Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

Because Playstation is a gaming device, and there are only 3 big gaming devices on the market, its very easy to sell to major retailers, because in order for major retailers to satisfy there customers needs, they NEED to have the Playstation. Its less about Playstation trying to get there product to retailers and more the vice versa, not just anyone can sell a playstation. They need a place that has a large customer base, like Target, Gamestop, Walmart. Also places that can afford to BUY Playstations to sell, because its not free. You wont find it at the mom and pop store around the corner. As lomg as  there is a demand for gaming devices, Playstation will always have a mouth to feed.

(This is closing note seperate from The blog, I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful Semester! I enjoyed this course and the blogs helped me learn about Marketing in a unique and engaging way! Almost wish I was a business major so I could take more of your courses)

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Sony Playstation market segment is gamers. Its target age group is 18-32 year old males, but its segment is and always will be gamers. Because its a gaming system, that cannot be utilized any other way then to play games primarily. It can be used to watch television or use apps, but those are secondary uses and you can find way less expensive systems that do all those functions. When people think playstation they automatically think gaming, and thats what ALL its customers have in common. (however they need to understand that females do play games way more often nowadays) When they market there advertising it usually involved a lot of violence, racing, and fighting games because they know thats what males like to see. But they are still games because thats what Playstation is for: gaming.

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

Sony comes out with an addition to its PlayStation product line every 6 years or so. How does PlayStation continue to dominate when essentially its just an update on the same machine. PlayStation's 15th anniversary just passed, giving us the opportunity to analyze a machine that has remained on top since 1995! Basically, PlayStation releases a great product...starting with PlayStation 1...it was innovative and revolutionary for its time. But the best part of technology (for the company not the consumer) is soon enough it will be outdated. What PlayStation does it just improve performance, improve graphics, and gives a smoother more interactive interface. Essentially though, you could still play PlayStation 1 and not have any issues other then subpar graphics. Its all in marketing...there is barely a difference between PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4...but PlayStation makes people salivate at the thought of the "new" system. Shelling out 500 for a new machine, and you cannot play older games forcing you to repurchase your favorites to enjoy it on your "new" machine. The PlayStation 4 is basically a "new and improved" version of the previous, same for PS3 to the PS2 and so and so forth.

Ch. 18 -Social Media and Marketing

Sony uses all social media to garner attention for the PlayStation, Sony has a facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, blogger, tumblr and many more. Its a very large company and must tailor to every crowd. PlayStation uses social media to catch its customers up on the latest, news and information. As well as stages giveaways for followers. They encourage others to use hashtags to garner popularity and draw people in. They update there accounts in a friendly personal way, not really making it seem like there selling a product, just talking to there fans. Well in fact with every post, and every tweet its a form of marketing, and another form of personal selling. It gives existing customers and potential new customers the opportunity to "talk" to the people in charge directly and makes you feel more inclined to continue using this product because you feel genuinely cared for. I think the invention of social media for companies is essentially the best thing that could ever happen, what else would offer the perfect blend of access to all customers and the entire world, utilizing personal selling, and also selling a product more effectually.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

In this chapter we learn all the aspects of a "product", such as trademark, packaging, labeling, taglines. Most importantly we learned about the product mix: The parent company Sony, makes a variety of different products. It's product mix includes, TVs, cameras, PlayStation, and other electronics. It's product line of PlayStation, is a long list of products that are gaming devices, under the name PlayStation are a number of product items including the PlayStation Vita, PSP, and all the PlayStation consoles. PlayStation is Shopping Product. At a BASE price tag of 500 it's too expensive to be a convenience product, and a lot of the time a lot of comparisons are needed between other consoles before purchasing. Sony is a global brand as mentioned in other posts, it's base country is Japan but more then half it's profits come from North America. 

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

In Chapter 17 we learn the difference between sales promotion and advertising. Sony PlayStation constantly has to give the consumer an incentive to buy there product. They do this in a number of ways. Every year there are 2 huge gamers conventions, E3 and Gamescon where Sony executives come to talk to the people directly, but what there really doing is utilizing personal selling. They talk about there product in a conversational manner not listing price or any gimmicks, instead they just go on about all the great things it can do, and allow media outlets to further induce personal selling by reviewing Sony's expo and convincing there readers to buy it. Also because the PlayStation is usually sold by retailers, the retail employees must learn about the product, and speak one and one with people who come in, effectively selling the product on a personal level. Even though an advertisement gets you interested, it is often personal selling that really gets the sale going. Its important for the customer to feel like they are really being heard by Sony, so that they get the individualized attention they deserve.

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

PlayStation uses all angles of advertising for its product. Sometimes PlayStation likes to list its new specs and all the things the system can do. PlayStation has partnered with Netflix and Hulu and other apps to simplify the machine and make it more of an "all-in-one" systems. This is used to boost sales and to better its standing with existing customers. For parents buying for there children they use different family orientated games in its promotional displays and also gives parents more incentive to buy because of the apps.

Sony used humongous adverts all over New York to promote new games and its new system. They are never shy about spending money and reportedly spent 150 Million on advertising for the new system. PlayStation also uses comparative advertising because its in niche market and has only two many competitors. For Consumer decision making, PlayStation must use its subtle differences like cheaper price, and cheaper online play to appeal to masses, and it is used heavily in there advertising. Sony also participates in various gamers conferences to get its features out there to the gamers who watch. Also another advertising ploy/sales promotion is console "exclusives" Every now and again Sony will create/partner with a game franchise that is extremely popular and is EXCLUSIVE to PlayStation only forcing the players hand because they want to get there hands on the best games. One such is example are LittleBigPlanet or the Uncharted series, some of the best selling games of all time were PlayStation exclusives, something Sony knows attributes largely to there sales.