Brand analysis: Nintendo

This essay analyzes Nintendo, a video game company, based on various aspects like company history and its key ideas along with environmental awareness ad campaigns and logo and so on. This essay also focuses on packaging, store design, slogan, spokespeople and price of this same company to understand its profile.

Running head: BRAND ANALYSIS: NINTENDO
Brand analysis: Nintendo
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1BRAND ANALYSIS: NINTENDO
This essay analyzes Nintendo, a video game company, based on various aspects like
company history and its key ideas along with environmental awareness ad campaigns and
logo and so on. This essay also focuses on packaging, store design, slogan, spokespeople and
price of this same company to understand its profile.
Nintendo is a multinational company of consumer electronic and video games. This
Japanese company, headquartered in Kyoto, has become one of large video game companies
all over the world by making well-known and most demanded franchises like Mario,
Pokémon along with The Legend of Zelda and market capitalization. In 1889, Fusajiro
Yamauchi was founded this company, which initially sold handmade playing cards. In 1970s,
Nintendo started to develop video games and became the third most valuable company in
Japan with more than $85 billion market value (Aloupis). Since 1889, the company has
adopted various technologies like Nintendo DS and Wii U and business strategies, which in
turn has helped the company to become one of the leading brands in the world of video
games successfully.
The company has taken some chief ideas that can be described briefly. In 1999,
Nintendo has released the Dreamcast while in 2000 and 2001 it has released PlayStation 2
and Microsoft’s Xbox, respectively. However, this video game company has obtained the top
position in handled console market with the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color
models. In the middle of the 2000s, Nintendo has launched its first handled device that has a
touch screen (DS) and the console that has been designed for motion-controlled inputs, which
is, Wii. However, the company has launched a handheld game console in 2010 (Haggège).
This console has stereoscopic 3D capabilities along with 3DS, which has high demand from
the beginning. Its latest product, Nintendo Switch, has launched in 2017 and the produce has
been sold in the market by large amount.

2BRAND ANALYSIS: NINTENDO
Nintendo of America takes some corporate social responsibilities (CSR) towards its
society through providing customer service, employee welfare and well-being along with
product recycling and so on. Moreover, Nintendo also considers some global topics like
conflict minerals along with product quality and safety as environmental issues (Tsai). The
chief concern of Nintendo in America is to preserve its environment. As a result, the
company always intends to develop new products, corporate and operations offices that can
be environment friendly. Nintendo uses vegetable-based inks for publishing its operations
manuals and inserts. Moreover, the company uses recyclable cardboards for packaging,
which have replaced clamshells for Nintendo’s products like Wii, Wii U and other 3DS
accessories of it. This video game company reduces its use of plastic for manufacturing Wii
and Wii U disc cases along with game cases of Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS by more than
23% (Nintendo.com). As a global company, Nintendo takes its social responsibility very
seriously. The company has an unambiguous policy for banning the use of minerals within
their products that can help armed groups. For its production partners, Nintendo forms the
Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines consisting of relevant laws along with international
standards and guidelines, which focus to protect human rights, promote corporate ethics,
ensure workplace safety and safeguard the environment. Thus, Nintendo has considered
environment as an important factor within their business strategy.
Present logo of Nintendo since 2016

