Strategic Management at Nintendo Co - Case Study Example

The case study on gaming industry involves Nintendo Co. that has been has been one of the leading companies in this industry in for various decades. Nintendo Co. Began as manufacturer of playing cards in Japan in twentieth century and by 1970s, it began focusing on electronic videogames and toys. The company became the video game industry leader in 80’s and 90’s with popular titles of games and consoles of home video games. Competitors in this industry emerged in 90s where the video game market was expanded by the Sony’s release of the PlayStation platform and also the rise of improvement and popularity of PC technology resulted to use of PCs as platforms for gaming. In the past decades in video game industry, Nintendo has been a major contender and has also been facing challenges during the years in development and maintenance of a competitive advantage. The company gained a stronghold due to introduction of Wii console as a leader in the industry of games. Various competitors in this industry such as Microsoft and Sony are gaining on the competitive advantage of Nintendo which is making Nintendo to re-evaluate and monitor the company’s strategies. The company must focus on influencing it competitors’ customers for maintenance of a competitive advantage through a continual development of technologies in innovation and considering the social networking impact on gaming industry. Microsoft and Sony have also been developing at a higher rate and are gaining market in this industry which makes them main competitors with Sony’s popularity being attributed to PlayStation while that of Microsoft being development of Xbox game console in 1990s and 2000s respectively (Muncy 2011). Using PESTEL framework, the influences of gaming industry are categorised into political, social, economic, environmental, technological and legal main types. The political factors influencing this industry include regulation on foreign trade, social and taxation welfare policies. The government has the obligation to control the frames as video games play with people’s emotions which also threaten peace and law of a multicultural country. Regions such as Japan and US are dominated by the business of video games thus; it becomes a main contributor of the countries’ GDP. The income on this industry’s consumers affects the buying behaviour. For instance, low cost of manufacturing was a main reason that made Nintendo to sell games at nominal price which led to increase in the company’s sales. Social factors influencing the gaming industry include distribution of income, population demographics, changes in lifestyle, consumerism, and social mobility behaviour of consumers and level of education. The action of Nintendo in opening the showrooms was attraction and influencing of customers and show on interest in fulfilling the needs of the customers. Also, the industry influences people’s culture through making the children aggressive thus is impacting the industry. The technological law in this industry is very essential as its competitive advantage is based on technology. The role of Nintendo ranging from cards playing through toys to video games an introduction of each console include a lot of changes in technology. The Nintendo Wii capability online was a major change in the video game technology. The gaming industry utilises many resources which include a lot of plastics, power consumption in computer or television when playing games. Nintendo games ensure low utilisation of power. In environmental protection and ‘green’ lifestyle practice, Nintendo facilitates the effort in challenges the game players to improve the environment by creating ‘Chibi-Robo- park patrol’ and ‘super mario shine’. Legal issues that the game industry faces include copyrights, trademarks, online ownership, licensing, intellectual property demands and recognition of revenue. Also, other issues include product and health safety (Abangkuraden 2009). Industry structure involves the size distribution and the number of firms in the industry. Gaming industry consists of a large number of firms that reduces the coordination opportunities among the firms within this industry. The level of competition rises with the increasing number of firms. In consideration of the gaming industry structure, the key businesses are development, publishing, hardware manufacturers (such as the console makers Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo), and distribution. The key issue of awareness when focusing at gaming industry is the complex interactions involved in various companies. A company laying focus in one of these areas may on the other hand be active in other areas. All or part of a distribution or development company is often owned by publishers. All manufacturers of hardware act as publisher for their first party’s own products which means that if a development company may seek to engage into a business with a publisher, it may be approaching the owner (publisher) of one of the company’s main competitors. The gaming industry’s international nature means that in case of two publishers who are competitors in one territory, they may finally end up working together through distribution of the other company’s games in another territory. Thus, it is essential to have an understanding of the global relationships that exist in doing business in this industry. The current structuring makes the industry standard- based in such a way that the effects of networking will always continue to act as a key role in preservation of competition within the industry. Also, the structuring ensures that the industry reaches a mature phase with integration and concentration in the stages within the structure of the industry (Marchant 2012). The strategic groups in this industry are the rivals that have singular