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ASSIGNMENT 1 MKT221

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CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT

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Kabiru Ahmed Shahir,NIL,Zain ,MD.Tawabur Rahim

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 Table of Contents
1. Question.........................................................................................................................................3

2. CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT(CRM) FOR SONY COMPANY INC...........4

3. Introduction....................................................................................................................................4

4. Back ground story on Sony Corporation.........................................................................................5

5. The Importance of CRM to Sony Corporation................................................................................6

6. Advantages of CRM to Sony.......................................................................................................10

7. Disadvantages of CRM to Sony....................................................................................................13

8. Problems & Failures of CRM to Sony..........................................................................................13

9. Conclusions..................................................................................................................................15

10. Referencing..................................................................................................................................16

11. Appendix.......................................................................................................................................18

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Question
Choose an existing company from any industry either manufacturing or service disscuss how the
company practice or apply the chosen topics below chosen topic in their businesses.

1) Marketing Research
2) Packaging & Branding
3) Service Marketing
4) Global Marketing
5) Customer Relationship Management (√ ¿

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CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT(CRM) FOR SONY
COMPANY INC

Introduction

CRM in full means customer Relationship management, is “a comprehensive approach for

creating, maintaining and expanding customer relationship” P eter Drucker (2009 p.2)and how any

company in any industry manages its customers relationship and how companies strive to keep

their value customers ,for this report the company chosen is SONY COMPANY ,the Industry is

manufacturing and service it is a hybrid company it provides services and manufacture products.

Here we discussed why Sony Company needs to retain customer and what method or strategy

they use to retain customer. And how companies use CRM to build effective relation with the

customer. Sony Corporation has one of the strongest brands in the world. But as competitors rise

its dominance of an increasingly commoditized market, Sony is striving to strengthen sales and

profitability by nurturing customer relationship, intimacy and loyalty. To keep this in mind Sony

uses strategies such as brochure, e-mail, and catalog. In later part of the report we elaborate

briefly how they use their tactics to build effective relation with customer.

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Back ground story on Sony Corporation

Sony Corporation started in Japan and the foundation of Sony dates back to 1946. On May

7, Masaru Ibuka together with Akio Morita set the roots of Sony Corporation. At first the name

of the company was "Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation". In 1958 the

company changed its name to"Sony". Its website states that "Sony" comes from a combination of

two words: "SONUS", which in Latin means "sound" and "SONNY", which denotes a small

size. The company was established with a capital of 190,000 yen, which is about $ 1,600. Its 20

employees were manufacturing telecommunication and measuring equipment. In 1947 the firm's

factory moved to Shinagawa, Tokyo. In 1960 the company established its American branch,

called SONAM(Sony Corporation of America). In 1993, Sony established "Sony Computer

Entertainment Inc." in order to strengthen its positions on the soft- and hardware market. In

2005 Sony launched its "Hi Definition Handycam", which was the smallest device of its kind.

Today Sony Corporation is a huge company, that has its branches all over the world and its

annual revenue estimates 68.39 billion US dollars. The company's headquarters are situated in

Shinagawa, Tokyo. It is one of the leaders in the field of electronic equipment, communication

and information technology. the company still continues its research in the field of electronic

equipment, information technology, being as well an important player in the music and movie

industries. .(www.Usb4ever.com,2007) Sony Group is engaged in business through its six main

operating segments, namely Electronics, Music, Games, Pictures, Financial services and others

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(Wilson 2004). With products like the high definition televisions, home theater stereos ,and the

Sony Plays Station 3.

The Importance of CRM to Sony Corporation

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of the most important Strategies today in

dealing with customer’s satisfaction and an innovation in customer service today. It is very

important to Sony Corporation because Sony manufacture products and offer service as well,

CRM helps the Sony management and customer service staffs cope with customer concerns and

issues. CRM processes helps Sony to provide its employees with the information they need to

know their customers' wants and needs, and build relationships between the company and its

customers.( Susan Ward,2009 ) and a customer data base is created the data is then used to

facilitate customer service transactions by making the information needed to resolve the issue or

concern readily available to those dealing with the customers. Customer relationship

management for Sony include software and browser-based applications that collect and

organize information about customers. For instance, as a part of CRM strategy for Sony, they

might use a database of customer information to help construct a customer satisfaction survey, or

decide which new product their customers might be interested in. This results in more satisfied

customers, a more profitable business and more resources available to support the staff. (Susan

Ward,2009 ) Furthermore, CRM Customer Relationship Management systems are a great help to

the Sony Company in deciding on the future course of the company.

