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JWeinCom on 08 February 2015
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Soundwave said:
JWeinCom said:


Well, the topic was specifically about superbowl ads.  The responses that marketing is different for retail vs smartphone was in regards to that.  

I really can't speak to their overall advertisement.  Your anecdotal evidence doesn't really prove much one way or the other.  Obviously their advertising has been ineffective, you can see that by sales, but I can't say if that's a problem of spending or just bad ads. 

Regardless, it doesn't change the fact that marketing a console requires a different strategy than marketing a smartphone game.  Getting people to buy something that is (sort of) free is different than convincing them to throw down 300 bucks.


I don't really buy this line of reasoning, if anything that would say that you should be marketing *more* if you're the one trying to sell the 300 dollar product. Also these ads are not just running during the Superbowl, I've seen the Kate Upton one as mentioned like 10 times this week alone. 

It's not a matter of more or less, it's a matter of spending that money wisely.  Advertising is not free, and more is not necessarily better.  

When you're dealing with a 300 product as opposed to a free one in a similar category, your product is fundamentally going to be more niche.  So, more advertising is probably not a great idea.  What is a good idea, is targeting the demographic that is likely to buy that product.  The superbowl has such a broad audience that most of the products being advertised are things like cars, food, hygeine products, etc, which have a really broad audience.  There's a reason why no retail games were advertised during the big game.  They have a narrower appeal, and it didn't make sense.

As people have pointed out in this thread, the target audience, profit margins, and business model are so different that it's a silly comparison.  That's not to say that Nintendo's marketing has been great, but it is to say that the premise of this thread is fundamentally flawed.