Sony Walkman

Sony is an international brand and known as electronic company.

The company selling products to the global market that makes company

has a very large consumer market. Also Sony has always led the market

in terms of innovation and new technology products. Companies in this

industry are benefiting from rapid growth have sales and earnings that are

expanding at a faster rate than firms in other industries but, electronic

industry has low barrier to enter and exit. The technology of electronic

product is easy to copy that makes Sony faces with many competitors so

Sony should try to be the first and fast entrant to develop and launch new

products to market in order to gain high profit.

Sony moved to expand their branding strategies with the

potentially unlimited difference of the global market. The target

consumer group, Sony Walkman will focus on teenager, and young

consumer groups. Often the concept of “youth” came to play a

predominate role in many of Sony Walkman’s advertisings. By

emphasizing consumer driven design and hip sensibility, Sony played a

pivotal role in developing much of the branding and lifestyle marketing

that has become a central strategy for Sony Walkman.

Entertainment giants “Sony” were the first one to envision the

portable music player when they launched the first Walkman in the year

1979 and they were very successful in 1981. At that time, at least 20

companies entered to the market with similar products. Competitors cut

down the price and sell the products cheaper that makes Sony lost a huge

market share. As a result, Sony needs to look for new strategies to

become more competitive in market and increase their market share.

Walkman was introduces differently in Japanese and US market.

In Japan, Walkman mainly targeted customers who looked for personal

music player device while enjoying all kinds of activities in public places,

such as jogging or skateboarding. It was mostly promoted in newspapers

magazines. On the other hand, promoted itself in use in public places,

Walkman responses US customers who try to avoid an unpleasant sound

of the world while they work, bicycle, drive or do other activities.

“Walkman”, a lightweight cassette player, revolutionized the way

people listened to music. In the end of 1979, a young engineer created

Walkman for Sony’s chairman, Mr. Akio Morita, who sought for

listening music device for his personal use. Successfully, with high-

quality playback through lightweight earphones attached to a lightweight

cassette, Walkman was able to response customer’s need and was shipped

550,000 of it worldwide. Continuously, the figure increased three times in

1981.

However, Sony has unexpectedly confronted with the intense

competition on similar products. Customers have had more choices for

music devices, and can compare prices among competitors. Customers

demand for Walkman has been decreasing. Also, customers expect their

listening music device with more functions than original Walkman. Sony

management including product development and marketing team now

need to come up with ideas and strategy to maintain the popularity of

Walkman and still response the most customers’ need for personal music

player gadgets.

Question

1. What groups of potential buyer exist for the Walkman?

Walkman’s potential customers: this product can be focus both woman and man

- Young generation

- Business people

- Active and out people

- Athlete; for example, joggers, runners and ect.

- Old people focus on retirement people who need relaxation be listened

to music and radio.

In 1979, the U.S. and the People's Republic of China established

diplomatic relations. It was a good year for Pittsburgh; the Steelers won

the Super Bowl and the Pirates won the World Series. The Nobel Prize in

Physics was awarded for contributions to the theory of unified weak and

electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles…whatever that

means. And the Sony Walkman was born.

So Happy 30th Anniversary to the Walkman. I have to say, it's looking better than ever, and working a lot better, too.
Yes, Sony still makes Walkman – and since 2000 they've been digital.
Just last month, the latest in the Walkman S series, the NWZ-S544, hit the market. And while the Sony hasn't generated much buzz in this iPod era, its price tag ($109) and the nostalgia factor make it worth a look.

The Walkman is surprisingly sleek. It is black and luminous, with a

nicely-sized 2.4 inch screen and black headphones. Below the screen,

there's a wheel for scrolling through all of your menu options, settings,

songs, and media.

But for those of us who are used to iPods, navigating the
Walkman made cassette mix tapes seem simple by comparison. For instance, because the wheel isn't touch sensitive the way the iPod is, I kept pressing buttons I didn't want to press.

The screen also didn't behave as I expected. It kept going dark after about 30 seconds of inactivity. After the Walkman went to "sleep" and I woke it up again, it reverted back to whatever song was playing last. When I was taking my time adjusting my music settings, this was somewhat frustrating. A Sony representative confirmed this is non- adjustable. And while photos were simple to add, and the large screen is great

for viewing these, videos were a different story. I tried importing a

variety of video file types – like MPEG4 and WMV – from both a PC and

a Mac, and couldn't do it without Sony's Content Transfer software,

which comes packaged with the Walkman. And the Content Transfer

software, according to the Sony rep, isn't Mac-compatible.

And most frustratingly, music from iTunes works with the
Walkman, but not as seamlessly as it does with the iPod. The Walkman accepts MP3, WMA, DRM, linear PCM, and AAC – the music file types sold in the iTunes store. But to import from the iTunes store, the
Walkman requires that non-Mac-friendly Content Transfer software
CD.

I was able to work around this. I first used the tried-and-true method of dragging and dropping iTunes files onto the device every time I plugged in. It worked. It might not have been the most organized way to go about it, but the files were on the Walkman.