market and competitive approach. The key competitors of Nintendo include Microsoft and Sony. The key characteristic of such an industry that is highly concentrated is the competitors are regarded as mutually interdependent such that a move by one company will affect other companies’ fortunes. These companies later respond. The toys and games global market has been positively impacted by the awareness of consumers and market and media exposure. Toy industry is marked with transitional fluctuations that are trend-driven and also seasonal. Factors influencing the marketplace business climate include consumer demographics, economic conditions and the disposable income levels. The traditional toys and games market patterns in developing countries are lagging as a result of declining birth rates and adoption of conventional toys. The prime target in this industry is youngsters, teenagers and adults. Due to continuous innovation there has been availability of various video games genres. There are varieties of games which have attracted the attention of new population section such as women who have entered the industry becoming significant audiences for generating income for online games such as word, trivia and puzzles. The Europe and the United States account for over 70% of games and toys globally. There has been a projection for the puzzles or games in the European market by 2015 which is more that US$ 3.4 in sales. The traditional games and toys represent a significant mature market but it is frustrated constantly by rising popularity of faster market for video and games. Latin America and Asian-pacific are expected to lead in growth globally particularly in the market for video games with projected CAGRs of 8.4% and 10.7% respectively between 2011 and 2015 period. The major products include portable players, video game consoles and peripheral hardware. The sales of video game console consists three line of competing products; Nintendo Wii, Sony’s play station and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Portable palyers include Nintendo DS PSP for Sony. The major players in gaming industry market place include Nintendo, Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp, and Electronic Arts, Sega Corp among others. The demand in the industry is driven by innovation of the product and personal income. The company’s profitability depends on competitive design of a product, effective marketing and efficiency in marketing (Vocus PRW Holdings et al. 2012). The core competencies for a successful company include intelligence in market, strategic partnerships, brand management, product development and creation of experience. The industry requires the necessary skills and technology in research in order to identify the new opportunities and trends. The companies also require successful development of products that also target various groups. Also, establishing strategic partnerships is essential which include licensing as there is a need to consider the balance between the original creation of content and licensing. Some of the core competencies are usually not the same for all companies as they are also dependent on the strategies of the company which varies. Nintendo also has chosen core competencies. Nintendo’s research and development enhances its capability in game concepts and innovative technology. Marketing allowed Nintendo to create a brand that is efficient. Efficient processes of manufacturing allowed the company to produce Wii console and reach economies of scale at a cost which is lower as compared to its competitors’ production of game systems. The core competence of Nintendo lies among the above capabilities. The capabilities become the core competencies because they are rare, valuable and are non-substitutable temporarily. Thus, Nintendo Wii and development of games for the game system provide Nintendo with a competitive advantage until there is production of imitations that are comparable by the competitors. Companies such as Sony have produced PlayStation and Microsoft has produced Xbox 360 which is comparable products that could mimic Nintendo’s Wii game play. In addition, another core competency for Nintendo is its brand. Nintendo is viewed as a video gaming classic leader which can be seen as a rare and valuable capability for this company (Muncy 2011). Views that are resource based are the most dominant views that explain the performance of a company through the paradigm of competitive advantage. The most successful companies in this industry have achieved competitive advantage and have achieved a performance that is superior through possession of resources that are unique. The unique resources possessed by the market leaders include technological knowledge, and marketing and age segment, marketing team, research and development, the management of the company’s management and the process of manufacturing. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are the major market players currently. The market shares for these companies are 17%, 27% and 56% for Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony in the United States respectively. Globally, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have market shares of 13%, 195 and 67%. While the Microsoft and Sony compete on the segment from teens to adults gaming, Nintendo products are focused towards the younger segment and it does not compete so much with others. The game consoles involved are immobile and typically in connection to a TV. The market requires entry capital that is significant as it is highly competitive. Some of the companies such as Sega consisted of a market share that was notable in the mid 90s but it later quitted the console business due to lack of ability to maintain the current technology. This gave Sony domination into the gaming industry in late 90s. Sega and Nintendo