Brand Management Analysis: Case of Sony

Thèmes abordés

Analysis of sony sub-brands, sony brand architecture, sony brand elements

Résumé du document

Founded in 1946 in Tokyo by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, SONY is the world number 2 in the electronic market. In 1979, the company create the walkman, the CD player in 1982 and the Blu-ray technology in 2003.
The company also had developed activities in video-games, computing, mobile phone (thanks to a joint-venture with Ericsson in 2001), music edition and picture production.

Sony Corporation's global revenue is $88.205 billion, in 2010 ("Consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2010", Sony Corporation).

Sony Corporation is an international company which has built a strategy around several activities and sub-brands. First an examination of Sony corporation brand architecture and brands elements is essential to better understand the company strategy. Then an analysis will be done regarding Sony Walkman ® brand architecture and brand elements in addition to two of its competitors; Apple iPod and Creative mp3 players. At last, we will study Walkman® positioning and brand equity.

"Brand architecture is a powerful tool that can help companies organize various brands within their business portfolios and focus on strategic goals for individuals' brands" (Petromelli and Morrison, 2002). Sony‘s umbrella architecture underlines that Sony has a multi-brand level architecture. I chose the umbrella architecture instead of the Keller's brand architecture because the aim was to study Sony's sub-brands and not each of Sony's products. The sub-brands were shown in blue and green.

Walkman ® Sony's sub-brand refers to portable audio and video players (mp3/mp4 players) and also a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones. The engineer Nobutoshi Kihara build the product for Akio Morita, Sony's co-chairman who wanted to listen to operas during his frequent plane trips as it's explain by Hormby, T. (2006) in "the story behind the Sony Walkman". It was launched for the first time in June 1979.

Extraits

[...] Generally products of series E and S costs between and £100. Expert users categories want products with “highest quality audio and video” (Sony UK website), high performance, high capacity, touch screen and if possible an access to the internet. They are willing to pay between £150 and Examination of brand equity [Appendix “Brand equity refers to the marketing effects and outcomes that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. [...]

[...] Thanks to this model, businesses can develop a particular strategy for each sub-brand. sub-brand is a product or service brand that had its own name and visual identity to differentiate it from the parent brand” (Difrisco, M.G, 2009). Sony Walkman® brand architecture inspired from Keller's brand-product mix Creative mp3 players brand architecture use the word for each brand which enables the consumers to recognize the corporate brand Creative. The products names aren't simple to remember but there is a king of logic for the next products. [...]

[...] Meaningfulness: The meaning of those elements helps to create brand associations. Likability: Some elements would be liked or not by consumers, it's quite personal and versatile. Transferability: This condition allows a move/change within the product category or a geographical adaption. Adaptability: A change of consumers' values may entail a change of brands elements. Protectability: Intellectual property can be used in order to protect brands elements. Appendix 3 Keller's model is useful to know if the Walkman® brand equity is strong or not. [...]

[...] After an analysis of Walkman® inspired from the Keller model, we assume Walkman® has quite strong brand equity, indeed, the name is recognized as much as its technological characteristics and Walkman® identity is different from the corporate brand Sony because consumers talk more about a than a Sony mp3 player. However it may change as the iPod is becoming more and more a common name and a product to possess (like it was the case for Walkman® in the 70's/80's). [...]

[...] Sony Walkman® brand elements inspired from Keller, L.K Apple Ipod brand elements inspired from Keller, L.K Creative mp3 Players brand elements inspired from Keller, L.K Regarding Sony Walkman®, iPod, Creative brand elements, there aren't any character or jingle and for Creative mp3 players there isn't slogan Examination of brand positioning positioning is the relative competitive comparison a product or service occupies as perceived by the target audience” (DiFrisco, M. 2009). Walkman® positioning According to a Mintel study, what consumers look for in an mp3 players is capacity and quality which are the two important factors they asked. About 30% focus on overall look and ease of putting on new content. Factors such as touch-screen control, the operating system, recording capability and the number of compatible accessories are generally considered less important. Each walkman® brands has a different positioning linked with the segmentation and targeting. [...]