Brand Audit by Patrick Tran

Contents
1

Introduction..............................................................................................................................3

Company Information..............................................................................................................4

2.1

Major Activities.................................................................................................................4

2.2

Subsidiaries.......................................................................................................................4

2.3

Brand History....................................................................................................................4

2.4

Current Financial Status....................................................................................................6

2.5

Key Personnel...................................................................................................................7

Category and Competition.......................................................................................................9

3.1

Defining Nintendos Category..........................................................................................9

3.2

Competition in the Gaming Industry................................................................................9

3.3

Competition with Key Competitors................................................................................10

Products within Category.......................................................................................................11

4.1

The Nintendo Wii U........................................................................................................11

4.2

The Nintendo 3DS...........................................................................................................11

4.2.1
4.3
5

The Nintendo DS & Nintendo 3DS XL...................................................................11

Pricing.............................................................................................................................12

Brand Analysis.......................................................................................................................13
5.1

Brand Associations with Mario.......................................................................................13

5.2

Sales of Wii and Wii U....................................................................................................13

Consumer Profile...................................................................................................................15
6.1

Target Audience..............................................................................................................15

6.2

Actual Demographic Reached........................................................................................15

6.3

Place of Purchase............................................................................................................16

Advertising/Marketing Communications..............................................................................17
7.1

Nintendo Wii: Wii Would Like to Play.......................................................................17

7.2

Nintendo Wii U How U Will Play Next......................................................................18

7.3

PS4 (Competitors Advertising) Greatness Awaits.......................................................18

Media.....................................................................................................................................19
8.1

Nintendos spending on Advertisements.........................................................................19

8.2

Competitors spending (PS4 and Xbox One)...................................................................20

Promotions.............................................................................................................................21
9.1

Wii U Bundles.................................................................................................................21

9.2

Competitors Bundles.......................................................................................................22

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10

Internet and New Media........................................................................................................23

10.1

The Website.................................................................................................................23

10.2

Social Media................................................................................................................24

10.2.1

Facebook..................................................................................................................24

10.2.2

Instagram.................................................................................................................25

10.2.3

Hootsuite..................................................................................................................25

10.2.4

Miiverse...................................................................................................................26

11

Brand Value............................................................................................................................27

12

Brand Exploratory.................................................................................................................28

13

Recommendations..................................................................................................................29

References......................................................................................................................................30

3|Page

1 Introduction
Nintendo Co., Ltd ranks 100th in the world among the best global brands as of 2014, and is a
Japanese multinational electronics company that produces various products for the gaming
industry. Nintendo was founded in September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi with its
current headquarters located in Kyoto, Japan.
However, Nintendo did not just start off as a technological gaming company. The company
actually started manufacturing Hanafuda cards in 1889 which were Japanese handheld
playing cards. Fast forward a couple of years to a collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric,
Nintendo developed their first video game system using an electronic recording player for
Japan in 1975, and set the precedent for Nintendos focus on gaming consoles for the years
to come.
As of recently, Nintendo has differentiated itself from the gaming industry by creating a
more family-centered gaming environment. Current gamers think of Nintendo as a company
for casual and fun gameplay as opposed to the more competitive styles of games.
Nonetheless, Nintendo has consistently provided innovation and creativity in todays current
gaming world and gives consumers a different taste in how far technology can be pushed.
Although Nintendo has created products not only in the gaming industry, the key focus of
this brand audit will be on the consoles that Nintendo has produced and the associations it
has created with other franchises.

4|Page

2 Company Information
2.1 Major Activities
Nintendo participates in major research and development of gaming and the sales of
entertainment products. They have created new and innovative gaming consoles that use
motion sensor technology and have created fun and exciting handheld gaming systems.
With these popular releases of gaming systems came popular titles that would soon
dominate the gaming industry and be important brand images for Nintendo.

