Peculiarities of Client Relationship Marketing - Coursework Example

I. Strategic marketing A. Consumer’s heart Target market Demographics. Wii’s target market consists of people across different age groups. According to Gorshein and Eisner in a case entitled Nintendo’s Wii, “people of all ages” are what Nintendo have in mind as the target market in creating the product (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner 2008, 586). Psychographics. According to the case by Gorshein and Eisner, apart from creating a console that will be attract people of all ages, Nintendo aims for both the “casual consumers” or people who have never played video games before, and advanced gamers (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner 2008, 586). “The advanced gamer would enjoy the remote’s unique features, whereas the novice gamer could use the remote as his or her hand and wouldn’t need elaborate instructions on how to play a new game straight out of the box (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner 2008, 586).” 2. Competition Direct competitors. Nintendo operates under the electronic gaming console industry. The company’s major direct competitors include Xbox 360 by Microsoft and PlayStation3 by Sony. Xbox 360 has capability to play High Definition DVDs. According to Xbox.com, this console’s CPU “was a custom triple core Power PC—based design manufactured by IBM, known as the Xnon (Xbox.com 2009).” This console “played all its games in 5.1-channel Dolby Digital surround sound, and along with the HD display, the Xbox 360 could truly display excellent picture and sound quality (Xbox.com 2009).” Microsoft Xbox 360 comes in three variations: the Elite, the Premium System and the Core System (Hesseldahl 2005). Sony’s seventh video game console is launched in 2006—the PlayStation3. According to Playstation.com, “the PlayStation 3 could play music CDs, connect to the Internet, copy CDs directly to its hard drive, play Blu-Ray Discs and DVDs, connect to a digital camera, view photos, and more (US.PlayStation.com 2009).” Apart from these features, the wireless controller of the console has a built-in sensor in order to enable the player to move and angle while she plays. PS3’s target market according to Sony includes young urban males. Indirect competitors. The gaming console industry is just a part of a larger market. It is part of the electronics industry that caters to the entertainment market. Thus, Wii’s indirect competitors include those that substitute what it can do to the consumers, which is to entertain. These substitutes include other PC games, books, board games, and other activities that could provide entertainment or gaming experience to the people. B. Brand framework 1. Values and personality Values. Nintendo has chosen Wii for a variety of reasons, but according to Carless, the closest reason for the choice is that Wii sounds as ‘we’ which promotes the concept of ‘being for everyone’, as well as a brand name that can easily be remembered by everyone and does not require much translation (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner 2008, 583). Personality. As the Wii brand aims to please everyone, ease of dealing with it is included in its personality. According to Gorshein and Eisner, “the Wii Menu easily integrates itself into the everyday live of its users [as stated by Nintendo] (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner 2008, 585).” 2. Benefits Functional benefits. Wii provides the gamer a different gaming experience through the innovative Wii remote and Nunchuk (Cassamasina 2006). With Wii, the gamer experiences the game more by having more flexibility for her actions because of the advanced sensor of the console (Levine 2006). Emotional benefits. Wii provides the gamer an outlet for fun; a way to experience enjoying playing without needing prior experience in video games. With Wii, the gamer can enjoy an intuitive gaming experience. 3. Unique selling proposition Wii is the only gaming console in the market to offer such out of the box and intuitive gaming experience through its innovative architecture, which make it a good choice for people who do not have a prior background in playing video games. C. Nintendo’s B2B market In order for Nintendo to reach its target market, it has to go through distribution channels. These distribution channels serve as the link from the company to make the Wii accessible to the consumers. Nintendo will have the end-consumers in mind when they create the product, but the company needs to have these distributors in mind—the real customers of the company in order to generate sales. Nintendo has a number of subsidiaries around the world. Apart from these distribution partners, there are also companies which belong to Nintendo’s business-to-business markets—licensee games and accessories companies recommended for Wii (Nintendo.com 2009). The major thing that these distributors consider, as business partners to Nintendo, is the return on their investment from supporting the Wii brand. II. IMC planning process A. Target audiences 1. Decision making unit Nintendo has a number of distributors around the world, all subsidiaries of the company that distribute the Wii in different geographical regions. The decision-makers in these companies may not be comprised by