Sony : An Interesting Company

Sony Corporation was founded in 1946 and was originally named Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. That name was later changed to what we now know as Sony in 1958. Ever since Sony became a corporation they always envisioned themselves as a company who “creates new markets with communication technology” (McPhail, 2014, p. 159). Little did they know when Sony started out how popular the brand would become. In 1988, as Sony was expanding, they acquired the company Columbia Pictures for a whopping $4.9 billion. They wanted to grow their US media empire and they did just that with Columbia Pictures. This sort of deal was the first of its kind in the 1980’s with it being between a Japanese company and a Hollywood studio (Richter, 1989).

Billabong operates within the highly competitive surfwear industry comprised of the ‘Big Three’ including Quicksilver, Rip Curl and Billabong itself, along with a pool of smaller firms and specialist manufacturers. It employs a number of strategies in order to differentiate itself from these rivals and maintain its authentic association with surfing culture. These strategies include pursuing a niche market of 10-24 year old brand obsessed and anti mainstream consumers, multi branding, high involvement in multiple promotions to convey that Billabong is genuine and linked directly with the sport and also the strength of the brand itself. These strategies enable Billabong to

Sony is a Japan based company that operates in over 180 countries worldwide. (Company Profile for Sony Corporation, 2011) Sony was co-founded by Masaru Ibuka and Aki Miruta in 1946 and since then has grown into an international multimillion dollar company (Sony Corporation, 2014). Ibuka and Miruta originally started out manufacturing measuring equipment (Sony Corporation, 2014), and have expanded into more complex technological solutions, such as laptops, gaming consoles, and communications devices. One product in particular is the PlayStation 4. The PS4 is the most recent of Sony’s gaming consoles and since its release at the end of 2013 has sold 7 million units (Plafke, 2013), raking in 45 billion dollars of revenue for

Sony Corporation was founded on the 7th of May 1946 in Tokyo, Japan as a joint stock company under Japanese law. To start it, the founders incurred a cost of 190,000 yen. The co-founder of Sony Corporation in May 1946 was Masaru Ibuka. The other co-founder who founded the Sony Corporation in America iin160 was called Akio Morita.

Sony’s innovative approach and successful brand name, being associated with numerous motion pictures, computer entertainment, music, television, and online businesses, makes Sony one of the most successful, extensive entertainment and technology companies in the world.

Strong Brand Name – Sony is one of the leading brands in the world, particularly in the electronics field. The VAIO laptops which are a big hit among the pc users is an evidence for the brand influence that Sony has on people.

They went on to create the first wide screen HD TV, digital recording device, digital camera, and blue ray player. They developed the first LCD device, the first Internet TV powered by Google and that’s just a brief overview of all the innovations, inventions, and products associated with the Sony Corporation. (####)

Sony was the world’s largest electronics company that brought innovation, style and high quality products in the electronics industry. As new innovations have arise, Sony was highly hesitant to adapt to the changes of what the people want and need. Environmental factors especially tsunamis, earthquakes, recession prevented its progression. (as cited in Kotler & Armstong, 2014).

In the basement of what was know as a department store, they began to make Japan’s first tape recorder. May 7th, 1946 Morita and Ibuka co-founded the father of Sony, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. Their company started out with only 20 employees, and worth $500.00. He was soon named managing director, and then in 1950 named senior manager director. In the mid fifties, they succeeded and released the very first magnetic tape recorder in Japan. It was built based off of a model that was sent to japan by Americans. Akio was only 25 years old, and Masaru was 38 years old. Sales remained low for this electronic device until, his partner Masaru, “accidentally found a military book called Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Uses of the Tape Recorder. Once translated in Japanese it became a very helpful marketing tool. They began selling so many tape recorder that they had to move. The tape recorder was an amazing tool but lacked sound quality. Akio invited the writer of many helpful criticism letters, Norio Ohga, to help assist in the improvement project of the recorder. The recorder’s quality improved greatly. In 1955 they introduced a radio called Sony, latin for sound. Sales were great for this product due to only a few months before the radios release, they were introduced to the United States by an electric firm called Regency Electronics. Selling to Japan and America helped increase the sale potential due to America’s good

Sony was a leading global electronics company but now is almost well-known by making losses. In 2012, Sony’s chief executive Kazuo Hirai announced that the firm will shed 10,000 staff which working in businesses that are being sold in major reorganization. Sony also emphasizes that it will focus its business on three core areas: digital imaging, games consoles and mobile devices. Finally, it also discussed the reasons why Sony needs to cut jobs and the layoffs will help Sony transfer their position from loss to profit.

Sony being such a large corporation is highly diversified into the electronics field, financial services, etc. This helps them to sustain because incase one particular industry is slowing down, it will not affect the entire company as a whole as much as it would if it were only catering to that industry. Diversification helps reduce risks and therefore minimizes the chances of failure

Sony is the world’s No. 2 consumer electronics maker after Panasonic with around $70 billion in worldwide sales.

- Sony is a well-recognized and respected brand with consumers, and its products cover a wide spectrum of the entertainment and industrial markets

Sony established a Life insurance company in 1979 one it’s many peripheral businesses. Amis a global recession in the early 1980s, electronics sales dropped and the company was bound to reduce prices. Sony’s profits fell sharply, “It’s over of Sony” one analyst concluded. The company’s best days behind it & during Around that time Nario Ohga took up the role of President and he encouraged the development of Compact Disc in 1970s and 80s and play station in the early 1990s.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest investing in Sony Corporation, one of the most recognized names in consumer electronics. “Sony was established shortly after World War Two in the form of an electronic manufacturing company” (Sony). “Around the 1990s, Sony converted itself from an electronics manufacturer to a global entertainment company establishing a leading position in music, movies and computer gaming” (Sony Corporation Japan). With various sub-divisions of the company Sony remains versatile, with each department bringing in revenue. “The divisions that make up Sony includes Sony Electronics, Mobile Communications, Computer Entertainment, Pictures Entertainment, Network Entertainment International, Music Entertainment, and Online Entertainment” (Sony). Using top business strategies, and improving product quality, assists in the persistent success of the company. These products appeal to wide range of consumers due to the global diversity present at Sony. In this paper I will be discussing these topics in depth to help support the reason why it would be beneficial to invest in Sony.