popularised console in 80s but only Microsoft and Sony have managed to successfully enter with trial such as Atari, 3DO and others. Due to technological knowledge and resources in a marketing, Microsoft and Sony gained advantage of entering and dominating in gaming industry. Also, change in technology with each console generation and relationship with suppliers such as graphic chip makers and CPU makers are also very critical for a successful company in this industry. Lack of such resources makes it difficult for new player to make a repetition of such an entry. Value chain involves activities that add value through conversion of inputs to outputs in a way that creates a competitive advantage. These include inbound distribution, operations of manufacturing, outbound distribution and marketing which are supported by research development and corporate infrastructure. The value chain of game industry has changed from comprehensive in-house operations non-key outsourcing and complementary elements such as game development. Chain value of game industry involves the following; hardware engineering and development, hardware manufacturing, software production, distribution and online gaming. In hardware engineering and development, both Nintendo and Sony in-house console development was on proprietary design basis. This is because technology was considered as an outsourced core competency. The industry’s dominant model seems to be operating through outsourced manufacturing. In 2002, Nintendo was in negotiation for outsourcing of the production of GameCube to Wistron but there were also an issue requiring resolving since Wistron is a contractor to Microsoft’s Xbox. The entry of Microsoft into the industry also forced all the players to rationalize the production of their hardware through outsourcing. This was done for the purpose of containing losses. In software production, companies for game console market and develop themselves with developers who serve as independent third parties also play a significant role. Nintendo and Sony has charged the royalties traditionally on the games sold based on their consoles. However, Microsoft maintains the tradition of PC-games industry where there is no charge of royalties to the game producers. In addition, Microsoft managed to get many developers for writing Xbox games due to the company’s huge investment. Nintendo unveiled online games plan by announcing the availability of the broadband a adapter and a modem and also for developers of incentive game, Nintendo made announcements for not charging royalties especially on generation of revenue during the GameCube plating of online games. A broad base of customers is able to reach different kinds of services through the capability of consoles through online. For instance, Microsoft was able to this opportunity as it had the services and infrastructure (MSN) for offering to the company’s potential customers (Lim et al. 2010). For a gaming company to be having a competitive advantage there is need to apply VRIN framework in the management. The competitive advantage can come from both the capability and the resources. For competitive advantage, the resources of a firm must be valuable (V) in a way that the managers will exploit the available opportunities as well as mitigating any threat of the external environment of the firm. The resources must also be rare on matters of scarcity (R) and also, there is protection of imitation in such a way that there is only a possibility of an imperfect imitation (I). Finally there is protection of substitution in a way that the substitutes that are equivalent are usually not readily available (N). The important resources in Nintendo Company are the marketing team, research and development, the management of the company’s management and the process of manufacturing. Through the company’s research and development, it gains capability in game concepts and innovative technology while the effective creation of a rand in the company is enhanced by marketing. An efficient process of manufacturing enabled Nintendo to produce WII console in a cheaper way. These capabilities were not substitutable, were rare and valuable in a way that Nintendo maintained its competitive advantage through Nintendo Wii. This put Nintendo in a good competitive position until it competitors such as Sony and Microsoft introduced comparable products which are Pay Station and Xbox respectively. The core competencies that are difficult to imitate include technological knowledge, the marketing team, and process of manufacturing and the management of the company (Rothaermel 2008). For a successful strategy, understanding of the competitive environment is very essential. The analysis of gaming industry is relevant to both business level and corporate level strategy. The corporate level in gaming industry will assist in identification and making decision on the industries that the company is required to engage in and how the company should allocate its resources among these industries. Through a well defined competitive strategy in a company it is easier to understand how a company’s competitive structure will determine the profitability of the company. Through a business strategy, the company will be able to develop and establish a competitive advantage. Through analysis of the preferences and needs of the customers and the way in which different companies create competition in customers’ satisfaction there is a need to identify the competitive advantage’s general sources. The current strategies in Nintendo focuses on creation of games and consoles geared towards the families and the non-gamers. Thus through this business strategy, Nintendo will have a unique range of customers which will create a competitive advantage. Sony’s strategies also involve lowering their PlayStation prices and introduction of a