Abstract

At the end of 2004, the video games company Nintendo was facing a bleak future.

It’s rival console, the PlayStation 2 (PS2), was winning the console war and both

parties were about to enter the handheld gaming market with a new console each.

Nintendo had planned the release of a new hand held console: the Nintendo Dual

Screen (DS). Sony’s product was the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The PSP was

essentially a powerful multi-media unit capable of playing many of the games its

older brother, the PS2, could play. The DS by contrast was technically inferior but it

boasted two screens, one of which was touch sensitive. Most importantly, a stylus

was included alongside the traditional buttons.

Top: Nintendo DS (Dual Screen) with Stylus

Bottom: Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable)

(image source: www.pspsps.tv 2008)

Figures show that the DS sold 7 million units while the PSP sold a mere 2.8 million

units. (Mintel 2008) This report examines why Nintendo have dominated the

handheld market from a consumer behaviour perspective, and looks at Nintendo’s

resulting actions in terms of marketing activities.

It will focus primarily on the Nintendo DS, the game Dr Kawashima’s Brain Age,

which is targeted at the Third Age market (consumers aged 55+) and parents with

dependent children. This edutainment title is controlled entirely through touch screen

and stylus, and is pitched as improving memory and keeping the user mentally fit,

claiming you can “train your brain in minutes a day” (box cover art ). It features a

Sudoku mini game.

Attitude Change – Picking up on strong attributes

Prior to launch of the DS Nintendo had to combat a host of problems. Many were of

the opinion that the PSP would be the winner of this console war. Sony had

convincingly dominated the static console market with its PlayStation 2 outselling all

it’s rivals nearly 4 times over in the UK. Nintendo took third place behind Microsoft’s

Xbox. (Mintel 2008) With the PSP looking much like the PS2, Nintendo did not

appear to be in a very competitive position.

The following table shows 7 ingredients that Cooper suggests will make a unique

product that will succeed in the market. The middle and right hand columns identify

whether or not the PSP and DS have any competitive advantages.

Cooper’s Seven ingredients

of a unique, superior

product with real value for

the customer:

PSP DS

1. Meet’s customers’

needs better than

competitive products.

PSP players expect the

quality of games found on

PS2.

Good for edutainment

titles.

2. Is a better-quality

product than

competitors’ (however

the customer defines

quality)

Quality defined by

customer.

Quality defined by

customer.

3. Has unique benefits

and features for the

customer.

Feature focused: only

multifunction product to

integrate multimedia

functions with a handheld

gaming device.

Benefit focused: play

games with family and

friends (see

motivation and

values)

4. Solves customers’

problems with

competitive products.

Consumers can take one

product with them, rather

than separate pieces of

gadgetry.

N/A

5. Reduces the Slightly higher initial outlay Cheaper product,

customer’s total in-

use costs (better

value in use)

cost, but cheaper than a

separate iPod and games

device.

overall, price of Brain

Age also cheaper

than average DS

games.

6. Has highly visible

benefits for users.

Many features that

Nintendo did not offer.

7. Is innovative or novel-

the first of it’s kind on

the market.

First rival offering of a

handheld console since the

Neo-Geo Pocket Colour,

released in 1999.

Innovative touch

screen and stylus.

(adapted from Cooper, 1999, p64)

With Sony’s prior successes with the PS2, consumers followed a belief – affect –

behaviour structure; they went to the PSP based on their previous knowledge of

Sony (Solomon, 2006, p141). They knew that Sony’s games were good and they

knew that the technology was superior; they had a positive attitude towards the PSP.

Sony had essentially analysed the market and saw a gap for a powerful multifunction

product.

Nintendo, after it’s poor results with the GameCube, chose not to follow the same

model as Sony. The DS had only one unique feature: the stylus and touch screen.

Because this was a new feature that had not been applied to a video games console,

Nintendo were dependent on a behavioural learning process, which followed a belief-

behaviour-affect model (Solomon, 2006, p141); people had to experience the game

to recognise its potential. It was therefore highly important to promote these new

features and ensure that the games purchased were not only very enjoyable, but

also made excellent use of the stylus and touch screen.