a single individual, but a group of individuals that aim to assess the product lines that should be carried by the company. But of course, the person who has the highest authority to approve of the product mix that the subsidiary carries will be the prime target audience of this marketing communications campaign for Nintendo Wii. The decision to carry on various products of Nintendo apart from the Wii will be determined by a number of individuals in the subsidiary company, depending on the market situation in the given geographical segment. That is, the level of stock that the subsidiary company will carry is determined by the demand in the market, as well as the perceived profitability to the subsidiary company. Thus, potential influencers will be found in these groups. In a book entitled “Integrated Marketing Communications” by Pickton and Broderick, the authors express that “in business-to-business communications the personal element of the contact between buyer and salesperson maybe the most influential aspect of the decision-making process (2001, 251).” Thus, the sales person, through personal selling is a company initiated touchpoint, is very important because of its role as an influencer. B. Marketing communications objective The aim of the strategy is to promote the company in its business-to-business markets and enhance relationships with decision-makers in the company’s key business account clients. As the Wii has experienced a phenomenal introduction to the gaming market by gaining a presence in the internet, Nintendo’s broad objective can be to elicit promotional support by channel members. Thus, the objective can be broken down according to each channel’s ability to provide promotional support within its respective geographic region in order to increase the market presence of Nintendo Wii. This can be measured by the percentage of the target market a subsidiary can reach to increase awareness about the Wii product in the given markets; say, if Nintendo aims to gain awareness among 60% of the target market around the world, the individual subsidiaries should target more than 60% of the target market in their areas, at least 80% for the subsidiaries and the rest for Nintendo’s global marketing campaign. C. Strategies and tactics 1. Marketing communication media mixes The marketing communications campaign for the key accounts should incorporate the campaigns for the consumers. Therefore, the global campaign for the key accounts, which is the purpose of this paper, should incorporate a global campaign for consumers, and the local campaigns which Nintendo Wii intends the subsidiaries to execute in order for Wii to gain presence in their respective markets. a) Campaign at the local level for consumers By analysing consumers’ behavior as regards the purchase of game console, a series of individual marketing campaigns within each country should comprise the global campaign. After all, the goal of subsidiaries, being closer to consumers is to sell Wii. The ATR, or Attention-Trial-Reinforcement model by Ehrenberg and Goodhart (Pickton & Broderick 2001, 247) can be utilised in crafting the campaign. In order to gain Attention, advertising plus public relations can be utilised by Nintendo. The company can produce advertising copies, either locally tailored or a standard advertisement which will attract the attention of the media. This added publicity, coupled with press releases should leverage the attention that Wii can get from the public. In order to induce Trial, Nintendo can use public relations in the form of national events and publicity stunts. This aims to attract the target market to attend the events in order to get a glimpse of Wii. The additional perks will aim to attract the attention of the press and leverage publicity. Lastly, advertising as a weak force (Pickton & Broderick 2001, 462) can then be used for Reinforcement. The weak nature of advertisement will serve as the concluding factor of the campaign. It will depict the image of Wii while sealing the associations of the experiences with the Wii’s values and personality as a brand. b) Campaign at the global level for consumers On a global scale, Attention can be usually generated by utilising advertising and public relations too, but on a massive scale but in a cheaper way—through the internet. Because this level of Attention serves to prompt the subsequent national campaigns, the speed of spread through the internet can create a buzz that will serve the other national campaigns. Trial on a global scale can be done by creating a global event that will be synchronised in all the countries. The event that is mentioned in the national campaign is part of a larger event that should take place in all the countries where there is Wii. This as a publicity stunt also aims to attract the attention of the global press for more media coverage. Advertising on a global scale maybe very expensive, but with the presence of the internet, this can be reduced. An advertising campaign on the internet, which Wii users can access, would serve as the concluding point for the entire campaign, to reinforce the values and personality of the Wii brand. c) Campaign at the global level for key accounts The campaign for key accounts caters to people who hold high positions in Nintendo’s subsidiaries in different