The Video Game Industry Marketing Blitz Strategy

In a market where many advertisers are slashing their budgets, the video game industry is taking just the opposite approach. The industry has unleashed a billion-dollar bombardment of IMC communications designed to make Mario the plumber and Munch the Gabit household names as common as Harry Potter or Britney Spears.

The objective of the marketing blitz is to transform the video game from a niche market to as common an activity as watching television or going to the movies. Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, and Microsoft (Xbox) have all recently redesigned their video games in an attempt to penetrate as many living rooms as possible while ushering in the next generation of digital entertainment.

While the immediate objective is to sell units, the industry's long-term goal is to change the image of the products from a teenage game to family entertainment. The products have become much more sophisticated and have the added capabilities of playing DVD movies and CDs and connecting to the Internet. And, while growing the market is one goal, Sony and Nintendo are also attempting to protect their market shares in the $20 billion market from newcomer Microsoft.

The IMC programs will be as innovative as the products themselves. Traditional advertising media will play a minimal role, while ad messages on soda bottles, in fast-food restaurants, and on college campuses will be commonplace. High-tech trucks and vans equipped with games will tour the United States to allow trial. Nintendo will host Gamecube parties throughout the country, while Sony will employ Britney Spears and Snoop Dog at its events. Not to be outdone, Microsoft is taking its rigs on the road to 40 cities to throw "Xbox Bashes." In all, the companies will use multiple print ads, street marketing teams, college marketing teams, events, sponsorships,TV ads,and the Internet.

The budgets are outrageous as well! Consider that Microsoft ($500 million worldwide) and Nintendo and Sony ($250 million each in North America, and Nintendo at total of $475 million worldwide) will spend five times as much in 2002 as Coke did in 2001 to advertise Coke and Diet Coke. Sega spent over $10 million in the first quarter alone!

Meanwhile, the blitz is hitting Europe as well. The first advertising by Microsoft broke during the Olympic Games, followed by a larger TV campaign with the product launch date in March. A direct-marketing campaign followed, using a database supported by the playmore.com website (fondly referred to as the company's "brand experience" website) as well as 7,000 prelaunch demo units in department stores. Additional brand advertising will also follow the introduction of individual game releases.

The battle for brand share will be intense—maybe more intense than the games themselves. For example, Microsoft has already dubbed its positioning as "positive and inclusive," as opposed to what it calls PlaySta-tion2's "dark and exclusive" strategy. Then again, maybe PlayStation knows something. As noted by one industry observer, "The industry has more casualties than successes."

have as their marketing objectives expanding distribution and sales of their product in certain market areas. Companies often have secondary marketing objectives that are related to actions they must take to solve specific problems and thus achieve their primary objectives. IMC International Perspective provides an example of how companies invest to pursue multiple objectives.

Once the marketing communications manager has reviewed the marketing plan, he or she should understand where the company hopes to go with its marketing program, how it intends to get there, and the role advertising and promotion will play. Marketing goals defined in terms of sales, profit, or market share increases are usually not appropriate promotional objectives. They are objectives for the entire marketing program, and achieving them depends on the proper coordination and execution of all the marketing-mix elements, including not just promotion but product planning and production, pricing, and distribution.

Integrated marketing communications objectives are statements of what various aspects of the IMC program will accomplish. They should be based on the particular communications tasks required to deliver the appropriate messages to the target audience. Managers must be able to translate general marketing goals into communications goals and specific promotional objectives. Some guidance in doing this may be available from the marketing plan, as the situation analysis should provide important information on

• The market segments the firm wants to target and the target audience (demographics, psychographics, and purchase motives).
• The product and its main features, advantages, benefits, uses, and applications.
• The company's and competitors' brands (sales and market share in various segments, positioning, competitive strategies, promotional expenditures, creative and media strategies, and tactics).
• Ideas on how the brand should be positioned and specific behavioral responses being sought (trial, repurchase, brand switching, and increased usage).

Sometimes companies do not have a formal marketing plan, and the information needed may not be readily available. In this case, the promotional planner must attempt to gather as much information as possible about the product and its markets from sources both inside and outside the company.

After reviewing all the information, the promotional planner should see how integrated marketing communications fits into the marketing program and what the firm hopes to achieve through advertising and other promotional elements. The next step is to set objectives in terms of specific communications goals or tasks.

Many promotional planners approach promotion from a communications perspective and believe the objective of advertising and other promotional mix elements is usually to communicate information or a selling message about a product or service. Other managers argue that sales or some related measure, such as market share, is the only meaningful goal for advertising and promotion and should be the basis for setting objectives. These two perspectives have been the topic of considerable debate and are worth examining further.

Continue reading here: Sales versus Communications Sales Oriented Objectives

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