Intentional Scarcity or Just Poor Planning by Sony?
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I was having an interesting discussion with a colleague the other day regarding the launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 game console. The debate centered around whether Sony created scarcity to drive up demand, hype and general interest in its product OR was Sony not operationally prepared to deliver enough of the highly-coveted, gaming systems in time for the holidays?
CNN published an article Thursday stating that perhaps less than half of the previously planned 400,000 units were shipped to North America. Despite airlifting units to the U.S., some analysts believe that less than 750,000 units will be sold before the end of the year.
Who’s to blame? On one hand, you could say this is a thoughtfully planned marketing strategy, which may limit sales in the short-term, but could enhance the cache of the brand in the long run. Alternatively, consumers might assert that the shortage could be blamed on Sony’s operations team who weren’t properly prepared for the rollout.
I’m more inclined to believe the former. Sony has known about this launch for a long, long time. And although, supply chain hiccups can and do happen, I’m just skeptical enough to believe that this wasn’t a coincidence.
In the mean time, how many articles, blog posts and chat room conversations have you seen regarding the Play Station 3? I’ve seen a ton and I doubt this disappoints Sony. What do they say, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”?
So What? Do I really believe that Sony would forego the sales that could undoubtedly shore up its bottom line, just to create temporary scarcity? I really don’t know. Regardless of the intent, there will be a lot of families who won’t have a Play Station under the tree this year and for that I’m disappointed.
Tags: Sony, Playstation 3, CNN, Gaming, Retailing
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There is no such thing as poor planning on the part of Sony. This is a no brainer. Get the product into the right hands and build buzz.
Sony is too smart to let the supply chain get f’d up.
The other angle here is that PS3 game consoles are currently selling at a $240 loss for Sony. Sony needs buzz from the marketplace to encourage game producers to design for PS3, but does not really want to sell a million consoles at a loss. As components become widely available, their reduced costs will allow Sony town turn a profits on the console. But Sony would prefer consumers to buy PS3 in a few months rather than today!
See Lee Gomes’ WSJ column from 11-21-2006 for a breakdown of Sony’s console costs.