Sales Promotion and it's sales is a marketing discipline that utilizes a variety of incentive techniques to structure sales – related programs targeted to customers, trade, and/or sales levels that generate a specific, measurable action or response for a product or service.
Sales promotions for example includes free samples, discount, rebates, coupons, contents and sweepstakes, premiums, scratch cards, exchange offers, early bird prizes, etc.
Sony has promoted its products through different sales promotional strategies. For example after the release of the Sony BRAVIA television sets, Sony promoted them by earl bird prizes by saying that all BRAVIA full HD LCD TVs purchased during July 2008 and registered within two weeks of purchase qualify for a Bonus Playstation 3 as long as the customer claims is one of the first 35,000 received and validated by Sony.
Public Relations or Publicity relations is a broad set of communication activities employed to create and maintain favourable relationship with employees, shareholders, suppliers, media, educators, potential investors, financial institutions, government agencies and officials and society in general. Through its website, Sony corporation has its provided contacts for those customers who will be in need of any information from the company. In this way Sony can create a mutual relationship with its customers and ensure that it serves the wishes and demands of its customers.
"For example, Sony released an ad depicting a man smiling towards the camera and wearing on his head a crown of thorns with button symbols (Δ, O, X, □). At the bottom, the copy read as "Ten Years of Passion". This supposedly took advantage of the publicity from the Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ. The advertisement outraged the Vatican as well as many local Catholics, prompting comments such as "Sony went too far" and "Vatican ex-communicates Sony". After the incident, the campaign was quickly discontinued."
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Week 8 - Advertising and Public Relations
Sony Computer Entertainment America has a marketing character by the name of Kevin Butler who is portrayed by actor Jerry Lambert. Their It Only Does Everything advertising campaign for the Playstation 3 in North America, he stars as the Vice President of many ficticious departments within the Playstation division of Sony and responds in the advertisments as "Dear Playstation" queries.
There have been positive reception due to the commercials, Sony extended the commercials throughout 2010 and 2011. The character manifested by Deutsch/LA, the advertising agency responsible for the campaign and they also manage Kevin Butler's Twitter account and wrote his E3 2010 speech.
There have been positive reception due to the commercials, Sony extended the commercials throughout 2010 and 2011. The character manifested by Deutsch/LA, the advertising agency responsible for the campaign and they also manage Kevin Butler's Twitter account and wrote his E3 2010 speech.
The reception of the string of commercials starring Kevin Butler has been met with positive acclaim due to its humorous and lively tone. Consumers love it and the results are really in the sales. Peter Dille, the real VP of Marketing of Sony Computer Entertainment America had stated that they have received conacts from the media, requesting an interview with Butler while not realizing he isn't a real person.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Week 7 - Retailing
Sony opened the Playstation Lounge on November 9th, 2010 with their opening day festivities with a giant sized Sackboy from Little Big Planet and they provided raffles for Playstation Move bundles. The new Playstation store on the first floor (ground floor) of the company's headquarters office on 550 Madison Avenue (East 55th Street on Madison Ave) at the Sony Style Store - looks pretty posh! As well as providing all things Playstation-related, the store is packed with cool looking booths that feature demos for games and they designed the store for the fans and it feels so immersive to get one's hands on the game demos way before they get released. The PlayStation Lounge is the only place where you are guaranteed to get your hands on the all new PlayStation Move motion controllers, as well as PS3’s, PSP’s and the incredible line-up of software that accompanies them.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Week 6 - Consumer Decision Making
Video gaming as a family has the potential to bring generations together, provide experience of digital technologies to all ages, and develop social skills such as turn-taking.
WHO PLAYS COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES?
67% of American households play computer or video games.
The average game player age is: 34
In 2010, 26% of gamers were over the age of 50.
WHO BUYS COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES?
The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old.
Jesse Schell an iinstructor of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University has mentioned how there are games now for pretty much every age and every demographic. More and more women are going online. It comes down to everybody now is playing games. Games are just evolving like a species in order to fit into every little niche of our lives.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Week 5 - Developing a Global Vision
Sony Computer Entertainment acquired Media Molecule Studios. The acclaimed developer of multi-million selling LittleBigPlanet, who joined Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios in London March 2nd 2010. They are a creator of a multi-million selling and multi-award winning Playstation 3 of their exclusive title, LittleBigPlanet. Media Molecule joined as part of SCE's global development operation, SCE Worldwide Studios.
In a strategic move to continue to secure their excellence in game development for current and future Playstation platforms, the acquisition of Media Molecule formalized a great successful relationship with SCE.
Media Molecule, based in Surrey, England, is the award-winning developer of LittleBigPlanet, one of the best-selling titles for PS3, a game that introduced gamers to the unique blend of Play, Create and Share.
In a strategic move to continue to secure their excellence in game development for current and future Playstation platforms, the acquisition of Media Molecule formalized a great successful relationship with SCE.
