The New Smart Phone Marketing Plan in the Sony Mobile

Executive Summary

Currently, Sony has already bought out the 50% part of Ericsson in the phone manufacturing industry. The company has started going alone in the industry and is planning heavy marketing for some of its smart phones. In Australia, Android is the current leading operating systems in terms of market share. Therefore, marketing an android phone in Australia is likely to be easy. The PEST analysis of the country is quite promising for the Sony Android phone. For Sony to succeed in the Australian market with the Xperia Active, a lot of aggressive marketing will have to be done the company should seek a marketing mix that suits the country, especially with its product. In addition, the segmenting and targeting of the product should be quite well planned to achieve its goal of being the market leader in the active lifestyle category using the Xperia Active. The company has targeted those with an active lifestyle, especially the farmers, miners and those involved in fitness programs. The marketing mix, the 4Ps are well targeted to this class. The phone is designed to withstand harsh conditions. The place for marketing the product is mobile network providers and supermarkets, where all consumers can have access. The company should contemplate using a market penetration price or competitive pricing for the product. In addition, the promotion should be quite aggressive in the media, Internet and other places. Evaluation of the plan should happen after every 3 months to ensure objectives are going to be achieved or whether there will be need for another strategy. In addition, the implementation of the plan is to be done well to ensure consumer awareness objective is achieved in order to drive sales.

Table of content

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………. 3

Goals and Objectives…………………………………………………………… 4

Target Markets and Segmentation …………………………………………… 5

Marketing Mix Strategy …………………………………………………….…. 6

Product Strategy………………………………………………………..… 7
Place Strategy ………………………………………………………..….. 7
Price Strategy……………………………………………………………… 8
Promotion Strategy ……………………………………………..……….. 9

Evaluation and Control ………………………………………………………. 10

Implementation and Action Plan …………………………………………….. 10

Conclusion and Recommendation …………………………………………………………. 13

References …………………………………………………………………..….14

The New Smart Phone Marketing Plan in the Sony Mobile

Introduction

For the last ten years, Sony in partnership with Ericsson company have been in the mobile handset industry, making successful phone brands such as Walkman, music phones, and cyber shots, camera phones, that have marketed well. Recently, Sony Ericsson has just as its competitors entered the Smartphone industry, which has gotten a lot of attention. The company embraced the Android operating system with its Xperia brand to capture the Smartphone market. Some of its Xperia have done quite well in several markets, including Australia, which is the focus of this study. Currently, the company is undergoing tremendous changes considering it has already bought out its partner, Ericsson, to become Sony Mobile communications.

One of their current cheap Smartphone available in Australia is the Xperia Active, which is designed to withstand harsh conditions of weather such as resistance to water and dust. This would be ideal for people working in a mine where dust is likely to be in plenty. One of the strengths of the product is its design, which is designed to fit the Australian weather that allows people to be in the outdoors almost the whole year. Its opportunities come from the people in an active lifestyle interested in having a good phone that can resist the harsh conditions of outdoor. Its weaknesses come from the reduce market share of the company, and the newly strategy made, whether Sony has fully bought the Ericsson half in mobile industry. Before the company fully adjusts, this can be considered a weakness. Threats for this product come from the competitors, especially the Motorola Defy, which has the same features and other cheap Android phones.

The political conditions of Australia are ideal for this product, considering it is stable, and allows foreign companies to engage in business without much restriction. The political arena of Australia seeks to attract foreign companies to invest in their. The economic status of the country is promising for this product, considering the low income earners earn between $10,000 and $20, 000. Therefore, they are likely to afford the phone. The technological aspect affecting this product is the availability of networks in the rural areas where much of the sales shall be targeted. Technologically, the country is advanced, thus, there is networks everywhere to offer services to those who buy the product. Finally, the social factors likely to affect the product are lifestyle, which is infact ideal for this product. Designed for active lifestyle people means those involved in manual work can find the product ideal for their social lifestyle. In addition, considering Australians will spend much time outdoors to their weather conditions, the product is ideal.

