Market cap

* For banks, enterprise value is substituted with market cap. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.

Performance of the brand

The Sony Group is a Japanese corporate group primarily focused on electronics, games, entertainment products & components. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding & electronics), Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, which produces films, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings and several others.

The origin of the name is traced to both the Latin word for sound, ‘sonus’, and the colloquialism ‘sonny boy’ which was appropriated from English by Japanese in the 1950s to mean smart young men, since founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka considered themselves to be sonny boys themselves.

News

Reported a 15.5 billion Yen loss for the three months from April to June

Owing in large part to the impact of Japan’s March earthquake and tsunami. The disaster, which killed more than 20,000 people, disrupted industries including electronics and car manufacturing, although most companies, including Sony, say the worst financial effects are behind them.

On 8 August 2011, the Sony distribution centre in Enfield, North London was set alight by rioters and burned down the following morning

This has hit many independent record labels and indie music artists such as DJ ‘Rob Da Bank’ though the wider commercial and brand-related implications for Sony, in this instance, are limited.

Suffered serious security breaches leading to the theft of the personal details of millions of Playstation gamers

Playstation has recently suffered from a major security breach in Sony’s online gaming and digital media distribution service, where more than 70 million users had their personal information stolen. Though this is not represented in this year’s figures, it will almost certainly negatively impact its brand value next year.

Sony and Playstation have the monumental task of convincing its users that their personal and financial details are safe in their hands. If Sony is able to mitigate the negative customer perception effects of the security breach, they will be in a strong position to build on their US$3.34 billion brand value and challenge Xbox’s position as the number one home gaming console brand over the next year.

Cut profit forecast by 25% in July

Sony has cut its full-year net profit forecast to 60 billion Yen from an already relatively modest 80 billion.

Sony is facing challenging times, with business stalling and the company having faced serious disruptions. Even before the major difficulties presented by the Japanese earthquake, Sony had been criticised by investors for failing to move quickly enough on new technological inventions, such as the move from analogue to digital and with the introduction of LCD screens. Sony is continuing its attempts to become leaner and more adaptable and, provided it steps up innovation and maintains the undoubted quality of its products, will remain one of the most powerful global technology brands.

League tables

Sony appears in the following brand league tables:

Rank 69 in the Global 500 2012.
Rank 61 in the Global 500 2011.
Rank 61 in the Global 500 2011.
Rank 53 in the Global 500 2010.
Rank 34 in the Global 500 2009.
Rank 51 in the Global 500 2008.
Rank 58 in the Global 250 2007.