Why Wii is Winning: Dominant Software Sales

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Bodhesatva said:

Erik is largely correct that casual players are the exact people who do not have brand loyalty to anyone, including Nintendo. The whole idea of being a "casual" is that they don't play many games and aren't obsessively aware of who is making what. Most do not look at the publisher's name on a box, and in my experience as a retail employee, even if they SEE a logo, they don't necessarily know that means who published it. Why would they? That could just mean a licensee or something. "Who published this game" isn't something these people even consider.

As a similar example, I'll assume most of you aren't music enthusiasts. Listeners, sure, but not enthusiasts. Do you know who published your favorite albums? Don't look; just tell me. Was it Starshine? How about AMSI? How about Global Music? What's that, you don't know? How could you be so stupidly ignorant of a product you enjoy?

Nintendo does not have magic dust. People do not buy their products "just because." When speaking of casual users most especially, the reason a product will sell is because they want it, not because of brand recognition or loyalty. Why would someone with little interest in a medium have extensive knowledge of who makes the games they like? That's what enthusiast users understand and care about. Which is funny: the people who actually would be motivated by brand loyalty are the precise people not buying things like Nintendogs.

 

Zen didn't say loyalty though, he said preference.  I'd agree there isn't any real brand loyalty going on, but Nintendo's been able to associate their name with gaming to a lot of folks who don't game on a regular basis.  They may not be determined to buy a Nintendo product when they leave their house, but they certainly know that brand more than any other and when they have it narrowed down to 2 or 3 that Nintendo logo is going to mean a whole lot more than any music publisher logo ever would because of that widespread association.