3BRAND ANALYSIS: NINTENDO
Nintendo has changed its company logo since 1889 though after 2016 it has obtained
its 11th logo, which has red and white colors (Scaglioni-Solano, Pietro, and Luis F. Aragón-
Vargas).
To attract customers, packaging plays a vital role. In this context, box art is used to
cover the boxes of video game and also the game logo, the rating of the game and the console
logo. For different regions, the box-art of this company varies. In its 1996 packaging, the
company has kept their product in centre and front of the box. On the right of the box, the
company has described the using technique of this product. The box has featured Nintendo’s
franchised characters like Mario and Kobe. Furthermore, Nintendo can understand the value
of being pioneer within the industry. For this, it has decorated the packaging to recognize and
to become exclusive among its customers. In 2006, Nintendo has used white packaging for
Wii for giving their customers the clean and modern aesthetic like Macbook to dominate the
decade (Reynolds). Previous packaging has used spotlight effect while the new packages
have glowed due to their white color. The basis thread based on packaging has arrived for the
Nintendo Switch because packaging has focused on the product intently. In its packaging,
Nintendo has confidence and consequently the company has made fewer copies for its
packaging. By mentioning “Nintendo” and “switch”, the company has expressed that it has
value. As the consoles have improved, the company has become mature in its packaging and
consequently audience of this company has grown as well.
Nintendo has opened the Nintendo World and this has become a destination for
tourists where kids can hangout (IJgosse, van Goor and Luursema). The first slogan of this
company was “Take a Look Inside” that focused the 3D game play system. In 2016,
Nintendo has made its slogan as “There’s No Play Like It” after it has decreased the price of
Nintendo 2DS.

4BRAND ANALYSIS: NINTENDO
The spokesperson of this company is Reginald Fils-Aime, a businessperson of
America, who is the president and chief operating officer (COO) of Nintendo in America. He
has taken charge of the North American division of this video game company. In 2003, Fils-
Aime has joined the company with the designation of the Executive vice President of Sales
and Marketing. Hence, he has taken all responsibilities for the company’s marketing and
sales across the United States, Latin America and Canada.
Product placement Nintendo is a marketing strategy in which references of this
company are incorporated into other work, for instance, a film or television program along
with specific promotional goal (Lin, Jeng and Yeh). The company has used various real life
products with their video game characters to placement these products. Nintendo has made a
deal with Mercedes- Benz, the car making company, to use those luxury vehicles in Super
Mario Maker. From online websites, prices of Nintendo consoles can be obtained. The price
of Nintendo New 3DS Xl is $ 175.99 while for the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, the
price is $ 39.40 (Nintendo.com). Hence, the company has products of various ranges.
I select this company because of its large market share and huge demand in the
market of video game. It becomes easier for me to obtain almost every data to analyze this
brand.

5BRAND ANALYSIS: NINTENDO
References:
"Nintendo Corporate Social Responsibility Report (CSR)." Nintendo.com. N. p., 2018. Web.
9 July 2018.
Aloupis, Greg, et al. "Classic Nintendo games are (computationally) hard." Theoretical
Computer Science 586 (2015): 135-160.
Haggège, Meyer, Caroline Gauthier, and Charles-Clemens Rüling. "Business model
performance: Five key drivers." Journal of Business Strategy 38.2 (2017): 6-15.
IJgosse, Wouter M., Harry van Goor, and Jan-Maarten Luursema. "Saving robots improves
laparoscopic performance: transfer of skills from a serious game to a virtual reality
simulator." Surgical endoscopy (2018): 1-8.
Lin, Cheng-Shih, Mei-Yuan Jeng, and Tsu-Ming Yeh. "The Elderly Perceived Meanings and
Values of Virtual Reality Leisure Activities: A Means-End Chain Approach." International
journal of environmental research and public health 15.4 (2018): 663.
Reynolds, Daniel. "The Vitruvian Thumb: Embodied Branding and Lateral Thinking with the
Nintendo Game Boy." Game Studies 16.1 (2016).
Scaglioni-Solano, Pietro, and Luis F. Aragón-Vargas. "Validity and reliability of the
Nintendo Wii Balance Board to assess standing balance and sensory integration in highly
functional older adults." International Journal of Rehabilitation Research37.2 (2014): 138-
143.
Tsai, Chang-hsien, and Yen-nung Yu. "What Conflict Minerals Rules Tell Us about the Legal
Transplantation of Corporate Social Responsibility Standards without the State: From the
United Nations to the United States to Taiwan." Nw. J. Int'l L. & Bus. 38 (2017): 233.