Full PESTLE Analysis on Sony Corporation

1. PESTLE ANALYSIS FOR SONY CORPORATION
P: Political and Government factors
Each country has their own rules and regulations set by the government as well as Malaysia.
Before entering the existing or new market in Malaysia, SONY must adhere the rules and
regulations set by the Malaysian government. And there is always the risk of the changes in
the rules especially when the government political condition changes. As the recent rules set
by the government is the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) which need to be
followed by all businesses registered in Malaysia.
E: Economics factors
The economic condition in Malaysia is one of the essential factors that affect the SONY
business operation. Since Sony is an international company, the current decreasing value of
Malaysian Ringgit in exchange rate affects the economic condition of Sony. The increasing of
the product’s price plus with the constant level of wages may decrease the consumer’s
spending. And the current instable economic condition of Malaysia also affects the gross
income of Sony.
S: Social factors
Even though Sony has a well established image all around the world due to its best product
services and qualities, they still need to be aware of the customer demand, changes of the
social lifestyles and other social conditions. Recently, Sony Group has established a well
organized Corporate Social Responsibility in which they improve their corporate governance,
ethics and compliance among the workers and also the quality and services provided to the
customers 1as set in the Sony Pledge of Quality - "Sony employees will always respect our
customers' viewpoints in striving to deliver product quality and customer service that exceed
their expectations.". They have taken so many step to ensure their product quality and services
are at the best.2
1 http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/message/
2 http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/quality/customer/

2. T: Technological factors
The technological factors are very important for Sony since they works around the technology
every single day. In this era of technology, the technology always evolve in every second and
even can become obselete over a night. Sony was the market leader for more than 6 decades
ago, before it was dominated by Apple and Samsung in their respective products.3 Therefore,
Sony needs to use new technology and spend more into the Research and Development
department to develop more devices and gadgets that satisfy the customer needs. In the recent
Corporate Strategy Meeting, Kazuo Hirai, CEO of Sony introduced their new organizational
and management structure which split their electronics business units. One of the goal is to
enable each company to engage with the research and development investment and human
resource development with an eye to long-term sucess. He also stated that, in devices area,
Sony aims to further bolster its competitive edge in the realm of CMOS image sensors by
investing in increased production capacity and technology development.4
E: Environmental factors
The environmental factors have become the most important factor due to the scarcity of the
raw materials, the increasing of the environment polutions and as a level to measure the
company’s ethical action and its sustainability. More consumers demand for products that are
sourced ethically and from a sustainable source.5 Sony recognizes the importance of
preserving the natural environment to ensure the life of the future generation. Therefore, Sony
capitalizes its superior technology and innovates to reduce the environmental impact of its
business activities and to deliver environmentally conscious products and services that enrich
customers' lives through its environmental plan. They also plan to achieve zero enironmental
footprint by 20506
L: Legal factors
Legal factors include health and safety, equal opportunities, advertising standards, consumer
rights and laws, product labelling and product safety. For the international company, to know
what is legal and what is not is very important in order to trade safely in all countries. Since
rules and regulations in each country may e same and differ to each other, Sony should know
3 https://williamoakley1.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/p-e-s-t-analysis-for-sony-corporation/
4 http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/strategy/
5 http://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs-and-advice/marketing-theories---pestel-analysis
6 http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/environment/

3. and get familiar with each of the rules and regulations so that they can survive longer after
entering the global market.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
Sony is a worldwide company that engages with the development, design, manufacture and
sale of electronic equipments, intruments and devices for consumers and industrials market.7
With its experience and remarkable achievements in term of product development and
marketing communicaion, Sony has been a very successful company and has a well-known
and prestige brand and image. The key factors to the success are as follow:
 Extensive research and development: As a company that specializes in technology,
Sony has been doing an extensive research and development to ensure that they got
the newest and advance technology in order to compete with the other company that
specializes in the similar industry.
 Technological and innovative activities: Sony continues to amaze the world by
introducing the creative and innovative devices using the new technology such as the
first smartphone with the water resistance function and the Sony's Entertainment
Access Glass that provides closed caption viewing and audio playback for hearing and
visually impaired patrons.8
 Global manufacturing and distribution networks: Due to the good marketing
strategies, Sony has entered global market and been distributed and manufactured all
over the world.
 Diversified strategic busines units (SBU) : Sony is operated on diversified business
units which primarily focused on consumer electronics, mobile, games, movies,
musics, network services, financial services and professionals. Sony Group has been
divided into multiple segments as follow:
7 http://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2000394.html
8 http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr/technology/