2.2 Subsidiaries

1-UP Studio
AlphaDream

Corporation
Ambrella
Camelot Software

Planning
Creatures
Game Freak
Good-Feel
iQue
Monolift Soft
Monter Games
Nd Cube
Next Level Games

Nintendo Australia
Nintendo

Nintendo Software

Entertainment Analysis

Technology
Nintendo System

& Development
Nintendo European

Development
Nintendo

Research &

Development
Nintendo Integrated
Research and

Development
Nintendo Software
Planning &
Development

5|Page

Technology

Development
Noise
Panasonic
Retro Studios
The
PokmonCompany

2.3 Brand History

1889 Fusajiro Yamauchi manufactured Hanafuda Japanese playing cards in Kyoto,
Japan
1975 Collaborating with Mitsubishi Electric , Nintendo developed a a videogame system
using an electronic video recording player
1980 Game & Watch was invented, and it was the first portable LCD
videogame with a microprocessor; Shigeru Miyamoto created Donkey Kong
with the hero Mario saving Princess Peach.
1984 The Nintendo Electronic System (NES) was first launched. Software
titles were created such as Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and The
Legend of Zelda. Super Mario Bros was the title to quickly make a high ratings.
Studies showed that children recognized Mario as much as they did with Mickey Mouse or
Bugs Bunny.
With Nintendo finally realizing that they want to go into the technological gaming industry,
we can now understand Nintendos branding tactics.
1985 Nintendo adopted the slogan Now Youre Playing with Power to reflect that fact
that the console market was decreasing. They wanted to promise consumers that their next
console would be promising, and it was. Also, people mostly associated Nintendo with
Mario at this point and used it to their advantage.
1992 - Super NES (new gaming console) was released with long awaited sequels, but they
disappointed their market
1996 Nintendo 64 (new gaming console) was launched. More than 500,000 systems were
sold on the first day. Super Mario 64 was a huge hit for the gaming world. By
creating this gaming console, gamers no longer had to spend hours in arcades. Instead,
they stayed at home and played their N64.
1998 Game Boy Color was introduced and succeeded the regular Game Boy
1999 Pokmon was introduced and became a huge hit with Nintendo
2001 Nintendo GameCube was launched
2003 The Game Boy Advance SP succeeded the Game Boy Color
2004 The Nintendo DS, a dual-screened handheld with Touch Screen capabilities was
introduced
2006 The Nintendo Wii hit the market with an innovative control system. This new
console used motion sensor technology as its basis for gameplay

2011 The Nintendo 3DS succeeded the Nintendo DS

because it had 3D capabilities with its games
2012 The Nintendo Wii U hit the market succeeding
the regular Nintendo Wii.
Overall, we can see that Nintendo has come an
extremely long way with creating entertainment in the gaming industry. The company
started out as a card game company, but with cooperation with other businesses, they
completely rebranded themselves and created a new line of entertainment with games and
new and improved consoles over the years.
Nintendos logo has also not changed drastically in order to maintain its customer base.
According to sixsix8.com, the logo racetrack oval and typeface was easy to recreate in an
8-bit pixel world, and it was futuristic and modern. The red logo could be argued to
represent life and fun, but when you only have 8 colors to choose from, red is probably as
good as it gets. However, with the recent introduction
of the Wii U, Nintendo changed the color from red to
light gray to complement the color scheme of the new
console.

2.4 Current Financial Status

Figure: 2.1
Source: Nintendos Annual Report 2014

Source: ycharts.com

As one can see from the Nintendos Income Statement, the company has been steadily
been decreasing in profits. This might be due to the way consumers view Nintendo today
as a company that does not produce highly competitive games. From 2011 to 2014, there is
a decrease of about six billion dollars in revenue.

2.5 Key Personnel

Global Presidents
Fusajiro Yamauchi Founder and first president of Nintendo (1889 1929)
Sekiryo Yamauchi Second president of Nintendo (1929 1949)
Hiroshi Yamauchi Third president, brought company into video game industry (1949
2002)
Satoru Iwata Fourth and current president
Presidents for Nintendo of America
Minoru Arakawa First president
Tatsumi Kimishima Second President
Reggie Fits-Aime Third and current president
Video Game Designers/Developers
Shigeru Miyamoto Creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox,
Pikmin, and Nintendogs; current manger of all Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and
Development (EAD) with Takashi Tezuka
Takashi Tezuka current manager of all EAD studios
Yoshiaki Koizumi Director of Super Mario Sunshine, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, and
Super Mario Galaxy
Katsuya Eguchi director of Star Fox, Animal Crossing, and Wii Sports
Shinya Takahashi General manager of Nintendo Software Planning & and Development
(SPD)
Kensuke Tanabe Executive officer of Nintendo SPD
Masahiro Sakurai Creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros.
Ruytta Kawashima Creator of Brain Age
Music Composers
Koji Kondo composer of music tracks, including almost every Mario/Zelda game

Mahito Yokota Composer of EAD who specializes in live orchestra music

Voice Actors
Charles Martinet Voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario & Luigi
Kazumi Totaka Voice of Yoshi, Professor E. Gadd
Takashi Nagasako Voice of Donkey Kong and Ganondorf
Nobuyuki Hiyama Voice of adult Link
Scott Burns Voice of Bowser

3 Category and Competition

Nintendo is highly recognized as one of the greatest gaming companies around the world.
Categorically, Nintendo is placed in the gaming industry with specializing in gaming
consoles and developing games with its major playable characters like Mario, Link, Pikachu,
and Kirby.

