This thread is for people that want to learn. 

Marketing and advertisement are not the same thing. I've seen a lot of people use marketing and advertisement as synonyms but they are not the same thing. Advertisement is a branch of marketing that involves a collaboration between the marketing department and the creative minds of an advertisement firm or inhouse advertisement department. Advertisement is what most people are aware of and assume that's all marketing is, but that would be incorrect. Some people are aware of other things that involve marketing such as the decision to release the biggest games during the holidays, but marketing is also many other things that many people don't think about. Such as the price points of a product, how much a game should sell for or an accessory, whether an accessory should come with a game or be sold separate, the color of the console, how many USB ports on a console, whether a console should use Blu Ray or DVD, if a game should be downloadable or disc based, etc. Somethings are not always determined by marketing but things such as the name of a game are often marketing decisions, even the names of main characters could be determined by marketing or even locations or genre's of games. There are so many questions that the marketing department is involved with that have nothing to do with advertisement. 

The reason I bring this up is because many people seem to agree that Sony under performs when it comes to marketing compared to the Wii and especially MS but they don't seem to understand why. Their solution is always put more money into advertising or make better advertisements and they call it better marketing, but it is not that simple. It also ignores many of the fundamental marketing problems that Sony has and their is no simple solution that throwing money at more advertisements can solve.

One of the biggest marketing problems that Sony has is lack of a target market focus. When developing any type of product or game or movie or service the first thing that should be done is to determine a target market. Every decision after that is based on that target market or target markets. The problem with Sony is they do not have a target market. Anyone can tell what the Wii's target market is and most people can tell what the 360's main target market is/was and which target market it is now shifting towards. Sony on the other hand has obsoletely no focus on target market. They are taking hardcore games and making them more hardcore/complex all the while implementing casual type controls(move) and other features into that same game. It may make for a cool game but it is definitely lacking in focus and creates confusion in the marketplace. They'll make casual games and sell them at hardcore gamer prices, which also creates consumer confusion. And by confusion I don't mean people are spinning around lost, I mean they are not sure, consciously or subconsciously, whether the product is supposed to be for them or not which will most likely result in them not gaining or even losing interest in the product. 

Many people seem to be upset that the Kinect line up alienates hardcore gamers and goes strictly towards casual games. But that is a marketing decision to not create confusion with consumers and to make it clear to the casual market that this is something for them and it seems to be working. Sony on the other hand is trying to appeal to the casual market but also wants to include the hardcore market and all the other sub target markets as well. The problem is it creates confusion. Motion controls are something the casual market is interested in but when Sony creates a motion control device that is so precise that you can't get away with just wiggling ,it creates a problem. The reason people are casual gamers is because they don't want that initial complex game play and steep learning curves because they are not investing the energy and time into games that hardcore gamers do. Since the Wii is targeting casual gamers it makes sense to have the initial gameplay be as easy as a wiggle. Some casual gamers get addicted to games and spends more time playing them than hardcore gamers but think of all the casual games and how simplistic the controls are. Games like farmville have obsoletely no learning curve, they take no skill, yet people get addicted to them. The goal with casual games is to make a game as simplistic and easy as possible while passing off progression in the game as an accomplishment. Hardcore games are meant to create obstacles and challenges that require mastering complexities to overcome those challenges. These are two distinct ways to develop a game and platform yet Sony seems to think that they can create games for casual gamers through hardcore development. It may result in some cool games being made but it will result in a poorly marketing game and there is nothing $500 million in advertisements can do about it. 

Note: I am not trying to bash Sony, Playstation is my console of choice the last 3 generations, I am just simply trying to inform people about what marketing really is and what marketing problems I think Sony gives itself and possible solutions. Also I do have a B.S. in Business Marketing from California State University, Northridge, incase you wanted to know if I have any actual knowledge in the field . 

While I did stop reading after a certain point (sorry but my attention span in the morning is horrible), I would say sony's problem is also attributed to poor advertisement decisions as well, which lowered brand value. Remember those horrible PS3 ads, when the product launched, or the fact that they tried to bash kinect in advertisement, instead of truly highlighting their product main points.

I do however agree with your general statement that sony target demographic is too broad.

Also excuse my grammar, and spelling errors, too early....to edit anything. 

