Sony bombards electronic market

June 2008

Presenters display Sony products at the Sony’s ‘Big Screen, Big Fun’ promotion at Central World. The event is part of its marketing campaign to increase sales as much as 10 percent this year.

Sony Thailand will spend 1.3 billion baht this year on marketing its Bravia LCD TVs, Cyber-shot compact digital cameras, Alpha professional cameras and Vaio laptops to achieve sales growth of 10 percent after zero growth in its last fiscal year. The company will use "cross selling marketing" to market these four product categories, meaning it will convince customers to buy more than one product by using the Bravia LCD TVs as the main product and linking its usage to other Sony products such as Handycams, digital cameras, Blu-ray DVD players and audio systems.
Presenters display Sony products at the Sony’s ‘Big Screen, Big Fun’ promotion at Central World. The event is part of its marketing campaign to increase sales as much as 10 percent this year.Managing director of Sony Thailand said Sony was confident of achieving its growth target for its 2008 fiscal year, even with the current political instability and steep inflation, because it has already seen good performance in the first half of this year and expects the Euro 2008 soccer tournament and the Beijing Olympics to boost its performance. Sony expects to see growth in all major categories: TVs and laptops, camcorders, digital cameras and audio systems.
Sony's marketing plan for the Bravia is to attract first-time LCD TV buyers and consumers who want a separate TV in their bedroom by introducing 20-inch models in five colors, and to tempt current LCD TV owners with new 40-inch-plus models with Full High Definition (Full HD) technology.
General Manager for the consumer marketing group said smaller models still made up only a fraction of the whole LCD TV market in Thailand and no competitor had focused on these models with stylish design for personal use. Sony expects such models to make up 10 percent of Bravia's sales this fiscal year.
Meanwhile, after seeing demand for its 40-inch-plus LCD TVs, the company decided to upgrade the category by introducing Full HD technology in all such models. It expects the large TVs to increase their share of overall sales from 20 to 25 percent this fiscal year.
For other products, in the Handycam category, Sony recently launched a new model made from titanium that it claims is the slimmest, smallest and lightest in the world. Sony also plans to offer Cyber-shot digital cameras in a wider range of colors and with a new "Smile Shutter" function that works only when it spots smiling faces. As with its digital cameras, Sony's Vaio laptops will now come in a range of colors after a survey last year found that 70 percent of users preferred colored models to the traditional black.
Managing director of Sony Thailand said the 1.3-billion baht marketing budget will be spent on TV, magazine, newspaper and point-of-sale advertising, as well as joint activities with business partners and road shows. Sony will also improve the product displays at its outlets nationwide.