Written by Monique Curet and published on Monday, March 20, 2006 in The Columbus Dispatch
Like a girl trying to impress an influential sorority, Sony has gussied up its products and retail stores to win the affection of those who often control the purse strings: women. Statistics show that women have considerable influence in the purchase of household consumer electronics, and also spend big bucks on the products.
So Sony is outfitting its electronics with features that many women seek and is designing Sony Style stores to appeal to women.s preferences. The company didn.t just slap a coat of pink paint on its electronics and call it a day: Many of its efforts are focused on functionality.
The company says it considers behavior and lifestyle when marketing its products. One large segment of its marketing audience, dubbed the “qualityof-lifers,” is largely comprised of wom- en, said Gretchen Griswold, director of united strategy. That group typically uses technology to make their lives easier with the least amount of hassle.
“The innovations we create are relevant to their busy lifestyles,” Griswold said.
One example is a camcorder (DCR-DVD505) that records directly to DVDs, rather than relying on cables or other steps to transfer the video. Those kinds of simplifications are “huge” to the quality-of-lifers, Griswold said.
When Sony rolled out its DVD camcorder in 2004, the company sold its six-month inventory in three months.
Sony also has tried to appeal to women through product customization. The VAIO FJ series laptop computers, for example, are available in multiple colors, and fashion designer Luella Bartley created a limited edition bag for them.
When the Bartley bags were introduced, Mike Fasulo, chief marketing officer for Sony Electronics, said that “consumer electronics are now personalized and incorporated into wardrobe and style considerations, revealing as much about consumer preferences and personality as wardrobes.”
Beyond the way products look, though, Sony has focused on usefulness.
Griswold said Sony has worked to simplify devices for the benefit of quality-of-lifers. There.s an increased emphasis on quick-start product guides, which allow consumers to forgo complicated directions. Sony also color-codes its cords and plugs, so that buyers can take a product from its box and begin using it right away, Griswold said.
She said the genesis of the Sony brand since the 1960s has been to make products smaller, lighter and easier to use . and all of those things paralleled the needs of the women.s market. The company pays attention to details such as where buttons are placed and how devices fit in the hand, she said, and many of those attributes are appealing to women.
Usability often is an important factor to women when they buy technology, said Telle Whitney, president and chief executive of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
Whitney said that making electronics available in different colors is not very important. She noted that she.s been to consumer shows where the focus is on pink products for women, and that.s missing the point.
She called Sony.s emphasis on quality of life “a great focus,” because it means the company is looking at characteristics that reach a broader audience, including women.
Sony also is courting women in its retail stores. One of the company.s goals for its Sony Style stores was to create an environment where women feel comfortable, said Dennis Syracuse, senior vice president of Sony retail.
To that end, the Sony Style stores each have a concierge desk. The product selection is, as Syracuse says, “edited.” For example, instead of having a multitude of televisions, the stores include a limited selection of the best and latest.
And none of the stores. televisions plays sporting events.
Syracuse said Sony made a conscious effort to focus on women because research has indicated that they play a powerful role in buying decisions. In fact, the Consumer Electronics Association estimates that women influence 88 percent of household consumer-electronics purchases and also buy in excess of $50 billion worth of the products themselves.
“We were ahead of it,” Syracuse said. “We saw it coming.”