You know the frustration in buying a gadget, computer, or any sort of electronic product, service, or offering. The nagging voice in your head that asks, “when will my purchase become obsolete?”
This is why reputation management is the inherent bane of every tech company – at least those that care about their reputation. Take Sony, for example. The company built its brand, and reputation, most amazingly during the global love affair with the Walkman. It took a while for that toy to get supplanted by the iPod, but still, the Walkman put the Sony brand on the map in a big way. The company’s reputation was one of making awesome, fun products everyone loved to buy and enjoy.
But, reputations that are carefully and methodically built must be maintained. The corollary is it doesn’t take much for a reputation to sink. In the past decade Sony had some embarrassing episodes, but for a global corporation, no narrative stinks more than being a money loser – literally. Someone is asleep at the wheel in the Sony reputation management department, and it all crashes with the company’s flagship consumer product, the PlayStation 3, or PS3.
Since its inception in 2006, the PS3 has been losing money on the sale of every single unit. According to the CNET article linked above, Sony’s CFO’s rebuttal is that PS3 production costs will be cut by 15% within a year. Ok… so what? Your company is still losing money at a breathtaking clip on your top product, and you’re not spinning this dilemma in a positive way – the industry still thinks your product is financial quicksand, period.
Unless Sony can reframe this narrative in a positive way – i.e., “our PS3 sales are part of our overall growth strategy” – then Sony reputation management is failing as fast as it is hemorrhaging cash.