3.1 Defining Nintendos Category

Nintendos market is solely in games, gaming consoles, and handheld gaming devices.
Gaming console device that outputs a video signal or visual image to display a video
game.
Handheld gaming device a lightweight portable video game console with built-in
screen, game controls, and speakers

3.2 Competition in the Gaming Industry

Although Nintendo focuses on the gaming console market, handheld devices, and games,
there are other areas of the competitive market with forces like mobile games and PC games.
Figure 3.1 shows the revenue of games from 2012 and a forecast until 2015 with console
games slowly rising.
Figure 3.1
Statista.com

3.3 Competition with Key Competitors

Nintendos key competitors are Sony and Microsoft. The following figure shows the sales
among these 3 competitors
Figure 3.2
Source: statista.com

As shown from figure 3.2, Sony is the dominating company with the shrinking console
market. Nintendos sales are plummeting in consoles, but its handheld devices are about
double of Sonys handhelds. Microsofts sales remain relatively constant through these
years.

4 Products within Category

Nintendo has many products under its belt, but we will only focus on its 3 most recent
product lines: Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Super Mario Bros.

4.1 The Nintendo Wii U

What makes the Nintendo Wii U appealing to the market
is because it is the successor of the Nintendo which
featured motion controls. The new and improved Wii U
includes the Wii U GamePad which is the home device
for the Wii U. The compatibility between the Wii and the
Wii U is great because the Wii U uses the same controllers that the Wii had. The Wii U is
also backwards compatible which means that it can also play regular Wii games and play
its own Wii U games.

4.2 The Nintendo 3DS

The Nintendo 3DS is the newest handheld gaming device made by Nintendo the play
portable games. It is a dual screen set-up where the bottom screen has a touch screen
capability and the top screen is mainly used for viewing. There are common buttons for a
set-up with an analog stick and directional pad on the left with 4 buttons on the right. The
biggest factor that makes the 3DS unique is the
capability is has to make games look like they are in
3D for players. By personally experiencing the 3DS I
can say that the handheld does look as if the game is
in 3D. However, having 3D capabilities does
4.2.1

The Nintendo DS & Nintendo 3DS XL

Although the Nintendo 3DS is the newest product of Nintendos
handheld platforms, it is a continuation of the Nintendo DS which
was a dual-screened handheld console without 3-D capabilities.
This was the first handheld to have touch screen capabilities.
The Nintendo 3DS XL is basically the same as the 3DS but bigger and a better screen
resolution.

4.3 Pricing

Sony

Microsoft

Nintendo

Source: ign.com

Handheld

Sony
PlayStation Vita

Microsoft
N/A

Nintendo
Nintendo 3DS

Price

$169.99

N/A

$199.99

We can see here that the pricing of the Nintendo Wii U is comparably lower to that of the
Xbox One and the PS4 which makes Nintendos product more appealing to consumers
eyes. When it comes to handheld devices, however, the 3DS is more expensive than the
PS Vita which might make the Vita look more appealing. Although the price is lower for
the PS Vita, from Figure 3.2, we can see that Nintendo is dominating the market for
handheld devices by doubling that of Sonys sales.

5 Brand Analysis
5.1 Brand Associations with Mario
Mario is a character original to the Nintendo series He plays a
huge role as a character in many of the companys games, and
nearly everyone around the world who has had exposure to
games knows Mario and his pals. Mario is Nintendos iconic
role model.
Since the creation of Mario, many
games starring him and his friends
have been
released.

5.2 Sales of Wii and Wii U

Figure 5.1 shows the sales of Wii and Wii U from 2007 2014
Source: statista.com

Sales skyrocketed in 2009 for the Wii because of a new game that came out
call Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This is a fighting game that has multiple
playable characters in the Nintendo world like Mario, Luigi, Star Fox,
Pikachi, Samus, Link, Zelda, and much more! Before SSB Brawl there were
2 other installments of the game: Super Smash Bros., and Super Smash Bros.
Melee. The original game (SSB) was a huge success because this game the
first where players were battle each other using Nintendos popular
characters. By continuing creating new games and new characters, the SSB
franchise was able to make more characters enjoyable for future players.
There was also another game to play a major role in
contributing to the sales of the Wii in 2009 which was
Mario Kart Wii. Mario Kart has had 7 releases before
this game, and it has been popular ever since.

