Wii holds on as Sony Moves and Microsoft Kinects.

Wii holds on as Sony Moves and Microsoft Kinects.

Ok, Christmas is just round the corner and we can all agree that games consoles will be on many Christmas lists but which one? Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have all come out with the motion-sensor gaming devices/consoles all hoping to penetrate this new gaming market.

Microsoft Xbox 360 enters with Kinect.

Last to be launched but not the least. Attached to the Xbox 360 the Kinect has the whole package: motion-sensors which detect the whole human body, voice command and recognition, all this without a controller. Kinect has a bright future ahead as it has decided to take the next step, the removal of any controller but the accuracy of the device is playing to the Kinect’s disadvantage. Can this faulty motion detection system be the new Red Ring of Death?

Xbox have currently won over the hardcore gamers through it’s feature packed Xbox Live and exclusive games collection but they seem to have forgotten how they gained and held their reign at the top. The seems to be nothing to look forward to game-wise with the Kinect besides the basic games similar to what the Wii started out on like Wii Play and Wii Sports.

There’s still a lot of potential for this console but it is still in development…

Playstation 3 launches the Playstation Move

The Playstation 3 is the best console in terms of quality and performance that is out at the moment, I guess the same goes with the Playstation Move. The better version of the Wii but in black and is already capable of 3D content. Besides the fact that there is Blu-ray and potential 3D I won’t deny the fact that as an Xbox gamer; Sony has nearly won me over with their exclusive selection of games. No better way of bringing arcade than introducing Time Crisis to your collection maybe it is time Microsoft handed over the baton of exclusive content for hardcore gamers.

Can Wii hold the fort?

The lion of the jungle so show some respect, this baby brought everyone into this market and I’m pretty sure they can bring them back out. Now we seen their competitors coming up with superior products but this is Nintendo’s battlefield. I do marketing not technology so I will be bias by saying you can have the best product but it doesn’t guarantee success.

Choose your market.

Wii has already won over the non-gamers and families putting them into another market compared to the Xbox and the PS3, their positioning strategy is secure and they have attained status in their segment. Being the first is like having home advantage but could Microsoft have also attained this position but in the segment of hardcore gamers? The challenge for them now is making the hardcore gamers put down their controllers and go with the flow but why do that when they can buy a PS3 with the Move? It’s got better motion-controlled games and they may feel they are not ready to completely go without a controller. Sony is looking for a market to dominate but they have to choose, either use this opportunity to overtake the Kinect or go mainstream and head-to-head with the Wii? I feel it would be one heck of challenge to try eating both sides of the cake at the same time and it is said the worst place to be in a market is in the middle.

Will Sony make the right Move?

It is Sony’s turn to make a ‘Move’ and whoever they decide to challenge will have a big problem to address but I predict Sony will try to please everyone which I seem they will fall short. I see the Kinect adding a controller to the bundle until it is ready to go hands-free which means a lot of catch up and maybe a few new games would be nice. Wii needs to hold on to its loyal customers and listen to them carefully which is what they do best. I see Nintendo playing it cool as their target market won't bother to look into the Wii's flawed specs unlike the hardcore techies who will realize how amazing the Move is leaving the Kinect to struggle hold on to it's market share. Let the best marketing win.

The T-Mobile Welcome Back

What a great idea, what a great advert campaign. You know you have made a decent advert when it gets everyone smiling again, who can deny that is a true piece of art. It may have caused ‘some’ nuisances to people in a rush at the airport but from my bedroom chair it got me humming and I couldn’t resist clicking replay again and again.

This perfectly reflects T-mobile’s tagline ‘Life’s for sharing’ as most people would have loved to be there to share the moment with these talented, instrument-less musicians. The Liverpool Street T-mobile dance as well was followed by the Silent Flash Mobbing event which involved random people meeting up at Liverpool Street to perform their dance routines whilst listening to their own music with their headphones. This just shows the creative impact ‘Life’s for Sharing’ ads have had in the U.K. Nice job T-mobile.

Will HMV survive despite the weather conditions?

Current Situation

Go back a week HMV Group – owners of Waterstones and HMV shares dropped by 17%. Sales have been declining for years and for some reason I am not surprised, it was pretty evitable. The barrier of entry based on Porter’s Five forces is very low, anyone can buy a box of CDs and sell it, it is even easier for a major supermarket to buy a crate of CDs and sell them at a competitive price compared to HMV. Yes, they should have saw it coming when Tesco and Co. decided on their mission of world dominance which included expanding into every market possible including entertainment products.

Taking a Nap during the Online shopping phenomenon?

So where were HMV and Waterstones when Amazon and Play.com were shipping out first and second-hand books on the internet cutting out the middle man retailer? A wise man, Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said HMV was "paying the price for failing to embrace the internet much sooner". Damn right, they must have thought they were out scott-free when Zavvi went down but it just meant they were next, hopefully this won’t be Woolworths all over again.

