INTERVIEW: Sony Mobile's Ola Lilja Molén

In October last year, Sony Corporation announced plans to acquire Ericsson’s 50 per cent stake in mobile phone company Sony Ericsson—a move that saw the mobile handset unit become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony.

The acquisition, which aimed at making the mobile phone business a vital element of Sony’s electronic business, was completed in February and culminated with the rebranding of the business as Sony Mobile.

But just months later, Sony Mobile announced plans to push through a major global restructuring, which resulted in the relocation of the company’s headquarters from Sweden to Japan, along with a slew of job cuts, in an effort to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs and drive profitable growth.

In an interview with Campaign Asia Pacific, Molén said becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation is a big change, but ultimately an opportunity for the mobile brand.

“We have strong growth ambitions and we are well positioned to drive that growth,” he said. “Sony is very strong across those markets [in Asia] so becoming fully part of Sony is an opportunity."

“By being part of Sony we are part of something that is much bigger,” he added. “What I’m looking forward to do next is to bring the full Sony experience to the consumers.”

Bringing the ‘full Sony experience’ to consumers involves leveraging all arms of Sony Corporation, including TV, gaming, and music assets. Molén said it is one way in which the brand will continue to compete against the growing dominance of Samsung.  

This year’s Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Top 1000 brand survey saw Sony Corporation slip down from poll position last year to rank third behind Apple and Samsung.

Molén said Samsung’s recent success shows just how hungry the market is for new devices and new experiences, but he said being part of Sony Corporation will allow Sony Mobile to bring much bigger experiences to consumers than any other brand.

“We have products across many categories, everything from gaming… to TV experience … and then to content,” he said. “We are part of company that has won Oscars and Grammy awards, I don’t think Samsung is that.”

To date, Sony Mobile has made concerted efforts in social space, accumulating a sizeable fan base on Facebook but also launching a number of initiatives in an attempt to truely engage consumers.

Molén points to an initiative earlier this year that allowed the Facebook fan base to determine the launch date of its latest Xperia smartphone. Each time a fan clicked the "fast-forward button" on Facebook, the launch announcement was brought 20 seconds closer. In the end, the announcement was brought forward by nine days.

Molén said the brand is likely to continue its efforts in the social space going forward, but he added that it will always try to challenge itself in the way it uses the platform, further stressing the importance of allowing fans to influence the brand's activities.

“If you are a Facebook fan you like to engage but you also want to see some sort of impact of that engagement,” he said. “Then to link that into creating that engagement around a new product was important.”

Molén said this approach will also equip the brand to reach “Generation Z consumers”, which he said are more demanding in terms of brand engagement.

“It puts a lot of demand on us from product to communication but if we want to be successful in the future we need to be successful in this target group,” he said.