BRAND MANAGEMENT

Brand Management

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion3

Sony Ericsson background4

Sony Walkman history4

Brand extensions and digitalization5

The market opportunity6

Findings from market research6

The brand management decision6

Developing the value proposition7

Product introduction8

Results8

Conclusion9

References10

Sony Brand Management and Aaker Model of Brand Architecture

Introduction

Sony, one of the worlds leading brands for the electrical appliance market currently holds their headquarters in Tokyo Japan. Sony currently is one of the world's biggest organisations for manufacturing audio, IT products as wells Visual electrical appliance to service and cater both the public and commercial markets. There are currently 928 consolidated Sony subsidiaries operating around the world. With their annual sales reaching $67 billion US Dollars in 2005, they employ over 150 000 people world wide.

Discussion

According to the Aaker model in meeting the demand of the general public, Sony has many products that keep their customers loyal as well as understanding that "you pay for what you get". Sony is known for their quality upon the design of their products, from a wide variety ranging from Home theatre systems to personal walkmans, currently known as MP3 players(Aaker, 1990, 27-33). Sony. Sony also has a 50% share in a music label know as Sony BMG with many musical artists attached to them. With the consistent growth of Sony, they will consistently remain innovative to keep the market competitive. For example, Playstation, one of Sony's biggest selling consoles. From the success of this gaming console, Sony have upgraded the Playstation console to PS2 (Playstation 2) as well as the PSP (Playstation Portable). With such innovative product development, Sony will always keep focus on the market demand to continue at their current position as the leader in their market.

Aaker model says that although Sony is known for their advance technology range, they also are adapting to other strategies for expansion such as the new Sony Credit Card, as a standard VISA card like most other credit cards offer, Sony allow users of their credit card the bonus of generating Sony points in redeeming Sony products. This example shows the consistency of expansion of their organisation(Aaker, 1996, 25-105).

Sony plays a major role in the electronic industry, as technology advance, so would their products. Both organisations have built their success not only by creating new products and generating a large cash flow, but by shaping today's community as we know it. Within the technological industry, organisations must continuously develop strategies and remain competitive for survival.

Sony Ericsson background

Sony Ericsson was established as a 50/50 joint venture in 2001 by Sony (a consumer electronics corporation based in Japan) and Ericsson (a mobile communications infrastructure and systems business based in Sweden). Sony Ericsson functions as a separate business entity - designing, producing and marketing cellular phones and accessories. It had revenues of 13 billion in 2007, from the sale of 100 million units, which is a global market share of 9 percent.

Sony Walkman history

Walkman is a trademark of Sony Corporation, used originally to market its range of portable audio players. The Walkman brand now extends to portable digital media players and cell ...