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The discussion aims to provide the position of PS 3, Sony’s latest play station in the gaming industry

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Introduction

The global video gaming market will be determined primarily by online gaming as well as mobile gaming. In 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment introduced the Play Station 3 in the US market. Play Station 3 is one of the most favored gaming consoles that entered the US market for the first time in the year 2006. The producing company Sony received enough global appreciation for its efficient innovative product PS3. The discussion aims to provide the position of PS 3, Sony’s latest play station in the gaming industry. A detailed study in this regards has been presented in the following paragraphs. 

 

Product positioning:

Sony introduced the innovative model PS3 back in the year 2006 in US. Sony again positioned its product PS3 closer to a gaming machine. Later on Sony took the decision to reposition its PS3 with the release of the slim version as an all-purpose entertainment system once again. The other competitors with their efficient product such as Xbox, Wii have grabbed large market share. As Sony focus in positioning its product PS3 more between an all in one system and core gaming console it has derived enough criticism (Blythe, 2006).  

Sony does not need to reposition their market campaign. However, they need to focus on their PS3 an all in one entertainment system. Sony should seek to maximize the value of the PS3 to aggressively market it for the purpose of making it a powerful video game console and also an affordable home entertainment hub.

Product Targeting

Currently, Sony targetsthe youngsters for the Play station. However, there has been a surge in the level of gaming done by the people between the age of 25 and 40. Hence the organization should also be able to target this new audience.

Segmentation:

The market for product positioning can be segmented on the basis of geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural.The term geographic segmentation implies the segmentation of goods and services as per the geographic locations and target markets. Demographic segmentation means segmentation of the market for the products as per age, race religion, gender etc.The term Psychographic market segmentation refers to segmenting the market as per the interest, taste, attitude etc. of the customer. And lastly, behavioural segmentation is regarded as a kind of market segmentation that is formed on the basis of the buying behaviour of the consumers.  It has been seen that the female gamers is enhancing, studies show that 40% of average gamers are female. The video game industry is considered to be dominated by males but the gaming industry wants to expand as well as find other audiences that will help in enhancing their market. It has been suggested by a recent inclination that a large portion of their market is female (Finch and Geiger, 2010). Along with the women, the company also targeted their segmented their market in order to attract the children to position their PS3. However, the company will mainly concentrate upon the younger segment of the market including the potential gamers and also the consumers who are loyal to this product (Hooley, Saunders and Piercy, 2004).

Product Level

In the case of PlayStation the core product is entertainment. Actual product is the gear once receives with the purchase and the augmented product is the warranty provided and the games that are sold free with the same.

A product level comprises of three different phases the first one is the core product the second one is the tangible product and the third one is the augmented product. The core product is referred to the actual feature of the product, for PS 3 the core product is entertainment. The second phase is the tangible product and for PS 3 the actual product or the play station system is regarded as the tangible product.  And the augmented product is regarded as the extra benefits that the product offers. For PS 3 the augmented product is the after sales services and warranty provided by Sony.

Ansoff’s growth matrix

 

Figure: 4 Ansoff’s Growth Matrix

Source:(Riley, 2012)

Sony can adopt the following strategies to create its foot print in the market based on the Ansoff’s growth matrix:

Market Penetration Strategy

Market Penetration Strategy is an offensive strategy that is applied by different companies to enter new and profitable markets. 

- Educating the consumers regarding Blue-ray technology.

- Promotion of the Blue-ray line.

- Collaborating with the 3rd parties to form new and unique accessories such as NVIDIA 3D vision.

- Making investment towards in the heart of your Home ME System.

- Developing the graphic potential of PS3.

- To integrate with the various social networking sites.

- Development of the on-line services.

- Development and provision of accessories that extend Wii experiences.

- Promoting the PS 3 along with the other products of the organization.

Market development strategy:

- Development of games and interfaces that will suit the needs of new groups of consumers like family, older age groups, girls and women.

- Expansion and promotion of Blue-Ray line (Gershon and Kanayama, 2002).

Product development strategy:

- Product differentiation by the application of “Good-Better-Best” strategy that will let the organization to develop different forms of the gaming console.

