Targeting and positioning

Hey again. Today I will talk about targeting and positioning. Let's start.

No brand positioning should ever be done without doing some research first. The reason is simple: it is likely that where and how you think your brand should be positioned is quite different from what consumers want, expect, and will accept. I created a short questionnaire with which I can measure the consumer perceptions of my product.

1.    How satisfied are you with Sony phone?

Very dissatisfied	Dissatisfied	Neutral	Satisfied	Very satisfied
1	2	3	4	5

2.    Overall quality of Sony phone?

3.    Sony phones fulfilled your needs?

Yes

No

4.    Would you recommend Sony phone to your friends/family?

No
Maybe
Yes
Already did it

5.    Compare to the other phone companies, what do you like more in Sony phones?

Camera

Sound

Design

Operating system

Other

6.    Do you intend to use Sony phone for a long time?

7.    Sony phone complies to promised quality?

Yes 

No

Comment____

8.    What is the important part of Sony phone for you?

Camera

Sound

Design

Operating system

Other

9.    Are you satisfied with Sony phone price?

10.  Compare to previous products, Sony Corporation changed their phones, some basic characteristics. Do you like these changes? And if you like, what actually do you like?

11.  Do you have any complaints about Sony phone?

Yes (what you don’t like)

No

After I created this short questionnaire I executed three face to face interviews with three my friends. One of them used Sony phone, but now uses IPhone, second one uses old model of Sony phone and the third one uses new Sony model. All three friends said that they are very satisfied with Sony phone, because Sony phone fulfills their needs. Also when I asked about overall quality of Sony phone, they gave a grade 6-8, because last Sony models are very strong, with good characteristics. Comparing to other phone companies, Sony phone is long-term using phone. Besides, cameras and sound are much better, and design is very interesting and differs from the other phone companies.

What about intending to use this phone for a long time. Those, who has Sony now, said that they would use it for a long time and the next phone would be Sony. One of friends said that if there wouldn’t be iPhone he would use Sony company phone, because Sony is good quality phone which complies to promised quality.

The next question was answered almost equally. The important qualities for them are cameras. It allows to take good quality pictures. Sound, display, ability to use phone for a long time and also design. About the price there were two opinions. The first was that price could be a bit lower. The second opinion was that Sony phones prices fluctuate according to the phone model what allows to buy Sony phone from different classes.

Also for question 10, there were two main opinions. First was that there are some new characteristics what are disliked, but second opinion was that Sony changes characteristics to the good side; camera, sound, design, processor become better. Eventually there aren’t a lot of complaints. I received only one complaints from person who has old Sony model. And complaint was “The only complaint - Sony should allow users of older phone models to download upgrades of Android system, otherwise the phone becomes "slow"”. But in spite of some disadvantages, all of them would recommend Sony phone for their friends and family.

And according to these answers positioning map for my products looks like that:

That's all for today:)) See you next week

Segmenting market

Hey again! Today I want to talk about segmenting market for my product. I hope that I understood theory correct :pp  and this information will be helpful not only for me, but for you too.

First I will describe  the market segment my product aims for, targeting strategy. And which market segmentation criteria are used . And also the positioning strategy used for my product.

Ø There are four types of market. Demographic, behavioristic, psychographic, geographic segmentations. Sony aims on psychographic and demographic variables.The psychographic segmentation is one which uses people lifestyle, activities, interests, personal attributes and motives. Also psychographic variable can tell about consumer buying behavior. The right decision is made according to intuition and marketer experience.

Ø Demographic segmentation. Segmentation what are made according to age, gender, race, religion, social class, family life cycle etc. This segmentation mostly used by companies for marketing research, because reaction on the product depends on demographic factors. Mostly companies segment consumers by age, wages, their work, family life cycle and size of the family.

Ø If we are talking about Sony Corporation that their targeting strategy is target a different product and marketing programme at each of a number of segments. It is because Sony Corporation sells products which includes memory devices, video games systems, cameras, computers, televisions DVD payers and phones. But if we are talking about my product Sony phone there targeting strategy more will be offering one product and marketing programme to a number of segments. But Sony phones are divided into different kinds of phones and tagret on different type of costumers.

