Marketing Strategy and SWOT Analysis of Nintendo
Want to isolate yourself in colorful virtual dimensions? You are just buttons away from accessing your digital fantasies. Just turn on your console and exert control over the virtual world of Nintendo characters. From making Japanese handmade playing cards back in 1889, Nintendo became an industry giant with its unique story. The road to glory is fun and colorful, yet rocky and full of challenges. Nintendo faced those challenges with pride and earned the love of their customers. Today’s story is about their century-long marketing strategy and SWOT analysis to uncover factors contributing to success.
Nintendo’s story is unique, and here are the reasons why…
Mission Statement.
“We believe it is essential not only to provide products of the highest quality but to treat every customer with attention, consideration, and respect.”
Coming a long way since making hanafuda cards, Nintendo was strict in nourishing the quality of products. After decades of effort, they proudly possess the “quality” trophy. At Nintendo, they make sure that every product is living proof of that.
Although quality is crucial, an industry giant like Nintendo must not neglect the needs of its customers. Their existing customer base is an achievement of many years. Enlarging that population would expect constant monitoring of changing market demands.
Nintendo ensures that every product offering is an answer to a “need” or a “want”. In any other case, creating a successful product is less likely, not to mention possible losses.
Vision Statement.
“Nintendo’s vision statement is to put smiles on the faces of everyone we touch. We do so by creating new surprises for people across the world to enjoy together. We’ve forged our path since 1889, when we began making hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto, Japan.”
Every creation of Nintendo brings people together to live the most amazing experiences. They strived for decades to become the “surprise” creators in the industry with unique consoles and games. Nintendo gifts the most unforgettable memories. They make sure every product introduces new worlds and characters, which instantly earn the love of their audience.
Every great story comes from a tradition. However, we do not quite mean the historic aspect of it. The factor of habit here is what we want to emphasize.
Traditions shape habits, and habits shape uniqueness. Nintendo stayed strong on its path and did not fall prey to the wave of monotony. From playing cards to portable gaming consoles, Nintendo remained one of a kind for decades.
The positioning strategy of Nintendo is loyalty towards century-long traditions.
From the very beginning, Nintendo had a clear understanding of the mission of their products in the market. Accordingly, their positioning strategy was and is at the cornerstone of their long-lasting success.
To form a better understanding of their positioning strategy, the analysis of the following Instagram post will come in handy.
The Instagram post features Mario and Luigi, siblings who are famous in the whole gaming community. Italian plumber brothers made appearances in many adventure games and became global gaming phenomena. A classic gaming history discussion cannot bypass these adorable and brave heroes.
Probably the most iconic and famous brother duo in the history of gaming. Nintendo invested their time and resources into developing Mario’s character, and the success backfired with enormous force. Mario set to become the company’s mascot and has a valuable commitment to building the company’s image.
In this post, our characters take over the golfing world. Nintendo did a great job in combining the classiness of golf with its colorful and humorous personalities. Their looks and classic background declare seriousness, but their famous facial expressions hint that Mario is in its style.
Mario lovers know that this is not a regular golfing simulator. Instead, they get a game that is fun, seasoned with Mario-world-like characters and gameplay. Those characteristics leave us to conclude that Nintendo belongs to the Jester Archetype.
We will discover the commonalities of Nintendo and the Jester archetype by analyzing the latter.
Desire: Squeeze enjoyment from every moment in life.
Goal: To fill the time with joy and lighten up the world around them.
Gift: Contagious joy and ability to enjoy moments like no other.
Values: Fun and humor are of top importance.
Think of all qualities that characterize the Jester Archetype, and put it alongside Nintendo. Mario definitely fits the list, and this is living proof that the Jester archetype is perfect for Nintendo.
The messaging levels of the Jester archetype are in the list below:
Level 1: Boredom and tiredness of regularity.
Level 2: Start treating life as a game and have fun living it.
Level 3: Using finesse and cleverness to trick others and overcome obstacles.
Level 4: Start living in the moments, one day at a time.
The Jester archetype is suitable for brands which:
- Help people have a great time.
- Need differentiation from established and famous brands.
- Are produced by a company that appreciates a fun and joyful culture.
- Have low to moderate pricing.
- Help people who use the brand to belong or feel that they belong
SWOT analysis of Nintendo will uncover the specifics of their strategy…
Strengths
Experience in the market – Nintendo has been operating in the market for more than a century. They have been present from the beginning of the modern gaming industry. Nevertheless, they adapted to changing industry standards and trends and adjusted their products to follow them.
Currently, their experience allows them to stay in the discussion of gaming’s top players. The company was the witness and indivisible part of the industry’s development. Among modern gaming companies, Nintendo is unmatched with its history and ability to adapt to the changing business environment.
Product portfolio – Nintendo’s product portfolio is rich enough to cover a wide range of customers. The company covers many gaming categories, including educational, sports, racing, adventurous games, puzzles, simulation, role-playing and many more.
Their diverse portfolio enables them to satisfy the ambitions and interests of any gamer. Moreover, as a global brand, their segmentation strategy is flexible enough to serve the customers at best.
Famous characters – We cannot ignore the undeniable importance of famous characters in Nintendo’s portfolio. Mario is the real star here, acting as the company’s mascot. Being worldwide famous even outside the Nintendo universe, Mario connects people around the Nintendo world. Mario lovers from older generations are loyal to Nintendo because of the characters that formed their childhood.
