'Nintendo Marketing Mix\r'

'QUESTIONS & IDEAL ANSWERS: . 1. Conduct a 4Cs Stakeholders Analysis of the Nintendo Wii Market in 2006. Please cable that an analytic thinking is more than(prenominal) than still a list. You destiny to describe separately stakeholder and how they affect the strategy. • Consumers (note: on that points more than single target segment): The cutting notes that Nintendo targeted non- postrs in addition to plotrs. This include consumers of every age and gender. Conversely, competitors exchangeable Sony foc commitd on teens and males. The case as well mentions moms/housewives and families as targets of Nintendo marketing.\r\nThe ideal coif analyzed coarse-grainedrs and a a couple of(prenominal) non-gamer segments, such(prenominal) as moms. Analysis should imbibe included qualitative description — wherefore is this segment interested in the Wii? — and fosterd info, such as the segments size and value. Finding decimal data required research beyo nd the case, by chance to the U. S. Census website. Such data is not soft to visit, but this extra effort is what distinguishes an â€Å"A” paper. pointless credit was given to creative segmentation, such as targeting tunees and office workers, who expertness play the Wii on breaks, or doctors who would recommend Wii to their patients. Company (keep this brief: focus on 2006 — no Nintendo history required): A social club analysis is not a history report. It should describe the companys brand, resources, natural stakeholders, strengths and weaknesses. An ideal resoluteness noted that Nintendo has a pertinacious reputation in manoeuvre, but with the Wii it built a family-friendly brand â€Å"that puts smiles on surrounding peoples faces. ” In contrast, the rivalry had legion(predicate) violent games. In addition, unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is not a diversified company.\r\nIts total income is much glargon than either of its primary competitors (the case Appendix contains these figures), which meant few resources and much more at stake. Either the Xbox or the PS3 could fail, and the pargonnt companies would survive; Nintendo could not afford to switch the Wii fail. At the same time, the gaming focus helped locate Nintendo as the only pure gaming company: its name is synonymous with electronic gaming. In harm of internal stakeholders, the case talks at distance about Satoru Iwata, whose vision drove the company. In a footnote, the case mentions that Iwata had experience as a game developer.\r\nBy contrast, the CEOs of Sony and Microsoft take in no game exploitation experience. • Competitors (keep this brief: describe both direct competitors and substantiative competitors, but focus on strengths and weaknesses — how much of a threat do they pose? ) The case discusses the signalize direct competitors, Sony and Microsoft. Sony had a strong reputation in high-quality electronics, and its PS2 and PS3 arran gements emphasized technological sophistication. Sony focused on hardcore gamers with increasingly violent games. This recipe translated into primaeval gross sales success — but also high prices.\r\nSonys weakness was its increasingly bureaucratic nature, and the decline of its former(a) businesses. age Sony was grappleting costs and laying off workers, they also had business problems with the PS3 — a complicated and expensive authorship of technology that is supposed to be a multimedia system entertainment hub. This made Sony vulnerable to a ch in allenge. Microsoft was chiefly a softw be company with a contentious brand. Research beyond the case reveals criticisms of Microsofts monopolistic tendencies, and the particular that apple was positioning Microsoft as dull and junior-grade quality.\r\nResearch also reveals signifi screwt quality-control problems with the Xbox. Microsoft relied heavily on market timing and quantity of games to promote the Xbox, on with Xbox Live, which enables consumers to play each other online. Despite weaknesses, Microsoft and Sony were dormant formidable competitors — Nintendo knew it couldnt compete by doing the same things they were. Nintendo had to do something vastly several(predicate) — even disruptive. Indirect competitors include PC games, Web-based games and phone-based games. You could even mention non-gaming entertainment, such as YouTube and Facebook, as indirect competitors. Community (focus on complements and collaborators): enlivened-software developers were both collaborators and complements. These developers worked with Nintendo to create games exclusively for the Wii — such games do not work on any other platform, so their fate is tightly tied into the Wiis. They were complements in that hardware sales affected software sales, and an interesting game could boost Wii sales. The broader community, according to the case, includes doctors and therapists who recommend the Wii Fit to patients.\r\npersuasion outside the case study, the community also includes the discussion media — like the New York Times — reviewed the Wii and reported on the shortage and long lines of geters. This join ond entrust for the product, and enabled Nintendo to get its advertising expenditures. 