REFLECTION ON SONY

Reflection on Sony



Reflection on Sony

Sony - Strategic planning & the marketing environment

Strategic planning is more commonly known as strategic programming due to the fact that it advances on ideas and strategies that are already being implied (Mintzberg, 1994, pp. 107). Strategic planning is based on the outline of the SWOT analysis conducted for the company. SWOT analysis is directed at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the company and to mark the opportunities and threats in the environment. Once these indicators are highlighted by internal sources of the company, and the opportunities and threats are identified by external sources (Dyson, 2002, pp. 632).

Strategic Planning of Sony

After the week two lecture, I am now able to understand the strategic planning of the company and critically analyse its strengths and weakness. Sony Corporation has been the universal leader in areas as diversified as motion picture, computer entertainment, television, music, online businesses and electronics. Consumers consider having the brand of Sony for products such as 3D TV's, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, making Sony the market leader in these segments, with its operations expanded worldwide to operate in more than 200 countries. The marketing team of Sony works to deliver value to their consumers and partners, so that sales are increased. For me, the most significant strengths of Sony Corporation are that they are capable of creating high quality products for their customers, which plays an integral part in increasing their reputation. The employees learn from their failures and devise plans for improvisation. Their weakness is that they have a lack of communication between their functional departments which might be the cause of low productivity. This demonstrates the need to develop better communication and re-design advertising techniques to increase sales and attract new customers as well. The company's competitors are Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung. Having analysed their strengths and weaknesses, I now think that these competitors are drawing more customers by producing innovative and diversified gadgets such as tablets and smart phones.

Sony - Marketing Information System (MIS) and Research

The marketing research industry began to expand after World War II, and I have now come to understand that Marketing Information System aims to gather the information managers need, and then analyses, organizes and delivers this information to the organization (Churchill & Iacobucci, 2010, pp. 7).

Sony's Marketing Information System (MIS)

Sony Corporation has formulated distinct corporate structural changes in the recent past. For me, the most meaningful learning arose from the marketing strategy of Sony, which was constructed with the help and support of Fuji. In April 2001, Sony Marketing (Japan) started the project involving Sony EMC (EMCS), Sony Supply Chain Solutions (SSCS) and the production division. A Demand Information Creation system was formed that allowed the organization to predict sales volumes. This system collects sales data from company's retailers and about company's inventory, in order to predict demand 33 weeks ahead for each product. This means that now all processes are executed ...