Name: Ume Laila

Student ID: 19P00024

Assignment 4: Consumer Behaviour

Section: MBA 2/ A1

Date: 02/12/2020

Submitted to: Faiza Saeed

Q1: Identify and discuss some of the cultural meanings for Sony possessed by
consumers in your country. Discuss how these cultural meanings were developed
and how they influence consumer’s behaviors (and affect and cognition). What is
the role of marketing strategies in creating and maintaining these cultural
meanings?

In Pakistan Sony is perceived as to be one of the most technologically

advanced brands. Sony is household name in the electronics industry
and top priority of the consumers when buying electronic products.
Sony is considered to be pioneer in electronic industry and it has
innovated itself over the time and with advances in technology. Sony
Television was among very first TV bought by most household in
Pakistan. Sony was the first to provide electronic products in Pakistan
in 90’s like Walkman, radio, VCR and cascade-tapes; we still see these old Sony products in
store room.

Sony is innovative and up-to-date, as it has grown

itself as fast as technology is growing. Sony LCDs,
Play-stations, digital cameras, cinema screens and
kitchen appliances are considered to be extremely
efficient and expensive. Though Sony phones were
very robust phones with good camera but were not
able to position well itself in market. For baby
boomers-Walkman holders were perceived to be as trendy and independent.

Unfortunately, Sony invented the concept of portable personal music players and dominated that
sector for almost 20 years before its lead was snatched away, virtually overnight, by Apple's
iPod. At the same time Samsung and LG usurped Sony's position in televisions and home
entertainment appliances.
Cultural meaning is the meaning humans give to actions, concepts and object is dependent on
their own cultural and is conditioned to a great extent by the underlying meaning systems, values
and frames of meaning one inherits from the society in general. Cultural meaning develops as
human interact with each other and share their thoughts about different objects; every
information gradually stores in our mind in form of nodes and schema. Socialization, education,
effect of peers and intellectual atmosphere all contribute to development of cultural meaning.

Positive cultural meaning, reviews and remarks develops affect (likeness for the products) &
affect leads to cognition (action to buy product) and converse is also true. Hence cultural
meanings have considerable influence on the consumer behaviors.

Marketing plays significant role in the development of the cultural meaning and positive
perception about the product especially if the product is new or has been updated. Marketing
campaigns and advertisement influences those innovators & risk-takers who have money and
willing to try new products, and after the substantial time passes since inception of new product
then trier’s reviews and remarks play important role in prospect consumer behaviors.

Further, marketing campaigns are customized as per the culture of the region in which it is going
to be aired. Ads in that region local language and in their cultural dresses have significantly more
impact. Country specific websites that Sony has also an impressive source of advertisement
based on cultural meanings, easy for native to read about products in their own language.

Sony has always been very creative and novel with its marketing campaign and advertisements.
Sony produces unique ads for it’s all its different range of products e.g. Play-stations ads depicts
innovation & speed while LCD ads depicts quality & life-style.

Ads.

https://youtu.be/h-3HLcRke6E , https://youtu.be/D-JRLeHkdn0
Q2: It is often stated that the world is becoming smaller because today people
can communicate relatively easily across time and distance. Discuss whether
that has been beneficial for Sony. What are some marketing challenges it
presents?

The world has become a global village with advances in technology and inception of fast internet
4G&5G. Artificial satellite has made it possible that every corner of the world can easily be
reached and communicated to in few seconds. If an incident happens in America then in no time
all its details go viral through internet to Asia region; this concept was not in existence few
decades back when internet wasn’t that fast or wasn’t invented.

Fast pace internet have its own pros and cons. Globalization, Internet and connectivity is very
much beneficial to create a buzz for new products, to provide information about gadget to large
mass of audience with less cost and share reviews of users with others to trigger purchase of the
products. Sony marketing has also taken benefit of globalization to market its products
effectively to people from all parts of the world. As people have become more connected
therefore their choices, likeness and dis-likeness have also influenced easy other and have
become more or less similar this helps companies to standardized their products according to
vast majority of people needs. People irrespective of their culture want almost similar values
from the electronic company i.e. quality of sound, speed, resolution, WIFI supported system, this
helps company to form its product on these consistent needs and market their product with same
marketing strategy across different point of globe.

Challenges

Sony is a very old brand though it has tried its best to keep up its pace with advancing
technology but at times it becomes very hard to keep organization’s culture, technology, system
and standardization set. Innovation dilemma occurs when one company spends dollars on its
R&D to create an idea for innovation and once the idea is created other organization copies it
and supply the product to customer at low cost thus incurring loses to the former company.
Sony has been perceived as company which high attitude and arrogance that doesn’t rely over
partnership with other companies but develops new technologies on its own. But over the time
the company has realized that it’s hard to compete in the aggressive market alone therefore
launched joint-ventures with cable-vision to build broadband though it takes time to adjust in
partnership for the company which has never did the partnership before.

Sony being a Japan based company dealt with huge losses during the world wars and its
excellent image was damaged a lot and was perceived to be cheap and out-dated.

With advances in technology the new brands have invented e.g. Apple and Samsung and these
brands have damaged 20 years long the leadership of Sony. New brands find it easy to leverage
on the advances in technology since its teams are new young innovative people willing to take
challenges and on the contrary old established companies shave baby boomers on top
management position those are unwilling to take risk before it’s too late.

Q3: What do you think about Sony’s tradition of region-specific or nation-

specific marketing? Would Sony be better served by working to create a more
uniform global image?

