| Risthel said: Thank you for your kind words, I don't comment very often here, but it's always nice to have a civil and constructive conversation with someone. I also appreciate your comments. Even if I don't always agree with what you say, I think your thoughts are very lucid and clever. Having said that, I think I didn't explained myself properly before. I agree that Nintendo strenght is their difference and uniqueness and that they should market that. I'm not even talking about exploiting slogans, you can do it with everything so it isn't much of a problem. It's that "There's no play like it" doesn't sound right to me, it has a bad ring if you are saying it out loud. Something like "Unique play. Unique fun" for example conveys Nintendo's special flavour in a simple way while being somewhat a stronger message. I don't know if I'm explaining myself in a good way, I apologise if I don't. About Nintendo's target, I think "everyone" is too wide and broad, how do you appeal "everyone"? They should start with a specific target and then eventually exapand their audience. I bet Sony too wants to appeal to everyone, but they started with a really focused target (the "hardcore" gamers) and then, thanks to goodwill, word of mouth and good press, they expanded their offerings to a much "casual" audience. I think that a bad execution is directly linked to a lack of focus towards the target. If you don't have a clear direction it's difficult to have good results. I must say that I still didn't hear the jingle, I an at work now and I can't turn the audio on! But yeah, you can always change a jingle, it doesn't really change the slogan message. |
No, you're being clear. I understand why it doesn't make sense to you. It's not good grammer. In order to get the "no place like it" reference, they fudged it. I think it's one of those things people will get used to when the more they hear it. The layman isn't going to look at "There's No Play Like It" and try to disect it for flaws. They're going to see an ad, read the slogan, and remember it with repetition. Even if you don't get the word-play, the message is clear and easy to understand. It's short, simple, and memorable. That's all it needs to be to work.
"Everyone" is too wide at all. Like I always say, Disney already does this. It's very easy to appeal to everyone. The DS did it flawlessly, and it's the second most successful gaming platform of all time. Sony clearly has no investment in appealing to everyone, and they'll never get everyone with the way PS4 is branded and with it's capabilities. DS was an example of perfect execution when appealing to all demographics. It appealed to casuals, children, women, and mainstream gamers at the same time without alienating any one side. How did it do that? The games. How does Nintendo do that with the NX? It needs the software and it needs accessable pricing. It had a wider catalogue of games than anything before and much since.
"There's No Play Like It" is universal enough to address all of these four demographics when need be. (I separate "women" only because Nintendo does) All that's left is the exclusive software. They need exclusive big-budget AAA western-style games for mainstream audiences, they have their current Nintendo franchises for children, they are doing a good job with stuff like Animal Crossing that appeal to women, and they seriously need to find something new that can appeal to casuals and make them want a sit-down game instead of a mobile game. That last part is obviously a major area of focus for them still. I think a lot of people are fooling them selves in thinking that Nintendo's new red branding means they'll no longer focus on casuals. It's not a "callback to the NES and core gaming systems." I also think that people are fooling themselves in thinking that casuals are lost to smartphones, never to return. The Wii's problem was that its gimmick got old, not that casual gaming did.
If Nintendo wants NX to be the monster that it can be, it needs to target everyone, and unlike the Wii U it needs to do it well.
