After experiencing sales drought, Sony Philippines hopes to regain market leadership in their electronics products starting next year with enhanced marketing that would give a strong push for the corporate market.

Takao Kuroda, president and managing director of Sony Philippines Inc., said this in an interview at the launch of the company’s comprehensive brand campaign dubbed “make.believe.”

“We hope to regain market leadership next year,” Kuroda said.

According to Kuroda, the electronics business around the world including Sony has been affected by the global financial crisis.

In the case of Sony, its overall sales have been affected by the closure of its CRT TV production. CRT TV accounts for a huge portion of its TV sales in the local market.

He said that it started to reduce sales of CRT TV since 2007 as the company has started to limit production prior to the shutdown of the CRT TV plant in 2008 as the company concentrates on the production of LCD TV. The absence of CRT TV would have an impact on the overall company sales until this year.

“But we are improving and hope our sales to finally recover next year,” Kuroda said.

While Sony has been behind in the overall LCD sales, the company is the market leader in the 40-inch and above LCD category while the dominant player concentrates in the lower-end segment of the market.

Kuroda also noted that Sony is number one in digital camera, audio products and expects strong pick-up for their PC products.

Kuroda said the improved overseas workers remittances and the election spending next year are expected to help perk up the domestic market.

Sony will also strengthen its marketing campaigns and push for more presence in the corporate segment noting that its retail sales account for the bulk of their sales at the present.

He also noted that they fare better in the provincial market than in the Manila market.

“More than 60 percent of our sales are generated through the retail market,” Kuroda said.

With its “make.believe” campaign, Kuroda said Sony would be able to present the totality of Sony encompassing its electronics, entertainment and technology.

“We are combining software (content) and hardware,” Kuroda added.

The unified brand message signifies Sony’s spirit of creativity and ability to turn ideas into reality World breakthroughs like the Walkman, BRAVIA, VAIO, Cyber-shot, and Handycam.