MG412: Brand Extension Report for Sony PlayStation Smartphone

This report analyzes Sony's PlayStation brand extension, focusing on the launch of a gaming-focused smartphone. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the importance of brand extension in a competitive environment. The report employs various research methods, including an examination of existing brand values using Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism, and a description of the target market utilizing the STP approach. It also includes a PESTLE analysis of the UK market to identify opportunities and threats and utilizes the Ansoff Matrix to illustrate the market penetration strategy. The report details the new smartphone's features and compares it to competitors like Nintendo and Microsoft, assessing their strengths and weaknesses. The conclusion emphasizes the effectiveness of brand extension and the need for thorough market and competitive analysis to achieve success. References include academic books and journals.

Sony PlayStation
Brand Extension

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Aim of this project is reflect importance of marketing and how brand extension is
considered to be one of the effective marketing tool in the competitive business environment.
The methods of research in brand extension provides information regarding brand and brand
value. A description of the target market and analysis of the new market is made so that threats
and opportunities are used for brand extension. All the competitors available in the market must
be analysed so that strategies to compete with the competition can be established. All the
analysis concludes that various strategies in the market needs to be implemented in effective
manner so that objectives can be achieved as planned.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................1
FINDINGS.......................................................................................................................................1
Existing brand and brand values.................................................................................................1
Description of the target market..................................................................................................2
Analysis of the new Market........................................................................................................3
Explanation of the new product..................................................................................................4
Competition.................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Brand extension is the usage of established brand name for introducing a new range of
products and services offered by the business organisation. In this project report Sony is making
a brand extension for PlayStation by launching a new smartphone specifically designed for
gaming purpose. Market for PlayStation and games in smartphones is explored to global level.
Sony possess market share of 57% in this field (Harper and Endres, 2018). As per recent trends it
can be noticed that more and more demand is generated for PlayStations. A new dividion is
announced in this relation by Sony as Forwardworks. So that smartphones based on PlayStation
gaming suits can be launched.
METHODOLOGY
Based on the data made available by the marketing trends of the past years it is seen that
sales of PlayStation are increasing year by year. A decline in the sales for Sony PlayStation is
recorded by 12% as no new technological improvement is made to enhance consumers
experience using such products. As per financial statements and sales record and market share
analysis helps to ascertained such detailed information.
FINDINGS
Existing brand and brand values
Brand is defined as a name, design, symbol and logo or nay other feature that helps in
identifying a seller and made them different form various sellers available in the market.
Organisations like Sony that possess already existing brand image made brand extension through
which a new product is marketed in the name of the organisation. Brand extension helps
businesses to improve their portfolio and it becomes easy for consumers to accept a product
offered under a existing brand name (Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism, 2018). In order to
understand branding Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism model is used which is explained as
follows-
In the year 1996, Jean-Noel Kapferer's defined six elements that helps a organisation in
order to ensure branding. The six elements are-
Physique: This defines physical characteristics of a brand. As it helps consumers to
visualise and identify the product.
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Personality: In this element brand is treated as a personality that individuals possess it
includes style, attitude and colour of the brand.
Culture: It defines set values that are followed by business organisation in order to
ensure foundation of the brand. For example- reflection of the culture of origin country.
Self-Image: In this stage brand can be used as self-image of an individual.
Reflection: At this stage brand portrays its target consumers. For example- portraying
consumers in good mood when played with Sony PlayStation games.
Relationship: This element defines relationship developed in the brand and its
consumers.
Source: Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism, 2018
Description of the target market
In order to ensure target market STP approach is used which is considered to be a
modern marketing approach for business organisations. It stands for Segmentation, Targeting
and Positioning. Sony organisation needs to split market into smaller groups so that needs of
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Illustration 1: Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism, 2018

