After winning their fraught battle against Toshiba’s HD-DVD in February 2008, Sony are once again mobilising themselves. After a slow start with low sales, Sony will be publicising Blu-ray heavily through the blockbuster film releases of Terminator Salvation and Angels and Demons later this year. Despite this, shouldn’t they be changing to a strategy that focuses on the value proposition of Blu-ray?
Consumers were initially slow to accept Blu-ray. Complaints of slow launching speeds, expensive players, and cheaper and more convenient alternatives in the form of film downloads from the likes of iTunes, Amazon Unbox (in the US), Movielink and Cinemanow, all in the face of poor economic conditions, have affected the uptake. Apple’s refusal to adopt Blu-ray in its recent line of Macs, with Job’s describing it as ‘A bag of hurt‘, has also dealt Blu-ray another blow.
So will this new integrated strategy be the answer? It’s a good start. However, in order to compete against the value and convenience of downloads, it’s the value proposition Sony is going to have to focus on. Customers are feeling the pinch, particularly now. As a new generation of consumers leaving university and the illegal downloads behind turn towards the immediate convenience and cheaper prices of online downloads, it makes me wonder if Sony’s publicity strategy will give them the real boost they seek.
Alas, as a student, I know where my nearest HMV £3 DVD clearance sale is…