One question which could enable them to gain extensive information about the people in this age range would be what type of games do you like? The choices could be between fighting, sports, and racing or strategy games and let’s just say that 70% of the people who were aged between 18 and 30 decided to choose fighting games. This piece of information could be seen as very important because Sony would realise at the present time that the people who are in there target audience are mostly interested in action games & therefore will increase the number of action games released for the Sony Play Station 2. As you can see my strategy’s objective focuses mainly more on what the Sony Play Station 2 customers want so the main factor for my strategy is customer satisfaction.
This is so that by obtaining the necessary information from these people they are able to make improvements to the Sony Play Station 2 and come up with new idea’s which would attract customers in the same target range. Even though this information will mainly help the Sony Play Station 2 games console it will also overall give Sony better recognition and increase brand awareness. Due to all this the Sony Play Station 2 consoles sales will increase & more consoles, games & accessories will be sold. Along with all this more people may purchase Sony merchandise such as Play Station 2 magazines and they may even attract more people to there promotions. For example more people may be on the Play Station 2website after being attracted to something that Sony realises appeals to them.
Positioning
Positioning is always a big factor for any company when it comes to selling specific products. Companies have to be able to offer customers things such as special offers, introductory rates or competitions to keep them attracted and interested in your company’s products.
Sony Play Station has a lot to offer to customers. Not only do they regularly keep bringing out new updates such as new games & accessories but Sony also manages to have regular special offers and things of this nature to keep customers attracted. For example the below competition was taken from the official Sony Play Station 2 website – www.SonyPlaystation2.com
Competition Details:
Prizes:
1 PlayStation 2 Console for the competition winner, 4 PlayStation 2 Game CDs for the other four finalists. (5 prizes in total for 5 contestants).
Contest:
Designing a PlayStation 2 400 pixels x 1000 pixels banner. We will provide the contestants with a zip file that includes the ONLY external image that they can use in the design and some optional fonts that you may wish to use.
-Each contestant can participate with more than one submissions, but only one may be entitled to the final poll.
-Submissions have to be 400 pixels x 1000 pixels in JPEG format.
-No other external images/photos are to be used in the creation of the banner.
Choosing the Winners:
The Oman3d team is going to choose the best five entries and put them in a poll for the members to vote for the number 1 winner. The first place design will win a PlayStation 2 console and each of the other four finalists will be awarded an Athens 04 Olympics game CD for PlayStation 2.
Deadline:
The last date for submission is the 15th of August. The Poll will be started the next day and the winner will be announced on the 22nd of August.
Misc Notices:
-The judges team "may" request any contestant to provide them with the source file they used to create their final image(PSD, PNG, etc.), failure to provide the source file is sufficient to disqualify the contestant.
-The moderators and owners of Oman3D and their relatives are not qualified to join in this competition.
-The names of the winners will be sent to Sony Middle East and/or Muscat Electronics to arrange for the collection/delivery of their prizes.
-Members living in the Middle East and Africa are only qualified for the competition.
PlayStation, PlayStation 2 logo and "Dual Shock are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
All rights are reserved to their perspective owners.
As you can see from the above competition Sony manages to position themselves high in the gaming market by keeping customers interested with competitions such as these. This is just one example, Sony Play Station 2’s merchandise such as there magazines have there own offers too. One example of this is that inside the magazine every month they have a £5 off discount voucher which can be used on games for the Play Station which are over £40. By doing this they are persuading people to purchase games for the PS2 console and making it look like as if customers are saving money. This is to attract customers more to there products.
Sony gives out promotional offers as well. For example in the PS2 magazine demo disks or DVD’s are sometimes attached with the magazine. These promote the new games that are forthcoming and sometimes even allow people to have a little preview by playing the demo. This again is offering a lot to the customer. Lastly discounts are also given sometimes when PlayStation 2’s are sold in packages. Its offers like these that keep the Sony Play Station 2 in a good position in the gaming market.
SIT
Stages (is there a sequence or series of stages?)
Integration (does it all integrate smoothly?)
Tools (are we going on the internet, I – TV, etc.)
