Improving Game Marketing
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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Starting post: Improving Game Marketing by at Google Blog Search: price reduction
In no particular order-
– Doesn’t the idea that the Christmas season is the biggest season for game sales suggest that we’re dealing with a huge “pure buyer” market? Unless most of these gifts are through a “wishlist” system. Any data on that?
– What sort of “authoritative sources” are critical for PC sales? PC Gamer magazine? Advertizing? (Shudder).
– I suspect TV is a poor way to advertise games. Either a) it looks like it does on the computer screen, and that doesn’t impress people who are watching the polished video presentation that is TV or b) it doesn’t look like it does on the computer screen, and people feel like it’s a bait-and-switch.
– There are a few games out there with memorable musical scores, games that have ongoing lifecycles either through sequels or because they’re durable MMOs. Could putting these on the radio, probably in the form of an ad, be an effective marketing tactic?
– Does the fact that games can be their own “press” — in the form of webpages — affect the marketing equation at all?
[…] Raph posted on this subject._________________Morgan Ramsay San Diego Chapter of the International Game Developers Association […]
David Edery posted on the topc if micro-celebrities, which as I noted in the comments are encompassed by the phrases brand champions and brand ambassadors. Of course, the core idea is that these are the people who carry significant influence in their social networks and that they should be strongly supported (and perhaps even championed) by the relevant marketing and public relations groups. I’m not surprised that more sophisticated communications work has not been, especially in consideration of your point that public relations is unfortunately viewed and practiced as publicity in interactive entertainment.
Personally, I think GameSpy is well-positioned to take advantage of social networking. GameSpy Arcade seems like an excellent platform from which to build a social networking solution for those interested or involved in interactive entertainment. Market researchers would also have another technology with which to more effectively assess and study customer information-acquisition and purchase behaviors with regard to games. On that note, Steam would also work too.
Morgan-
Typically focussing on these people has just translated to increased burstiness in the MMO market overall. If they’ll leave their game for yours, they’ll leave your game for the next one that comes along.
A few comments.
First, viral marketing and most “word-of-mouth” campaigns usually fall under PR. A large part of these campaigns is working with media outlets to seed the initial buzz and discussion, which then (hopefully) takes on a life of its own in the market. The upcoming book I’m editing contains a whole chapter on PR where I learned this. 🙂
Second, point-of-sale has a huge impact on games. Anyone interested in business should go to their local video game store and hang around looking at games. Listen to what the employees tell people. Resist the urge to interrupt or beat the employee for astounding ignorance. Of course, keep in mind that these kids usually make minimum wage and are (sometimes) only one step up from the average fan. This is a huge part of the equation in game sales, but it will weaken as more game sales go online. The question is how fast things will transition to mostly online sales.
Finally, I need to read the whole thing to see if they cover price psychology at all. According to what I heard at 3DO, they once tried to give the Meridian 59 client away through little displays near the registers at game stores. However, customers thought the game wouldn’t be worthwhile since the game was free. Once they added a small charge for the client there was significantly more interest; people assumed the game must have some value if they had to pay even a little bit for it.
Further, this psychology has an interesting affect on online games from my observations. People who buy a $50 box are much more willing to stick with a game and tough it out; this is usually because people don’t want to believe they spent a large chunk of money for something worthless. On the other hand, if the same person acquires a game cheaply they may not be so willing to invest time and effort into the game. Conventional wisdom is that it is easier to attract people to the cheaper game, however. I’m personally not sure this is the case.
Some interesting information, though. Video game marketing is something that needs a lot of attention in order to improve.
A significant problem with the psychology of price is that price is not the ultimate factor in a purchase decision, regardless of the claims of some economics professors… There are a number of variables that contribute to the customer decision-making process, which various psychologists have attempted to abstract and simplify, such as image theory. Modern psychology is largely interactionist. The psychology of price provides insufficient information to effectively benefit marketers. We need to understand, at least, the four basic factors, how they interact, and what they contribute to the customer decision-making process.
Or the claims of customers for that matter. I agree that more research should be done here, this research shows all the problems I would expect from self-reporting the data. Consumers who think that price is king and they don’t care about branding. Yet slide 22 tells a different story. X-men, Star Wars and Resident Evil has strong branding and didn’t need to do anything but get the word out, while Halo 2 and Civ 4 needed to prove to their potential customer that this isn’t one of the times they screw up. No customer don’t follow publishers/distributors exactly,, but they do follow brands. After deciding which game to buy they double checked to make sure the games were “good enough”, that’s where graphic/price/gameplay came into the picture, and the game needed to be “industry standard” on all 3 to make the final cut and get purchased. (That’s my review of the data at least.)
[…] Comments […]
Yeah, it’s nice for a study to confirm so many of my suspicions. It’s all about value – and the demo model just isn’t helping. How often do you go off and tell all your friends and family about this great free trial offer? 🙂
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=7639
We need a new way to reach out to our audience, and create a situation where friends and families actively talk about our games… Hell, we need them to actively play our games.
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=7560
That’s why we announced our new game My Bōgle, will use the “Friends Play Free” invitation system. It’s our solution to the value proposition problem.
Thanks!
