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Improving Game MarketingJuly 4th, 2006 |
Morgan points us to a study done on improving game marketing (PDF) and the resultant Grimwell Online thread.
The highlights alone, as extracted by Morgan, are worth quoting in their entirety, so I shall shamelessly do so:
- Positive word of mouth is a key purchase requirement for all games. The study confirms the fact that public relations and integrated marketing communications are superior to advertising.
Morgan may have a different take on the definition of “public relations” than I do, since these days in the industry it generally means “how you deal with the press” as opposed to “how you deal with the public.” I would say that the key lesson here for gamemakers is that community relations are tremendously important.
- Half of game buyers, including hardcore game buyers focus mainly on price. The study reinforces the notions that a) publishers need to implement more effective cost-reduction strategies to reduce the price of games, and b) marketers need to focus on selling value instead of features.
- One quarter of game buyers are trendsetters and facilitate buzz. Trendsetters think TV commercials and game demos need the most improvement to become more valuable sources of information about games. Since TV commercials are viewed as a medium that reaches the largest audience, I believe this data suggests that marketers need to provide trendsetters with more buzz-making capabilities. (Note: While TV commercials reach the largest audience, they’re expensive to produce and are mostly ineffective in comparison to other methods in the marketing mix. After all, commercials are advertising, not communication.)
Taken together, these two paint an interesting picture of the gamer. First off, a 25% influencer percentage is astronomically high. I don’t know what criteria Magid was using in their study, but true trendsetters are usually a much smaller percentage of the audience. This suggests an audience made up of hobbyists.
When added to the fact that price, I’d suggest that these are hobbyists looking for entertainment time per dollar, a frequent refrain on the game forums. “It was short — not worth $50, but pick it up as a rental or in the bargain bin.” The audience doesn’t give a flip that the ROI demands of the industry basically require that sort of price point and also basically require that shorter game length.
Interestingly, the shorter game lengths these days are driven by previous stats showing that most gamers don’t play a given game for all that long — finishing games was rare except, perhaps, among these hobbyist types, until the average length of games drifted downwards fom 20 hours to 8.
- Top importance of official game web sites as source for follow-up information for buying users. Indicates opportunity to strengthen customer relationships with publishers and developers; indicates opportunity to strengthen strategic branding initiatives.
- Gifters (pure buyers) acquire more information mainly in stores and through friends and family. Indicates an opportunity to strengthen point-of-sale/point-of-purchase initiatives, which may involve advertising.
- Console games benefit more from peer-based word of mouth whereas PC games benefit from authoritative sources. Suggests that marketers should develop platform-dependent strategies due to the difference in markets for console and PC games. It may also follow that those who play PC games might use the Web more often than those who play console games, but that’s another study altogether.
Most games are sold onto console platforms. It’s unsurprising that consoles, with their customer lock-in, would then drive customers back to the game official sites for info. The console player also seems to be less of a hardcore hobbyist than the PC player, based on some of the above, which would make sense — console is simply more mass market. And of course, gifters are in large part not gamers at all but rather panrets buying for their kids, etc, and hence rely on the truly useless sources of information found in the typical retail environment.
- Graphics, price, gameplay, and features were the top factors contributing to a customer purchase decision whereas buyers are barely concerned with the publisher or developer. The lack of interest in the publisher or developer indicates, in my opinion, an opportunity for companies to better position themselves and therefore implement value-adding branding strategies, such as lifestyle branding as discussed by David Edery. The top factor graphics indicates more opportunities for co-branding initiatives between the publisher/developer and a graphics company, such as NVIDIA or ATI. Graphics being the top factor also means that graphics companies can command more advantage in these agreements. To dismantle the power of price, marketing and design should consider a more integrated approach to product development in order to enhance gameplay and deliver features appropriate to the product value proposition.
I’ve been arguing for considering the market as lifestyle for a while now, but as I mentioned back then, many players are reluctant to see their lives so clearly laid bare upon an examination table.
A lack of interest in developers, of course, means complete surrender to this. In pretty much every other medium, a more satisfactory entertainment experience can be had by following creators who provide product that fits your sensibilities. Even in television, where you have to dig to find out who’s responsible for a given show, you can learn that, say, product made by Bedford Falls is likely to be cimena/TV that appeals to you (gasp! They are making a movie out of The Lions of al-Rassan!).
Even publishers can acquire the sort of branding that becomes what some call a lovemark. It does take a ferocious dedication to your consumer, however.
Oh, and is anyone still surprised that graphics came in at the top of the list? First impressions matter, and while beauty is only skin deep, that’s all we get to see through the shrinkwrap.
- Advertising facilitates visual information acquisition; however, as usual advertising lacks depth. Slash the advertising budget and appropriate far more resources to public relations and integrated marketing communications. Advertising is useful, but only in small doses.
- Friends and family hold the most influence over customer purchase decisions followed by experience with prior editions. Marketers should reach out to friends and family through PR and IMC to more effectively influence customer purchase decisions. This is where differentiating buyers, user buyers, and users is important. Using a more integrated marketing-design approach, games can deliver a more satisfying and attractive experience to players. Customer service may also affect the customer experience. The value chain needs to be customer-centric!
- The rest of the study concerns the report card for advertising in games, which essentially confirms that advertising is not nearly as effective as advertisers desire.
Again, unsurprising that friends and family are the source of most influence — once again, we’re back to the whole trendsetter thing, the key influencers idea. One’s social network consists, after all, of friends and family.
It’s actually rather surprising that so few attempts at social network marketing have been done in the games space, outside of occasional one-shot “invite a friend” promotions.
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