Dealing with communications and marketing at the corporate level can be an infinitely complex process, and continues to evolve. Sony, one of the world’s largest and most far reaching tech companies, with hands in entertainment, music production, smartphones, and technology of all kinds, exhibited this first hand over the past year as their smartphone division responded to the poor launch of the Xperia Z3. This coupled with the communications head of their entertainment division, Jason Allen, leaving the company after 7 years in mid 2014, spelled trouble for Sony’s communication division.
Part of Sony’s issues with their smartphone marketing and communications was related to a poor assessment of market response to their product. Under previous president Kunimasa Suzuki, Sony focused its smartphone marketing around a combination of low, mid, and high end products, under the assumption that the Sony name would outweigh Sony’s late entrance into the smartphone arena.
Suzuki was replaced by current president Hiroki Totoki who took Sony’s communication strategy in a different direction. Rather than divide their attention across a variety of platforms, Totoki focused Sony marketing around their high end products like the Xperia Z3 and the Z4, which will be launching later this year. The Z4, a tablet, is geared towards the market share held by large phones like the Note 4 and the iPhone 6 plus, as well as the tablet industry standard iPad.
While 2014 was a rough year, the Xperia under Totoki has proven to be profitable so far in 2015. Jason Allen has also announced his return to Sony Entertainment. With the work Totoki is doing in the mobile branch and Jason Allen’s communications experience, the marketing and communications team at Sony has the potential to perform beyond expectations in 2015.