Sony, like.no.other

Sony has launched in the UK the online version of its “like.no.other” campaign, designed by Fallon London to promote the new range of Walkman Mp3 players. The creativity focuses on the fact that Walkman’s batteries last longer than the iPod’s ones. Revolution Magazine reports ads will run on UK portals such as Lycos, Yahoo, Tiscali and Wanadoo where Sony sponsors the music channel.

Even if the battery life is an issue with my iPod, I must admit I decided to buy it because it was innovative, stylish and, last (and maybe least), useful.
I appreciate Sony, as a second mover, tries to position itself in a different way, not competing on the style field but rather looking for a new segment of customers. Apple’s got the early adopters (who, by definition, aren’t very demanding when it comes to testing innovations), Sony is going for the first majority, once again a challenge for Steve Jobs to stay on top…
If you’re interested in learning more about early adopters, first and late majority and about marketing the innovations, I suggest you reading Everett Rogers, who wrote “Diffusion of Innovations“. It is exactly a marketing book, but it’s indispensable to read in order to understand how to build a strategy to market a new technology.