All the above factors, stages, integration & tools affect my Sony products, the Play station 2’s market strategy. I am now going to talk about each of these factors.
Stages
Since my market strategy has various objectives it has to fulfil and conquer this also means that it has to go through various stages to succeed and work to properly to its fullest extent.
The first stage will involve Sony targeting its audience and seeing which type of people today are likely to purchase the Sony Play Station 2. The next stage would involve them finding out information about them which would enable Sony to realise what customers are looking for in a gaming product such as the Sony Play Station 2. Then the final stage would be Sony using this same research, improving and making changes to Sony Play Station 2’s consoles, games & accessories. This would allow Sony to give customers what they want since Sony would have already viewed and researched on what customers expect from Play Station 2. In the end making these improvements can only mean more sales for Sony from its Play Station 2 console, games & accessories.
As you can see Sony would have to break down there market strategy into different stages so it is easier for them to complete each stage. This also makes everything more efficient and organised for Sony as they know what to do more easily instead of doing everything at once.
Integration
Integration would have a big part to play in terms of everything running smoothly in the market strategy. Much like stages integration for a product such as the Sony Play Station 2 depends mostly on what is included in the market strategy.
Integration basically mean’s weather or not everything combines and mixes properly. Most of the stages wouldn’t even take place if everything was integrated and combined properly in the market strategy for the Sony Play Station 2. For example the market strategy’s overall purpose is to focus on what customers want from the Play Station 2 so they are able to make changes to its products and accessories. However if Sony wouldn’t even be able to reach this stage of finding out what they want if they haven’t even done there research such as handing out questionnaires and surveys. As you can see this is a form of dependable integration as each stage depends on another to run smoothly and operate in a combination.
Overall I think that the product strategy for my Sony Play Station 2 product does integrate smoothly as all of its stages mix well with each other as a combination.
Tools
Using tools for a company such as Sony is really important as it enables them gain more recognition and increase there level of promotion. However tools are also used for my market strategy which can help Play Station 2 meet its objective.
As I have already stated before since Sony have to do a lot of research before making changes/updates to its consoles, games & accessories they can use tools to do so. For example on its official website Sony can put up questionnaires and surveys which gaming fans can fill out and complete so Sony can gain the necessary information that they need to make changes and updates to there gaming products. Sony can also use other types of tools such as i-radio where people may be able to call in with there personal views on Play Station 2. This is a good idea as gaming fans would have enough time to get there views across on the Sony gaming console and at the same this will allow Sony to get the answers that they need.
As you can see tools help the market strategy quite a lot as they depend on these tools for the research needed to complete the market strategy. I think the most important e-tool for my market strategy would have to be Sony Play Station 2’ online website as this is where most of there fan base lies so this is the same place where they can get all the information they need.
TAC
Tactics (what happens, when, for how long), e.g. use of Gantt chart
Actions (details of tactics)
Control (monitoring, measuring, controlling plans)
All the above factors, tactics, actions & control affect my Sony products, the Play station 2’s market strategy. I am now going to talk about each of these factors.
Tactics
Tactical methods are used in my market strategy for the Sony Play Station 2. These tactics involve what happens, when it happens and for how long and how long it happens. These tactics can be used to help my market strategy by adding little stages of success to the overall strategy.
Tactic 1
What happens? – Play Station 2 looks at its competitors and see’s where they reached the most success and uses this to there advantage.
When does this happen? – In the first stage of the tactics, they need to do this early to see how well they go up against competitors.
How long does this take? – Not very long as the research on its competitors doesn’t take very long, it cant be done using magazines, internet etc.
Tactic 2
What happens? – Sony uses questionnaire’s & surveys to find out what there target audience hate the most about the PS2 & use this piece of information to improve on it.
When does this happen? – After Sony has managed to use its competitor’s success, this way Sony can gain the advantage against others and improve themselves as well making them a much more stronger games console than before.
How long does this take? – However long it takes for them to obtain the necessary information needed. This tactic cannot be rushed as all the information and research gained will allow this tactic to work.
