Sony's Just Doin' It For The Kids

According to the PSP's senior product manager in 'Merca, John Koller, the PSP's recently announced price drop isn't just about competing with the DS. SCEA is shifting its handheld marketing focus towards 13-17 year olds.

Speaking in an interview, Koller said



This finding, he said, was the reason behind last year's poorly executed “All I want for Christmas is a PSP” viral marketing campaign. "That campaign clearly did not work," he said. If you don't believe him, take a look at the video below. It was an example, though, of Sony trying to "identify ways of speaking and marketing to that 13-17 year-old consumer. It was an effort to be able to target that individual in a more quiet manner and not go out and promote it and have it be something that was found. The way it was done is not correct... In the future, we'll be more clear and transparent to the consumer."

The title of Sony's next campaign will be "Dude, Get Your Own." SPOnG will wait with interest to see if this next, “more transparent” campaign is an improvement.

This year, Koller says, Sony's looking to "break out of the home cycle." Apparently many American teens are playing the PSP inside the house. "The teens that are doing this value the ability to utilize the portability," Koller bizarrely stated. He went on to elaborate that what he meant was "I can play it upstairs while my parents are watching the TV downstairs." Ahhhhh...

Sony clearly needs to do something about it's ailing handheld platform. Whether this shift in focus will work remains to be seen. In the meantime, for an idea of what happens when Sony gets marketing to its younger audience wrong, have a look below.




^{Source: Wired}