Sony in promotional blitz

Sony Thai will spend Bt1.3 billion this year on marketing its Bravia LCD TVs, Cyber-shot compact digital cameras, Alpha professional cameras and Vaio laptops to achieve sales growth of 10 per cent after zero growth in its last fiscal year.

The company will use "cluster value marketing" to market these four product categories, meaning it will convince customers to buy more than one product by positioning the Bravia LCD TVs as the main product and linking its use to other Sony products such as Handycams, digital cameras, Blu-ray DVD players and audio systems.

The Bt1.3-billion marketing budget will be spent on TV, magazine, newspaper and point-of-sale advertising, as well as joint activities with business partners and roadshows. It will also focus improving the product displays at its outlets.

Managing director Taisuke Nakanishi yesterday said Sony Thai was confident of achieving its growth target for its 2008 fiscal year, despite the current political instability and steep inflation, because it has already seen good performance in the first two months (April and May) and expects the Euro 2008 soccer tournament and the Beijing Olympics to boost its performance.

It expects to see growth in all major categories: 30 per cent each for TVs and laptops, 15 per cent for camcorders and 10 per cent each for digital cameras and audio systems.

"The economic slowdown and price competition last year made us experience zero growth. However, we increased market share in many categories," he said.

Sony's marketing plan for the Bravia is to attract first-time LCD TV buyers and consumers who want a separate TV in their bedroom by introducing 20-inch models in five colours, and to tempt current LCD TV owners with new 40-inch-plus models with Full High Definition (Full HD) technology.

Yoji Higashida, Sony Thai's general manager for the consumer marketing group, said smaller models still made up only a fraction of the whole LCD TV market in Thailand and no competitor had focused on models with stylish design for personal use. Sony expects such models to make up 10 per cent of Bravia's sales this fiscal year.

Meanwhile, after seeing demand for its 40-inch-plus LCD TVs, the company decided to upgrade the category by introducing Full HD technology in all such models. It expects the large TVs to increase their share of overall sales from 20 to 25 per cent this fiscal year.

In the Handycam category, Sony recently launched a new model made from titanium that it claims is the slimmest, smallest and lightest in the world.

Sony also plans to offer Cyber-shot digital cameras in a wider range of colours and with a new "Smile Shutter" function that works only when it spots smiling faces.

As with its digital cameras, Sony's Vaio laptops will now come in a range of colours after a survey last year found that 70 per cent of users preferred coloured models to the traditional black.

Sixty per cent of digital-camera users said they preferred coloured models.