Introduction – Problem identification
Nintendo was founded in 1889 and have been operating in the video game console market since
1977 and is a leader in the handheld console market. The videogame industry has over the years
grown to a $30 billion industry and is dominated by two giants: Sony with its PlayStation and
Microsoft with its Xbox. In 2006 Nintendo introduced Wii as a contrast to the competitors’ products
and generated $8.26 billion in revenue the same year. Nintendo sold millions of units of Wii every
month during the first years and was not even able to meet demand. The Wii differentiated by trying
to bring non-core gamers back to gaming and was characterized as a blue ocean strategy, because of
Nintendo’s strong value innovation of many new customers.
In 2012, Nintendo released the follow-up to the successful Wii, the Wii U. The Wii U started strong
by selling 3.6 million units in 2012. But after that sales slowed down. Nintendo revised its sales
estimates for the 2013-2014 financial year, downwards from 9 million to 2.8 million units which
results in an 18% drop in the company’s share price. Nintendo is now left with the question of what
to do with the Wii U. Is it possible to re-introduce the product, or should the company move on to
something new?
The issue for the lack of success has been identified as related to marketing mistakes. Nintendo
have not been able to establish customer awareness and failed to show why the customer needed the
Wii U. One of the main reasons was bad advertisement and too much reliance on “worth-of-mouth”.
Latest, in order to boost the net-sales of Wii U, Nintendo developed in beginning of 2014 a new
marketing strategy target for the female segment. The female segment has potential to boost sale of
the Wii U. Is it possible to boost net-sale of the Wii U by target the female segment and what
marketing actions are needed?
Targeting of the female audience
In order for Nintendo to develop a proper marketing strategy for Wii U, they need to identify their
target group in order to best serve and advertise directly to the real customers. The segmentation
variables for customer markets are: geographic, demographic and behavioral.
Geographic Nintendo is aiming at targeting the global female audience. Demographic, the gaming
industry has for years been considered a man’s world. Majority of the games are designed for and
by men but now more women are getting into gaming. 45% of all gamers are females and women
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above 18 years old represents 31% of the game playing population. The average age of game
purchaser is 35 years old and female adult gamers have been playing for an average of 13 years
(ESA, 2013). Gaming is for all social classes, personalities, educations and lifestyles.
In relation to behavioral Nintendo Wii has been addressed to casual gamers with target of families,
females, kids and males and was marketed with the tagline “active, social gaming in your living
room”. Wii focused on the “fun and social factor” rather than competing on high performance.
Based on the Wii success the Wii U is suggested to relay on same approach and focusing on a
customer benefit source of fun and as a substitute to watching DVD’s, reading books and listening
to music. The target group is in context to social interaction proved to be more social than men in
the same age and more dominant on social networks. The target group is identified to be wide
containing global females in the age of 18+ with user status of casual gamers ranging in level from
light to heavy.
Development of global marketing strategy
Nintendo’s current marketing strategy of Wii U, has failed in obtaining customer awareness. The
problem takes places in the communication to the market, which has resulted in low respond and
