Chapter 2: strategic marketing for competitive advantage

Sony’s marketing plan was fairly bold. They used a new slogan about 5 months prior to release the new PlayStation 4 system. The commercial was released during the NBA finals on Tuesday June 11, 2013 and it features a greasy-haired man walking through a path of destruction speaking of gamer greatness featuring previews of many upcoming games that will be released with the system in November of 2013 in time for the holiday season. The commercial lasted about 90 seconds and ended with the PlayStation 4 slogan “Greatness Awaits” as a tease to the anticipation of the upcoming console.

 

Microsoft was fairly different with their approach to attract customers they used a more family orientated method by placing a family in a living room in front of a television screen basically showing off the new features of the Xbox One which include a new connect camera that tracks complete body movement, facial and vocal recognition of up to 4 players, and a more interactive home screen allowing the player to have complete access and custom ability of  the console.




Recent news:
Microsoft’s strategic plan recently hit a huge bump when they were accused of paying people to post positive blogs about the new system. Gamers are outraged and Xbox is receiving major scrutiny for their stealthy actions in an attempt to boost sales and drive in new customers.

Sony has remained consistent with their strategy using the same aggressive approach and has also stated that half of their users are subscribed to PlayStation Plus, a service that provides gamers with bonus content and is a paid subscription that is needed to play games online on the PlayStation 4.

 

 

 

Sales war:

Since the PlayStation 4 was released a week prior to the Xbox One it seemed like Sony had a clear advantage over Microsoft, which it does. As of December 28, 2013 Sony has been able to sell 4.2 million units compared to Microsoft’s 3 million units as of the same date. But numbers are still up in the air for quarter 1 of the 2014 fiscal year as Sony has stated that would have sold close to 5 million units by the end of march and Microsoft claims that their numbers are good and the Xbox One is still in demand and that they have shipped out 3.9 million units since its release.

 

 

Next Round:

With two different approaches and two different marketing strategies it seems clear that to date the Sony PlayStation 4 is beating the Xbox One. Not only has it sold more its actually appealing more to gamers and the needs of the gamer instead of the Xbox One which is basically calling itself an all in one system that allows you to multitask as you play. Even though the Xbox One sales are strong in the long run Sony’s advantage is clear and present and if Microsoft doesn’t release Xbox One only titles and continues its impressive Xbox Live service its clearly going to lose this race come holiday season 2014 which is expected to see both consoles release more titles for their consoles. But the next round in this fight comes right at the end of quarter 2 when the E3 convention is held in Los Angeles previewing upcoming games and announcements from Sony and Microsoft.