Lesson #2: Give Your Marketing a Mass Appeal
Lesson #2: Give Your Marketing a Mass Appeal
When Morita made his first visit to Europe in 1953, he came across N.V. Philips, a company that had started off as a small light bulb manufacturer in an even smaller rural Dutch town, but had become the world’s leading manufacturer of electronics. Upon his return to Japan, Morita set new sights for his company. He wanted Sony to become as big a global leader as N.V. Philips had become, particularly in the affluent American market.
One of Morita’s first steps towards his new goal was in changing the name of his company. His intuition told him that Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation would not have as broad an appeal as he wanted, and would most likely not catch on in the U.S. Instead, Morita wanted a name that could be recognizable and easy to remember in any language. Along with Ibuka, the two poured over dictionaries until they finally found something they liked.
Morita had stumbled across ‘sonus,’ the Latin word for sound. He thought its meaning was appropriate considering their industry, while its Western root would symbolize his desire to entire the global marketplace. However, he did not think it was as of yet catchy enough. To that end, Morita decided to combine ‘sonus’ with ‘Sonny,’ a nickname that had become popular amongst American kids. Morita thought ‘Sonny’ would help portray the image of the company as a youthful one, with lots of energy and a bright future ahead. With that, the Sony Corporation was formed.
When Morita opened Sony’s first store in New York City in 1952, the company still had few products to show. Nevertheless, Morita wanted to make a grand entrance. In another example of his marketing ingenuity, Morita decided to place a large Japanese flag above the store’s entrance. WWII had only recently ended, and the flag had a startling presence on Americans, which got them talking.
Journalists and hundreds of consumers came to see what the story was behind the flag. Morita also had specially customized white shirts made for all of his sales team, big enough to carry the company’s Walkman. Morita wanted to prove the device could easily be carried around. Soon, Sony’s new 13 cm micro-TV, along with their original Walkmans were flying off the shelves.
Ironically, Sony’s U.S. division considered the name ‘Walkman’ to be improper English, and changed the product to the ‘Soundabout’ for their domestic market. Similarly, Sony Sweden began using the name ‘Freestyle’, while the product became ‘Stowaway’ in Britain. Morita, however, did not like using different names in different countries, and insisted that the Walkman become the product’s universal name.
Today, the presence of the word ‘Walkman’ in almost every major dictionary is evidence of Morita’s marketing success.
Lesson 2 Give Your Marketing a Mass Appeal
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“Advertising and promotion alone will not sustain a bad product or a product that is not right for the times,” Morita once said. That, however, did not stop Morita from creating successful marketing campaigns that would help transform Sony from a local Japanese shop into a multinational corporate giant.
When Morita made his first visit to Europe in 1953, he came across N.V. Philips, a company that had started off as a small light bulb manufacturer in an even smaller rural Dutch town, but had become the world’s leading manufacturer of electronics. Upon his return to Japan, Morita set new sights for his company. He wanted Sony to become as big a global leader as N.V. Philips had become, particularly in the affluent American market.
One of Morita’s first steps towards his new goal was in changing the name of his company. His intuition told him that Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation would not have as broad an appeal as he wanted, and would most likely not catch on in the U.S. Instead, Morita wanted a name that could be recognizable and easy to remember in any language. Along with Ibuka, the two poured over dictionaries until they finally found something they liked.
Morita had stumbled across ‘sonus,’ the Latin word for sound. He thought its meaning was appropriate considering their industry, while its Western root would symbolize his desire to entire the global marketplace. However, he did not think it was as of yet catchy enough. To that end, Morita decided to combine ‘sonus’ with ‘Sonny,’ a nickname that had become popular amongst American kids. Morita thought ‘Sonny’ would help portray the image of the company as a youthful one, with lots of energy and a bright future ahead. With that, the Sony Corporation was formed.
When Morita opened Sony’s first store in New York City in 1952, the company still had few products to show. Nevertheless, Morita wanted to make a grand entrance. In another example of his marketing ingenuity, Morita decided to place a large Japanese flag above the store’s entrance. WWII had only recently ended, and the flag had a startling presence on Americans, which got them talking.
Journalists and hundreds of consumers came to see what the story was behind the flag. Morita also had specially customized white shirts made for all of his sales team, big enough to carry the company’s Walkman. Morita wanted to prove the device could easily be carried around. Soon, Sony’s new 13 cm micro-TV, along with their original Walkmans were flying off the shelves.
Ironically, Sony’s U.S. division considered the name ‘Walkman’ to be improper English, and changed the product to the ‘Soundabout’ for their domestic market. Similarly, Sony Sweden began using the name ‘Freestyle’, while the product became ‘Stowaway’ in Britain. Morita, however, did not like using different names in different countries, and insisted that the Walkman become the product’s universal name.
Today, the presence of the word ‘Walkman’ in almost every major dictionary is evidence of Morita’s marketing success.
Lesson 2 Give Your Marketing a Mass Appeal
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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