consumers can be identified easily. Through targeting a suitable target market is selected in
which provided goods and services can be sold (Keller and Brexendorf, 2019). At last a position
is enjoyed in which product enjoys benefits in relation to the competition such as Nintendo and
Microsoft. Individuals belong to the age of 16 to 30 both male and female are targeted
consumers of the new product.
Analysis of the new Market
In order to analyse external threats and opportunities available in UK market where this
new gaming smartphone of Sony will be launched required PESTLE analysis.
Elements of Threats Description
Political  Economic instability in the UK market.
 Government policies to help local businesses to create a
business opportunity for them.
Economical  Sharp fluctuation while trading in different currencies.
 Dependency on US Fed interest rate scenario.
Social  Growth in demand of products which served as a value added
product.
 Shaft in the demand for digital products.
Technological  Shift of the gaming industry towards advanced technology and
Virtual reality.
 Good technological development is an opportunity to earn
more.
Legal  Delay in legal procedures made various opportunities
unachieved.
Environmental  More and more protection towards development of goods which
are environmental friendly minimises usage of technological
goods.
Ansoff Matrix- It is defined as a communication tool through which all the growth
strategies are identified. Their are four elements in the matrix such as Market Penetration,
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Product Development, Market Development and Diversification. Among all Sony is using
Marketing Penetration strategy for growth as new smartphone which is specifically launched in
the market specifically for gaming purpose (Marchand, 2017). As per this strategy existing
products(smartphones) are introduced in the already existing market of UK.
Explanation of the new product
The new product introduced by Sony is a smartphone that is specialises in gaming with
minimal lag, stuttering and ensures optimal performance. As the usage of smartphones is
increasing among all age group and introducing a smartphone for games will help in growth of
business.
Competition
Basis Sony Nintendo
Diversity of Games This organisation offers a wide
variety of Video-games where
gamers can make a selection
form many types of games
made available to them. Form
innovations and new
improvements made in the
Sony PlayStation new gaming
titles will be introduced so that
level of consumer satisfaction
can be improved.
When Nintendo is compared
with Sony then it can be
recorded that it possess lesser
variety in gaming titles. This
makes gaming portfolio of
company smaller and less
attractive. Although the variety
is less and does not seems
attractive instead of this all the
video-games offered by the
company is well-received by
gamers.
Technological consideration Sony introduces its games
through PlayStations in which
various video games are
available and users can play
and enjoy. Sony lacks in
technological development in
consideration to Nintendo as
A effective technological
improvement is made by the
organisation through which
Nintendo organisation
provides Nintendo's switch
which allows users to expand
their storage with micro SDHC
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its latest PlayStation 4 does not
supports external hard drives
for storage expansion.
card. This technological
advancement made Nintendo
more competitive in the
gaming market in comparison
to Sony.
Portfolio of products Sony enjoys one of the greatest
strength form Nintendo is the
grate amount of diversification
in its portfolio. As Sony is one
of the well known brand in the
electronic industry and gaming
is one of the extension of the
brand. Already existing brand
image of the company in
various markets helps business
to expand their brand with new
products.
In the present time Nintendo is
only focused in the gaming
industry which minimises
availability of product
portfolio with the business and
do not help in establishing a
good brand image of the
business in the market in
comparison to Sony (Shay and
Palomba, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that brand extension is one of the
effective branding strategy for business so that new market can be acquired to enjoy large market
share. In order to make extension existing brand and target market needs to be analysed so that
effective strategy can be initiated. Market analysis for threats and opportunities and new product
specifications must be known so that competition is analysed and decision is taken on some
basis.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Harper, D. A. and Endres, A. M., 2018. From Quaker Oats to Virgin Brides: Brand capital as a
complex adaptive system. Journal of Institutional Economics. 14(6). pp.1071-1096.
Keller, K. L. and Brexendorf, T. O., 2019. Measuring brand equity. In Handbuch
Markenführung (pp. 1409-1439). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Marchand, A., 2017. Multiplayer features and game success. In New Perspectives on the Social
Aspects of Digital Gaming(pp. 97-112). Routledge.
Shay, R. and Palomba, A., 2018. First-Party Success or First-Party Failure? A Case Study on
Audience Perceptions of the Nintendo Brand During the Wii U’s Product Life
Cycle. Games and Culture, p.1555412018813666.
Online
Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://howbrandsarebuilt.com/blog/2018/12/21/the-brand-identity-prism-and-how-it-
works/>
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