Massive Multiplayer Online Game Promotion
Introduction
Massive multiplayer online-playing games (MMOG) are online video games that are interactive with the virtual world. Players assume the main role of characters in a fantasy world or in a scientific fiction. The online games are hosted by the games publisher and continue to evolve while the players are offline. The global revenues from the MMOG’s in the year 2006 totaled to slightly over $one billion dollar.
- Suggest a typical customer for the MMOG. Provide a demographic description of the customers, discussing their income, family life,
Most of the players are male children aged from six years to late forties. Most of the clients are middle income earners as the MMOG subscriptions are fairly expensive and are addictive. The children who spend a lot of time on the MMOG’s to warrant those subscriptions are mostly from parents who are mostly busy at work or work away from home. The working classes who enjoy the online video games mostly have less demanding jobs or are engaged on well paying entertaining jobs that offer a lot of free time. Average families have little time to be engage on the MMOG’s. Most families have busy schedules and mostly control the children’s entertainment. Well educated parents discourage some of the MMOGs which they consider violent and addictive.
- Prepare three to four (3-4) methods for integrating different elements of the promotion mix in order to communicate the MMOG to the target.
The different kinds of media and their customers have witnessed a revolution in the media industry following the new communication channels that’s the internet and the mobile telecommunication technologies. These new technologies have necessitated the new approach to marketing communication that ensures consistency and centralized management of communication messages that are sent to various people or audiences in the media industry. (Smith, 2002) The main objective of integrated marketing communication is basically to create and promote consistency and synergy which combine several marketing communication elements which support and enhance potential communication understanding. (Duncan and Everett, 1993) Many firms use new media to reach targeted segments in the media industry. Marketing managers need the social media in the communication mix or promotion mix when executing the integrated marketing communication strategies that normally present the new hybrid of the promotion mix in the social media.
If the MMOGs require some kind of advertising, and it’s essential that whether yellow pages are used or bill boards, the most important and basic requirement is the strategic thinking, the references behind the advertising and the needs of the targeted audience. Informative advertising is an approach that builds and creates the initial demand for the product or service during the introductory process of the life cycle of the product. (Blythe, 2008) Persuasive advertising is used in the later stages of the product to improve its competitiveness among its competitors. Other forms of advertising that can be used are comparative advertising and reminder oriented. For instance the adverts of the MMOGs are often comparable due to the nature of their industry. The efficiency of the product positioning is very critical to the success of the promotional strategy. (Smith & Taylor, 2004)
Positioning involves the development of brands as the images of the Video games or the MMOGs products or services. The combination of all the required elements of marketing mix is needed to achieve the required strategy. Positioning explains the uniqueness of the services in the market place and also its advantages against the other online entertainment products. Branding is a tool that is often utilized to position the product by designing its image and the presentation of the uniqueness of the services being offered and the price they are willingly or a ready to pay for the product. Brand equity occurs where customers are willing to pay much more for a product because of its position. (Kotler, Keller, Brady, Goodman & Hansen, 2012)
Promotional strategy is a function that involves informing, persuading or influencing the decisions of the customer. Its major objective is to develop and promote a products primary demand. Different companies have varied promotional strategies. (Belch and Belch, 2004) Some use these strategies to expand in their different markets while others use them to reach selected and particular markets. Most promotional strategies goals are to provide the basic necessary information about the product and to differentiate in order to increase its sales, its value and to stabilize its overall market. (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010)
To provide the basic information of the existence and expansion the online products, the company must come up with a marketing communication strategy that will involve making key decisions about who the customer is, how they will be contacted and what kind of message should be conveyed. For instance, MMOGs should target different distinct groups depending on the message and taste of the potential customers. (Wood, 2003)
This process, known as market segmentation divides the market into groups which are very distinct from each other. In one of the messages, they should target the working class with such messages referring to mental challenges, endless entertainment, precision training and good music. While in other messages it would target public places or other entertainment joints involving the general public. The other messages should target the children and other interested parties. (Pfister, Robert, Tierney & Patrick, 2009)
The importance of market segmentation is that it increases the efficiency in marketing operations by narrowing the market specifically toward a designated and defined segment in a way that is consistent with the characteristics of the segment. Market segmentation leads to product differentiation from each segment while tangibly or intangibly differentiating it from the rival products from the competitors.
Sales promotion involves other forms of increasing sales other than advertising, direct selling, personal selling or public relations through one time or occasional selling. Initially sales promotion was a supplement to a company’s sales efforts or advertising process, but it has become part of the promotional mix for most firms.
