Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1972 Sony US Headquarters
After resting for a day and two nights in a hotel in New York, Duan Yun's body finally adjusted to the jet lag and started his business plan for the United States.

According to the previous plan, under the leadership of Li Yun, Duan Yun went to Sony's headquarters in New York, where he will meet with the president and chief operating officer of Sony America, Ando Kuni.

For the vast majority of people living in New York, Sony's headquarters in the United States can be said to be the building they are most familiar with.

The Sony Building is a 647 ft (197 m), 37-story skyscraper located at 550 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.

Standing in the headquarters building of Sony Building, Duan Yun felt a lot of emotion in his heart.

For Sony, Duan Yun has always been full of respect. From a small workshop after the war, it has gradually developed into a global electronics giant. Akio Morita and his Sony Empire not only make Duan Yun full of respect , more from Sony's business development experience, Duan Yun has obtained a lot of methods and concepts of running a business, and for Tianyin Group, Sony has also provided them with an example and inspiration on how to open up the US market.

After Akio Morita opened the market in Japan with the first tape recorder, Sony brought its first batch of transistor radios to the United States. Before the Japanese market was fully developed, Sony began to attack the American market.

It was not easy at the beginning. Cultural differences, commercial differences, and differences in strength between countries are no easier than tariff barriers.

Prior to this, most Japanese companies exporting to the United States entrusted reliable Japanese trading companies with branches in the United States, and they shipped their products to wholesalers, who then delivered them to retail stores.

At that time, Sony recruited overseas market expanders in China, but at that time, none of the graduates were willing to come to such an unknown small factory.

At that time, Made in Japan meant low-priced, low-quality primary commodities in the United States, just like when Akio Morita was eating an ice cream at a restaurant on Kony Street in Dusseldorf, the waiter inserted a handful of ice cream into it. Paper umbrellas, and kindly say that this is a product of your country.

Therefore, such a sales method does not have a great impact on the product itself, but for Sony, which upholds high-tech and high quality, if the sellers themselves cannot well understand the value of the product, it will have a negative impact on the product sales and brand reputation. Builds can have bad effects.

In order to open up the American market, Akio Morita went to the United States to find agents, and at the same time recruited talents to prepare for Sony's sales company in the United States. In 1960, Sony's American branch was formally established. In the same year, Sony's overseas sales company was also established in Switzerland.

At this time, more than half of Sony's products were exported to the United States and other overseas markets. In the second year, Sony went public in the United States.At that time, Akio Morita, the vice president of Sony, moved his family to the United States to live in the United States. The purpose was to integrate into American culture, better develop the American market, and of course its unique sales method.

In 1962, Sony's showroom in New York opened on the famous Fifth Avenue.

This is the second display store after Tokyo, the purpose is to allow consumers to experience and feel the products intuitively.This may come as no surprise to us now, but at the time, it was a feat.

The original intention of the Tokyo showroom was to break the traditional distribution system in Japan.At that time in Japan, a product often had to go through multiple levels from the time it was produced to being placed on the shelves, and many companies of different categories handled it. Just like the problems encountered in the United States, this sales method could not fully realize the value of the product. displayed in front of consumers.Display store is one of the forms of direct communication between producers and consumers.

In addition, a large part of the responsibilities of the employees of the Sony marketing department at that time were to go to various retail stores to communicate with the sales staff and convey the real value of the product. Established and perfected its own sales network, and passed it on to the world.

In fact, China today is similar to the situation faced by Japan in the 60s after the war. It is difficult to export Chinese products overseas, and even if some products appear in overseas markets, they are all synonymous with low-end and cheap products.

Therefore, if Duan Yun's Tianyin Group wants to succeed in the United States, the most difficult part is how to change the inherent perception of Chinese products in the United States. It took more than 20 years for the product to be recognized by the United States and even become a high-end product in the eyes of Europeans and Americans. Therefore, if Duan Yun wants to break the American consumption concept by himself, it may take longer.

But this does not mean that the products brought by Duan Yun cannot be successful in the U.S. market in a short period of time. In fact, Duan Yun is still full of confidence in DVD products, and compared to when Sony first entered the U.S. In the current situation, Tianyin Group's technology and financial resources are much higher. If it can get enough help from Sony this time, the chance of success will be higher.

After entering the Sony headquarters, the guards at the gate immediately brought Duan Yun and Li Yun to the president's office when they learned of Duan Yun's arrival.

Here, Duan Yun finally met Ando Guowei, the president of Sony's US headquarters.

安藤国威1969年加入SONY公司，1979年成为SONY常务董事，1985年成为副总裁。1990年担任SONY美国工程制造公司（SEMA）总裁兼首席运营长。1994年6月被任命为SONY公司董事。

As the current Sony, they will also launch a brand new product in the United States this year, and this product is the famous PS game console.

In 1993, Sony Corporation named their new generation of home video game console PlayStation, launching a new round of battle for game consoles.

During the same period, competitors Saturn (SEGA Saturn) and Nintendo 64 made mistakes in their strategies for third-party game manufacturers, which prompted Sony PlayStation to win the business war.

Sony relied on the original intention of game production to cooperate with Nintendo, and then developed its own game console, thus breaking Nintendo's dominance in games and forming a new trend of fighting corners.

In the ensuing more than ten years, the PS game console has always been Sony's largest cash flow, and throughout the 90s, Sony's audio-visual products can only play a supporting role, and there is no major difference with the DVD produced by Tianyin Group. Business conflicts, so from this point of view, Sony and Tianyin Group still have the possibility of long-term cooperation.

(End of this chapter)