Goals and Objectives

The goal of this marketing plan is to introduce the Sony Xperia Active phone in the Australian market and make it the leader in this category of phones designed for an active lifestyle. Currently, many consumers are interested in having phones that can suite their activities. The plan aims at selling this product to the low-end users especially the farmers and miners. The other goal is to position its products as the most quality in the market.

One if the objective is to capture 55% of this market to become the leader within the next twelve months after its introduction. In overall market, the plan aims at capturing 15% of the Australian market with the Xperia brand in the next one year.

The other objective is to reach out its marketing to 80% of the Australian market through the various marketing strategies.

Target Markets and Segmentation

The Sony Xperia Active is a phone designed to withstand rough conditions such as falling, water resistant and dust resistance as well. The phone is also equipped with a study rubber lanyard and holder for an armband when in active activities such as jogging (Zlatanov, 2011). In addition, the phone is equipped with a fitness application for monitoring the heart rate. The Xperia Active also comes in as a Smartphone, equipped with the Android operating system Considering the Australian weather conditions that are ideal for outdoor activities such as swimming, mining and farming, a phone with capabilities to withstand rough conditions is very important. The phone is designed to survive in a wet and dusty environment, as well as few hardy enough not to break when dropped. Considering these conditions that Australians have to go through, the Sony Xperia finds its need here quite well. This is the main benefit to be identified with the phone. Users of the phone can be able to operate it even with wet fingers to scroll the touch screen and even in dusty environments to take pictures (Hooley, Saunders & Piercy, 2004).

This phone is likely to appeal to the lower income earners interested in owning a Smartphone that is guaranteed to suite their needs, as well as fit their environments. This phone is targeted to those working in outdoor environments such as mining and farming where they are likely to been exposed to water and dust among other issues such as dropping the phone. In addition, it is targeted to those involved in sports activities such as jogging where the phone is equipped with an armband holder. In addition, considering it can be targeted to middle age class, who are likely to be less concerned with complex operating systems, but also interested in having a Smartphone. However, the marketing plan does not only target people at this class considering its added features such as the fitness application, entertainment and games. Thus, the marketing plan aims at capturing people involved in an active lifestyle.

Competition for this product is likely to come from Motorola’s phone known as Motorola Defy, which is designed to withstand harsher conditions in the outdoor. It uses the same operating systems as the Xperia Active, and other features such as music layer, radio, and a camera, qualifying it as Smartphone, just as the Sony mobile Xperia Active (Ziegler, 2010). Motorola Defy was launched around 2010, thus it has already captures a wide market internationally as well as in Australia. Sony mobile communication will need an aggressive marketing strategy to beat the Motorola Defy. Although the targeted market share of this product is not yet announced, it also happens to be quite unpredictable. Other Smartphone brands such as apple, Samsung, HTC, and Huawei have already acquired significant market share in Australian market. Sony has significantly a lower market, and capturing the market to be among leaders will require time. Despite Sony mobile targeting the active lifestyle people, not many may be willing to do away with devices they already love. Therefore, it will require a very aggressive marketing team and strategy to push the product to the market.

Marketing Mix Strategy

Marketing mix strategy is one of the most important tools in any company, since it determines selling of the products (Irsic, 2004). Marketing mix strategy ensures that the company products are well known in the market and people are willing to buy them. Sony has been in marketing for quite a long time as a corporate company. However, to market the Sony Xperia Active that is faced by competition, there is need of a good marketing mix strategy, focusing on the four Ps, product, place, price and promotion.

Product Strategy

Xperia Active as described earlier is designed to suit an active lifestyle. The design is attractive, with different colors for consumers to choose. More so, the phone comes with a differentiation from other smart phones, considering it is equipped with an armband holder for securing the phone while one is engaging in active activities. Having different colors has been a Sony corporate strategy, where it seeks to give people products with different colors. The product is differentiated from others by the inclusion of a fitness application that monitors activity of the users. In the packaging, other products and enhancements are provided such as earphones with hooks, rubber wrist strap and an arm case for holding the phone on the arm to monitor the heart rate. Moreover, it can be used under any weather, whether wet or dusty, as well as I places likely to drop. In addition, the product does offer customers what they want. The need is a phone that can withstand water, dust and shock, suiting people leading an active lifestyle, in this case being farmers and miners. The strategy is to offer a product that guarantees protection from the actors likely to ruin it, such as water, which is the worst enemy of electronics. The product is positioned as a low-end product considering it offers the basic utilities of a phone, and extra functions from the Android operating systems. Its innovative technology is at average, for the low income to afford.