Ø Market segmentation criteria used for Sony phones product is multivariable segmentation. This segmentation using more than one characteristic to divide a total market. For example, costumers want one brand of company, but with the different characteristics. Some customers want phone with good camera, some with large memory, some with beautiful design etc.

Ø Three most critical elements for successful positioning are:

1.The specialty should be different/unique.

2.It should be credible.

3.It should be relevant/important. 

The positioning strategy how the company will act on the market to cultivate the desired brand position among a given target segment in a given market. The strategy for Sony phone is developing their product as much as possible. Sony phones sales decrease last years, and profit dropped, so now Sony is trying to do their best to bring back their high position on the market. And they try to do it with improving all characteristics of their product.

The next question is about segmenting marketing, the basic conditions for effective segmentation and evaluation whether these conditions are met for the segments I described before.For effective segmentation are applied measurable, substantial, accessible, stable and useful basis conditions.

Ø  First of all, its measurable basis condition. This basis can be met at psychographic and demographic segments. For example, demographic variables, these can be measured: different age groups, gender, also social classes, family sizes. All of these variables can be measured in other groups. Also, psychographic segment, there people can be divided into groups with different motives, lifestyles. For instance, group of people who like sport, or who like to sit at home. There are different variable of groups and these can be measured.

Ø  These segments are large enough to be sufficiently profitable to justify developing and maintaining a specific marketing mix. Sony phones are pretty large company and they can make profit from their sales. The segments concern more high class of population, and also segment of high income, people should be in is these groups, so actually, and most of all they are, so Sony gains good income.

Ø  These segments aren’t accessible, because Sony phone aren’t available for all customers. Sony phones are expensive and not all people can allow to buy their phones.

Ø  Segmentation is stable. For example, Sony company has their own design of phones, also characteristics differ from the other companies. There are a lot of Sony fans, what uses Sony products for a long time. But Sony lost their position on the market. And also a lot of Sony customers want to switch their phones for the Apple company phone. IPhone took Sony phones place on the market.

Ø  This segmentation is useful. This segmentation increases the sales of the company. If company wouldn’t use the segmentation strategy they would spend their money for nothing, because if you don’t have any strategies, if you don’t know your target market you wouldn’t know where and how to sell your product.

That's all for today;pp

Marketing Research

    Heeeey, again!!! Wasn't here for a long time. But lets start marketing again. Today I will talk about   a   marketing research. And the first question is about Nielsen retail panel.

     Nielsen Retail panel consists of 6 business needs:

• Category management (how to select right items to put into stores with the right price positioning and promotion activity)
• Marketing effectiveness (how to optimize the marketing spending and deliver the right message to the right people)
• Supply efficiency (what are the roots causes of out of stocks and how to optimize on shelf availability)
• Store optimization (where to open a new store)
• Loyalty programs (how to use in cell data coming from loyalty cards programs, how to integrate this information what is happening outside outlets)
• Shopper intelligence. (how to identify and build a custom view of most profitable consumers) 

In my opinion, Sony manufacturer can buy data providing information about marketing effectiveness and also category management. 

The data about marketing effectiveness is very useful for Sony manufacturer. Firstly, they will find out their target customers who will buy Sony phones. With this information, they can choose target group for their product and come up with suitable strategy.

About category management, If Sony manufacturer buy this data, it will be easier to determine right price, places where people will buy Sony phones with the price that will be good for the company and also for consumers. And also this data will be useful for promotion of the company. For example, in which cities promotion will be more successful.

Well, lets take the other company. GfK. And here I will talk about consumer panels and what kind of data GfK can generate for the Sony company.


GfK company is the source of relevant market and consumer information, that allows clients to make better decisions. GfK uses innovative technologies and data sciences and they turn this data into smart, convenient data. By using this data, their clients can improve their competitive advantage and also improve consumers experience and choices. (GfK, 2016)

GfK company consumer panel provides all information about consumers, their attitude, behavior, who the consumers are. So GfK can generate the data about where consumers will go to buy Sony phones. Also the consumer panel provides consumers research and comparing products. So by using this data Sony phones can know how consumers compare their product with the other phones from competitors, and by that can improve their phones. GfK identify market opportunities, Sony company can use this information to develop their strategies for growth. All data generating by GfK and its consumer panel can be very useful for Sony phones. This is consumer behavior, their choice, decisions etc.

