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Project Outline
Group Number:
Group Members: Donato Verardi, Marcel Sutter, Oliver Stampfli, Patrick Hammer Thomas Thalmann ([firstname].[lastname]@epfl.ch)
Company: Sony
Case: Betamax versus VHS; outlook on HD-DVD versus BlueRay
outline.pdf
outline.odt
Summary of the case report:
In 1975 Sony introduced the Betamax videocassette. It was not only the successor of U-matic, it was also the first product for a novel market, the home video recording market. In JVS with its VHS format, Sony encountered an incongruous adversary. One day in late 1975, RCA proposed to Sony to built a videocassette which would last longer than the actual 1 hour. Sony refused when JVS accepted ...
The relevant cases we preselected are :
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Ford Taurus (Customer needs)
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Sony PS2 (Disruptive technology)
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VLSI (Attacker's advantage)
Primary subject : Ford Taurus (Customer needs)
Sony created a new need with Betamax: people could record their TV-programs at home. And later on, JVS managed to revive this need by enlarge the capacity of its VHS format. In comparison, Ford achieved the same with Taurus: a car which performed best in quality, performance, etc. and therefore increased the costumer needs of a car.
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Discussion questions :
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What factors made VHS more successful than Betamax?
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How did the introduction of Betamax influence the market?
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Which market strategy did Sony adopt and how did the alliances on each side affect VHS's raise (upon Betamax crash)?
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Quick answers :
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Sony didn't want to accept the tradeoff between duration and image quality.
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It created the home video recording market.
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Sony was arrogant and as a leader it didn't want to change. VHS instead had more partners and we saw that later the market followed the technology with the most firms involved (most popular).
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Case Report
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Introduction TT
Sony's attitude by Akio Morita : « We don't believe in market research for a new product unknown to the public... so we never do any. We are the experts. »
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History of Sony (before 1974) Sütti
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Company history
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General marketing strategy
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Introduction of Betamax, the creation of a new market
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History of JVC Donato
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Company history
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General marketing strategy
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Introduction of VHS, second mover
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Betamax vs VHS Oli
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The format war begins: entry of VHS into the market
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Technology comparison
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Market vision (Matsushita, RCA and the race for alliances)
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Dilemma ?
Sony focuses on quality whereas VHS scores with long-play.
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