simplify
process in development.

Improved service Sharing components across products allows

companies to stock fewer parts in their
production and service parts inventories. This
translates into better service levels and/or
lower service costs.

Sony 360 camera will have two models called Sony 360 camera basic and Sony 360 camera super.
The difference is these two models will be supported by different accessories, on the basic the
customer will only get some very basic accessories like rechargeable battery, charging adapter,
and camera bag and the cost will be 2,500 $. While the super package offers much more services
for the customers like rechargeable battery, charging adapter, insurance up to 2 years, extra SD
card, and the application to stitch the footage from the camera. The basic package need to buy the
stitching software because of the development of the application require more resources and the
development process need to be simplify.

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 7. Competitive Strategy

7.1 Product Differentiation

According to (Kelchner, 2017) stated that product differentiation is a marketing strategy that
company use to differentiate a product from a similar offering on the market. Sony 360 camera it
is unique because of the embedded sensors that make 360 panoramic photo and video become
possible. On the camera market, there are none of the existing 360 camera that has a directional
sensor like Sony 360 camera. This product developed by taking some of the A99 II features that
needed to solve the problem of the 360 cameras. Sony 360 camera will be embedded with the
directional sensors that help to do the 360 degrees photo or video, the base design will be rotated
by motor inside the camera body as soon as the directional sensor determine what to do next. With
the automation of this process Sony hope that with this camera the existing problem that arise from
another 360 cameras will be eliminated. And, the Sony 360 camera come with two packages basic
and super. Basic will give the customer the basic accessories to run the camera, and the super
package give much more services to the customer.

7.2 Positioning

Positioning strategies help the company to establish the product identity to the customer and it is
affected by number of variables that connected to the customer needs and requirements and the
competitors products (entrepreneur.com, 2017). Sony 360 camera already has a respectable
specification and features. The marketed target will be on the same line as Sony A99 II camera,
which is one of the Sony high-end camera that became one of the option if customer want to buy
a new camera. Sony market share in imaging sensors is 35 % this prove that Sony become one of
the leaders in the camera business. With the introduction of the Sony 360 camera, Sony might be
able to grow their market share and gain more revenue from this new product.

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 8. Ansoff Matrix

Figure 4 Ansoff Matrix

According to (ansoffmatrix.com, 2013) Ansoff Matrix is a very helpful tool in setting marketing
goals. The company's competitive situation can be simplified into two dimensions only products
and markets. Even for simplicity, Ansoff's framework only talks about what is sold (the product)
and to whom it is sold (the market). Within this framework, Ansoff establishes four alternative
actions for the company as follows:

Selling existing products to existing markets

Extend (expand) existing products to new markets
Develop new products for existing markets
Develop new products for new markets

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 8.1 Market Penetration

According to (SHETHNA, 2016) market penetration is to enter a product into the market as swiftly
as possible to get a market share, market penetration also to measure whether the product is doing
well or not in the market. Sony that focuses on imaging sensors, already bring Sony to the 35%
market share among another respectable brand like Samsung and Omnivision. The imaging sensors
is used in the camera as a sensor to capture the light and then process it into a photo or video.

Figure 5 Market Share

Sony has managed to penetrate this market by focusing in this section for more than 5 years.
Aggressive research and development bring Sony to this stage and become the leader in this
section.

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 8.2 Market Development

Market development is responsible for developing a new source of revenues and initiate a new
product in both international and mainland market across all classes (LAMBA, et al., 2017). Sony
manage to overtake Nikon in U.S market in the Full-Frame camera market, as shown by figure
below.

Figure 6 Sony Full-Frame Market

Sony manage to overtake Nikon in the U.S market is proving that Sony manage to develop a
successful market development. Because of Nikon is one of the favourites camera brand in
America, and in fact that Sony its an outsider brand that manage to overtake a respectable brand
in the US market is a very historic moment for Sony (Cooke, 2017).

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 8.3 Product Development

According to (entrepreneur.com, 2017) product development is the overall process of strategy,

organization, concept generation, product and marketing plan creation and evaluation, and
commercialization of a new product. In new product development, Sony already came up with a
new idea and targeting a new market with this new product. Sony 360 camera will have a
directional sensor which is to help the user to take 360 photo or video automatically.

The directional sensors will help the user to capture each necessary picture to make a 360 degrees
photo or video with the help of base design that allow the camera body to move using a small
motor inside the camera body. The result of this camera also will be improved because of the
feature that taken from A99 II that up 42MP and shoot a video in 4K resolution is sufficient for
solving the existing 360 cameras product.

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 8.4 Diversification

Figure 7 Sony Diversification

Diversification is including a new product into the new market at the same time, Sony has done it
for a very long time which affect their market in each business units. It a risky strategy because of
a new thing that companies focus on brings uncertainty. But it also helped the company to avoid a
certain risk on a certain business unit, it is very good to spread the risk to another business unit so
that the company can be assured is something happen (businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2017). The
diversification done by Sony is initially a magnetic tape and tape recorder maker, and spread their
business unit into another section like, television, a colour television, handycam, acquiring another
company, make a console for video game, and entered camera market. Nowadays Sony become
one of the company that have a role in developing technology.

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 9. Conclusion

As a conclusion, Sony came out with a new camera type that support 360 panoramic photo and
video. This product has its unique feature where the camera will be automatically crate a panoramic
photo or video for the user. Directional sensor is embedded into the camera to do the automation.
It has addressed problems firstly the resolution problem. Many existing 360 cameras has a basic
issue with the resolution, this affect the result of the camera because of the file type for storing the
data is in bad quality, and to merge all the footage is required a software that need to do the stitching
smoothly without making another problem.

Sony also already address the market demand for this new product by stating the market
environment and revenue model is set by following the sustainable growth of the focused market.
Levitts Idea is used to analyse the product benefits, with dividing it into three sections, core,
actual, and augmented. Platform approach is used to develop the product which help Sony to
simplify the development process, reducing cost, risk, and improve quality. Lastly Ansoff Matrix
is used to determine the product along with its market penetration, market development, product
development, and Sony diversification throughout the history of this company.

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