countries. The campaign, from the point of view of the subsidiaries would be a cognitive one—it entails a lot of financial risk on their part, which requires a lot of their involvement in the decision-making process. Therefore, the campaign should emphasize the relative risks as well as returns to the subsidiaries should they choose to support Nintendo through the national campaigns. To subsidiaries, the return on their investment is one of the major factors they consider. Thus, the global campaign for Nintendo’s key accounts should highlight the benefit of the global campaign for consumers to the Wii brand, and to their businesses. The involvement of the subsidiaries in the success of the Wii brand in establishing a very strong global presence in all corners of the world should be emphasized as well. 2. Creative idea a) IMC message strategy brief The umbrella idea for the global campaign is derived from Wii’s ‘ability to cater to everyone.’ The campaign “Wii your family” tries to envelop the concept of ‘family’ in the broadest sense. Because it tries to include everyone, the Wii community serves as a huge family that welcomes event those who have no prior experience in gaming. Also, as a member of the family, Nintendo provides security and certain benefits to its subsidiaries through sufficient returns with the success of the Wii brand. The “Wii your family” also highlights the encouragement of Nintendo among its subsidiaries to get involve with the success of the Wii brand. The purpose of the Nintendo’s “Wii your family” campaign is to connect the company’s customers (who are Nintendo’s key accounts) and convince them that the Wii brand provides a different gaming experience to their consumers, which will provide them sufficient returns to their investment in promotional support. The tone of the message should be warm yet supportive, embodying the family spirit of Wii. D. Action plan The event should be something close to a global summit where notable guests from the different subsidiaries of Nintendo will attend in a less traditional manner. Instead of holding the event in a world-class hotel, the conference can be held instead in a technology park, for example in Kerala Technopark in India. The place will enable Nintendo to set up a very large exhibit of the Wii where it can attract the global press’ attention as well as internet coverage. Outside the conference area, the large technological exhbibit can also show teasers of the upcoming campaign for Wii. This event should be announced in a press release. In the event, the global campaign for Nintendo will be highlighted. Catching the attention of the global press with this summit-like meeting of representatives of the Nintendo subsidiaries, a press release can give more details to the upcoming campaign as well as the event that is taking place. Buzz marketing should also be utilized by targeting internet tech authorities to cover the outskirts of the event as well as give the campaign a head start in the internet. The global campaign will include the discussion for the Trial phase, where a global event will be staged in a twenty-four hour period (similar to the millennium’s global coverage in 2000)—that is, the event will take place at a specified time in many countries, but because of the differences in the time zone, the event will be seen as a sequence of events. There will be a global coverage, with Nintendo to partner with global media companies such as CNN, BBC, and MSNBC. This event should be given hype by smaller publicity stunts that would serve as trailers and teasers to the target market. The main event will communicate the “Wii your family” message by Wii tournaments comprised of friends and families. As the event will last for less than a day, the global event would really appear as a global tournament that involves the whole world as a family of Wii users. The global advertising should also be presented in the conference, which is comprised of the internet advertising campaign. This is to reinforce the brand of Wii through the company’s “Wii your family” message strategy. This will feature the highlight of the main events of the campaign, from the summit-like conference in the huge Techno Park to the conclusion of the event in the country at the latest time zone. Then a concluding clip that will embody the “Wii your family” will end the advertisement. Lastly, the subsidiaries will be presented with the proposed IMC budget of Nintendo for the global campaign, as well as the recommended IMC mixes where the subsidiaries can base their budgets for their national campaigns. The projected effect of this global campaign will be presented in order to show the profitability and good returns to IMC investment of the subsidiaries in this global campaign for Wii. The attendees can get to mingle and play Wii with the key accounts managers of Nintendo with whom they always interact and transact. These key accounts managers, or the key sales people are one of the greatest influencers to these target audiences; the decision-makers as regards supporting Wii’s promotional effort. These decision-makers should be convinced to invest a good sum in order to achieve the objective of 80% awareness in their respective countries and geographical regions. 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