Place Strategy

For marketing to be effective, it has to avail the products to the people in the most convenient way possible. The marketing strategy should consider the places where people are likely to look for the product (jpkc.tjpu.edu.cn, 2007). For the Xperia Active to sell well, the product has to provided to areas where there are more people leading an active lifestyle. The most targeted people with this phone are the miners and farmers, as well as people engaging in fitness activities occasionally. However, Sony should also consider what competitors are doing to push their products to the market. Currently, in Australia, Telstra is one of the most preferred mobile networks, and many customers tend to buy their phones from them. There is high level of trust for the mobile network providers, thus, Sony should consider marketing this product through availing it in the mobile network providers’ retail shop to capture their customers as well. Distributing directly to the customers may also be an option, but more marketing has to be done. In addition, this will be more expensive since the company has to provide several retail centers to reach the consumer. Thus, distributing through the mobile networks is a preferred option. In addition, the mobile networks have retail shops in many places easily accessible. To target the people in the rural areas, provision stores and supermarkets can be used considering farmers and miners may not travel to town all the time.

Price Strategy

Price of any product is the amount of money the customers have to pay to get the product. Pricing is one of the most challenging tasks, and several strategies are available depending on the nature of the product (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). For the Xperia Active, it can be considered an average innovative technology, which is new to the market. For technological devices that are new to the markets, the producers mostly use price skimming depending on the market and the target. However, for Xperia Active, there is another competitor offering close substitution, thus, price skimming would not be ideal. In addition, considering competition and that Sony are late in introducing such a product, it should consider either competitive pricing, or penetration pricing. Competitive pricing is ideal when the products are the same with other competitors. Sony could price the Xperia Active at the lower price. In addition, this would be ideal considering it is targeting the low-end users or low-income earners. Another price strategy to consider is price penetration, designed to enter the market and capture a big market share. Again, this could be ideal, positioning a good product at a low price to attract many customers. Sony can use this as a strategy to get a big share of the market for other of its products in the future.

Promotion Strategy

Marketing promotion can be defined as the process of affecting the behavior of customers in order to make a purchase (Rust, Lemon, Zeithaml, 2004). It mainly includes three areas, advertising, public relations, and sales promotion. In the past, Sony has been aggressive in promotion of its products, making use of the three strategies in promotion. Looking at the first one, Sony does a lot of advertising in the television, internet and newspapers. Considering it is targeting people in the rural and mining areas, mode of communication used to consider what such people would be relying on for information. Television is ideal considering they will watch television after their work. Thus, television advertising should be placed I the evening hours, when the targeted consumers are watching. In addition, it should be targeted during the popular programs such as sports and series, which many will be watching. In radio advertisement, it should be considered that farmers and miners could be listening to small radios during the day, thus, advertising can be placed during the day. I addition, internet can be used for advertising to those who are into sports and fitness, who are looking for information on devices compatible with their lifestyle. In addition to this, the company should use a push strategy by packaging design that includes several sales promotion items, trade shows to encourage demand from retailers, and direct selling to customers at their showrooms and face to face where possible. Sales promotions will be ideal considering the product is at introduction level (Belch & Belch, 2009).

Evaluation and Control

Considering the objective of this marketing plan is to capture 50% of the active lifestyle people as well as low end, evaluation of the marketing plan can be done using several metrics. One of them, which are the most common or easiest, is monitoring the sales increase of the product. The main aim of marketing is to realize sale increase (articlesbase.com, 2008). The number of units of the phone sold should be monitored after every three months. If sales are not increasing, then the strategy is not effective. Thus, increase of sales will indicate effectiveness of the plan. Monitoring of sales should also include where most sales are made to determine whether the targeted consumers are reached.