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CRM also gives Sony global corporate direction to strengthen customer relationship marketing

and direct communication with its customers. It also capture the ‘voices’ of its customers for

better customer satisfaction and move forward in its ability to communicate with them. Sony

used mySAP™ Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) campaign-management

capabilities to target select customers (Santosh Kumar, Akash Garg 2008)

for Sony CRM Strategy system to be effective Sony uses launch a series of marketing campaigns

via e-mails and physical mailings for its customers the company then gets the customer name,

address, date of transactions, pending and finished transactions, issues and complaints, status of

order, shipping and fulfillment dates, account information, demographic data and many more.

(S. Kumar, A.Garg 2008) This information is important in providing the customer the

answer that he or she needs to resolve the issue without having to wait for a long time and

without going to several departments. It means if any customers want to get information or want

to buy Sony product, he can get easily information. Bringing the Sony strategy of multimedia

integration to service, Sony Comoany, virtual contact center gives customers easy access to

support for all Sony consumer electronics products. While enhancing customer service, the

infrastructure helps the company to standardize and consolidate its existing contact centers,

integrating people, processes, and technologies. The environment also builds in a CRM

repository of customer data that will help Sony Cop to proactively expand customer relationships

and cross-sell related products.

CRM systems are also valuable to Sony advertising and marketing planners worldwide, as they

will be able to help Sony to currently analyzes customer purchase data and pinpoint what people buy,

how often they buy, their geographical location, and so forth which ideas works and which do not.

Because of CRM systems, Sony Company will be able to release advertisements or plan

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marketing campaigns more in tune with their target market. This will also lead to more

responses Sony advertisement and a more effective marketing campaign. (S. Kumar, A.Garg

2008)

Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are the best predictors of customer retention. There

exists an interaction between the desired results and customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and

customer retention. Without the customer it is impossible for any business to sustain itself.

Achieving the desired results is frequently a result of customer actions. Any business without a

focus on customer satisfaction is at the mercy of the market (docstoc.com,2004). It is a fact that

customers have changed because their needs have changed. People are more demanding than

ever before, because people have more choices than ever before, they are more educated than

most of the companies they do business with about their products and their competitive position.

And here’s the truth that people do not give their loyalty to companies that do not give their

loyalty to people.

One of the examples of Sony’s relationship with customer is that Sony established a local

customer service program when it first began operating in China. Today, Sony is stepping up

customer service activities to provide worry-free convenience to customers by delivering a

higher standard of service. In 2001, Sony established the Sony Customer Contact Center in

Shanghai to assist customers throughout China. Through its free telephone hotline, e-mails,

website, and mailings, this comprehensive center provides product information to customers,

technical support, advice and other before- and after-sales services. In September 2005, Sony re-

launched the Service Center in Shanghai, its largest in Asia, positioning it to provide quicker

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repair service with a maximum repair time “promised,” a quick-repair-while-you-wait,

accessory-purchasing conveniences and up-to-date product and customer service information

communicated by e-mail, the facility’s website and letters. In the same year, Sony established the

Sony China Repair Parts Center to supply parts for domestic authorized service centers faster and

more economically. The latter has since taken on an important role as Sony’s fifth regional parts

operation in supporting the ever-growing number of products manufactured in China and

exported globally (Sony,2001). “Good and loyal customers are critical to profitability. Estimates

are that it costs 6 - 30 times more to get new customers than it does to maintain the ones that

companies already have. If the companies keep losing customer and have to keep replacing them,

it makes sense that companies are spending money on sales and marketing that could be going

elsewhere”according to the Conference Board  (zeromillion.com,2002). These all are the reasons

that, Why companies need to retain customers. Companies know about their customer demand,

behavior, and how the customer is loyal to them. The loyal customer always recommends the

company and always praises the company in advertising and testimonials. Referral business is

like 'free' new customers. So the money the company would have paid to get the new customer

drops back down to the company’s bottom line. It will be difficult and very expensive to get the

new customer, because the company has to put more efforts to get the new customers.

