EM 6120, QFD, Gade. Aniket Gade.

Explain what competitive advantage Sony was pursuing?

When VCR started to become popular in Europe, only disadvantage it had was availability and
price, while Sony’s Beta were preferred by people who wanted superior quality and were ready to
pay the price. By 1980, Sony’s Betamax had become comparatively easy to rent and that’s where
Sony’s had a major advantage, because people knew technology had become volatile and by the
time they buy JVC’s VHS there might come in another competitor with better technology. Sony
also had slightly superior sound and recording format quality than VHS. Even though VHS VCR
was dominating the market at that time, in public and in press, Sony’s Betamax was known for its
superiority in quality, and this could only happen because of Sony’s strong marketing strategies,
which in fact kept them alive in the competition. Sony’s engineers also played important role in
keeping Sony alive in the format war, by not sacrificing picture quality for sake longer duration of
recording time. I believe Sony’s commitment towards delivering products of top notch quality was
proved to be a deciding factor in long run of competition and that’s why Sony’s managed to deliver
Blu-ray discs which ended this war with Sony’s victory, when compared to JVC’s short-term
success.
How did JVC’s strategies differ?
It seemed like JVC knew its consumers and targeted them specifically. For example, especially in
markets like in USA where duration of an American football game was four hours, JVC focused
on this particular point and collaborated with RCA and eventually agreed to manufacture four
hours VHS machines for RCA. JVC also studied their main competitors like Sony and launched
different versions of VCR’s who delivered better specifications and attracted the consumers. The
fact that JVC created their own format called VHS rather than depending on mainstream formats
which were available that time and this could eventually attract big studios, motion picture
companies to use their format. JVC’s strategy to license their manufacturing of VHS technology
to the interested firms was decisive one, because then it sparked competition amongst
manufacturing firms to manufacture VHS enabled devices and prices of these devices could be
achieved as low as possible and attract more consumers.
What were “order winners” and “order qualifiers” in this scenario?

Main order winners were, low retail prices, longer duration of recording time, higher horizontal
lines (up to 420), broader area and greater number of contacts of distributors, compatibility with
other devices.
Main order qualifiers were, availability for renting, sound quality, stability of image, picture
quality, size of equipment, compatibility.