by , 11:00 AM EDT, July 9th, 2004
It appears that the war is on for the minds and pocketbooks of the American music lover. According to a Reuters report, Sony is preparing to launch an advertising attack that highlights its new Walkman digital music player.
Sony's new line of portable, personal digital music players are being seen as the first true competition against Apple's iPod, and there have been some words between the two companies about how Sony is portraying the capabilities of its new players against those of the iPod.
According to the article, Sony intends to double its advertising budget, and the ad campaign will highlight other Sony products as well. From the article:
Sony Electronics, the North American sales arm of Japan's Sony Corp. has focused its advertising on four key product lines, including its spruced up Walkman digital music player which aims to take a bite out of Apple Computer's market-leading iPod.
"It is the largest single campaign that Sony's ever put together in the United States," Mark Viken, senior vice president of corporate marketing, told Reuters.
"We're doubling spending from last year in total, and we are integrating our activities so they look and feel as if they are coming from one Sony," he said, without providing dollar figures.
There's more information in the full article at Reuters News.
It certainly seems so. It is clear that Sony wants Apple's leadership in the world of portable music players, a position it once firmly held with its line of Walkman cassette and CD players. With the right advertising campaign, Sony might pull it off, especially if Apple does nothing to counter it.
Apple's advertising focus for the last year or so has been exclusively on the iPod, and that advertising has heretofore been very successful. There may well be a renewed iPod campaign featuring the iPod mini, now that the device has gone global, but will it be enough to counter a Sony ad campaign focused on the US? It's hard to say, but you can be sure that Sony is taking this seriously, and we can only hope that Apple is doing the same.