Bob Reiss and the TV Guide Game - Assignment Example

Reiss decided to introduce one of Canada’s most popular games; “The TV Guide Game” in America. Reiss rightly assumed that the success of “Trivial Pursuit” in Canada may spill over to the U.S. and the public interest in the United States towards Trivia games may increase. The major obstacle in front of Reiss while introducing “The TV Guide Game” in America was the concern about the short life cycle of toy games. Most of the popular games were struggled to last even for two years in the market.

Life is changing so rapidly and along with that, the needs of the public are also changing. Games that were so popular in the twentieth century may not succeed in the twenty-first century because of the changing perceptions of the public about how to spend leisure time or which type of games needed to be selected for spending leisure time. Christmas and New Year are usually peak seasons for selling game types of equipment in America. Most of the people in America may get extended holidays during this period which they will use for playing games.

However, there are many challenges in doing a business relying heavily on a seasonal market. Another challenge faced by Reiss was to find out money for meeting the expenses of developing the product. He has calculated that an amount between $ 30000 to $ 50000 is required for the initial production. Even though he thought of raising the money through the manufacturer’s representatives in the toy business and also through venture capital, he dismissed all these options in the end because of some problems.

Reiss succeeded in establishing a business tie-up with one of the most popular magazines in America; TV Guides, which helped him to develop capital for the initial production and to promote his new game in America. Based on the instructions of TV Guides, Reiss made his game a complete one by introducing a board also along with the game.  Would this approach have worked for Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley? Why? Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley like big companies cannot print or manufacture the game for such a lost just like Reiss did.

Reiss utilized his contacts effectively in order to cut down the print and manufacturing cost of his game. Parker Bros. or Milton Bradley would have spent around $250,000 just for design and development and around $1 million just for advertising and promotions of the product. However, Reiss was able to use his contacts and tie-up with the TV Guides magazine effectively to design, manufacture and promote his product.  How much money did Reiss make personally from the game? The given case study has not given any direct shreds of evidence for the money personally made by Reiss out of selling his game in America.

However, the given case study mentioned that R&R sold 580,000 units of the TV Guide game in 1984 and the profit per unit is $1.96. Based on the above figures, Reiss would have earned a personal income of $ 1136800 in 1984 alone.  Why was Reiss so successful?             Reiss was so successful because of his abilities in reducing the initial production cost and also his abilities in identifying the right opportunities. He has made use of his contacts effectively and was able to reduce the print and manufacturing costs of the game.

Moreover, instead of going after venture capital or manufacturer’s representatives, he has established collaboration with TV Guide magazine which helped him to promote his product and also to find out the initial capital needed for the production of the game. He has established good relationships with his customers and never tried to exploit the wholesalers or retailers when they got more money out of selling his game.  What should Reiss do about Whoozit? The major complaint labeled against Reiss’s game was the complexity of questions.

It was difficult for ordinary people to answer the questions included in the game. So while designing the new game Whoozit, Reiss should focus more on introducing easy questions. Each player should be given more chances in the new game rather than giving only one chance as in the earlier game. Moreover, instead of selling the Whoozit game for a fixed price, it is better to fix different prices for the different versions of the Whoozit game.