Not to downplay your excellent, informative post, but I think I can sum it up fairly concisely. Marketing is the entire business strategy concerned with entering, gaining, and maintaining the share of a particular market. Advertising is one subsection of marketing tailored to individual products in order to increase awareness of a certain product so that it meets, at the very least, mininum sales projections.

As for Sony's plan with Move, I think it is an interesting study in contrasts between the Kinect and Wii. Sony with Move is appealing to their core first because it seems they have decided that it is the core who would be the hardest to convert over to buy a Move. Implicitly, Sony employing this marketing strategy has enough confidence in the Move itself and their development studios that they can cater to the non-core at their whim and still meet their sales projections.

I am unsure whether this strategy will work, but regardless of how it turns out it will be a fascinating learning experience to observe.

I've done basic marketing so that isn't new to me, but I didn't really think about the whole of marketing in a console context. It makes complete sense really. I doubt that it is an advertising failure because everyone knows what a Playstation is, I doubt that telling them again is going to be of any significant help.

The fact is that an average person doesn't go:

Wow! It does Blu Ray? Upscales my DVDs? Connects to my PC as a media extender? Has a photo viewer? Plays amazing looking games? Etc.

They simply get confused as to what the hell it does, the longer the list of features the more peoples eyes glaze over. There is also probably a significantly large number of people who don't believe the PS3 is a Blu Ray movie player simply because it doesn't come with a remote control. VCRs come with remotes, DVD players come with remotes, TVs come with remotes but PS3 doesn't come with a remote. Even my Xbox 360 came with a remote...

 This started out a good post but the run down of Sony in the latter half didn't really add up to me.

 I think what you're forgetting is that every Sony does marketing the PS3 is done with the interests of Sony as a whole. The console need to push other Sony products - HDTVs, 3D, Cameras, camcorders, phones etc. The message in their marketing - what they're telling consumers - isn't simply trying to sell the PS3 but push the Sony brand. In my opinion 'The only does everything' is a brilliant marketing campaign as it sells the PS3 as a multifunction device (making the consumer think it's high price point is still good value) while also subtlely instilling the idea in people that with it they'll want to link their Sony camcorder to it or something.

 I think Sony have positioned Move well, pretty much telling consumers it's a Wii HD. The strategy seems to be alot more long-term with software still lacking and price point still very high, in a year or so I think Move will doing fine, once it's price point is comparable to the Wii. 

I would also add that sony has horrible grasp of brand perception perceived by the consumer among other things. I think Sony this year (not last year), has done a horrible effort in convincing people that PlayStation move is the motion controller that individuals should consider buying.

Personally I would love to see sony's marketing strategy to see if they have a segments, targets, and positioning strategies clearly outlined. 

Even with that said, like the original post stated the main problem is that they have a broad grasp of the target market. 

I found their early Ps3 commercials too vague and abstract. They conveyed the fact that it's a game console and blu-ray player adequately, but did a terrible job justifying the pricetag and convincing consumers it was a better bargain than the 360.

I think it would been more effective and sensible for them to make a commercial which shows a family of four each using the ps3 for different things. The mom uses it to view and store family vacation photos, the dad uses it to watch a blu-ray or netflix movie, the daughter uses it to listen to music and watch Youtube videoes, and at the end the son plays a Move game with all of them. I know these features have been mentioned in the current string of commercials, but I don't think they've done much to change the public's perception of the PS3 as "just" an game console.

The public largely thinks that Move is a Wii rip-off. I think Sony should emphasize the fact that it's more accurate than the wiimote and do everything they can to differentiate the move from it.

The other reason why they fail at marketing is because they don't have the operating income to allow such expenditure. They can cut the price of the PS3 quickly or they can advertise and make some profit they cannot do both at once.

A pretty well written post, kudos.

I also think their Kevin Butler ads are heading in the wrong direction.  Let's face it, those commercials are only really speaking to the current PS3 user base.  They spend too much time trying to make fun of the competition when they should be solely focused on talking about the features of their own products.  In general the public doesn't respond very well to commercials targetted at taking swipes at their competition. 

The one company that was able to pull it off was Apple but they did it by focusing more on differences in culture than features and also by making the Mac guy a character that was actually sympathetic towards the PC guy, they let the PC guy himself talk about "his own" problems.  If the Mac guy had been standing there poking fun at PC those commercials would have been much differently received.