Hm.... I will never buy the argument that casuals have 'moved on' when I see guys in Target buying games for their nephews/nieces and they can't tell the difference between Wii and Wii U. How can one have 'moved on' when one has no awareness? People may downplay the significance of basic product awareness, but let me give you an example.
Let's say I'm selling a pen, the Write-Way. The Write-Way is advertised, gets popular, and word-of-mouth is strong. My pen does something cool and different; what that may be, you can simply imagine. All right, so a few years pass, and I release the Write-Way U. I don't advertise to the people I did before, and I make no efforts to promote the belief that my newest pen line is worth having, or upgrading to as compared to my original Write-Way. When a consumer walks into the store, they see Write-Way, then Write-Way U, next to each other, with seemingly only a letter being the difference. Where's the compulsion to buy? Is my product truly poorly conceived, or did I market the wrong way?
The Wii U's biggest problem has always been its marketing. If they had the 'U' instead of a 2, they needed to prove that Wii U was worth the extra money, the investment. Awareness isn't there, and without awareness, compulsion to buy doesn't exist except amongst existing Nintendo fans. Targeting children in ads is misguided in an age where tablets, smartphones, and all sorts of nifty trinkets get targeted to them.
Also, 3DS has done well because its shelf-space does not include the original DS line anymore. People see it as new, without the need for ads. If Nintendo stops shipping so many Wiis to stores, Wii U could turn things around without the need for extra ad expense, since consumers would only have one console choice.
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