Brain Age was an excellent tool for this as it is played entirely with the stylus; it never

uses the buttons on the faceplate. Additionally, the concept of Brain Age as a form of

mental exercise was regarded highly. Nintendo had to push two key attributes: the

stylus and the mental training.

Attitude Change – Strengthening attribute linkages

Nintendo then had to look outside its core gamer audience, so that as many people

could try the game as possible. In his book, Videogame Marketing and PR, Scott

Steinberg suggests that marketers must ‘look at where there’s a good fit in related

channels…focus on campaigns designed to raise awareness amongst everyone

whose interests might overlap with the initial target audience’. (Steinberg, 2007, p37)

Thus, Nintendo DS experience pods were placed in Esporta gyms across the UK,

with the theory that training your brain is as important as training your body. DS pods

were also placed in Borders bookstores. This time the idea was that intellectual

stimulation could come from games as well as books.

Finally, Nintendo capitalised on the Sudoku craze that hit the UK. Sodoku is a logic

puzzle game that shares much in common with Brain Age. They are both Japanese

in origin and they both have similar theories about exercising the brain in just a few

minutes. There was always one place you could guarantee a Sudoku puzzle: the

newspapers. Nintendo knew this and promoted Brain Age via an interactive webpage

on the Times Online website with Surprise Yourself where you could experience

Brain Age online. (i-d Media). As a broadsheet national newspaper, The Times is a

trusted, authoritative resource for information and news. This weight of authority

suggested to site visitors that Brain Age was endorsed by the Times, reassuring

consumers that the product was beneficial.

Nintendo had changed opinions on what gaming was almost overnight through

effective channel distribution. No longer was gaming perceived with a negative

attitude as just another way to waste time, but regarded positively as a form of

mental exercise. Everyone wanted to try the new DS, and Nintendo noted that the

parental and the Third Age segments could be lucrative markets.

Sony failed to recognise a potential change in audiences, producing games that

failed to inspire. Consumers had enjoyed the PlayStation One and the PlayStation 2.

Were they really willing to embrace yet another PlayStation that showed no genuine

innovations?

Motivation – identifying independence and well being as drivers amongst Third

Agers

Now it had a new potential market, Nintendo had to understand what drove the

mature market. Nintendo’s understanding of the Third Age can be seen in what is

identified as one of the Brain Age’s core benefits: helping to prevent Alzheimer’s.

When segmenting the grey market gerontographically, several common features

appear. According to Moschis, healthy indulgers, healthy hermits and ailing outgoers

all show signs that they desire independence. (Moschis, cited in Solomon 2006,

p471) Unfortunately, mental ailments such as Alzheimer’s tend to affect us as we

grow older. Once signs of Alzheimer’s begin to appear, it is often a downward spiral

into dependence on others to assist in even the most mundane daily activities.

While the grey market doesn’t actively seek a product that fends off Alzheimer’s

disease, Nintendo has suggested that Brain Age can help prevent it, creating an

awareness of the problem and therefore inciting a primal need in the consumer. It

creates in the consumer what Maslow identifies as physiological and ego needs. It is

physiological because of the necessity to be able to look after oneself, ego because

of the desire to maintain independence. (Solomon 2006, p99) Although Maslow’s

theory is crude, it does highlight that Brain Age can be presented as a product that is

essential to an ideal end state.

The key response that Nintendo made knowing that Third Agers want to stay healthy

was to present to the press that the game will aid memory thus indirectly creating a

mild but effective fear appeal (Solomon 2006 p192). This takes advantage of

psychiatrist Asahi Shimbun’s suggestion that “many of us are overly frightened of

getting old” (Shimbun A, cited in McCurry, Guardian, 2006). In knowing that they

could be combating Alzheimer’s, consumers are fulfilling their hedonic desires and

also combating their psychological fears when playing the game. Nintendo’s PR

team appears to have pitched the game just right because the affectionately termed

‘Silver Gamers’ (Robertson, Gamasutra, 2008) have fully embraced the game.

Value – Identifying the family bond as a core value among parents

While Japan benefits from a culture where gaming has been socially accepted by all,

many in the UK still perceive games as the ‘red-head stepchild of the creative

industries’ (Boxer, Guardian, 2008). Nintendo had to present to the potential Silver

Gamer that video gaming wasn’t just for kids with too much time on their hands but

for adults too.