-Andrew
I guess it depends on what brand of PR you’re practicing: marketing, corporate communications, or public affairs? 🙂
[…] But if say it takes about 3 years to get the hardware to fully graphically run Eq2 � that will make the game around what � 5 years old. Will anyone but the veteran player-base really care? Do a lot of new players stream into joining a mature 5-year-old MMOG or go for the newer released game? Was all that added development time really worth the effort? I think these are excellent points. With the market situation a couple of years back, it was probably a reasonable and valid decision to make. With the market situation today, I am not convinced. And for EQ2 gfx options – it does not matter that much really if people are ok to play on lower settings or not, if the general perception is that requires too much of the computer and/or you have to do a lot of tweaking to be playable. So I don’t think it necessarily have to be that people feel that the need to be able to play on the highest setting and "get the most" of the game – if a lot of people says there are issues in this area, that might stop people from looking further into it even if they might not care about the particular setting used. An article on Raph Koster’s site on game marketing was a bit interesting on the claim about the amount of trendsetters: https://www.raphkoster.com/2006/07/04/improving-game-marketing/#more-567 […]
“The question is how fast things will transition to mostly online sales.”
Dont underestimate the effect this will occur and at what rate….
“regardless of the claims of some economics professors… There are a number of variables that contribute to the customer decision-making process,
which various psychologists have attempted to abstract and simplify, such as image theory”
True, however substitue the term “sticky” game for elasticity and psychology becomes even less relavent.
In fact you can actually quantify price sensativity based on variable data and determine the exact price
point “tolerance” your consumer base will have for a given product.
Thats why Mac and Cheese and Baby Ruths cost what they do.
“No customer don’t follow publishers/distributors exactly,, but they do follow brands.”
Right up until they get burned, after which regaining economic goodwill is going to get harder and harder as
the video game industry matures(and some people get a good/bad reputation). Consumers arent cattle, they are social, dynamic hummans who influence
one another via networking (which I might add is getting more rapid and efficiant), treat them like cattle and youll quickly find
your labeled as “teh suq”. How many businesses do you know of that have had to change thier names and “rebrand” because of this effect
“I guess it depends on what brand of PR you’re practicing: marketing, corporate communications, or public affairs”
Ding Ding Ding! Someone buy this person a beer!
The public relations field consists of a vast number of areas from community, customer, investor, and shareholder relations to event management and speechwriting. Branding is a marketing and public relations discipline. I practice branding; thus, when I refer to "public relations" I’m referring to the brand-building aspects of the field.
[…] Reading this in light of the recent marketing stats is interesting, because those said that word of mouth far trumps anything else — but also said that most game consumers don’t know who made the games they are playing. […]
[…] Raph Koster also posted on this topic. […]
[…] I provided my preliminary thoughts concerning the results several days ago, which were quoted in a positive light by author and master game designer Raph Koster. Later, I will more extensively consider the data… Author: Morgan Ramsay | Filed under: Marketing […]
Now that my blog is online, I’ve published a more extensive view of the results.
[…] Raph covers a detailed study of how to improve game marketing, citing many of the quotes from the pdf like “Positive word of mouth is a key purchase requirement for all games,” and “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.” His post is worth a look, as is the original research (pdf).One of the things he points out, which we’ve been sort-of discussing here for a while, is the potential of social networks for spreading information about products. Already, many purchasers do rely upon formal or informal social networks for their game-related information (via magazine/online reviews or friends and family), but, as Raph suggests,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. I’d argue that at the minute most of the advertising and marketing is being directed at a social network – one made up of gamers. The problem is that it’s not going beyond that to the rest of the population. […]
[…] Raph Koster deconstructs a recent report. Game marketing dissected_________________The Hackmaster http://dlevere.htmlplanet.com/ […]
[…] Article on Marketing https://www.raphkoster.com/2006/07/04…ame-marketing/ There you go, let the discussion begin ! __________________ Motorama! Riding can be tough indeed.. http://www.motoramagame.com Fun Web Games for All! http://www.iplayallday.com […]
[…] Tadhg Kelly, Lionhead and Climax game design veteran, wrote a letter to the editor of Gamasutra that game worlds attract players, not game characters. This perspective is aligned with the changing marketplace in which “Web 2.0 thinking” is becoming increasingly dominant. Kelly’s perspective has an important implication for marketers: an emphasis on lifestyles. […]
[…] Improving Game Marketing by Raph Koster with Morgan Ramsay […]
[…] read this article on Improving Game Markting after seeing the link on the Guardian game blog:https://www.raphkoster.com/2006/07/04/impro…game-marketing/Made me think a bit about what influences me on game purchases. I don't think that game […]
[…] Game Marketing Areae president Raph Koster discusses a recent study on improving the marketing of video games in addition to the interpretations by Heretic chief brand architect Morgan […]
[…] Tadhg Kelly, Lionhead and Climax game design veteran, wrote a letter to the editor of Gamasutra that game worlds attract players, not game characters. This perspective is aligned with the changing marketplace in which “Web 2.0 thinking” is becoming increasingly dominant. Kelly’s perspective has an important implication for marketers: an emphasis on lifestyles. […]
[…] wrote the following article in August 2007 after dwelling on the report published by Frank N. Magid & Associates for the 2006 MI6 Game Marketing Conference. It’s […]