discounted line of games. In addition, in order to compete with Nintendo Wii, Sony also released a game controller that is motion sensing known as PlayStation move. On the other hand, the Microsoft’s strategy was the kinetic system of Xbox which is a resemblance of the Nintendo’s Wii game play but designed in a way that it is controller-free. Through its business strategy, Microsoft major strength was the release of Xbox 360 during the company’s starting of the business cycle. In addition to their business strategies, Microsoft and Sony’s future objectives are protected and they serve as trade secrets with an aim of gaining a competitive advantage (Hill et al. 2007). In vertical integration, several steps in distribution and production are controlled by single company with an aim of increasing it power in market place. Horizontal integration involves strategies for a company to increase its share in the market through acquisition or taking over another similar company. The trend towards horizontal and vertical integration in games industry is evident where publishers integrate vertically with developers upstream and with distribution companies downstream in addition to buying other publishers. The publishers are operating across the sectors and platforms of game industry in an increasing rate from personal computers to mobile and console. Other companies in gaming industry operate across a variety of other non-media and media sectors. In the early 90s, it was found that the industry of global publishing consolidated around 10 to 20 core of major publishers with inclusion of companies that are well known. These companies include Nintendo, Electronic Arts and take 2. During that time, fears of more consolidation of the gaming industry were not realised and the vertical integration is the new trend with the developers rather that other publishers emergence and acquaintance. The top publishers currently run the production regarded as round the globe and clock with the recruitment and establishment of development teams in various locations on the grounds of specialist skills, cost of labour and marketing needs. Currently, a lot of publishers own their channels of distribution where the ownership is estimated to be 80%, thus, this cycle’s stage is usually controlled full by the publisher. The main aim of diversifying is to reduce the risks in the company as well as increasing the company’s revenues. An example of unrelated diversification is the Nintendo’s baseball where much or the majority of Seattle mariners are owned by Nintendo. Some of the alliances evidenced in the gaming industry include alliance of promotion of game industry (GIPA) and avengers. GIPA which was formed in 2006 is a game industry representative whose members are all developers of games, operators and distributors. The aim of such an alliance is creation of a platform between the gaming industry and the government which results into creation of the industry’s better environment and facilitation of more collaboration and communication opportunities with international game industry’s counterparts. The alliance has led to achievement of various significant results. First, as emerging and developing operators of strategic industry, this alliance has successfully lobbied the game developers’ reduction of taxes. Second, in the promotion of game operators and consumers’ interaction, this alliance has assisted in development of online games contract forms. The alliances are also aimed at creation of gaming industry’s positive image and also to bring more consumers to enjoy playing various games. In general, the alliances in game industry are developed to enhance cluster effect of the industry and also to create more opportunities o international corporation. In US’s strategic alliance of featuring swimsuit models in the need for speed game, the Electronic Arts found a way of featuring models of swimsuit in video game. The strategic alliance involved marketing partnership between Electronic Arts and sports illustrated which led to bring the world of video games, fashion, beauty and cars together. The need for speed formed by the alliance was also released using the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox360 and Sony’s PlayStation (Associated Press 2011). An example of a product development strategy in Nintendo is development of a console Wii U in this year. In this case, the company intends a new product to their potential or existing customers. The Wii U new and improved version of the company’s bestselling Wii game console have the following new features; revamped look, touch screen controller and HD gaming. All the features in the new product development strategy are aimed at enhancing the core benefit which is offers to consumers and in turn it will boost the company’s sales. Some of the challenges of the new product development in the company include a lack of mature market compared to what the original Wii fused at that time in a strategy known as Blue Ocean thus; the new product will be targeted using this existing market. Also, another challenge is presence of increased competition as the competitor has become more established as compared to the introduction of the Wii thus, posing a significant threat. There are also increased costs as every extra feature in the new product means an increase in production cost hence the company will require to employ price skimming for high development and research recouping. This shows the total price for the family will be substantially high. Other subsystems of development strategy that are required to be implemented in this industry include game enhancement, development of high technology games and toys, imaginative exploration, and creation of content. Successful implementation of these strategies requires making of strategic and operational adjustments through