Theme parks – Controlling and exploring virtual environments are cool, no doubt. Nintendo did not stop creating games; they got even further and transported game worlds to reality. Nintendo cooperates with Universal Parks and Resorts for opening theme parks decorated with famous Nintendo characters and universes.
Super Nintendo World bases on the Mario franchise and its sub-series, featuring worldwide known and beloved characters. These theme parks are strong assets in Nintendo’s portfolio. They provide real-life experience with the gaming world and realize the dreams of Nintendo fans.
Weaknesses
Relying on Nintendo Switch – Nintendo Switch is the primary revenue driver in their portfolio. The lion’s share of revenue – almost 85% – relies on the sales of Nintendo Switch. Accordingly, if the sales of the device drop, the company will have huge problems. Even though Switch has maintained stable demand, any fluctuation will affect the whole company.
Less popularity among serious gamers – The loyal fan base of Nintendo loves their games and consoles. However, a large segment of the gamer’s community considers Nintendo’s products “not serious” for them to play.
Cartoonish and non-sophisticated graphics make the games look toy-like. This phenomenon is an obstacle for the company to expand their customer base to new segments.
Opportunities
Development of infrastructures – The expansion of the Internet network opens opportunities for enriching the product portfolio. Nintendo can adapt its products to be fit the accessibility demand of customers. The company can utilize the increasing resource and capture new markets.
Emerging technologies – The unreal pace of technology development is one of the driving forces of the gaming industry. Gaming and technology worlds have a mutual dependency and push each other forward. VR/AR technology, holography and improving graphics are some of the growing opportunities. Thus, if Nintendo keeps up with the trend, they will feed on the increasing potential of technologies.
Target segment expansion – Nintendo is one of the industry’s largest players. Consequently, they possess the resources and capabilities to deliver products for a larger segment of customers.
As we have mentioned previously, Nintendo needs to diversify its portfolio and expand to a more “serious” segment. This can be accomplished by pivoting towards less cartoonish content.
Threats
Serious competition – Undoubtedly, Nintendo operates in a market saturated with fierce competitors. PlayStation and Xbox are on the top and competing with them is a challenge. Despite a higher pricing strategy, PlayStation and Xbox firmly hold their market shares. So far, Nintendo struggles in capturing larger markets because of the difference in provided content.
Staying out of online gaming – The gaming world has evolved a lot in the last decade. Passing story modes in games is fun, but it lasts shorter. In contrast, online gaming and competing with real players globally offers a more lengthy experience.
The competitors of Nintendo realize that, and it became a point of parity in a very short period. Currently, Nintendo has a serious problem of catching up with the trend.
Nintendo’s segmentation strategy has a concrete target…
The commercial of Nintendo Switch will help us in finding and describing Nintendo’s ideal buying persona.
The ad introduces the new Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite gaming consoles. To make the commercial more presentable, there is colorful gameplay with beautiful graphics. Besides the contagious fun of commercial’s heroes, Nintendo presents functional advantages as well.
Portability is the primary advantage of the device. The console is small but powerful enough to handle the games Nintendo fans love. Nintendo emphasizes this advantage and makes sure their customers can take the experience everywhere.
The console provides a complex of flexible experiences. Multiplayer is available for Nintendo Switch owners. In addition, the consoles have a feature of connecting to smart devices for more inclusive entertainment. Controllers of Switch are detachable for sharing the fun with fellow gamers.
After the analysis of the commercial, we move forward to introduce you to the target segment of Nintendo: the Chardonnays.
Who are Chardonnays?
Lifestyle and values: Chardonnays are energetic and optimistic people who love being out and making moments special. They make sure to share special moments with friends and spend valuable time together.
Representatives of this segment pay a lot of attention to their looks. This explains the fact that they need to be attractive to the opposite sex. Consequently, they spend a significant amount of time getting ready for going out.
Chardonnays value friendship and love having company during special occasions. Additionally, they make sure they have enough family time as well. Friends are the primary source of spiritual energy, but family is equally important.
The balance between family and friends is important to them. They do not miss family events and are always present in the moment.
Attitude to shopping: The fact that Chardonnays value appearance explains their love of shopping. It is not simply a need for them, but rather an enjoyment and a crucial element of their lifestyle. Since it is a part of their lifestyle, they are aware of and follow the trends.
Quality is a priority. It relates to clothing and other purchases. Following trends is important, but not at expense of classiness.
Chardonnays would even save money to buy exactly what they have chosen. They like an advertisement with entertainment value and have characters they can look up to.
Interesting facts about Chardonnays:
- Simple and generic do not interest Chardonnays. The ads need to be catchy and have attractive heroes in them. Besides the looks, they need to see a soul behind the ad.
- A large part of their personality is sharing. They love sharing moments, and their social media life reflects it as well. Their Facebook profile will tell them everything about their life.
- Chardonnays enjoy sitcoms, especially the ones with aspirational characters.
- Reading magazines is another type of media they enjoy. Topics like sports, love, beauty, social life and west culture.
- They make sure that they stay up-to-date and well informed on the topics of their social circle.
Nintendo managed to earn a loyal customer base throughout its long history in the market. Starting from playing cards, Nintendo became one of the top players in the gaming world. Gifting the most iconic and beloved characters and memorable experiences became their primary mission.
The path to success was and is full of challenges, but the magnificent part is how Nintendo faced them. Their segmentation strategy and strong loyalty to principles became cornerstones of the brand.
Human imagination is the only limitation to the potential of a company’s goals. Many astonishing games, new characters and gaming universes are yet to come! That is it for today, be sure to check out other posts on our website.
