Follow Apple's Lead

Sony has been making a large change in their retail stores. Due to the lack of success in the "Sony Style" stores that opened up in 2004, Sony has decided to close its retail stores and have began coming out with an entirely new retail outlet, simply known now as a Sony Store. This new store strategy seems to follow rivalry company Apple in many different ways. The question down the road is "will Sony's new retail strategy be successful?"

Sony was founded in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K. K. in Tokyo, Japan. Sony has always been an innovator in electronic products. They changed their name to Sony in 1958; the Sony name was created by combining "Sonus," the original Latin for "Sonic," meaning sound, with "Sonny," denoting small size, or a youth boy. It was chosen for its simple pronunciation that is the same in any language. They developed Japan's first transistor radio in 1955. In 1979 Sony developed the Walkman, a product that would change the way people would listen and carry music forever and that led to the first ever CD player in 1982. They then tapped into the gaming industry in the mid-90s with their Playstation systems and midway through the 2000s they released the Blu-ray discs allowing homes to watch movies in high definition. Sony continues to innovate with 3D technologies in their laptops, camera, camcorders, and televisions.

In 2004 Sony decided to create a branded retail chain. It opened up several retail stores, which they named as "Sony Style Stores." These stores were very large and long, being roughly around 6,000-20,000 square feet. The stores had unattractive features such as curved panels, cheesy taglines such as "my style" written on the walls, and poor customer service. Randall Stross, who wrote an article discussing this topic, walked through a different number of these Sony stores and was very unimpressed. He viewed employees simply standing around and not engaging with the customers and instead having conversations amongst themselves. The store seemed almost too big and was out of place. It didn't have the energy and well trained employee staff that competitors such as Apple had. In order to fix this issue Sony began closing down the Sony Style Stores and began work on a new prototype retail store. In April, 2011 Sony opened the first of these new retail stores which are simply called "Sony Stores." These new Sony Stores are a complete makeover from the Sony Style Stores and are strikingly similar to Apple's retail store.

Sony's focus shifted toward products that support its media platforms; taking cues from Apple's in-store success in the process. Sony seems to be following Apple's example in its own individual way. In April 2011, Sony opened the doors to its first official "Sony Store" in Century City in Los Angeles, CA. Much like Apple's retail stores, Sony products