The other metric that can be used for monitoring the effectiveness of the plan is monitoring feedback and inquiries from customers. This can be done through aliasing with the retail point, where the company should collect information about the number of people enquiring about the product. In addition, this can be evaluated through the market by monitoring the search engines on the frequency of searches about the product. In addition, feedback and surveys can be collected randomly at the targeted market to find out how many people are aware of the products. Their perception towards the company and the product should also be included to find out whether positioning of the product was successful (Pšunder, 1998).

Implementation and Action Plan

The first thing before the product is launched is hiring and training needed staff in June, one month prior to launching for the product. The hired staff should include sales persons and marketing managers in various regions as well as promoters such as prominent people with influence on the people. The team should be trained on operating the phone to help the customers with their inquiries. The next step is launching of the product in July, which should be done publicly in open forums where consumers can interact with the staff to learn more about the product. This can be done in conference centers and using open field especially for the rural areas. This should be done by the executives of Sony in Australia. It should be done in several parts of the countries for about a month in order to cover all the targeted areas.

Advertising in ABC and CBAA Televisions should start running in the same month of launching to create awareness. It should continue for three months, and restart in ABC again in January to February and April in CBAA television. Radio advertising should start the month of launching in Blue Danube radio until for three months and restart in January to February. Newspaper advertising will be the same time as the radio. Advertisement in the company’s website should run throughout the marketing plan to continue offering information to all that might have any questions. Sales promotion should start with the launching to attract as many customers as possible. It should include free enhancements such as earphones and wrist strips and free additional memory of 2GB. Distribution should be done through the mobile network providers in the countries since many people buy their phones from them. This is where most of the customers are likely to look for the phone. Supermarket should also be used as distribution channels where customers without close access to mobile network provider retail shops can go. Finally, evaluation should be done every six months by the marketing and sales team as well as the other departments involved.

Gantt Chart on Market Plan Implementation

product launching

hiring staff

TV advertising

ABC Television

CBAA television

radio advertising

Blue Danube Radio

News paper ads

the Australian

Sony website

Sales promotion

packaging items

additional memory

distribution

network providers

supermarkets

Sony showrooms

evaluation

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

Conclusion and Recommendation

From the research conducted concerning the environment of Australia, the Xperia Active should have a very aggressive marketing strategy considering it shall be trying to regain its market share that the company has lost for the past decade under the partnership with Ericsson. Therefore, the marketing strategy should not only aim to capture the low end market with the Xperia Active, but should also seek to use it to capture market for the whole product line of the Xperia smart phones. I would recommend that Sony use this strategy as a penetration to the Australian market for its other products, especially the phone industry. Considering the Smartphone industry, Sony mobile should seek to improve its Android smart phones considering this is the market leader in Australia, and its future is quite bright. However, they could also use other operating systems such as the windows for those customers interested in other operating systems.

References

articlesbase.com. (2008). Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Advertising Campaign. Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/measuring-the-effectiveness-of-your-advertising-campaign-564280.html

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2009). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Ferrell, O.C. & Hartline, M.D. (2011). Marketing Strategy. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.

Hooley, G. J., Saunders, J. A., & Piercy, N. (2004). Marketing strategy and competitive positioning. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall Financial Times.

Irsic M. (2004). The influence of factors determining relationship between organizations and their strategic suppliers on the frequency of implementations of purchasing marketing strategies. Management, 9, 2, 1-33.

jpkc.tjpu.edu.cn. (2007). Marketing Mix Strategy. Retrieved from http://jpkc.tjpu.edu.cn/2007/gjmysw/ckwx/Marketing%20mix%20strategy.pdf

Pšunder, I. (1998). Implementation of strategies in projects. Project Management, 4: 93-95.

Rust, R. T., Lemon, K. N., & Zeithaml, V. A. (2004). Return on Marketing: Using Customer Equity to Focus Marketing Strategy. Journal of Marketing, 68 (1): 109.

Ziegler, C. (2010). Motorola Defy review. Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/motorola-defy-review/

Zlatanov, H. (2011). Sony Ericsson Xperia active review: The Rainmaker. Retrieved from http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_active_review-review-671p2.php

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