The Journal of Brand Management Volume 6 Number 1
Setting the record straight
In the Volume 5, No 4 of The Journal oj Colour TV was launched in 1968 and has BrandMana gement, a paper by Ward and Per been the single most important Sony prod rier included a substantial misconception of uct. Betamax was launched in the 1970s and the development of Sony. Among other the Walkman in 1979. The Compact Disc things on page 286 the paper stated that was launched by Sony and Philips in 1982. Sony's principal business is its music, while Based on the Betamax experience, and that products such as Walkman, Discman, Tr ini of the launch of CD, Sony decided it tron TV s etc are 'NPD' . This is almost the needed a closer understanding of the 'soft exact opposite of the truth. ware' and so bought CBS Music in 1986, To set the record straight, Sony was later renaming it, Sony Music, which now founded in 1946. The original prospectus accounts for less than 10 per cent of total written by the late Honorary Chairman sales. All this is in the public domain and the Masaru Ibuka included the following vision: proportion of sales revenue by major prod uct category is published in every Annual 'We shall be very selective of our products and Quarterly Report. and even welcome technological difficul I make these points because I care about ties. We shall focus on technologically so the Sony brand and always will. However, phisticated products of greatest usefulness after 10 years I have decided to leave Sony to society, regardless of the quantity in and am taking up a senior position with the volved. Moreover, we shall avoid the for Pentland Group plc where I shall have inter mal demarcation between electronics and national responsibility for some of their mechanics and shall create products unit major brands including Speedo, Ellesse and ing the two fields, that are unique and Berghaus. Having been Country Manager that other companies cannot overtake.' for one of the world's greatest corporate brands it will be fascinating to move back In fulfilling this mission Sony developed a into a portfolio environment and develop progressive range of world beating, ground more targeted positions in the sporting and breaking electronic products including tape leisure apparel industry against the mono recorders in the 1940s, the first transistor lithic Nike and Adidas. radio in the 1950s, the first transistor TV in David Pearson the 1960s. The breakthrough Tr initron Editorial Board
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