For all companies, it is important to understand their consumers and GfK provides and can generate this information.


Now, what can really help to understand consumer attitudes towards Sony brand. There are questionnaire list, what I think can help a lot.

1.What age group are you in?

Under 20 ____

20–29 ____
30–39 ____
40–49 ____
50–59 ____
60 and over ____

2.Is this your first Sony phone?

    Yes ___

    No___
3.For how long have you been using this phone?

4.Are you satisfied with Sony phones work (quickness, Wi-Fi connection…)?

5.What would you like to improve?

6.Sony phones have a lot of different designs. Which one do you like best?

7.What do you like about Sony phones?

8.What functions do you think is necessary/unnecessary?

9.What functions do you think is helpful/useless?

10.What is better/worse in Sony phones compare to the other phone companies? (If you used phones from the other company)

11.Which series of Sony phone was the best?

12.Are you satisfied with the price of Sony phone?

That's all for today. See u:)

Marketing planning and forecasting sales potential

Heeeey , again me. today I will try to talk about Marketing planning and forecasting sales potential.

Actually we can use break down and build up approach. but I have chosen to talk about the market potential of Sony product using the break down approach. As we know market potential is the total quantity of product what will be sold to costumers within specified period of time at a specific level of industry-wide marketing activity. (Dibb, Simkin, M.Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 684). Market shares from 2011 to 2016 decrease from 8.8 to 6.2. So market potential in 2017 in Netherlands will decrease too. (Euromonitor, 2016). So as we can see people in Netherlands use Sony less than for instance Apple phone. Apple market share increase from 10.5 to 15.1 at the same years. It is the reason why Sony market potential decreased and will decrease in a future, Apple phones will take the market.

And also sales potential “The maximum percentage of market potential that an individual company can obtain for a specific product or service” (Dibb, Simkin, M.Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 685). According to market potential, which dropped and maybe will decrease in 2017, I can suppose that sales potential will decrease too. Market potential and sales potential are connected with each other, so if market potential drops, sales potential drops too.

Now about marketing plan.In my opinion, marketing plan is very important for every country. Marketing plan give chance to improve company inside. I can see only advantages in marketing plan. When company do marketing plan they can keep basis for Sony organization. The basis like serving the ‘best’ target costumers, beating the competitors, minimizing threats and also recognizing strengths and weaknesses of company. (Dibb, Simkin, M.Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, pp. 673-674) Company can know about these basis only after making marketing plan, because it is benefits of it.

What else? Also one of benefit is controlling current operations and the immediate-term opportunities and target markets. (Dibb, Simkin, M.Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 673).

And the third valid argument is that having a good marketing plan means having more profits. It helps company to make their target customers to be aware of their products Therefore, the more customers they have, the more profit they would get for their business.

I think marketing plan can give a lot of benefits. After this plan company can improve their weaknesses and also their strengths too. Company will know more about their competitors. So Sony can become the most popular company after they do research. Marketing plan is like part of research, so if they will find out all information, and will do marketing plan good they can get a lot.

Now I want to talk about sales forecast for Sony product....

For developing sales forecast for Sony phones product for the years 2017 and 2018 I would use salesforce forecasting survey. The reason why I would use this sales forecast is that the most important one is that sales staff are closer to costumers. They know what actually costumers need, they can know future product needs and the intensity of other competitors, they can easily say which phone company is the largest competitor to Sony phone. The second advantage is that forecasts can be prepared for single territories, for divisions consisting of several territories, for regions made up of multiple divisions and then for the total geographic market.

But also there are disadvantages of these method. The sales stuff can underestimate potential sales. For them this is much work, they have “paperwork”, they spend a lot of time to write. Because of that they can do their work adequately, because at this time when they do “paperwork” they can sale products. (Dibb, Simkin, M.Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 687) And one more disadvantage in this method is that work of marketer who develop Sony phones after, depends on these sales staff, so if sales staff will make mistake, marketer after them will make a mistake too.

