Marketing Communications
Sony’s two primary objectives are to convince existing PS3 owners to purchase the PS4 and to gain the majority of the market share in Brazil and the United Kingdom. We have set a few communication objectives in order to achieve these goals. Our first communication objective is to educate 60% of the target market in the next 6 months about the new attributes that the PS4 will offer. It is important to educate the target market about the PS4’s new features because we are hoping that this will encourage PS3 owners to switch to the PS4. The only way to accomplish this is by emphasizing that the PS4 has enough new attributes to justify purchasing the new console. Consumers’ needs and wants are always changing. “In the video game industry, consumers want newer graphics, newer controllers, and newer features” (Smith, 2012). Educating consumers about the PS4’s new attributes informs these consumers that this console can satisfy these needs. Another communication objective is to persuade 40% of video game consumers to purchase the PS4 instead of the Xbox One, PlayStation’s largest competitor, over the next 12 months. This will allow us to become a market share leader in Brazil and the United Kingdom. We choose to incorporate product differentiation as a communication objective for two reasons. First, we can show consumers that we have an added value that is not offered by our competitor, in this case the Xbox One. Secondly, product differentiation can help PlayStation gain a competitive advantage in the market (Kelchner, 2013). Lastly, we want to remind 100% of our current consumers why they love Sony and the PlayStation over the next 12 months. The reason why we decided to use this communication objective is to increase brand loyalty where consumers will continue purchasing products from PlayStation. PlayStation have been innovating their products from the very beginning. We want to remind consumers that