Sony Ericsson revamping to attain status as top three vendor

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications this week eliminated one job in its North American operations�sidelining VP for Corporate Communications Cherie Gary�in an effort to realign its global public relations efforts, which in turn will help it realize its ambitions as a top handset vendor, according to the company.

Gary quietly announced the news to contacts within the industry this week. At the company�s corporate headquarters in London, Merran Wrigley, director of corporate public relations, said the move was part of an ongoing audit of the company�s global communications effort in light of its new goals.

Those goals include attaining the rank of a top-three handset vendor�no timeframe given�and coordinating its global PR efforts by hiring a new, global PR agency. A search for the latter is underway, Wrigley said.

SEMC�s PR efforts previously had been designed to �sell more phones,� she said, and now that the company sought leading market share, it has to position itself as a �thought leader� through events and forums outside the traditional tradeshow circuit.

Attaining the ranks of a top-three handset vendor is a �credible aspiration,� Wrigley said, given Motorola Inc.�s recent woes.

�This has led to internal realignments to get scale and market share,� Wrigley said.

She said that the company�s North American management team would otherwise be unchanged. The decision to eliminate Gary�s position had been made in tandem with SEMC�s North American management team, she said.

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