Sony PlayStation 3 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Sony PlayStation 3 - Case Study Example Retrieved November 7, 2009 from Gomo News: http://www.gomonews.com/the-global-mobile-gaming-market-will-grow-at-a-166-percent-cagr-to-reach-18-billion-in-2014 18 This report presents a detailed discussion on how Sony has been able to identify and use key elements of the marketing mix to build and maintain its market position in the fiercely competitive world of video games consoles. The market is basically an oligopoly dominated by its three main players - Sony's PlayStation, Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360. It is marketing driven organisations that put their customers first and are ultimately the most successful businesses. This is the classic marketing practice of producing the right product at the right price and in the right place - three of the four 'Ps' of marketing - the other, of course, being promotion. Timing is also critical. If all of this can be achieved when the customer needs or desires the product then the formula for success is complete. Of course marketing is not as simple as the 'four p's'. There are many subsets to the broad headings of product, price, place and promotion. This report does not attempt to cover all of these headings and subsets but rather it focuses on three distinct but interrelated areas that are crucial to a) understanding the marketplace in which the Sony PlayStation product is operating and b) implementing strategies in that marketplace to both enhance customer value and improve Sony's business performance. This report focuses on the three strategic areas, namely, competitive advantage, consumer buying behaviour, and marketing communications strategy. It examines how Sony has used and managed them to improve its market understanding and performance. The understanding of these three strategic marketing areas and their integration at the planning and execution stages of the marketing process will be shown to be capable of delivering positive benefits to Sony. Organisation Sony is a multinational corporation with headquarters in Japan. It is one of the world's leading manufacturers of electronics. Its annual revenue exceeded US $78.88 billion for the financial year ended 2008 (Sony financial results, 2009). With the global recession taking hold in the first two quarters of 2009, the company reported losses and the third quarter is expected to follow a similar pattern (iStockAnalyst, 2009) Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit that is responsible for the production and marketing of its video games consoles including the Sony PlayStation. The history of the PlayStation began in 1988 when Sony and Nintendo worked together on a product called the Super Disc. However, Sony and Nintendo parted company and the Super Disc was never launched by Nintendo. In 1991, Sony