Figure 5.1 shows that Wii U sales have plummeted compared to Wii sales, and this is
because of the fact that the Wii U did not have much to offer when it was launched.

However, through recent launches in the newer version of Super Smash Bros and Mario
Kart, sales are starting to pick up in the past couple of months. According to polygon.com,
hardware sales increased just over 100% in Japan, 175% in the U.S., and 200% in
Europe due to the release of Mario Kart 8 and SSB Wii U.
Super Smash Bros Wii U: 490,000 copies were sold during the first 3 days in the U.S.
Mario Kart 8: nearly 3.5 million sold to
date

6 Consumer Profile
Our focus is interactive game play, a whole new way to play, that puts fun back into the
business. It allows everybody to pick up and play and isnt focused on the core gamerIn
the end, prettier pictures will not bring new gamers and casual gamers into this industry. It
has to be about the ability to pick up a controller, not be intimidated, and have fun
immediately.
Reggie Fills-Aime, President of Nintendo U.S.

6.1 Target Audience

Demographic Segmentation

Ages 4-18 young adults

Parents and kids
Family
Female

Behavioral Segmentation

Social/party gamers
Casual gamers
Non-competitive gamers

6.2 Actual Demographic Reached

Here are a couple of statistics from mynintendonews.com:
Wii U Shop Demographics:

0-12 1%
13-17 5%
18-24 33%
25-34 46%
35+ - 14%
Male 93%
Female 7%

The age is about right for Nintendos demographic because the growing generation grow
up with the original games, and players want to the see the sequels to the games. However,
what is alarming is the fact that 93% of Wii U purchases are male dominated leaving only
7% from females because Nintendo attempted to target more females with the introduction
of the new console.

6.3 Place of Purchase

90% of Wii U consoles were sold online
This statistic is extremely significant. Having about 90% of sales of your product online
places more importance in the distribution process rather than having the product in stores
which could potentially reduce cost. Since 90% of Wii U consoles were sold online, more
focus can be placed and customer satisfaction through the mail and ordering system.

7 Advertising/Marketing Communications
7.1 Nintendo Wii: Wii Would Like to Play
During the time when Nintendo Wii was near release, the console market only feature
games where players control a character through the simple controller and watch the action
happen on the TV. However, with the new introduction of the Wii that features motion
controls, the market would have to be educated about how to use the Wii and how it
functions in the gaming environment. To do this, Nintendo launched the Wii Would Like
to Play campaign which was TV ad that showed two Japanese gentlemen traveling to
different parts of the world and saying We
would like to play. Since the new console was
name the Nintendo Wii, the advertisements
were run as Wii Would Like to Play.
In the TV ad, we can see the Japanese
gentlemen going to different peoples houses
and playing with the Nintendo Wii with them
using motion sensor controls. You see that everyone is standing up as opposed to sitting
down like the traditional way to game. The families and friends that play with the Wii are
having a good time and are enjoying interacting with the new console.
The commercials were run on the following TV channels: ABC, NBC, Comedy Central,
BET, USA, TBS, Discovery, Animal Planet, ABC Family, Nickelodeon, Sci-Fi, TLC, Fox,
The CW, MTV, Cartoon Network, Fuse, The N, VH-1, and Black Family Channel. Because
the Wii was a new and innovative gaming console, Nintendo decided to reach as big a
demographic as they could with these commercials to educate those on how to use the Wii
and how it could be fun with just about anybody. The campaign would go to wining the
2008 Effie Award for New Product or Service which is an award that truly signifies
achievement in advertising. The Effie recognizes creative ideas and communications
mediums that contribute to a brands success.

To say the least, the Wii Would Like to Play campaign succeeded.

7.2 Nintendo Wii U How U Will Play Next

Because the Wii U was the successor of the Wii, consumers did not need to be educated on
how the Wii U works because it uses the same interactive capabilities that the Wii uses.
The only new feature of the Wii U was the
new GamePad which was featured in TV
commercials. Again, the commercials show
friends and family enjoying playing with the
Wii U keeping in contact with the targeted
demographic.
Nintendo relied heavily on the word of mouth through forums on the internet for
introducing the Wii U, and in turn, did not sell as much as expected during the release of
the new console.

