Introduction:Sony is the brain child of Masaru Ibuka who in 1945 had been working for Japanese army on military technology. Ibuka and seven other engineers in October 1945 Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tosuken) and the next year he was joined my colleague Akio Mrita. When Mrita went to island found out that people are having trouble with the company’s name he changed it to SONY. The company name "Sony" was created by combining two words. One is "sonus" in Latin, which is the root of such words as "sound" and "sonic." The other is "sonny" meaning little son

According to the Sony Corporation, its founder Akio Morita "firmly believed that brand image could be built from the ground up, and that a company had to work hard to develop it 

Sony is the one of the biggest electrical giants in the world. Sony is one for the

leadingmanufacturer of Electronics, Videos, Communications, Video Game Consoles andinformation technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its products

range from small MP3 player to loud high tech stereo speakers, from small Digital Picture Frames to big high definition LCD TVs, from Music to Movies Sony organization covers all.

MICRO ENVIRMAENTThe Company:

This combines all the company internally groups like financial, research, management, development and etc. Sony as a company has a very highly trained research team of technicians, financial advisors and manager which keep Sony as a multimedia giant strong from inside.

ii.Suppliers:

A company is as good as its supplier. Sony has a good relationship with its suppliers. This gives Sony an advantage on its competitors in getting good quality and reliable material. Otherwise shortage of material or increase in price can affect Sony’s sales volume.

iii.Marketing Intermediaries:

These are the firms that help an organization to sell their products to consumers. Sony has any retailers, distribution centers and marketing agencies to help them reach to the masses (customers).

iv.Customers:

Customers markets are of five types:

o Consumer Market:

They consist of individuals and households that buy goods for personal consumption. Sony is very strong in this market.

o Business Market:

Sony is increasing its sales in this market but still a bit shy from its competitors.

o Reseller Market:

They buy goods and services to resell at a profit.

o Government Market:

Sony is introducing more products which are taking high interest by Government to increase public services.

o International Market:

Sony has very big International market and its demand is growing day by day.

v.Competitors:

According to the marketing concept, a company must provide customer value and satisfaction more than its competitor do.

Sony as a multinational organization has many competitors indifferent fields of expertise. Some of the competitors are new but some are as old as Sony itself but all of them never been able to match Sony’s value for money and marketing skills.

vi.Public:

A public is any group that has an actual or potential interest or impact on an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives. Sony has many public interests like; Financial, Government, Media, Citizen, internal and local

MACRO ENVIRMAENT“It’s the collection of uncontrollable forces and conditions facing a person or a company, including demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and cultural forces.”

Macro-environment consists of six major factors that affect an organization externally depending on its marketing strategy. They arei. Demographic ,Environment: ii.Economic Environment : iii.Natural Environment: iv.Technological Environment :v.Political Environment: vi. Cultural Environment:

I. Demographic Environment:

Demography is the study of human populations in terms of size, density, location,age, gender, race, occupation etc. For a company like Sony who has different products for different ages need to keep a close eye on the demographic environment. So that when a new product is launched it is targeted to right age group, or occupation at a right time and location.

II. Economic Environment:

The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns. Sony has to consider its products prices and quality before the launch

of its products. For example; the buying power in Europe and North America is considerably more than the third world countries.

III. Natural environment: 

 Natural environment are the natural resources that are needed as inputs by the marketers or that which are affected by marketing activities.

 Especially the following trends:

o Shortages of raw materials.o Increased pollution.o Increased government intervention.

IV. Technological Environment:

The technological environment is the most dramatic of all the environments. The changes in the technology are so rapid that no one can predict it. Sony is a technology dependent company. So keeping an eye on the technology and keep ahead of the competitors is the vital role for Sony’s survival.

V. Political Environment:

The political environment consists of Laws, Government agencies and pressuregroups that influence or limit various organizations and individuals in a given society. Sony before mass producing a product for a country or a region has to take permission from Government and other authorities.

VI. Cultural Environment:

The cultural environment is made up of institutions and other forces that affect society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences and behaviors. Technology has become a trend which changes from region to region. Keep ahead of this and taking advantage is successful company’s main agenda.P.E.S.T analysis can also come in Macro-environment.

PEST ANALYSIS:PEST identifies the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, andlegal factors that of which directly affect Sony.

Political:

o Trade, return, and warranty restrictions

o Employment law is crucial to maintain cost effective and legal in a specific country.

o Introduction to Euro, the exchange may drop in the UK making Sony easier to expand.

