Company Case 3 171114
Sony: Battling the Marketing Environment’s “Perfect Storm”
Questions for Discussion
1. What microenvironmental factors have affected Sony’s performance since 2000?
One of the biggest microenvironment factors that have affected Sony’s performance is their
competitors. When new companies began to emerge Sony did not adapt, but companies such as
Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung did. Instead, Sony stayed the route that they had taken and
unfortunately, this hurt the company more than expected. With many competitors, each company
is attempting to be better than the next. Whether the idea is to create a new product that has
different features or simply selling a similar product at a lower cost is something that we see in
day to day life. With Sony falling behind in comparison to these companies, Sony had to come
from behind to make an impact. With Sony struggling to catch up to these new companies. A
prime example is when Sony created new Play Station Controllers, the company used expensive
technology to make the controllers more appealing and instead lost roughly $300 per controller
once sold. Unfortunately, Sony experienced a few unexpected setback when it came to their
manufacturing and distribution channels. No one could have predicted that Japan would have
been affected by an earthquake caused by a tsunami, which affected 10 channels. Shortly after,
flooding in Thailand caused channel shut downs that halted production of new Sony cameras that
were expected to be released that year. The public also seemed to have an issue with Sony. Fires
