Sony Mobile India Achieved Over 2 Million Fans Through Social Media

About Sony India Pvt Ltd.

Sony India Pvt Ltd is a 100% subsidiary of Sony Corporation, Japan. As an integral part of its Asia pacific ventures and business expansion strategies, Sony Corporation established the Indian subsidiary on November 17, 1994. The Indian subsidiary offers wide variety of consumer (digital) products in the segments of Home Video and Audio; Home Theater System; Television and Projectors; Digital camera; Personal Audio; Play Stations; In-car Entertainment; Video Camera; Computer and Peripherals; Tablets; Smartphone and Storage Media and Batteries. Sony Mobile India is an official page of the company on Facebook to transform its ‘Xperia’ smart phones as the most popular choice of youth in India.

Business Objectives of Sony India Pvt Ltd.

In the smart phone segment and under the strategic wing of Sony Mobile India, the company had the following objectives to achieve:

• To grow the fan base and their engagement on the social media space.
• To make the customers and the target audience aware about the transformation of the brand from Sony Ericsson to Sony Mobile.
• To drive sales by leveraging its active presence in the social media and through effective audience engagement.

Approach / Strategy Adopted By Sony India Pvt Ltd.

Before adopting a strategy or an approach, the company did very good home work and research to develop its insights about the emerging highly competitive, technology driven smart phone market in India. During the strategic analysis, the company identified certain distinctive attributes of its own brand and about the smart phone market which are as follow:

• The company realized that there was a need for changing the traditional marketing strategy.
•  The brand Sony had been perceived as a youthful brand with its unique music and sound quality.
•  The company realized that the age group of 13-25 years was the key target group for the brand.
•  The research revealed that peer-to-peer recommendation was the prime driver of smart phone sales.

The company had taken the above major research findings very seriously and formulated the following strategies to transform the brand popularity and drive its sales.

• The company had selected Facebook and YouTube platforms to mark its presence on social media and hired the services from ‘2020 Social Media’ for building and nurturing its audiences.
• It focused on integrating its programs on social media, TVC and product launches for effective engagement of the audience through vibrant and youthful activities and contents.
• Tried to gain maximum strategic advantage and competitiveness with its two major attributes – Sound quality and stylish looks.
• Generated widespread awareness and social media engagement through series of contests, quizzes and crowdsourced content.
• Collaborated with Shiamak Davar, one of the best know choreographer and youth icon in India for organizing and leading the dance contests on the integrated platforms, including its extensions to college-level ground activities. Rewarded the winners of the different contests with Bravia TVs, sound accessories and Spiderman merchandise.
• Adopted the most effective content strategy by engaging audience and through sharing of photo and video contests through a Facebook app and by running online campaigns, such as ‘LookBook’, ‘Go Thump! Live with walkman’ and ‘Get Shorty’.

Results Achieved By Sony India Pvt Ltd.

The following are the major results achieved by the company in its Xperia smart phone segment.

• The marketing team fulfilled the sales target of ‘Xperia S’ within three days of its launch.
• Sony Mobile’s fan base was dramatically increased from 500000 to over 2 million within 12 months of its presence on Facebook.
• The brand was recognized as the 10^th most favorite youth brand in India by NM Incite.
• Sony Mobile reached 35 million users’ base before the completion of its first year of managed Facebook campaign.
• On an average the brand added more than 2000 fans every day on its Facebook page.
• The viral effect of its YouTube videos brought more than 1300 fans daily to its Facebook page.

Learning

The major learning points of the company and Sony Mobile were as follow.

• Identifying the target group and its passion are the backbone of success of social media marketing.
• The quality of success depends on how effectively a company or brand can leverage its unique competitive attributes through contents, campaigns, contests and interactions on social media platforms.
• Social media in isolation would not produce result. It needs to be linked with the transmedia campaigns and integrated platforms.
• The brand which can move and engage the target audience and can produce effective contributions from them in terms of sharing, recommendations, active participation in the events etc, will definitely win the race or competition.
• The brand value of a company or product is expected to increase many fold on social media platforms, if there is a deliberate and timely association with other celebrity brands through different productive activities or events.

Sources: Sony Mobile and Facebook Page of Sony