In my opinion, this method is more suitable for my product. Sales stuff can find out more about Sony phones consumers, what they like or what they dislike in this product. And after marketers can improve things what consumers don’t like. And so the next product will be much better.

Buy guys. Sorry for my bad English :DD I am trying to improve it...

Marketing in international markets and globalization

Hello... Today we will talk about Marketing in international markets and globalization. Lets start...

How do you think Sony is an international brand or no? I will tell you.
Sony phones is an international brand. The level of international involvement is very high, it means that product greater commitment to international market, the product can be sourced away from the home market.  Sony is available in more than 20 countries, and we can see it on these market shares tables.

For example, market share in China, in 2013 was very high, but market share decrease from 2013 to 2016. It one from example, from market share.

What about marketing entry strategy!? The marketing entry strategy used for Sony phones is “Joint Ventures” strategy. Sony phones is the best example of joint venture strategy, whe two companies agree to work together in a particular market, and they create the third company to undertake this. And risks and profits are shared between these two companies. Sony Corporation works according to this princips. 

I can see the evidence of impact of the recent international turmoil. Due to the impact of restriction on Russia the amount of buying phones decrease. It slows economy down and that affects on the purchasing power of customers and then they can’t buy Sony phones so much how they did it before. Costumers choose cheaper phone than Sony. This impact on Sony Corporation is very high, Russia is very big country and Sony can lose a lot of their money. So it is the biggest impact of the recent international turmoil on Sony Corporation product - phones.

Also Sony phones have an impact from the international legal forces. 

The legal forces what have an impact on the marketing position of Sony phones product are tariffs and quotas. “Tariffs are taxes that affects the movement of goods across economic or political boundaries, and that can also affect imports, export or goods in transit”, so if government will increase taxes it might be more difficult to export phones to the other countries, it will cost more money. And the quotas are “Physical restrictions on amount of goods that can be imported into a particular country or region” , quotas not always the best interest of consumers, and if choice are limited in some region or country it is the best way how to export Sony phones in this region. So there will be more products to choose and costumers will choose Sony phones more, because it will be a new product for citizens, what is better for Sony Corporation.

That's all for today.. See you next week:)

Environmental analysis

Hey, guys.. It's me again.. Didn't be here for a long time. But let's start story about Sony. And this week theme is environmental analysis of Sony product.

    

      When we go to the head website of Sony we will see the latest available annual report is "Annual report 2013".“Sony used backcasting to set specific medium-term targets based on four key environmental perspectives, namely, climate change, resource conservation, management of chemical substances and biodiversity.” (Sony, 2016) As we can see in this report the major impact are climate, resource conservation, management of chemical substances and biodiversity, and these are environmental factors which have a major impact on my Sony phones marketing policies. Sony always react on environment factors, it is very important for their company. And they try to change their product according to these factors.

     We can visit site- http://statline.cbs.nl/statweb/?LA=en and there are 2 publications which are connected with first environmental factors.

The first publication “Consumer confidence, economic climate and willingness to buy”.

This publication is important for Sony phones, because economic climate, as we can see in Sony business report, plays important role in their marketing and there is the big chance to sold Sony phones more.

And the second publication “GDP, production and expenditures; value, Quarterly National Accounts”. As we know GDP grows in Netherlands and it very good for Sony. GDP growth has an impact of markets and if there will be high GDP Sony phones will be more interesting to market the Sony phones.

     Are there any social, cultural or religious differences in the Netherlands that would affect the consumption of your product?

In Netherlands not religious and cultural differences which would affect the consumption of Sony phone product. But here are some social differences what would affect the consumption. People have different views on the product, they can use different model of phones and can say that, for example “Samsung” or “IPhone” is better than Sony. This pressure from other people can affect the consumption of Sony phone. People under this pressure can choose not Sony, but other company phone and consumption of Sony phones will decrease.

See you later... On this Wednesday. Bye :*