Soundwave said:
MarcellusMighty said:
I don't agree with any of this. In fact, I would argue that the big reason for PS4 and Xbox One's success is pure, manipulative marketing. Xbox COMPELS you because you see it everywhere around you. It sponsors sodas, fast food, football, soccer.... it's literally everywhere. It's so saturated that I'm sick of seeing it. PS4 is not so spread out, but the message is very compelling. Both had great, powerful marketing campaigns. What about the Wii U?
It failed on all levels in terms of marketing. Spend the money, take out a few ads during football games or at least on main broadcast channels that focus on young adults having fun, not children with families. That's what they did with Wii back in 2006 (anyone remember?) and it took off, bolstered by the curiosity surrounding the Remote and motion controls.
I was in Target today, and saw three big marketing fails. First, the signs above the Wii AND Wii U software say Wii U, with no distinguishing marks. A casual person, having not been exposed to the marketing I mentioned above, would ask what the difference was (lo and behold, the man in the aisle asked what the difference was between the Wii and Wii U version of a game). Second, the Wii and Wii U consoles are bunched together on the shelves, close together. There is no identifier making it clear that one is newer and shinier. And the freaking Wii Mini is sitting right above the Mario/Luigi Deluxe set. Finally, the demo station set-up is hard to navigate and by attempting to give passers-by options instead of catering a focused, awesome experience, looks confusing and uninteresting.
So, on topic, NO. It has nothing to do with the fad or casuals moving on. Casuals have NO AWARENESS WHATSOEVER of the Wii U or what it is, and as much as I love Nintendo, they utterly have failed to react properly to this. The software library is there, and growing. Now, make people aware of it! Jeez. You would think it is common sense. |
The original Wii didn't have tons of cross promotion either though, so I don't think that's the issue.
I've had friends over to play the Wii U, ones who own a Wii, and they've even had fun with Nintendo Land, but they're not going out to buy one for themselves.
There are Wii Us out there and I'm sure people invite friends/family over to play, the word of mouth is just not spreading.
They did market a reasonable amount this holiday season too, I started to see a lot more Wii U TV commercials.
The casual market doesn't play by the same rules as the core market. They are harder to predict. They may like something one day and be over it the next day.
It's not like core gamers where if they like Zelda or Halo or Assassin's Creed or Uncharted they basically must have the next system to play the next installments of those games on.
The casual market IMO behaves much more like the music industry ... one day something's hot, 3-5 years later it cools off. That doesn't just apply to Nintendo ... watch Just Dance and Angry Birds will in 2-3 years be yesterday's news, just like Guitar Hero.
|