The choice of a promotional mix is directly related to the selection of the promotional strategy the company will adopt to promote its products or service. There are two strategies available to the marketer. i.e. pushing strategy or the pulling strategy. The pushing strategy is an approach that’s sales oriented. The product or service is marketed wholesalers and the retailers in the marketing process or channels. These particular products like the video games that used to be marketed by the sales personnel who carried them during their promotional activities can now promote their products online and even offer a few trials before selling them online.
A pulling strategy generates the consumer demand for its product or service mainly through advertising and sales promotion and marketing appeals. The ultimate aim of the advertisement is to create a demand for the service among the potential clients who will eventually be attracted by the product or service. The marketer believes that the strong demand created will pull item, product or service by compelling the marketing intermediaries to accommodate it through the marketing channels.
- Formulate a social media strategy to use as part of the integrated marketing campaign.
Social Media Strategy for Integrated marketing Campaign
Evaluate the effectiveness of traditional and electronic media as part of the integrated media program.
The effectiveness of traditional and electronic media as part of integrated media program can be evaluated on several bases. The traditional media entails the use of the print media that’s the Newspapers and the magazines which were initially the only media together with the analog television sets. The effectiveness of these media in terms of customer satisfaction and efficiency largely depended on their distribution networks to reach out to the extended population across the country. In some areas the newspapers took days to reach their destination while the use of the television sets was mostly hampered by the broadcasting signals which were not clear in terms of sound and picture in distant parts of the country. The production processes involved in the production of the newspapers consumed a lot of time which meant that the information took a longer period to reach the desired recipients.
The current integration of the media program has resulted in the digitalization of all the production processes in the production of both the print and the television media services. The has increase the speed of the production processes and the availability period of the newspapers has been shortened and its availability has been extended to the internet which can be accessed globally within a very short period of time. It also allows the sharing of views and comments in the interactive social media columns.
The advancement in technology has also led to the modern electronic television sets that incorporate various methods in its advanced digital technology that has also revolutionized the production and the distribution networks. The integrated media allows the viewers to interact with the television anchors and the production crews to air their views and share their comments on various issues. These processes allow the opinion of the viewers on several sensitive issues to be tabulated and opinion predicted easily.
- Devise three (3) metrics that you could use to measure the effectiveness of different media used in the integrated marketing program.
The three metrics that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the various media used in the integrated media marketing program are; a) Interviewing the respondents b) By use of questionnaire c) By observing and sampling the comments issued on the subject on the social media and other interactive columns.
Interviewing the one of the people among the targeted audiences on their opinions about the products or the services being offered presents an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing department communication strategy.
The use of questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated marketing communication strategies or programs is also adequate as the respondent will answer questions directly related to the media that has been seen selected for evaluation. For example,
How frequently do you visit your face book?
How many friends have made fom face book?
Do you participate on social media polls?
When was the last time you participated in a social media poll?
Observation can also be utilized in evaluating the effectiveness of the integrated marketing communication programs. The comments made on the social media on particular subjects can form mini opinion polls on certain subjects. Also the number of people visiting a particular web page can also give a rough estimation of the interest the subject is attracting.
Finally to conclude, the social media has develop following the revolution of the digital technology that has also brought in the MMOG which have also revolutionized the entertainment world. The MMOG revolution is still taking place with the latest being the 3D technology which has heightened the interest on the video games and the online contents. The social marketing communication strategies have also embrace the revolution also to integrate its marketing activities
References
Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of Marketing. 13th edition. London: Pearson Education Ltd.
Kotler, P., Keller, K. L., Brady, M., Goodman, M. & Hansen, T. (2012) Marketing Management. 2nd edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Smith, P.R. & Taylor, J. (2004) Marketing communications. An integrated approach. 4th edition. London: Kogan Page Limited.
Pfister, Robert E., Tierney & Patrick T. (2009) Recreation, Event and Tourism Businesses. Human Kinetics
Wood, M. (2003) The Marketing Plan: A Handbook. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
Belch, G. E. and Belch, M. A. (2004). Advertising and Promotion – An Integrated Marketing
Communications Perspective. 6th Ed. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Duncan, T.R., and Everett, S. E. (1993). Client Perceptions of Integrated Marketing
Communications. Journal of Advertising Research 33(5), pp.30-39.
Smith, P.R. (2002). Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach. 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page.