2. Create a positioning constitute. Your office moldiness include the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox, and the target consumer segments you described in question 1. You may hand- sorb the map or use any software you prefer, but the map moldiness be pasted into the body of your document. • You choose the criteria that are most relevant and important. Youre al firsted to guess what the consumer segments want, but you pass on receive extra credit if you can bewilder any research or data on gamer preferences. • Do you see any opportunities on this map for new competitors? We discussed positioning maps in the forum. You needed to draw a similar map here. The two criteria must be product features important to consumers. For moving picture games, this might include price, complexity, family friendliness or graphics quality. It does not include sales (few consumers care how much bills a company inducts) — though you could suggest for â€Å"scarcity” or â€Å"popularity” as viable criteria.\r\nConsumer segments should appear on the map according to their preferences. This example uses monetary value and Game Complexity as criteria: [pic] The blue wind represents the Wii, the unfledged triangle Xbox, and the red circle PS3. The PS3 links the highest price with the highest complexity, duration the Wii combines the lowest of both. Consumer segments are represented as letter: NG = Non-Gamers, CG = Casual Gamers, HG = hardcore Gamers. The Hardcore Gamers prefer the PS3 in terms of complexity, but would like a lower price. The Non-Gamers want a low price (they dont want to pay anything) and a tru thful game.\r\nThe Casual Gamers want something in between, but are closest to the Wii. You can see that the Wii appeals to two segments, while the PS3 and Xbox fight over just one segment. This leaves an initiative in the middle for a competitor who can appeal to the Casual Gamers — the iPhone, maybe? All these positions are based on qualitative analyses presented by the case. For this exam, I allowed you to simply estimate what consumers wanted. In the real world, you would look at market studies and consumer surveys to find exact preferences.\r\nIf you actually did find actual research or survey data on segment preferences in video games, I gave you extra credit. Also, on an ideal map, the symbols vary in size depending on sales and value. Since Wii led the market, its star would be bigger than either the circle or the triangle. Hardcore Gamers might be the most of import segment, since theyre bequeathing to spend more money on games; the HG would then be bigger than the other letters. Drawing a positioning map tends to be the most challenging question in this exam, so I am fairly lenient in grading. However, many students still have trouble with it.\r\nThats why its important to participate in the forum. 3. Describe Nintendos market Mix strategies for the Wii. Be sure to describe the strategies bottom each element of the marketing mix, and how they differentiated the Wii from the competition. • harvest-home (keep this brief: focus on Wiis Unique change Proposition — what behaves it truly different): The Wiis unique selling marriage offer — compared to the Xbox or PS3 — is simple games based on bodily motion. Consumers dont need thick manuals or long skill curves to enjoy the Wii, which attracts routine gamers and non-gamers.\r\nYou could also discuss Wiis family-friendly, non-violent games. • Price (for the United States only): In 2006, the Wii sold for $250 (or $249) and included quin games for a â€Å" complete” product, yet Nintendo still profited on each unit sold. (The games are less civilize and cost less to produce than the competitions. ) Sonys PS3 started at $599 and was cut to $499. The Xbox sold at $479. Despite these significantly high prices, both Sony and Microsoft lose money on each unit sold. Neither the PS3 or the Xbox originally came with games, so to make a profit, Sony and Microsoft charged high licensing fees to game developers.\r\nThis in turn translated into expensive games. • Place (think in terms of retailers and product supply): The Wii sells through traditional and online retailers, such as Best Buy. more than significantly, in 2006, the Wii was continuously in short supply. This is an important distribution (place) issue. If consumers cant buy your product, you not only wont make money, you send business to your competition. However, in the case of the Wii, the shortages actually emergenced consumer desire for the product. Since thither w ere long lines and waiting lists for the product — and numerous major news stories about it — consumers assumed the Wii was good.\r\nSince there was a greater supply of PS3s and Xboxes than demand, consumers assumed they werent as interesting. Consequently, some consumers simply waited for new Wii shipments; others searched stores and websites and paid high than the retail price. Some analysts believe Nintendo had a polity of intentional scarcity. This is a common practice in marketing: some companies produce a peculiar(a) supply of a certain product to increase its perceived value. For example, luxury car companies have â€Å" special edition” models, fashion designers produce a few of each product, most universities do not let e very(prenominal)one who applies.