building of competency, advancement of technological knowledge among others (Marketing Blog 2011). Nintendo were first movers as they introduced the Nintendo Wii into the gaming industry. They were the first to introduce the Wii game console before the Sony’s play station and Microsoft’s Xbox. Due to their being the first in this technology, they were able to gain benefits that were long lasting and competitive advantage. The Nintendo Wii also helped the company to gain market dominance for a long time before its competitors’ development of a comparable product. Nintendo underwent two stages to be a first-mover. First, the company had essential resources which included marketing team, research and development, the management of the company and manufacturing processes. Efficient use of these resources enabled the company to create capabilities of value that led to prediction of the future of gaming industry. Through innovative technology and efficient marketing, the company was able to create a brand that was effective. The second stage involves the company’s capability to capture the first-mover benefits. This was also enhanced through Nintendo’s core competencies as they were non-substitutable temporarily, rare, and valuable. This led to production of Nintendo Wii that dominated the market for a good time before development of comparable products by Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo used their first-mover advantage effectively but due increased competition, it is required to find maintain its competitive advantage through consideration of possible courses for new competitive advantages (Sandberg 2000). Innovation has played a very significant role in success of game industry through software development and hardware engineering in the efforts to develop and design products that satisfy various segments of population that are widening each day. Through innovation in the game industry, there is identification of patterns which in turn will assist developers, engineers and executives in marketing to formulate better strategies for business and bring new and competitive products into the market. Also, the readers discover how game companies the rules of normal industries through innovations that are radical resulting to new customers’ attraction. However, the companies that prove to be having products that are most advanced find themselves less successful as compared to other competitors. With the presence of Nintendo’s Wii and other companies’ game console, people stay fit and also are exposed to new learning opportunities. Entrepreneurship is also important in the gaming industry as this industry involves new talents in game programming, design and graphic design in business and marketing (Wesley & Barczak 2010). Nintendo’s global strategy is based on blue ocean strategy which digs deep to new opportunities in the game industry that consists of unchallenged markets. The strategy digs deep the opportunities that are not explored. Using this strategy, Nintendo has been able to produce a competitive game console known as intend Wii. Through the use of this strategy, the company has been able to break the boundaries through exploitation of technology resulting to extension of entertainment. Although Wii made the company first-mover, there is a significant growth in competitors which poses as a main challenge to this company. In addition, the company has advanced through the same strategy to developing of a new product known as Wii U. Sony also has an international focus of extending other technological lines which include Blu-ray disc and PCs. Related products contribute to the company’s global goal. The company’s another strategy involve use of open innovation by focusing of the outside of this company in order to get different and new technologies. This in turn allows the change of the needs of the customers in order to gain new experiences, be more innovative, strengthen the business and achieve a profitable growth. Through outside information on technological advances, the company will benefit through best innovative products. The Sony’s market expansion leads to better profit opportunities (Japan Times 2011). Deliberate or emergent strategies usually occur in game industry due to rapid change and development of new technology in order to maintain the company’s competitive advantage. There is an increase in strategic direction recognition in this industry as the decisions arise due to various opportunities realized as the companies learn from their competitors. These emergent strategies are meant to maintain the company’s objectives as they realise in the process of implementation that the defined strategies are not working in such a competitive environment. Though these emergent strategies may be of essence to the company, there are associated with various challenges. First, not all the strategies planed by the company will happen in practice as a result of changing of the tastes of the consumers and sudden change in competitive environment. Second, majority of the strategies that the company implement are not necessarily the ones that the company had developed throughout the process of planning. This is because to forces such as customers’ demand and change of technology companies tend to adopt emergent technologies in order to cope up with their competitors. Culture, competition, age sector and emotions are some of issues that have imposed industrial strategies. Culture involves very various elements such as belief systems, knowledge, attitude, values and the way the world is perceived. While it may be easy to see the visible features of culture in a company, it takes time and effort to understand the invisible ones. The invisible features of culture has the most impact on the way people view things in relation to the company which requires adequate research and