Marketing Audit

Table of Contents

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………..Pg 3

Environmental Aspects………………………………………………………………Pg 3, 4, & 5

Marketing………………………………………………………………………….Pg 5, 6, 7, & 8

Product, Price, Place, & Promotion…………………………………………… Pg 8, 9, & 10

Organization…………………………………………………………………………..Pg 10 & 11

Audit Recommendations…………………………………………………….Pg 11, 12, 13, & 14

Key Results…………………………………………………………………………………..Pg 14

References…………………………………………………………………………………...Pg 15

Executive Summary

The selected marketing approach will be conducted on Sony Electronics. A thorough SWOT analysis will be performed to record the daily operations. This audit will also serve as a comparison analysis on the effect that Sony has towards the electronics industry. Sony’s gaming division is in danger. The competition from Microsoft has been more that Sony executive had expected.

The most recent marketing approach That Sony chose to use was a controversial mistake. The deceitfulness has turned away a small percentage of Sony’s consumers. It should be stated that Sony attracts a certain type of customer who is usually loyal to the brand. This marketing audit presents a challenge to complete in three weeks time. The reason for this is due to the information that is provided to the public by Sony. The Sony of America website is geared more towards advertising and sales. Sony Corporation website of Japan is as imagined in Japanese. I will be assisted by my wife to translate the language.

Environmental Aspects

The targeted market for Sony has stayed level until recent years. After the small consumer electronics (Walkman) years, Sony developed a unique following of dedicated customers. These consumers preferred Sony’s product over the competition despite Sony’s premium price. This is astonishing taking into account that the competition was cheaper in almost every category. Sony has often allowed the market to come to its organization versus seeking the next fad. One example is the insurgence of portable MP3 players. This market was dominated by Apple Macintosh for years until the Sony loyalist lobbied with the consumer electronics giant to inter the single-occupied genre. There have been occasions when Sony has taken the initiative and introduced itself to an industry that is new and foreign.

Great success was accomplished when Sony entered the gaming industry by way of the Playstation. Ironically, the same success of the Playstation eventually became Sony’s main source of income as it dominated the industry for the next ten years. In contrast, Sony has failed when entering a new market way too many times. The most recent flaw was the audio disc formatting war. Sony insisted that its mini disc (MD) was the wave of the future. Unfortunately, the cheaper to produce compact disc (CD) proved to be the universal format. Sony stubbornly released the MD into the market anyway hoping that Sony enthusiast would catch on to the technology. When this failed, Sony attempted to use a similar format again as a required peripheral for the portable version of the Playstation (PSP). Sony has ventured again into a format war with the digital video disc (DVD). This subject will be discussed further on for this audit.

Competition for Sony has had highs and lows in the industry. When Sony brings innovative technology to the targeting market, they usually reign as the frontrunner. However, Sony is notorious for waiting entirely too long to capitalize on an idea created by a competitor. Apple’s iPod has been in mass production for nearly four years before Sony finally decided to enter Apple’s market share. It is clearly too late to gain ground, but Sony is trying to lure in loyal customers. An industry war that has yet to be determined is the gaming genre that Sony has dominated for a decade. This is where Sony’s marketing strategy hit a major bump in the road. After several years of overtaking the gaming industry from Nintendo and Sega, Sony