Business is based on relationships and relationships are based on qualities such as trust, respect,

appreciation, understanding, generosity, clear open and honest communication and heavy doses

of kindness, compassion and affection. Every customer has two sets of needs. The business

needs are logical, rational, and practical. The personal needs are emotional, illogical and

sometimes even irrational, but carry a lot of weight (streetdirectory,2010). The fulfillment of the

customer’s business needs is usually what gets them in the door in the first place; you are selling
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what they need. But it’s the fulfillment of the customer’s personal needs that will keep them

coming back. Once the business needs are met, they often take a back seat to the customer’s

experiential needs. Without a complete view of the customer and an understanding of which

customers are profitable and why, it is impossible to determine which types of customers the

company should acquire and which ones you should seek to retain.(streetdirectory.com,2010)

Advantages of CRM to Sony

SONY CRM(mySAP) Successes Story

Sony has been very successful with (mySAP) “By deploying standard, out-of-the-box

functionality and keeping customization to a minimum, we were able to get SAP Solution

Manager up and running very quickly,” says Karen Garafalo,(SAP Customer Success Story,2005)

director of the SOAR program management office at Sony Electronics Inc. “Once we started

working with SAP Solution Manager, we soon realized the benefits for comprehensive document

management, faster issue resolution, and effective communications.” strategy of CRM taken up

by Sony company Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and are the best predictors of

CRM to Sony. Because without customers it is impossible for any business to sustain itself.

Achieving the desired results is frequently a result of customer actions. As part of the success of

CRM(mySAP) of Sony ,Sony launched PlayStation.com in November 2000, it chose mySAP

CRM to deliver a world-first, fully integrated CRM e-tailing solution. mySAP CRM enables

customers to browse through a Playstation.com product catalog, collect their merchandise in a

virtual shopping cart and then securely complete their transaction. With the integration of

inventory data into mySAP CRM, customers can see whether the merchandise is in stock and if

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it is not, when it will become available. (findarticles.com,2001). The integration mySAP CRM

provides is critical to ensure high satisfaction levels throughout the customer's entire contact

cycle with Sony. Michael Ephraim, managing director, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia

said “Any business without a focus on customer satisfaction is at the mercy of the market, that’s

why We are excited to be working with SAP in this ambitious project, which will see

PlayStation.com being one of the most robust and integrated sites in Australia”. Ths Sony

success story continues around major cities SAP around the world that adopted mySAP CRM in

the year 2000 include India, Indonesia, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, Hong Kong,

USA, Australia, Denmark, South Africa, Korea, Italy, Australia, China, among many others.

(Business Wire,2001)

Another success story was the merger of Sowrd Ciboodle in Europe,and Sony EU, Sony

Europe is represented by sales divisions in each of its local markets as a form of promoting the

CRM, which are the single point of contact for both the channel partners and the end consumers

in those markets. Sony Europe’s contact centres provide support for its pre-sales, post-sales and

repairs services The solution for Sony Europe was designed and managed by Dimension Data

and Sword Ciboodle, and is based on Sword Ciboodle’s award-winning, process-driven CRM

software ,Sword Ciboodle’s centralised architecture provides the end-user with a 360-degree

view of customer information, and a consistent, accurate view of Sony products.

“We knew that we needed a solution that would help us strengthen our European Customer

Support Activities by providing in one hand a strong, central and standard platform, and in the

other hand a tool flexible enough to adapt to the local specificities we have across Europe,” said

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Stephane Lissillour, General Manager Contact Centres, Sony Europe.(cellcenter,2010)

“Dimension Data and Sword Ciboodle demonstrated that they could deliver the best solution,

and our choice has been vindicated by the strategic benefits we are now realising within

consumer electronics.”

“Dimension Data and Sword Ciboodle have delivered a single platform for managing contacts,

allowing our customers to reach us at any time and by any channel,” added Lissillour.(cellcenter

2010) “The solution will also help drive our business by providing customer insight that we

have never had before.

One of the examples of Sony’s relationship with customer is that Sony established a local

customer service program when it first began operating in China. Today, Sony is stepping up

customer service activities to provide worry-free convenience to customers by delivering a

higher standard of service.

