Sony's failure in China: Do you really think you have the "Great Law"?

Yesterday, the news of Sony Mobile's massive layoffs in China made me feel very emotional. With Samsung's loss of power in China, other international brands in the Chinese market are no longer as advantageous as they used to be in the face of competition from local brands. At least, their brand premium cannot convince consumers. With the same configuration, why should I pay an extra 1,000 or 2,000 yuan to buy your phone instead of a domestic phone? The rapid development of domestic mobile phones is one of the reasons why Sony's mobile phone sales in China are not stagnant, but this is definitely not the fundamental reason for the massive layoffs in Sony Mobile's China region. Sony's defeat in China is caused by a series of Sony's own reasons, and external competition has only accelerated its decline.

Lack of marketing awareness and weak advertising

The marketing and publicity costs of a Samsung flagship phone are equivalent to the publicity costs of all Sony Mobile products in a year. Except for large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu, you can hardly see Sony mobile phone billboards. In fact, many cities do not even have Sony mobile phone counters. This is also the crux of Sony as a whole. Sony's flagship phone is a particularly competitive product in Android. Sony believes too much in the principle of "good wine needs no bush", but in today's social media era, marketing and promotion are the kingly way. Even a second-rate product can be promoted to a first-rate product through constant marketing hype. Of course, Sony people may never want to admit that their mobile phone products are second-rate products, but in my eyes, including in the past use, they always give people a kind of imperfect beauty. Knowing the shortcomings of their products, Sony is unwilling to change, or simply drags the shortcomings of the products to the next generation.

Can you imagine the rise of Samsung? If it weren’t for the strong marketing, do you really think Samsung would be able to compete with the iPhone? Samsung’s advertising and marketing is to take advantage of the shortcomings of the iPhone and compete in a misaligned way to tell consumers why they need Samsung. If you look at Sony’s mobile phone ads, they are still limited to the thinking of engineers, telling you a lot of hardware parameters and how impressive the advanced technology is, but do consumers really care?

Local services cannot highlight Sony's core advantages

The international version of the XPERIA phone not only has a complete set of GMS, but also Sony's own Music Unlimited, Video Unlimited music and movie rental services, as well as a number of exclusive game content provided by PlayStation Mobile.

What about in China? Music is given to Duomi and Baidu. Rather than being integrated into the Walkman channel, it is more like just a shortcut. I can't use the Walkman app itself to play songs in the Duomi or Baidu music library. I still need to open a third-party program. What's the point? Video is given to Sohu. A special Sony zone is set up, but the experience is really bad. Don't even think about PlayStation. Other things such as social platform sharing, call recording, and Sony application selection are all available on China Cool Alliance Xiaomi and Meizu, and they are done better. What you don't have, I have, and what you have, I do better.

Serious internal fighting

Sony's internal struggles are enough to make a palace drama. After Sony acquired Ericsson's shares, it has been merging Sony Electronics and Sony Mobile, from marketing to operations and finally to procurement, but the process has not been smooth.

Starting with Z Ultra, Sony Electronics took over the sales of mobile phones in the open market, but Sony Electronics obviously had no experience in this matter. In addition to filling its own Sony Store with mobile phones, it also sold a large number of goods to Sony dealers. As a result, the price of Z1 collapsed not long after it was launched. Some dealers even sold the mobile power bank and mobile phone separately in the Z1 gift box to make two profits. Sony Mobile also clung to the thigh of the operator. The two parties acted separately. Although they both belonged to Sony, they were in a state of "if I did well, it was my credit, and if I did not do well, I would blame the other party." They did not regard each other as family at all.

Prices are inflated and dive fast

Before Sony Electronics took over, Sony Mobile itself had a certain ability to control prices. At least the licensed products would not drop by 700 yuan a month and then adjust the price a few days after they were launched. Most of the cheap Sony phones were purchased from parallel importers. But now, because Sony Electronics does not have enough business experience, it often develops mobile phones and then distributes them in large quantities to dealers, who arbitrarily reduce prices to increase sales. It completely ignores the feelings of the first batch of consumers who bought Sony flagship phones at high prices. You have to know that selling products is not a one-time business. No one wants a mobile phone that they just bought at a high price to be reduced in price within a week or two.

"I bought this flagship phone for 4999, and it dropped to 4299 after a month! Two months later it dropped to 3699! This phone doesn't feel high-end at all!" These are the thoughts of a former Sony fan who has turned hater.

The inflated prices are not only reflected in the Xperia Z series, which is the highest-end flagship of Sony mobile phones. Its price is comparable to that of Samsung, HTC, and iPhone, and Sony fans have accepted it. However, the pricing of the T series and M series is really one more deadly than the other. The T2 Ultra was launched at 2888 for the mobile version and 2399 for the Unicom version. The HTC 816, which has better configuration than it, only costs 1999, and its advertising is more aggressive than yours. Which one do you think consumers will choose? And the M2, which uses Qualcomm 400 CPU and has no highlights, dares to be priced directly at 2399, but the price was adjusted as soon as it arrived.

To put it bluntly, Sony still can't let go of its own status to compete with the rapid development of domestic mobile phones. As a result, the price remains high, the product is not good enough, and the advertising and marketing are not strong. Why would consumers buy your mobile phone? Is it just because of the word "Sony"? Do you really think that Sony fans believe in "Sony Dafa is good"? And those Sony fans who clamor "Sony Dafa is good" only worship Sony game consoles and games, not Sony mobile phones. Since the day of its birth, Sony mobile phones have never been ahead of their competitors!

Since Kazuo Hirai took over Sony, Sony has been promoting the One Sony strategy. Undoubtedly, Sony mobile phones will be the core product of One Sony. Sony has no reason not to make mobile phones, and even less reason to give up the Chinese market, which has the largest number of users in the world. Sony should face up to the rise of competitors, put aside its own status, and use its own unique advantages to tell consumers the value of Sony mobile phones.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.