7.3 PS4 (Competitors Advertising) Greatness Awaits

Sony produced commercials on TV walking
through a series of continuous events. Viewers
can see that many of the characters the man
walks near are from popular PlayStation game
titles. At the end of the commercial, the words
GREATNESS AWAITS can be seen.
Sony was always known for serious games, and to create a commercial saying that
greatness awaits is not short of being on par with the branding of PlayStation. The
PlayStation lines have known to being top performers in graphics and gameplay.

8 Media
8.1 Nintendos spending on Advertisements
Nintendo spent $570 million on advertising in the last 9 months. This is through TV ads
and social media campaigns in mainly Asia, Europe, and America. Through all of this
spending, however, their latest console has suffered the worst profits compared to its
previous consoles.

8.2 Competitors spending (PS4 and Xbox One)

This
comparison shows the types of spending Sony and Microsoft place on TV advertising to
different channels. In the graphic, Sony spent $59 million on ads while Xbox spent $35.7
million on ads. We can also see the different types of channels advertised to for Sony and
Microsoft. For the most part, their consumer bases are the same.

8.3

9 Promotions
9.1 Wii U Bundles
Nintendo places promotional emphasis on bundles for the sales of the games and the
consoles. These bundles are associated with many of Nintendos popular titles like Mario.
On their website, the most recent bundle they show is one with the game called Splatoon
which is a new original Nintendo
release.

Another bundle found on their website is one

with Mario and friends. This is the most
popularly recognized character in the Nintendo
universe and Nintendo has used it to their
advantage to include him and his friends in a
bundle for customers to enjoy.

9.2 Competitors Bundles

Sony and Microsoft also offers bundles with its most popular games. However, they are both
more expensive the Nintendos bundle deals.

10 Internet and New Media

10.1 The Website
The purpose of the website is the educate consumers about Nintendos new releases and to
place emphasis on Nintendos popular titles.

At first glance, the website shows its new game Splatoon the newest game to come to the
Wii U under Nintendo. Obviously, by having this at the front of their page, they are able to
make consumers aware of their new game. You can see that there are navigational tabs that
have Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, amibo, Games, Play Nintendo, Club Nintendo, and Support

On the second category Wii U, you are hit with the best sellers of the Nintendo Wii U
console. Because of the popular games originating from the original Nintendo console,
Nintendo realizes that in order to sell more of their products is through emphasizing the

new games associated with the Wii U. Also under the best-selling games, you can see that
there is a Facebook Like button to tell consumers how many likes the game has gotten
on Facebook. The social media strategy tied to this is to show that the games are popular
even on Facebook. The more likes it has, the more perceived enjoyableness the game has
and will in turn become more attractive for customers.

10.2 Social Media

10.2.1 Facebook

Nintendo has about 3.2 million likes on Facebook. Again, we can see that Nintendo is
pushing for awareness of its new game Splatoon because it is featured as its cover photo
on their page.
While looking at their posts, they show only the most recent releases in games for
Nintendo highlighting events for Splatoon and for Xenoblade Chronicles. They only
show Facebook Likes averaging form 300-1500 likes for each of their posts. Comments
for each post are minimal as well. For a page that has about 3.2 million Likes on
Facebook, this is not enough. Nintendos customers are not engaged in Nintendos social
media on Facebook.

10.2.2 Instagram

Nintendo has 352k followers on Instagram, a lot less compared to Facebook. Although
they have less followers on Instagram, there are more likes and comments for the pictures
that are posted by Nintendo. The likes range from 8,000 20,000 per picture, and
comments range from 100-300 per picture.
10.2.3 Hootsuite

10.2.4

Mi
ive
rse

With the release of the Nintendo Wii came the creation of a Mii which was a digital
character you could customize on your Wii to fit who you are. By having a wide
consumer base, Nintendo was able
to make the Miiverse which is a
social network that allows you to
communicate with other players
from around the world.

Within the Miiverse, users can create profiles about themselves seen below.

Also, communities centered on games are established so players can talk to each other
about what they like or dont like in the game.

11 Brand Value
Nintendos brand value has significantly decreased since the introduction of the Wii U. Sales
dropped during the release and Nintendo did not advertise as much as they should have.
Targeting the market of casual gamers makes it difficult for Nintendo to accurately sustain
and maintain and friends and family gaming environment. Interbrand has dropped
Nintendos brand value by 33%. According to the website, Wii U, the brands biggest
launch for several years, has suffered from weak sales since its birth in 2012, largely
attributed to the limited number of games offer[ed], as well as market dynamicsNintendo
needs to deliver a more relevant and impactful brand experience to change the perception
and demonstrate clearly that its exciting innovations are still to come (Interbrand 2014).
However, with the recent releases of major titles that have succeeded to each Nintendo
console, Wii U sales are starting to pick back up. These titles contain Nintendos original
characters, and they already have a huge fan base. Because of this, sales are going to
increase and the value of Nintendo will increase.