Then, for better organization, I looked into free software

applications downloads, and found one called iTuneMyWalkman, which

recognizes your Walkman when you plug it in and automatically transfers

songs from your iTunes onto the Walkman. But I then had to create a

separate iTunes playlist labeled "iTuneMyWalkman" or "iTMW" that

could be synced with the Walkman.

The new Sony Walkman, NWZ-S544

The whole multi-step process was a reminder that the Walkman was built for the PC crowd. After all, when I imported music files to
Windows Media Player on my PC, I had no problem syncing with the
Walkman. But these days, even many PC users are locked into iTunes.

Sony also offers Walkman buyers a 14-day free trial of Napster's music service, which lets you purchase and import songs. The last time
I'd heard of anyone using Napster was probably back in college, when people were in a free-file-sharing frenzy, but now Napster is legit.

Still, there were some bells and whistles I liked. Sony brings

something the company calls clear audio technologies to the digital

Walkman. Like the iPod, it has equalizer options, as well as an optimizer,

a normalizer and clear stereo options for pan, in the Music settings. For

me, the optimizer didn't create a very distinct difference in sound, but the

equalizer enhanced certain songs. "Jazz" brought out percussive sound;

"Heavy" made rock music sound fuller.

(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125441623564056789.html)

2. What can Sony do to increase the sale of product to each of these

group?

- Put some money on their advertising budget, which the company has to

create the advertisement that relevant to different segment customers.

- For its price strategies, with this economic crisis in the US consumers

will need to buy the products at that they can afford. As a result,

Walkman should be affordable for them and also contain with its high

qualities.

- Distribution channel also important for the company, which will help to put its products to the consumer’s hand.

- Announce its products development to the market, in order to inform its

customers about the products.

- To build the Walkman-Branded awareness the company might have to

use promotion; for example, cause-relate promotion to get the brand to its

consumers mind.

The new millennium is here and Sony has plenty to celebrate. The

company’s approach – doing what others don’t – has paid off, in the form

of great products that people covet.

Throughout its history, Sony has demonstrated an ability to capture

the imagination and enhance people’s lives. The company has been at the

cutting edge of technology for more than 50 years, positively impacting

the way we live. Further, few companies are as well positioned to drive

the digital age into homes and businesses around the world for the next

50 years and beyond.

Sony innovations have become part of mainstream culture,

including: the first magnetic tape and tape recorder in 1950; the transistor

radio in 1955; the world’s first all-transistor TV set in 1960; the world’s

first color video cassette recorder in 1971; the Walkman personal stereo

in 1979; the Compact Disc (CD) in 1982; the first 8mm camcorder in

1985; the MiniDisc (MD) player in 1992; the PlayStation game system in

1995; Digital Mavica camera in 1997; Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)

player in 1998; and the Network Walkman digital music player in 1999.

Today, Sony continues to fuel industry growth with the sales of

innovative Sony products, as well as with the company’s convergence

strategy. Examples include: VAIO notebooks that raise the bar in both

form and function; digital cameras that capture pictures on a floppy disk,

CD-R or Memory Stick; a handheld device that lets you store and view

photos as well as moving photo; MiniDisc recorders with a digital PC

Link to marry high quality digital audio with downloadable music;

DVD/CD multi-disc changers that playback both audio and video; digital

network recorders that pause, rewind and fast-forward "live" television

using a hard-disc drive; and Hi-Scan flat screen TVs that deliver near

HDTV picture quality through Digital Reality Creation (DRC) circuitry.

But Sony is not just the market leader in consumer electronics.

Through research and development, the company has made

considerable inroads in the areas of professional broadcasting (with the

creation of the Betacam, DVCAM, HDCAM and 24P formats); mobile

communications (with digital phones and the CLIE handheld); PCs (with

VAIO notebook and desktop computers); storage and media (with the

invention of the floppy disk, AIT and DTF drives, and the Memory Stick)

and, now, the Internet.

Sony’s future brand success will be determined by how the

company meets the challenges of change. Sony has always led the market

in terms of innovation. But in a digital networked world, products will no

longer be developed with just hardware in mind. The convergence of

technologies – consumer electronics, computing and telecommunications

– is a reality, with new competitors forming and consumer mindshare up

for grabs.

(https://news.sel.sony.com/en/corporate_information/sony_brand#innovation)

Sony makes active use of customer feedback to improve its

products. Opinions, reports of malfunctions after purchase, questions

regarding use and other feedback received through Customer Information

Centers are promptly and accurately evaluated and disseminated to the

planning and design groups so that improvements in product quality can

be made in a timely fashion, thus contributing to efforts to enhance

product power.

One example was the digital cameras and video cameras with

improved usability, through the provision of operation guides and step-

by-step instructions on the products' LCD screens. In another example, customer feedback prompted the redesigning of the external storage

media slot of a digital photo frame, thereby enhancing usability. Other

undertakings include the revision of product user manuals containing

overly technical language that many customers found difficult to

understand and enhancing the usability of our website by, among others,

using clearer, simpler language and video guides.

Video guide from the Sony website

( http://www.sony.jp/support/service/Support/movie/index.html )

Utilizing Customer Feedback

(http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr/quality/management/index.html#page_body_hp)