I agree with the majority of the other posters in this thread so far. There's no point of looking like a parrot.

Does it matter if people know what the Wii U looks like? Honestly?

The 360 and the XBO look pretty darn similar to each other too, with a name that is still pretty darn confusing but it isn't having the same issues. On a marketing side, the issue has much more to do with poor communication with consumers early in the Wii U's life-cycle and a slow stream of compelling software. It carried with it absolutely no momentum and did a terrible job selling itself...what it looked like and how it was advertised next to a controller is basically irrelevant.

Basically. I mean it's the same thing I've been saying/thinking for a while. now. It's name didn't do the Wii U any favors, plus the whole focus on the GamePad made it look like a peripheral for the Wii. My best hope is that Nintendo goes headstrong into NX with something completely different that makes people know that it's something separate than what's already out there.

They want to show of the gamepad and show how it can do stuffs.. there isn't much to show off for the console itself :/

but I do agree that they messed up marketing, for sure

People aren't idiots, no one is confused about Whatbwii U is. The problem is people bought Wiis, enjoyed them for 4 years or so but moved on to PS360. Wii U doesn't offer enough to lure them back when the much cooler, more high tech and vastly larger library sporting PS4 and One are available. Nothing is all that exciting about the Wii U experience, and gamers learned the hard way that major 3rd party titles like COD and AC are not sold on a system called Wii. But no one thinks it's a controller.

Your conflating not wanting the console and being misinformed about the console.

What I am pointing out is that people didn't know about Nintendo's new console, instead beliving that the Wii U was simply the tablet a peripheral for the console. A result of the prevalence of the Wii U tablet in all its promotional material and the similarities in console design of the wii u and the wii.

The reason this is THE problem is because information determines every other consumer interaction with a product, commercialism 101.

"Want" does not even exist, without at the very least "Familarity"

Furthermore, here is the truth about consumers preferences in a nutshell. You can flat out tell consumers what they want and make them want it, its simply a matter of marketting

Let me address this further point directly:

The type of consumer who is really that clueless already doesn't want it.

* What about people buying it for others like I don't know, parents?

If they're not drawn in by the controller concept (or, you know, the games on the system), then how is anything else going to help?

* Once again, Parents. Plus regardless of whether or not you like the controller, if you don't know it goes with the Wii U system, then would wonder why the tablet comes with another Wii when you already have a Wii.

When you sell as poorly as the Wii U has you have 5 or 6 major problems not just one.

Even if Nintendo had done everything right, this would have been a tougher generation for them because Sony is much more on their game this gen (no $600 PS3 this time) and the impact of Apple/Google stealing away the casual audience with their more attractive casual ecosystems and products.

There is a difference between being an idiot and being misinformed.

You can't know what people think. Even if you make a survey, you have to estimate. What you can know and is fact is that every single one of the official Wii U promotional artwork that have both the wii u and its tablet have the tablet being more prevalent than the console itself. This is how its been from announcement.

Realize, just because its the successor to the Wii, doesn't mean its not a new product. Which means the console itself is not recognizable. Why wouldn't people simply assume it was another Wii. Especially considering PS3 and 360 slim models.

And it was obvious the Wii U was a peripheral, either that or a handheld.

The tablet being more prevalent suggests that its more important, and if the tablet, not the console itself is important, then why wouldn't uninformed consumers simply assume all they needed was the controller itself and that they could use it for a Wii.

I've spoken to some casual gaming friends of mine and asked them straight up why they're not interested in Wii U. Some were confused about it, some knew Wii U was a new thing and still weren't interested, I had them all play the Wii U and they had a good time when they came over ... but none of them bought the system.

The general vibe I got from them was this ... they never viewed the "Wii" concept as an iterative thing that they would buy over and over again. It was a one time thing they bought primarily for Wii Sports and Wii Fit, with a little Guitar Hero and Mario and Just Dance on the side.

But beyond that they weren't interested in revisiting the idea or buying a "new" Wii every 5-6 years. It was more like once you buy that one version of Monopoly (the board game) you generally don't buy a new Monopoly every 5-6 years even though there are different versions of it.

And they generally actually all liked Nintendo Land and other stuff, but it was more of a "oh that's neat", but not a "oh my god, I need to have this in my life right now".

I think we just kind of assumed that people who liked the Wii would buy the Wii successor, but they are a different audience that doesn't operate the way the standard gaming audience would, and this is also part of the problem.

The Wii for my age range was a breakthrough, because I know like 20 people who own the Wii, I'd say 7-8 of them would never buy a modern game console, but they did get the Wii. But I've had these people over to my house and even explained to them to the Wii concept, had them play some games on it, and they still are not buying the system, even after they admit to having fun with it. Nintendo Land actually got a huge amount of laughs from people playing ... they like it. Same with Mario Kart 8. Of like the 20 people I know that had a Wii, myself and my brother are the only two with a Wii U and we basically buy every Nintendo system (Nintendo lifers). 

Wasn't the Wii main marketing based on the Wii mote? The console was there, but "Wii-'d like to play" was showing the controller, not the console. How'd you explain that?