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Disadvantages of CRM to Sony
Problems & Failures of CRM to Sony

Many companies fall a victim to CRM failure Sony was one of the companies that suffer from

CRM failure companies because the Customer relationship management (CRM) is still a rather

new business strategy. Giant companies like Sony are still in their first generation of CRM

solutions, and although it has been rather widely accepted it has failed in some countries such as

California.( Eric Krangel 2009). Customer relationship management is a tool, and like any tool,

if it is not used properly, it cannot achieve the goals of those who use it,some of the reasons why

Sony CRM (mySAP) failed could be seen as the following problems Data is ignored, this was a

very serious problem that Sony surferd from this because customer, product, inventory and

transaction, was misplaced , This is a huge amount of information that must be in the right place,

in the right format, at the right time. Although a CRM (mySAP) initiative may have multiple

vendors and timelines that take months or years to implement, the vast majority of enterprises

pay no attention to the data that will support investments and systems. As such, enterprises must

have a detailed understanding of the quality of their data, how to clean it up, how to keep it

clean, where to source it and what third-party data is required. S. Nelson, J. Kirkby

(www.tsgonestop.com, 2001).

Another problem faced by Sony CRM was un skild staffs, “All the money in the world can’t

save a CRM project if, at the end of the implementation, it is put in the hands of under skilled

and undertrained employees” said by J. Kirkby (CRM projects,2001) By doing so, enterprises

reveal that they believe employees are unimportant. Nothing could be further from the truth.

CRM is an opportunity to put powerful tools into the hands of employees; it should not weaken

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the customer experience by shortchanging employees with poor training on those tools. Whether

it’s a sales associate, a call center representative or another customer-facing individual, the

employee should reinforce CRM and vice versa. CRM’s potential should be fulfilled at the point

of sale or service.

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Conclusions
As conclusions I would like to say CRM Customer Relation management ,creates new
knowledge sharing platforms and processes between companies and their customers. It is a
continuous strategic process by which companies enable their customers to send and receive
information from sources and recipients of products and services to empower knowledge
partners. Available evidence points to CRM as a potentially powerful competitive tool,
contributing to improved success of both companies and their customers. It incorporates
principles of customer relationship management, but moves decisively beyond it to a higher level
of mutual value creation and performance.

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Referencing
1. Akash.G,Santosh.K,(2008)Scribd,Case study Durable Product Companies ,accessed
date 28 Mar 2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/9191581/10-Cases-in-CRM-garg

2. bent,(2005),mySAP Customer Relationship Management Is Clear Choice Among

Growing Cadre of E-Savvy Businesses".Business Wire. FindArticles.com. accessed date
29 Mar, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_Feb_5/ai_69950404/

3. Khee .L,(2009) Scribd,SonyStrategy , Accessed date . 26/02/2010,

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23372488/Sony-Strategy#about

4. Market Research , (2009) Company Profile - Sony Corporation, Accessed dates

28/02/2010, 3/03/2010
http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?
productid=2119970&xs=r&g=1&kw=&view=toc&curr=USD

5. Mohammed. N ,(2009) Custromer Perception Study at Airtel Broadband Services, A

Study on customer perception,accessed 26/03/2010,
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/7138364/Custromer-Perception-Study-at-Airtel-
Broadband-Services/

6. Rajan .K, Scribd,(2009) Customer Relationship Management Accessed dates

28/02/2010;1/03/2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/24589543/Customer-Relationship-
Management
7. Streetdirectory,(2010), Customer Loyalty,accessed 27/03/2010,

http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/5383/marketing/whats_love_got_to_do_wit

h_it.htl

8. Sony,(2007),Customer Relationship ,Accessed date 25/03/2010,

http://www.sonet.ie/SonyInfno/csr/issues/report/2007/qfhh7c00000dltkg-
att/CSR2007_10_19.pdf

9. Wikipedia, (2010)Sony Corporation, Accessed dates

2/03/2010,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony
.

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10. Winddhdn,(2009)Scribd,CRM-customer Relationship Management is not an

option,accessed 27,Mar 2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/19210399/CRM-Customer-

Relationship-Management

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Appendix

Customer service online for Sony(www.sony.net,2010)

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 Sony shop In Malaysia

(playstationlifestyle.net/2009/07...le-sale/2010)

Customer purchasing a Sony Product.(www. memex.naughtons.org/archives/2009.../27/4066.com)

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 BOOK on( mySAP ,CRM )

(www.ebooknetworking.com/books_de...299.html)

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