Our research results suggest that Sony's sales decline was not caused by the economic chaos seen last year. The economic problems have only made Sony's underlying problems more visible. These include a lack of desired innovation and increased competition. The interviews conducted provided a lot of information on the motivations and purchasing strategies of potential consumers for purchasing a television. However; additional research is needed to get a clear picture of the issues and their specific effects on Sony's sales.Secondary ResearchStacked. -Christopher Thacker 03/20/10 5:15 p.m. Literature Review While researching Sony Corp, our company noticed a significant decrease in their net sales for the fiscal year ending March 2009. According to Sony's annual report (2009), their sales and operating income fell 12.9 percent from the previous year. This is presented in Datamonitor (2009) as a net loss of $956.2 million – certainly a considerable amount of money, even for a company as large as Sony. In his letter to shareholders, Howard Stringer states: “The global economic crises combined with the pronounced strength of the yen have significantly affected our operating results…” (Sony Annual Report, 2009, p. 9). But was it really the bad economy that was the cause of their downfall? An analyst from Standard and Poor's (2010) states that the outlook for the consumer electronics sector is not as good as in the past, due to weak consumer spending and a lack of innovative products. He also added that demand for flat-panel TVs appears to be near saturation levels, causing demand and sales to fall even further. If the market is truly tending towards saturation, it is even more in the middle of paper...or preferring one television to another. As expected, the answers varied; However, it is interesting to note that the few consumers who owned more than two TVs both owned a Sony TV and these were their most recent purchases. Are you satisfied with the current performance of your TV brand? Once they own the product and have lived with it for a while, do they have a different perspective than when they purchased the product. Surprisingly, regardless of the current brand, everyone said yes. Perhaps because they all researched their products first and knew the pros and cons in advance, there were no surprises that made them unhappy with their purchase later. The interviews conducted provided a lot of insight into potential consumers' purchasing motivations and TV purchasing strategies. . However; further research is needed to get a clear picture of the issues and their specific effects on Sony's sales.