Media Molecule, based in Surrey, England, is the award-winning developer of LittleBigPlanet, one of the best-selling titles for PS3, a game that introduced gamers to the unique blend of Play, Create and Share.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Week 4 - The Marketing Environment
Sony has a brand diversity with their product ventures and brands - in which each connect consumers across various lifestyle segments. Sony's brand recognition and marketing finesse to create new product categories and re-introduce mature ones. The major elements of promotion mix include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity. Sony has used all of these marketing communication mix elements and strategically communicated the lifestyle attributes of the Sony brand to the generation Y, its primary market but at the same time it seems they are also just providing Sony to everybody.
Even if the the prices imposed by Sony seems to be fair with the consideration of the quality of their products and services offered. The middle or lower class customers will have trouble with the expensive price to buy those products. However, with recent price drops on their products and still providing ways to reach every consumer. For example, the Sony Playstation 3, has an identity diversity: movie buffs and such like enthusiasts lean toward the PS3 for it's Blu-ray , Media Sharing and Netflix streaming capabilities at the ready. For gamers, with the current game selection on the PS3 (such as shooters, action/adventure, racing and sports game to name a few) they target the hardcore more extensive gamers. Allowing some of the PSN titles on the Playstation Store to target more casual gamers with still providing enough entertainment for the whole family. In the future, look for Sony to create entirely new forms of entertainment, blending movies, computer generated worlds, games and music. Sony has the vision, technology and content to forge a direction in consumer entertainment that no other company can match.
Even if the the prices imposed by Sony seems to be fair with the consideration of the quality of their products and services offered. The middle or lower class customers will have trouble with the expensive price to buy those products. However, with recent price drops on their products and still providing ways to reach every consumer. For example, the Sony Playstation 3, has an identity diversity: movie buffs and such like enthusiasts lean toward the PS3 for it's Blu-ray , Media Sharing and Netflix streaming capabilities at the ready. For gamers, with the current game selection on the PS3 (such as shooters, action/adventure, racing and sports game to name a few) they target the hardcore more extensive gamers. Allowing some of the PSN titles on the Playstation Store to target more casual gamers with still providing enough entertainment for the whole family. In the future, look for Sony to create entirely new forms of entertainment, blending movies, computer generated worlds, games and music. Sony has the vision, technology and content to forge a direction in consumer entertainment that no other company can match.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Week 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility
At Sony Electronics they recognize the close connection between their business and the environment. Reducing their impact is a challenge they take seriously and with most care. They not only are trying to actively produce eco-friendly products but they continuously strive to be a leading environmental corporate citizen.
"In promoting a sustainable environment for generations to come,
Sony is focused on four key areas:
Global warming and the reduction of greenhouse gases
Conservation and effective use of natural resources
Preservation of our natural environment
Reducing CO2 emissions from product use by introducing more
energy efficient products"
As far as recyling for the GO GREEN movement; The Sony National Take Back Recycling program makes it easy for its customers to recycle. Since the inception of the program in 2007, Sony has collected over 34.1 million pounds of unwanted electronics. Their goal is to collect one pound of electronics for every pound produced.
Here is an idea of the volumes collected since the program’s inception:
2,056,575 lbs. collected in 2007
12,662,987 lbs. collected in 2008
10,862,646 lbs. collected in 2009
8,584,458 lbs. collected to date in 2010
Learn more about Sony's National Take Back Recycling program
"Sony sees global environmental conservation as one of the most critical issues for mankind in the 21st century. Sony, as a good corporate citizen, has therefore established the Sony Environmental Vision to form the basis for aggressive actions to conserve the environment and create a sustainable society.
Sony closely monitors and manages chemical substances used in its products at all stages of the manufacturing cycle, from the raw material and component stages right through to final shipment. Naturally, the cooperation of suppliers is essential in promoting our activities in this area."
"In promoting a sustainable environment for generations to come,
Sony is focused on four key areas:
Global warming and the reduction of greenhouse gases
Conservation and effective use of natural resources
Preservation of our natural environment
Reducing CO2 emissions from product use by introducing more
energy efficient products"
As far as recyling for the GO GREEN movement; The Sony National Take Back Recycling program makes it easy for its customers to recycle. Since the inception of the program in 2007, Sony has collected over 34.1 million pounds of unwanted electronics. Their goal is to collect one pound of electronics for every pound produced.
Here is an idea of the volumes collected since the program’s inception:
2,056,575 lbs. collected in 2007
12,662,987 lbs. collected in 2008
10,862,646 lbs. collected in 2009
8,584,458 lbs. collected to date in 2010
Learn more about Sony's National Take Back Recycling program
"Sony sees global environmental conservation as one of the most critical issues for mankind in the 21st century. Sony, as a good corporate citizen, has therefore established the Sony Environmental Vision to form the basis for aggressive actions to conserve the environment and create a sustainable society.
Sony closely monitors and manages chemical substances used in its products at all stages of the manufacturing cycle, from the raw material and component stages right through to final shipment. Naturally, the cooperation of suppliers is essential in promoting our activities in this area."
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