Tactic 3
What happens? – Sony does research on what type of promotion works best at the present time and pays more attention to this instead of focusing on most other types of promotion
When does this happen? – Towards the end of the market strategy as this is when everything has been changed/corrected and the Play Station 2 is ready to sell again.
How long does it take? – This can take really long depending on how well the promotion is doing. If it does very well then the same type of promotion can be used for a long period of time, however if it fails & is unsuccessful then this type of promotion for the Play Station 2 can be scrapped.
Actions
Tactic 1 Details – The first tactic involves Sony Play Station 2 looking at its rival competitors and analysing where they reached there main point of success. Sony Play Station 2 has a list of competitors which can be seen below.
The Nintendo Game cube, Microsoft Xbox & Xbox 360 is just some of Sony Play Station 2’s main competitors. For this tactic to be successful and work Sony would have to analyse these competitors. So let’s take Microsoft’s Xbox for example. If Xbox was most successful in terms of selling the most units because of its most popular game, Halo then Sony Play Station 2 could use this to there advantage.
One method in which they could do this is by making a deal with Halo’s company Bungie games. By making this deal even though so far this game has been exclusive to Xbox it can be bought onto the Play Station 2. Since PS2 is already a dominant games console in the gaming market by having the most successful game on Xbox on the PS2, they are able to solidify there status as the top gaming console of all. This is just one example of how Sony can use other competitors success for there own benefit.
Tactic 2 Details – This tactic is a simpler tactic as it involves Sony finding faults in its own product. By carrying out a substantial amount of research by using things like online survey’s questions such as ‘’do you think that the memory on the Play Station 2 is enough?’’ can be raised.
If the majority of people who answered this question happened to say no then the Sony should improve on the memory so that the Sony PlayStation 2’s fan base remains happy and satisfied. Another question which could help improve the Sony PS2 could be something like ‘’Do you think that black is a good colour for the PS2? If not what other colours should the PS2 be sold in’’ This is a good question because not only does it allow Sony to find out if the original colour of the PS2 is good but they can also find out what other colours there target audience and fan base would like to see the PS2 in. So if most people who complete the survey and questionnaire’s answers state ‘’Yes’’ and ‘’Blue, White, Silver’’ then Sony would know that the majority of there target audience would like to see the PS2 in these colours too and act on it.
Tactic 3 Details – For any business or company there can always be a downside of using too much promotion. If Sony uses various methods of promotion to promote the Sony Play Station 2 such as television advertisements, radio, posters & magazines there can be disadvantages in this as well.
The main disadvantage here could be that Sony is wasting money on useless types of promotion which are getting them nowhere. Therefore instead of using so many types of promotion which don’t get them far and also waste a lot of there money they should be able to focus on one main type of promotion which can succeed. So basically if Sony found out that television advertisement promotion is what sells the most products for a company they should use this to there benefit and spend the majority of there promotion money on this.
This is a basic tactic which allows Sony to be able to sell more Sony Play Station 2’s, gain better recognition & also save money,
Control
Monitoring all these tactics will not be that hard due to the fact that these tactics are all simple and effective. However I think that the final tactic would need more monitoring than the rest due to the fact that involves more money being spent. So the amount of money being spent on that main type of promotion that Sony Play Station 2 wishes to use should be monitored more closely than the rest.
Measuring these tactics isn’t very hard neither as they shouldn’t take very long in terms of time. This is because these tactics don’t seem to be long term processes therefore they shouldn’t take very long. Measuring in terms of money can be a bit of a problem as the amount of money being spent on these tactics can be high. For example by looking at the second tactic, the updates and changes which need to be made from the idea’s given by the fan-base from surveys can cost quite a bit. However this depends mostly on what the actual idea’s are.
Lastly controlling plans for these tactics would involve plans which control how long everything takes. For example Sony cannot take too long on these tactics as they may have other tasks to complete such as creating a new gaming console. These tactics may be able to take up valuable time. Again money is also a big factor here therefore there should be plans for controlling how much money is being spent so the amount of money being spent doesn’t go over the limit.