Last Hope

With supermarkets and online retailers breathing down HMV Group’s necks what is the plan? Let’s be fair, the supermarkets are not a real threat except for best-sellers where competitive pricing is a match-winner as their product range is too limited. It just leaves the online retailers where I feel the battle on that front is already lost unless they somehow pull a differentiation strategy out their backsides and re-position themselves thoroughly back into the market.

But all is not lost. The acquisition of MAMA Group has opened a new door into the fast-growing live music market, already six of the high profiled music festivals this year were owned by HMV so that’s a good start. The retail store market is still there for the taking even though the weather conditions are having an impact. With effective marketing you may not be able to lure shoppers out of their desktop chairs but you can make an active shopper passing-by come take a peak. This may involve taking a leaf of out Zara’s geographical marketing strategy book which is just being at the right place at the right time and a lot of sales promotion. Customer loyalty is another major factor concerning the retail stores which can be received through improved customer service and effective direct marketing. HMVdigital is necessary but will probably still drown under iTunes dominance though if Waterstones can headstart the e-book uprise then maybe this organisation won’t get hit by Marketing Myopia again.

Can Sony make a comeback?

I read this Sony Case Study and decided to evaluate it myself adding my opinion on the matter.

Sony early successes

Let’s go back to 1979, the year Sony Electronics launched its first worldwide phenomenon the Sony Walkman. From having the top personal portable stereo in the electronics market Sony decided to enter the movie industry by acquiring Columbia Pictures in 1989 which is now Sony Pictures. Expanding at an insane rate the organisation broke into another market, the one of the games console with the launch of Sony PlayStation in 1995. The console was unmatched and so was its successor PlayStation 2 five years later, the games console market was official dominated by Sony. The next target was the mobile phone industry, the Sony Ericsson venture was a smash-hit especially with the Walkman MP3 feature installed on the mobile devices. The unstoppable Sony force entered the music world with Sony BMG Music Entertainment then came out with the Playstation Portable (PSP) to enter the portable game console industry challenging Nintendo.

Sony conflicting division

So how comes in 2008 Sony announced a £590 million loss? What happened to the dominator of many markets? Well, the answer is said to be in the question the ‘many markets’ are too many for one organisation to handle apparently. You may be wondering where the problem with having a presence in so many markets is. You see when the managing directors of the major divisions in Sony’s organisation come together to make the big decisions I guess they struggled to come to a compromise or solution because a product launch can benefit one but impede on another. The first example is how Sony allowed Apple to lead the MP3 player revolution. Sony was aware of the potential of MP3 files due it’s accessibility for consumers but also the impact it would have on the music industry a.k.a Sony Music Entertainment. It could please both the electronics and music divisions so they held back and held on dearly to it’s Walkman CD Players, wrong move. The I-pod is the Walkman killer and has changed the electronics industry forever.

Marketing myopia?

Since then Sony has gone downhill fighting competition on all fronts and it is just about coping, Sony has turned from a major brand to just ‘another’ brand in the market. Charging premium prices on products but struggling to communicate to consumers why they should invest in their product range when Samsung offers the same quality but more competitive prices. Apple is eating up market shares in the electronics industry ferociously with no intention of stopping. My marketing lecturer says it is Marketing Myopia all over again, this is obvious within the next-generation game console. Microsoft launched it’s Xbox 360 skipping development stages just to be the first which was evident with the mass Red Ring of Deaths crisis but it paid off. Sony pushed it’s customers loyalty to the limit with the heavily delayed launch and massive launch price of it’s PS3 which ended in the price being cut by nearly 2/3 to match the 360 and the Wii so it can sell more units. Sony simply forgot to listen to it’s consumers.

The problem is the solution? The next step of innovation.

So what is the solution? Sony are already cutting down it’s product range, bureaucracy and management layers and investing in more research and development. This is an obvious procedure which after all Sony has been through most professionals would have decided to do. It is now about finding the product innovation which would lead to the next big thing in the market. I believe Sony should turn it’s problem into the solution. Having so many divisions means having a diverse mass amount of knowledge they’re competitors don’t have. By combining the research of their different divisions Sony can discover product innovation in places which their main competitors are just unable to touch. No one else would have anticipated the success of the Blu-Ray player but Sony who has dabbled in the movie and home electronics sector. The Blu-Ray has the backing of the movie publishers with it’s anti-piracy technology which is a win-win with both industries and an alliance which Sony has use to push the product through. The PS3 is the better product compared to the Xbox 360 and with the slow increase in sales, Sony may be able to gain more market share back as soon as it realises a new differentiation strategy.

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Now this blog is here for me to express my marketing views on certain subjects and sometimes submit my own marketing related material if it is my student work or outside just to keep track of my marketing revelations and so on.

My views, answers and posts will be immature maybe wrong most of the time but that makes way for discussion which is a good way to exert and share knowledge. I'll keep it short and I hope that you will keep visiting which will encourage me to keep writing and posting.

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