Currently ranked 100 in global brands.

12 Brand Exploratory
1. Do you play video games?
#

Answer

1
2

Yes
No
Total

Response

4
1
5

80%
20%
100%

2. Would you consider yourself a gamer?

#

Answer

1
2

Yes
No
Total

Response

2
3
5

40%
60%
100%

3. Are you male or female?

#

Answer

Response

1
2

Male
Female
Total

3
2
5

60%
40%
100%

4. What is your age range?

#

Answer

Response

1
2
3
4
5

0-10
10-18
18-25
25-35
35+
Total

0
0
5
0
0
5

0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
100%

Response

5
0
5

100%
0%
100%

5. Are you aware of the Wii U, Xbox One, and

PlayStation 4?
#

Answer

1
2

Yes
No
Total

6. From which company did you own a gaming

system?Nintendo (NES, Gamecube, Wii, DS,
etc)Microsoft (Xbox)Sony (Playstations, PSP)
#

Answer

1
2
3

Nintendo
Microsoft
Sony

Response

5
1
2

100%
20%
40%

7. What systems do you own?

Text Response

N64, PS2, WII

PS4, PS2, DS, XBOX360
Wii
DS
none

8. Which company's systems do you like most?

#

Answer

1
2
3

Nintendo
Microsoft
Sony
Total

Response

4
0
1
5

80%
0%
20%
100%

9. On the scale given, rate how much you enjoyed

playing the consoles from each company.
#

Answer

1
2
3

Nintendo
Microsoft
Sony

Min Value

Max Value

3.00
0.60
2.50

9.10
8.10
8.60

Average
Value

7.46
5.56
7.10

Standard
Deviation

2.54
2.99
2.58

10. What character do you associate with

Nintendo console games?
Text Response

Mario
Mario
Mario
Mario
Link

11. What character do you associate with

Microsoft console games?
Text Response

Master Chief
Master Chief
COD
Halo
Master Chief

Response
s

5
5
5

12. What character do you associate with Sony

console games?
Text Response

Sora
Cloud
Peach
Sora
none

13. Which company's console is most expensive?

#

Answer

1
2
3

Nintendo
Microsoft
Sony
Total

Response

1
3
1
5

20%
60%
20%
100%

14. Which company's console is least expensive?

#

Answer

1
2
3

Nintendo
Microsoft
Sony
Total

Response

4
0
1
5

80%
0%
20%
100%

13 Recommendation
Nintendo has suffered decreasing profits at the release of the Wii U. The new console was
just considered a newer Wii with not that many better or innovative features which the Wii
provided. Nintendo has to realize that just releasing a new console will not increase profits
developing more games with its original characters like Mario will substantially increase
revenue.
I recommend that Nintendo keep their strong associations with their playable characters and
create new ones for newer generations of gamers. We can already see Nintendo do this by
creating and advertising their new game Splatoon. However, Nintendo should also continue
sustaining these brand associations with many other older characters like Fox McCloud from
Star Fox. It has been a few years since Nintendo has created a game centered around Fox
McCloud, and the company should keep the strong associations that they already have with
their community.
The Wii only succeeded because it was the first major gaming console that used motion
sensor as a basis for its gameplay. There was also spikes of sales when popular titles were
being released like Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart. The Wii U is starting to pick up its
sales; however, it is not where it should be. Nintendo has to create and sustain more popular
titles when it releases new consoles so customers are aware of the games being released.
Nintendo also has to realize that its software is more important than their hardware
meaning that the content they create is more important than the consoles they develop. This
will increase Nintendos brand value and sustain the company in the long-run.

References
Aaker, D. (10, October 10). Nintendo: Japans Brand Story of the Decade. Retrieved May 1,
2015.
Annual Report 2014. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2015
Infographic: Nintendo Reports Disastrous Wii U Sales. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015.
IR Information: Sales Data - Top Selling Software Sales Units. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015.
List of Nintendo people. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015.
Mario Kart 8 closing on 3.5 million copies sold. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015.
Marketing- The true key to success for the PS4. - Blog by KingAlex94 - IGN. (n.d.). Retrieved
May 1, 2015.
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