Diversification strategy:

Sony has a company is highly diversified one. Too much diversification can harm the image and working of the company. Taking the initiative to develop unfamiliar products may harm the image of the company. So it will be feasible for the organization to not diversify into unrelated areas (Haq, Wong and Jackson, 2008).

Marketing Mix

For making the marketing plan for Play Station 3 the marketing mix of 7 Ps should be taken into consideration by Sony. The 7 Ps for Play Station 3 are stated below:

Product:

The company should develop its product with high end technology; the purpose behind this policy is to provide a complete and integrated solution and a high quality digital entertainment experience. The company has offered a variety of electronic products to its customers that provide ultimate entertainment, its variety of product that it offers ranges from PS 3, PSP, CD players to Television and Computers, GPS systems and even Camcorders.

Price:

The company has framed value-added pricing, bundled pricing and product mix pricing for its latest gaming console PS 3. For instance, the company has framed a sales scheme where a consumer will be allowed discount on PS 3 if he purchases a Sony television and vice versa. Again, Sony has also framed captive pricing strategy for PS 3 such as, providing PS 3 game free for purchasing of Blue-ray movie (Dominici, 2009).

Promotion:

The company has adopted effective promotional policies for PS 3 such as advertisingin technology and also promotion through mass media such as gaming and sports media. Sponsoring different promotional events for the purpose promoting PS 3.TheCompany has also taken initiatives towards advertising and promoting the product in different music festivals, gaming arenas, stages etc. (Richter, 2002).

Place:

The company framed appropriate policies for the distribution of the product. Sony sells its product to different customers over the internet. The company also distributes its products by making it available at different shopping malls. PS 3 is also sold through major digital retailers such as PC World, Amazon etc. The company has also developed different sales units for selling Play stations in the name of ‘Play station Homes’ to provide the customers with brand experience(Yahoo Finance, 2014).

People:

The company has trained its employees properly to deliver high quality performance. Also the company has laid more emphasis upon the research and development to provide efficient technology to its customers, the company has a dedicating research team which strives a lot to develop new and innovative technology for the organization(Wooliscroft, 2011). 

Physical Evidence:

The company has prepared its product in such a way that will attract its customers, the slim looks of PS 3 is more attractive to the consumers. Again the play station stores that are created by the company to sell its products are well decorated and the ambiance created within those stores is highly attractive and are manned with efficient personnel who will provide the information that the customers require to provide.

Process:

The company has framed efficient channels of distributing its product. The company has framed efficient distribution strategies so that the product gets easily available to the potential customers. The company has set up numerous selling units in the name of play station stores. Products are also distributed to various technology retailers such as Micro Centre, Frys.com, Tech Bargains etc.and they are also available on-line to the customers.

Influence on buyer behaviour.

Buying behaviour of the consumers can be regarded as a mixture of the needs and desires of the consumer (Examstars, 2014). 

At present the buyers are of a desire to have such products that are technologically sound innovative and multipurpose, after the launch of PS 2 the company experienced the needs of the market and that is why it released PS 3 which is an all-in one system serving numerous purpose again the product is designed with special features. The technology used for the product is of high quality and innovative. The product comes with accessories that are able to extend Wii experience.

Again, it can also be regarded that the price of the products influences the behaviour of the buyers. As a result of thatthe price of the product has been kept lower that also influences the buyer behaviour as the products of the competitors such as Microsoft are available at a higher prices providing almost the same facilities (Wright, 2006).

Consumers generally prefer different products on the basis of their availability and Sony has taken the best possible initiatives to distribute its products. The products are sold through various ways such as the technological retailers, on-line, and through play station stores that are particularly developed by the organization for the purpose of selling PS 3. Again the after sale services and the consumer services provided by Sony are unparalleled that has attracted different types of customers towards the products of the organization (Bergman, 2000).

Conclusion:

From the discussion presented above it can be said that PS 3 has achieved enormous success in the gaming industry. The company has taken effective steps to develop its products and the research team of the organization has tried their level best to develop efficient technology. Sony has also focused on efficient distribution strategies to market its products and the promotional activities of the company are also strong enough.

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