Humboldt University Berlin Institute of Marketing
Assignment 1: Basic Principles of Strategic Marketing Assignment 1a – Identifying strategic groups and their competitors Sony The Sony Corporation, also referred to as Sony, is a multinational conglomerate corporation positioned in the electronics and entertainment industry and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It incorporates the following main strategic business units (SBUs): Electronics (including the TV, computing, digital imaging, audio electronics and mobile phones) Video games business unit (Sony Playstation) Music (Sony Music Entertainment) Motion pictures (Sony Pictures Entertainment) Financial Services (Sony Financial Holdings) The main competitors of Sony’s electronics SBU would be Samsung Electronics or Panasonic’s electronics business. Sony’s video game business faces major competition from the Microsoft gaming division and from Nintendo. Sony Music mainly competes with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. The main competitors of Sony Pictures Entertainment include Universal Studios, Warner Brothers Entertainment, but also The Walt Disney Studios. Sony’s Financial Services SBU competes mainly with the Nippon Life Insurance Company.
Danone Danone, also known as Groupe Danone, is a multinational corporation positioned in the food/ nutrition industry and headquartered in Paris, France. It incorporates the following strategic business units: Mineral water (including brands such as Evian, Volvic and others) Food products (including dairy and baby food) Advanced medical nutrition (under Danone’s healthcare division “Nutricia”) The main competitors of Danone’s mineral water business unit include Nestlé Waters (the bottled water division of the Nestlé Group) and the bottled water products of PepsiCo, Inc. Danone’s food products division faces the biggest competition from Kraft Foods. Danone’s medical nutrition business unit mainly competes with the