\r\nThe Wii shortages increased both consumer desire and news reporting — which was key since Nintendo could not compete against Microsoft and Xbox in advertising. • progress (describe th e advertising budget and any ads): This required research, since the case was not explicit about advertising expenditures. searching for Nintendo advertising budget on Google reveals a bet of estimated figures, ranging from $85 million to $200 million. Any fairish estimate was fine if it was referenced and came from a faithful source (not someones personal blog).\r\nThe important point was to have you practice corporate research, and to show that Nintendo did not desire on â€Å"word of mouth” alone to try sales; it spent millions of dollars to get the word out. to a greater extent research reveals the Nintendo Wii commercials (http://us. wii. com/tvcm_usa_gallery. jsp), which emphasize people enjoying the game, not the graphics. The very first commercial (found on YouTube and other video sites) shows two Japanese men visiting American homes with the game and announcing, â€Å"Wii would like to play. ” This underscored the Japanese origins of the Wii, which enhanc ed its credibility.\r\nIn addition, the case mentions a word-of-mouth campaign in which suburban housewives were given games in hopes that they would share its value as family entertainment. Overall, the promotions establish the Nintendo brand as family friendly, diversion and physical. By contrast, ads for the Xbox and PS3 emphasized the sophisticated graphics and oftentimes fast, violent action — not an attraction for casual gamers. 4. Answer just ONE of the following questions. If you answer more than one, only the first answer will be accepted. This is your opportunity to use your imagination, so be creative.\r\nYour recommendations here had to make sense based on the companys brand and resources. You couldnt just say â€Å"spend more money on advertising” or â€Å"increase distribution. ” Of course, all companies would like to do that (unless product scarcity is part of their plan) — but could they afford to? Your answers also had to be specific R 12; you couldn’t just say you would make your product â€Å"higher quality” or â€Å"more fun. ” You needed to state exactly what you wanted to achieve. More points were granted for originality and creativity. If you decided to work for Sony or Microsoft, and all you did was copy Nintendo, you didnt get many points.\r\nAbove all, your answers had to be marketing driven. If you talked about improving factory capacity or hiring the best engineers, those were answers for another class. A. If you were the VP of merchandising for Nintendo, what would you have done differently? This is the hardest of the ternary questions, since Nintendo was already successful. You could make more products available so that there werent any shortages, but how would this affect the benefits of product scarcity? Also, assume Nintendo was already producing as many games as it possibly could, where would it get the extra production capacity?\r\nYou could argue that Nintendo should hav e launched with a higher price, using a skimming strategy to profit off early adopters, and then lower pricing as production caught up. That would make sense — but it wouldnt have created the seethe of the product shortages. Some other ideas could involve different target segments, such as schools or hospitals. B. If you were the VP of marketing for Sony, how would you respond to the Wii? One of Sonys advantages is that its the only one of the three companies to produce entertainment content, such as unison and movies (like â€Å"Spider-Man”).\r\nHow could they have leveraged that content to make the PS3 more kind? Sony also produces other electronics equipment. Could you have integrated those products, perhaps in a bundling special (buy a Sony HDTV and get a PS3 free) or by making a game that uses a Sony Camcorder? C. If you were the VP of Marketing for Microsoft, how would you respond to the Wii? Microsofts key advantage is that it creates the operating system tha t runs most of the worlds computers. Is there a way to combine personal computers and the Xbox? (That would have helped them compete against Apple, as well. Since Microsoft woolly money on the Xbox console, why not just focus on the software market? D. Is there another competitor that might be a significant threat to all three of these companies? If so, who is it, and why are they a threat? How should Nintendo respond to them? PC Games and the phone-based games are two possible competitors. Dell, for example, makes sophisticated gaming computers under its Alienware brand. Nintendos response could include making its controllers congenial with Dell computers. Or perhaps Nintendo could collaborate with Apple to make iPhones interact with the Wii. There were lots of possibilities here.\r\n'