Sony has always done region-specific marketing rather than global marketing; it has 50- country
specific websites but company is gradually changing
their old strategy now they also have one main
website www.sony.com that is company’s primary
outlet to sell its main products and give software
updates.

Region specific marketing has become outdated in

these times of globalization when everything has become connected, that old strategy was costly
to design and implement since various marketing teams of specific regions would be needed to
design and run region-specific websites. Competitors were running ahead of Sony with one
strategy across the globe hence understanding and implementation became easy.

A better off approach for Sony be a global strategy: in this strategy multinational companies see
world as a single market and this applies effectively for electronic market as in this market forces
of global integration is very strong. A single superior image is easy to maintain and creates less
confusion for the consumers e.g. many big brands have same tag lines and motto across all
countries like NIKE –JUST DO IT. Sony would have been at a better position by creating
uniform global image.

Consumers are very much benefited by global brand image:

 Shopping takes less time because branded products can be easily identified.
 The quality of the branded product is better, or at least consumers generally believe it to
be better.
 Consumers always know where to go with any questions or concerns about the products.

Companies are very much benefited by global brand image:

 Global branding and marketing also increase customer awareness of a company as

everyone across the globe knows it and talks about it hence more reinforcement.
 When companies market on a global scale, they vastly increase their client base, and
ultimately, their bottom line
 A constant global image creates uniformity, easy maintenance and saves cost by having
single marketing strategy.

Q4: What kinds of factors do you think Sony considers when deciding how to
market its products in various countries? How might its American marketing
efforts differ from those in Japan or Europe?

Global dynamics are changing with Asia regions having the most number of young populations
as compared to Europe and American markets; this makes Asia to be a very attractive prospect
market for electronics companies since gadgets are mostly used by young people age 15 to 40.

Factors to consider while marketing its products in various markets:

 Perception of the brand: Sony brand in some markets e.g. Asian market is considered to
be advance and up-to-date but in American market it is not considered to be that superior
 where Apple enjoys the dominance. Hence it is very crucial to know brand perception of
brand in the country while marketing in that country. Markets where good perception has
yet to be developed, in that Market Company should focus on its quality and superiority
whereas in established market company can advertise on price and discounts.
 Consumer’s attitude toward products: In different countries products have different
uses and fulfill different needs therefore should be marketed carefully. A DVD player
advertisement in American market can show youth dancing over the songs but in Saudi
market it can’t be shown because of their religion and culture. Hence Sony must be
careful while designing advertisement across different countries.
 Major competitors in the market: Every markets have their few local players which
provide the similar product as brand at comparatively low price. Hence company must to
aware of those and have ad or poster to counter those competitors core value proposition.
 Features that consumers value: Look for the features that are most valuable to people
of that country you are marketing and promote your product based on that value. E.g.
people in Asian market are very conscious of looks and picture hence Sony can market its
product’s e.g. DSLRs to attract that market more while in American market people prefer
fun games, songs and independence so company must show ads promoting these desired
values in America.

American market different from japan /Europe market

 Culture diversity: American culture is much friendlier and enjoys humor but japan
culture is not much friendly therefore ads in Japan must reveal true good features of the
product s. Also Sony must study different culture in details since some gestures and
symbols are considered to be not acceptable across different cultures.
 Attractive model: Popular celebrity in Americas could be Braid pit, Leonardo but in
Japan popular figures are Jinny and others. So company must use popular figures of
Japan while marketing there to increase consumer buying behavior.
 Attitude and personality of inhabitant: Japan were most concerned about enhancing
their relationships with others, self-control and motivation, and ability to manage
practical affairs while United States expressed a desire to improve their sociability,
 academic achievement and cognitive abilities, physical appearance. Hence marker must
keep these differences in mind while marketing.

Q5: Describe the benefits Sony gets from some of the international alliances
mentioned in this case study. Do you believe Sony needs to become more
aggressive in forming such partnerships?

Partnership are vital as with partnership companies can outsource the work it is not good at to
partner company while can focus more on its competitive advantages. Sony had been aggressive
and attitudinal therefore didn’t rely much on partnership but overtime it realized partnerships are
very important for the growth of company.

Sony worked with Intel to create set of standards for home networks and launched a joint venture
cable-vision to build broadband network in New York. Sony was looking for partnership with
other music companies but was to no success.

Sony needs to be very aggressive in forming partnership as partnership has many advantages:

 Bridging the Gap in Expertise and Knowledge- Partnering with someone can give
you access to a wider range of expertise for different parts of your business. A good
partner may also bring knowledge and experience you may be lacking, or complementary
skills to help you grow the business
 More Business Opportunities- A Partner Company brings along their loyal customers
and these customers would transfer to Sony brand as well.
 Help build song in new territories- A Palm was American based company, it
understands American market and business better, and this would help Sony tailor its
marketing accordingly in US.

Also as all other companies are partnering if Sony doesn’t partner it would be left isolated in the
cold war of market competition.

 Dynamic business: In the era of evolving trends & globalizations customers are
becoming more dynamic and have diverse and unique needs. Sony can fulfill its
 customer unique needs in a better way as it did by designing Toshiba andPlayStation3, by
partnerships with companies who are specialized in certain fields.

Hence I strongly believe Sony much be more aggressive in partnerships

but must be strategic in choosing the partners; as partners bring along
their good attributes they also bring along their bad attributes.