Many products and services marketed towards the Third Age tend to be highly

unflattering. Services such as health insurance and life insurance and seem to all

imply that old age is coming, and you had better prepare yourself for tough times

ahead. To follow suit and pitch the DS and Brain Age as a product to prevent

dementia would have been equally damning on both the product and it’s target

audience. Advertising Alzheimer’s was out of the question - Nintendo had to find a

positive spin on which to advertise the product. That spin would come from within the

Nintendo’s own history and company values: family entertainment. (Nintendo.com

2008)

Considering that over 50% of adults living in private households have dependent

children (Eurostat, cited in Solomon, 2008, p406), it perhaps comes as no surprise

that strong family bonds are appreciated by parents born in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Despite this, reports show that in fact British parents spend the least time with their

children. (Garner R, the Independent, 2007). This is what Nintendo would base their

message upon. The family is highly personal thing and there are many ideal states.

Nintendo would tug at the desires of its market, taking advantage of one most

emotional attributes of humanity. (Solomon, 2006, p104)

In one of it’s most recent TV adverts, pop singer Ronan Keating is seen playing on

his Nintendo DS with his wife and two children. (visit4info.com, 2008) The video

shows a highly idealised nuclear family model, something many of Nintendo’s Silver

Gamer consumers would aspire to and associate with. The advert suggested that

playing the game would allow parents to spend quality time with their children,

satisfying what Schwartz identifies as the personal value of benevolence (Schwartz,

cited in Solomon, 2006, 119). In this emotional appeal, Nintendo correctly identified

that the product is a high involvement product and so have applied several

behavioural tools that might drive non-gamers to try the game.

Firstly Nintendo created a bond with their consumers with an emotional message.

When successfully implemented a bond promotes excellent perception, improves

product recall and thus makes the consumers more likely to involve themselves with

the product (Solomon, 2006, p186). The emotional appeal would help to push Third

Agers out of their inertia towards video games as associating the game with their

values of a close family would now carry great meaning with them. (Solomon, 2006,

p106)

Now that Nintendo had the Third Age and parents of all ages interested in the

product, they could set about finding a way of making them believe in the product

and break the stereotype that games are for children.

Reference Groups – Pulling Consumers in Through Aspiration and Inspiration

Now that Nintendo had found a message that created a drive in their audience, they

had to find a way to make them listen to their adverts, which they have done through

the power of the celebrity. Nintendo knows that their consumers will define their

attitudes and purchase behaviours by their aspirational reference groups (Solomon,

2006, p352); a list on which celebrities can sit highly. Tapping into this particular

reference group has been important for Nintendo to get Third Agers and parents to

accept video games and because consumers can create favourable indirect

associations with the DS. (Solomon, 2006, p176) Strong reference groups are

particularly important because the DS is a private luxury that often slips into

becoming a public luxury due to it’s portable nature.

Reference Groups – Authority of the Captain

One of Nintendo’s most recent TV advertisements features 68 year old actor Patrick

Stewart. Whereas Keating was used to target the family and parent markets, Stewart

was used to target the Third Age market. He commands many attributes desirable for

celebrity endorsement, but in particular, he presented Nintendo with authority and

expert power.

Like many celebrities, authority is a valued when it comes to endorsement because

consumers will believe in those who wield authoritative power. (Solomon, 2006,

p167). One of Stewart’s more renowned roles was in Star Trek as Captain Jean-Luc

Picard, and recently, in the movie X-men he was cast as a respected intellectual

leader of a mutant academy. These two roles as intelligent leaders gave Stewart

expert power over consumers when they consider the DS, which his also worked in

conjunction with Stewart’s role as an authority figure. (Solomon, 2006, p361) More

accurately, consumers perceive expert power in Stewart; he in fact has no more

knowledge about brain sciences than anyone else. (Cookson, Financial Times,

2008).

Nintendo used these qualities to show that Brain Age is effective, and that all of us,

no matter how famous or rich, could enjoy playing games and more importantly

benefit from them.

Reference Groups – the £18 million girl

In 2007, Nintendo called upon an even more famous actress, Nicole Kidman. Her

international credentials wield somewhat more power than Stewart, but she also

portrayed some attributes that Stewart did not.