Economic:

o Production and distribution of a multitude of consumer electronic products.o Interest rates play an important role in a company’s growth and price factor of the

products;o The fall in unemployment rates may cause Sony some problems in the processof

recruiting new employee’s in the business.o Specific region’s economic growth, inflation rates, and exchange rates, anddue to

current economic crisis

Social:

o Social factors include health consciousness of customer o Older population tends not to be interested in latest products rather they might be

interested in simple ones.o Some Asian and African countries may not be able to buy Sony’s products.

Technological:

o Digital age is the future developing aspect of the consumer electronics.o The production, storage and marketing of Sony products can be effected by

increased use of new technology.o Technology and innovation has been Sony’s passion and they made a breakthrough

in 2002 by launching PS2, which included enhanced graphics. This was followed by the PS3 in 2007 which had Blu-ray

How sony has responded to the changes in its environment factors

Political factorPolitical factors could have a direct impact on the ways Sony operates. Government often makes new decisions involving policy or legislation and it affect daily business

In the directive of businesses, the political factors have a huge influence. An example of political factors that affects Sony which includes government laws is minimum wage law.

This would affect Sony as the minimum wage law keeps changing every year. As in the same time product cost also keeps on changing, this will make Sony facing losses.

Social factorsDemographic and cultural aspects includes in the social factors of the external environment. Sony has also been affected by social issues from time to time. This is mainly because Sony has so widely expanded into different cultures and different markets that it tends to become hard to deal with all the diversity. The social factors which influences Sony varies in each country. These show the customer's needs and the size of the potential markets in every country.

Customer'No customer there is no business.' Customer satisfaction will be a target of company. SONY business can improve customer satisfaction.If we make the customer feel that they are special, customer will be appreciate us and help in increase our dividends in business with support our product. (Adhijik Naik, 2011) For example, SONY camera gives a high quality services to customers and meet their needs. Sony's promoter will give more details and information to customers when they have question or problem with buying SONY camera. Information about SONY camera will attract their interested in SONY camera and needs. They will feel more satisfy when using SONY camera. Then their satisfaction will be achieved through SONY camera. So, customers are very important in our business because they can easily influence our level of business.

SupplierSuppliers always work as equal partner and building relationships according to mutual trust (Sony Corporation, 2011). A supplier can satisfy a market function when he creates a new relationship with customer and partners. (Walter A., 2003) For example, suppliers promote and transmit the SONY camera to partners and have a good communication with them when they are selling SONY camera to customer. When partners satisfy with supplier and SONY camera then they will continue have a business with them in order to satisfy a market function.

IntermediariesRetailer and wholesaler are included in intermediaries. Regarding to SONY's website analysis, without intermediaries there is a difficult to get SONY product. (Sony electronics Inc, 2011) For example, intermediaries need to purchase SONY camera from SONY

Company and set an acceptable prices even a quality package of SONY camera in order to fulfil customer and let them easy to purchase SONY camera. These processes are vital in a business.

CompetitorsIt is crucial for Sony Corporation to watch attentively to its competitor so that they can maintain its position in the market. Sony Corporation has two types of competitor, that is, direct competitor and indirect competitor. Direct competitors are organisations that produce 'similar' products and services (wiseGEEK, 2011). Nokia, Motorola, Canon, Fuji Photo are all examples of direct competitors to Sony (Upvery.com, 2010). Indirect competitors are firms producing different types of products but satisfy the same needs (Rich Harshaw, 2011) of customers. The indirect competitor of Sony is video iPod. In which Sony PSP and iPod produced similar striking feature (Frank Hedley, 2008). Other competitors, especially in the software industry are Microsoft.

Government

The government imposed regulations to ensure business transactions are conducted in a fair and just manner. Legislations that are passed often influences the productions possibilities of a company and hence the type of goods and services that can be offered to the consumers. Apart from the above, the government also enforce taxation to collect revenue that will maintain itself and supply public services that may be needed by companies such as Sony. For example, Sony's income taxes benefit amounts to $19billion resulting in an effective rate of 10% in Oct 30, 2009 (wikinvest, 2009).

The Financial Community

Shareholders are very important for Sony Company because they support the organization's future expansion. There are two types of shareholders, that is private and institutional. As seen in the chart below, a major portion of Sony's shareholders are the corporation itself (60.18%), followed by foreign investors (27.27%) and subsequently financial institutions (8.74%) (Sony Financial Holdings, 2010).