development in product development to develop successful marketing strategies. Understanding culture, its importance and respect of its role in potential customers means the different between the company’s success and the company’s failure within, locally and internationally. This interferes with the company’s marketing strategy of attracting the potential customers. Culture will affect the following area in the company’s business; the relationship with the international partners and customers, website content and localization and marketing, public relations and advertising strategies. As the gaming industry is so sensitive in culture issues, a company failure to appreciate and understand the differences in culture always fails to implement its marketing strategies. It is also important to note that marketing strategies of a company in one country does not mean translation of success in other countries due to diversity of culture. This calls for cultural sensitivity in designing, production, and marketing of the products within the game industry. Failure to consider culture in marketing strategy, necessities of the website and release of the product leads to lack of confidence and faith in company and its products, negative public relations, loss of customers and revenue and facing legal charges. In 2003, the Microsoft’s Xbox game got negative reactions due to inclusion of a religious content which was said to be offensive. This was because game studios by Microsoft contained Quran verses. This led to recalling of the game which in turn decreased customers with loss of sales (e- magazine 2011). The Nintendo’s strategy was aimed at targeting neglected demographic with coverage of all genders and ages, this was a boost to the implementation of the company strategies due to coverage of wide demographic without cultural discrimination. In addition, the company’s social-cultural stand was focused towards an ideology that was family friendly. This led to limiting of certain types games thus; this negatively affected the implementation of company’s strategies through threatening of the competitive advantage of the company. The structure of the company was designed in a way to focus non-gamers. This would lead to inefficient implementation of the strategies as what the company was focusing can be seen as simple with equipment that are easy to use. This means that the company’s revenues will also be reduced. However, this does not affect the culture as it involves inclusion of non-gamers of all ages. In case of Microsoft, the cultural system during the design of the company products was not well observed as this later led to calling off of a game that the company developed that offended the Muslims. This greatly affects the company’s implementation of strategies in such a way that it would lead to losses in the company and lack of confidence from the customers. In a company, it is essential to measure the outcomes generated by the actions and decisions arrived by the company. A strategy in a firm is not of any use until you measure how successful it is. The success of toy and game industry strategies depend on its relations to the environment. New technologies provide good opportunity but at a substantial cost. For long term success of the industry, the goals and visions needs to be articulated clearly. Measurement of achievement of goals should be periodical in such a growing industry in order to adjust the strategies according to technology. The industry needs monitoring of its external environment in order to determine when strategic direction changing is required due to shifting in market forces. Strategic triggers and metrics are used to appraise the industry’s performance and reassessing of a market that is dynamic. This in turn will provide a benchmark which is used to monitor the progress of implementing the strategic plan of the company. Strategic metrics for monitoring the company’s performance in short term in relation to long term strategies can be internally or externally driven depending on the focus of the metric that is, the company’s operations of the larger market. The metric provides the performance of the company in comparison to its competitors (Gish 2002). References Associated Press 2011, Toy and Game Strategic Alliances In The United States: 'need For Speed' Game To Feature Swimsuit Models. Retrieved on 12 April 2012 from: http://www.reportlinker-news.com/n020797907/-Need-for-Speed-game-to-feature-swimsuit-models.html Abangkuraden 2009, Macro and Micro Environment Analysis For Nintendo. 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Retrieved on 12 April 2012 from: http://www.obscure.co.uk/articles-2/industry-overview/ Marketing Blog 2011, Nintendo – New Product Development. Retrieved on 12 April 2012 from: http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/06/13/nintendo-new-product-development/ Muncy, R. 2011, Nintendo: Maintaining Competitive Advantage, Gatton Student Research Publication. Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-9 Rothaermel, F. 2008. Competitive advantage in technology intensive industry. Innovation and economic growth. Vol. 18, pp. 201-225. Sandberg, K. D. 2001, Rethinking the First-Mover Advantage. Harvard Management Update vol. 6, no. 5 pp. 1–5. Shan, N. 2005, video game industry: an industry analysis. Centre for digital strategies. Pp. 1-42. Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC. Vocus, PRWeb, & Publicity Wire 2012, Global Toys and Games Market to Reach $122.2 Billion by 2012, According to New Report By Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Retrieved on 12 April 2012 from: http://www.prweb.com/releases/toys_games_dolls/video_games_activity/prweb1601282.htm Wesley, D & Barczak, G. 2010, Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry. Northeastern University, Boston, USA Read More