My Theory Grows
I seem to have a few supporters from the field of ‘Wii is a marketing ploy’. Few people on C3 have come round to my way of thinking, and I’ve convinced people on a couple of forums too. Hope to God it is a marketing ploy now. On paper = brilliant. Spoken out loud = terrible.
Latest mega-post:
Since I seem to have brought the theory here, I’ll field this. It’s a bloody brilliant strategy, marketing or otherwise, to create a sense of disillusion, of disappointment, before a big reveal. The initial disappointment/anger/upset snowballs inside the person/s or consumer/s and makes them turn their back or partially turn their back on a situation or a product, and then when news is announced that rectifies the situation and adds more to it it makes it all the more impressive, switching said person/s or consumer/s back round to your side. As I say, it’s not mutually exclusive to marketing - it can be done to everyday people about everyday situations.
For example, you might tell somebody that they won’t get something for their birthday, then on the day present it and more. To expand that example with a real life story, this recently happened to me: for one reason or another, I wanted a ukulele. Vikki (ShinyRainbow) said she would get me one, and then for weeks proceeded to spin me a cock and bull story about how they had gone up in price, how they didn’t have any in stock, how the shop that sold them at a reasonable price had shut down, until I was at the point when I was convinced I wouldn’t get one. Come my birthday, out came a ukulele, and the anti-hype made it all the sweeter.
I’m choosing to argue that Nintendo have lain upon us a name that is good on paper but tripe when spoken. In doing so, they have created massive amounts of PR, some positive, mainly negative. ‘Nintendo’ and ‘Wii’ were the themes of the Internet last night, it was absolutely everywhere and even Nintendo’s own websites were totally taken out at one point, and most of the talk was that it was a stupid name. If, in 11 days, Iwata was to come out and announce it as a hoax and then dump the games, the secrets, all the information upon us in an impressive array, as well as a new, decent name, the amount of hype would explode over the anti-hype, as all the outlets would be forced to correct the ‘Wii’ name to the new one, and if the name choice was right then the previously negative comments would be replaced with positive statements. It’s currently negative news permeating the mainstream, but it could easily be swung into hugely positive PR in a week and a half. If they don’t do it, I sincerely believe they will have missed out on the best start to a marketing strategy you could ask for. They did say the viral campaign would start soon recently (Perrin Kaplin (sp?) to IGN), and I believe this is said campaign.
And in response to the BBC and many other media outlets picking up on it (this was on MozLaPunk forums):
Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 2:30 pm Post subject:
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I imagine many are picking up on it because it’s such a stupid sounding name. If it is a marketing ploy, this is extremely positive, as it’s creating ‘anti-hype’ amongst people. Then, if they were to announce a new name that’s better at E3, all these media outlets would be forced to announce the changes or risk looking stupid. All information from E3 would also slot into it when changed - free publicity all over the show.
Which has some agreeance too. The next couple of weeks are going to be a total geek fest.
- Gaming | Time: 12:41 pm (UTC+8) Bitches (1)