Most obviously, Kidman was the female predecessor to Stewart meaning that she

could more effectively target the female segments. However Kidman also brings the

halo effect to the game (p178, 2006, Solomon) Unquestionably, at 40 years old,

Kidman is a highly attractive woman, yet she is primarily noted for her many acting

roles; consumers do not gloss over the core messages of the advert. In fact, her

many roles in movies mean that she appeals to people who are both 25 years older

and younger than her 40 years. (Stroud, 20 plus 20, 2007) Just as teen audiences

aspire to those older than them, mature audiences aspire to youth.

Most importantly, Kidman wields significant referent power, again, due in part to her

many starring roles. (Solomon, 2006, p359) Kidman, remember, was the glamorous

icon of an £18 million Chanel advert directed by Baz Luhrmann (Lawson, Guardian,

2004). Consumers of any age admire her status and achievements. Yet oddly, rather

than capitalise on the glamorous side of Kidman, Nintendo has emphasized her

private, and intimate lifestyle and more importantly, they identified one of her goals

as staying mentally fit. Not only are consumers driven to associate themselves with

Kidman by playing the game, but they also share the same common goals.

Opinions differ however on the success of the advert. Campaign magazine ranked it

as one of the worst adverts of 2007, asking “are we honestly expected to believe that

Nicole Kidman likes to sit in front of the fire playing with a Nintendo DS?” (Campaign

2007)

Whether or not the execution of the advert and the creative direction was correct,

arguably the choice to cast Kidman for the advert was mostly a good choice. She

carried many attributes that consumers can aspire to, although critics may argue that

attaining the qualities that Kidman has may be unrealistic for those in the C1 to E

social grades (NRS, year unknown) segments that play the DS. Nintendo have since

used celebrities of a more national level, rather than international level such as Philip

Schofield.

Evaluation – Flanking the core, picking up on consumer needs

Understanding their audience essentially caused Nintendo to execute a flanking

attack on Sony’s brand dominance and excellent gaming reputation.

Bypass Offensive Strategy (Pillai 2008)

Recognising that Sony could easily dominate the core market with it’s strong

reputation, Nintendo had to avoid the main target market and push with high levels of

innovation at every level, including innovative product design in the stylus and touch

screen, as well as a risky new game in Brain Age, and a new audience.

While Cooper suggested that 7 factors were quintessential for leading products,

Nintendo proved that not all of the factors were necessary and it was possible to

succeed with a clear understanding of the audience and with product innovation.

Recommendations

Firstly, because of the attitudinal changes caused by games like Brain Age over the

last few years, the entire spectrum of potential gamers must be re-segmented based

on their motivational values to play games because the old segments are inaccurate.

This will allow us to see where new products can be introduced to satisfy consumer

needs.

Secondly, I would re-enforce Steinberg’s notion that marketers should “look at where

there’s a good fit in related channels”. With so many people from 5 to 95 (Iwata

2008) playing games, games marketers must see the wider audience and target the

new influx because they will soon represent the largest portion of the market.

Finally, based on the understanding of motivation and values of the new consumers,

a continuum is proposed that shows how much communications should focus on the

game or on the end user. Lifestyle games, such as Brain Age should emphasise

more of the product benefits, such as people enjoying the game together, whereas

entertainment titles should show an emphasis on product features such as the game

graphics. This is because we need to make highly visible what it is that the consumer

desires.

lifestyle titles

eg Brain Age, Cooking Guide

entertainment titles

eg Super Mario, Far Cry

Communications

emphasis on

product features

Communications

emphasis on

product benefits

Proposed Continuum entertainment/lifestyle

Girls Aloud in DS adverts (Guardian 2008) Far Cry 2 Screenshot (FarCry2)

Conclusion

Nintendo has clearly had a very successful product and campaign, their sales figures

reflect this, and Brain Age has enjoyed a record breaking 80 weeks in the UK top 10

games charts. (Eurogamer 2008) However, with the games fast becoming

mainstream, they will soon become lifestyle products and consoles will enjoy

massive market penetration. Up to date understandings of the behavioural patterns

in consumers will pay dividends as product design should always be consumer

orientated in order to succeed. Nintendo has proven this with the success of Brain

Age.