Analyzing Marketing Strategies: PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch

This case study provides a detailed analysis of the marketing strategies employed by PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, focusing on their target markets, product, price, place, and promotion strategies. It compares their approaches, highlighting PlayStation's focus on core gamers and Nintendo's broader appeal to families and casual gamers. The analysis covers product strategies, including PlayStation's emphasis on new product development and Nintendo's interactive games, as well as pricing strategies, with PlayStation utilizing premium pricing and Nintendo employing competitive pricing and promotional discounts. The study also examines distribution channels and promotional activities, emphasizing the importance of innovation and market research for both companies to maintain competitiveness. Recommendations include diversifying product portfolios, leveraging emerging technologies like VR/AR, and adapting to evolving consumer preferences. The study concludes that a focus on gaming technology and customer preferences is crucial for success in the competitive gaming market. Desklib provides students with access to this and other solved assignments, enhancing their understanding of marketing principles and case study analysis.

Product place price and
promotion

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Brand’s target market and its comparison...................................................................................3
Product strategy...........................................................................................................................4
Price strategy...............................................................................................................................5
Place strategy..............................................................................................................................5
Promotion strategy......................................................................................................................6
Recommendation........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing mix is defined as the set of actions used by company in order to promote its
product or brand name in the market. The report will give detailed information about marketing
strategy of PlayStation 5 and Nintendo switch game console. The largest gaming company in
terms of market capitalization is famous as ‘Nintendo’ which develops video games and deals in
electronics goods. The case study will analyse the marketing strategy of both the company and
target market for each brand
Marketing strategy- There are several marketing strategies of Nintendo like innovation,
promotion approach, pricing and planning. These strategies help the brand to achieve success in
the competitive market of similar product (Zylbeari and et.al., 2021). The marketing approach
helps the brand to position itself in the marketplace where achieving business goals is a great
task. With the help of effective strategy, once Nintendo was manufacturer of playing card and
the company gives various services like food, cab service and tv network. Using market-oriented
strategy, PlayStation emphasizes its positioning as a core gaming product in the market.
Brand’s target market and its comparison
A growing audience of gamers in the world the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo brand is
expanding its business. The PlayStation expanding its business and has opportunities around
launching its games on another platform. The firm has expanded its studios, VR and cloud
gaming across the market. The firm achieves 50% market share in console games and stated that
41% of PS5 owners are female audience. The aim of the firm is to have the biggest sales year for
a PlayStation console in the year 2022. Now, Video game sales and engagement have rapidly
increased post pandemic, new customers coming into the console ecosystem. the company
targets audience between the ages of 17 to 40. The brand targets the males’ hardcore gamers who
doesn’t have responsibilities this comes under demographics (Burak, 2021). There are games that
suit customers attitude and hobbies. the company segment customers who are interested in
activities like racing, music and creativity and much more. Therefore, different types of games
are being established to satisfy customers in order to fulfil their needs, expression and gaming.
The brand target audience who lives in highly populated areas like big town, cities. Furthermore,
the company targets customers who are heavy users of video games and new innovative games.

Nintendo segmentation and targeting strategy became cornerstones of the brand. In
Nintendo switch console games multiplayer option is available. Along with that, the consoles
game has a unique feature of connecting to smart phones and devices for more entertainment.
The company is targeting audience between the ages of 15-30 and are more interested in playing
games, Audience consists of men, families and women. The company target lifestyle and
personality of customers (Shay and Palomba, 2020). With the help of segmentation strategy, the
company increase its competitiveness, customer retention and improves profitability. The game
starting price is $299, so the company target people who can afford it.
By analysing the table, it is noted that the market share, sales and size of PlayStation is more
than Nintendo in the latest year 2021. There is an increasing trend in Profit earn by Nintendo in
the year 2020.
Source: https://www.counterpointresearch.com/game-console-market-set-leap-2020/, (2021)
Product strategy
Product in the marketing mix is defined as the item which is actually being sold by the
company (Sony corporation’s Marketing mix, 2021). PlayStation 5 has strong flows of cash that
put resource in the company hands in order to expand new projects. The brand has successful
track record in improving new products. The company uses a different category to classify group
of its various products. PlayStation games units and related are classifies under game and
network services. Due to multiple unique PS5 accounts on a single device is a big hit for the
brand.
On the other hand, Nintendo provides services into electronic gadgets and produce its
hardware for console and video games. The main strategy of product in its marketing mix is to
establish interactive games and video games (Sheth, 2021). The big hit was donkey Kong and the
product strategy led it to the designing arcade games. Also, the brand gets succeed after they

released jump man and Mario. Brain age and Wii are popular among other games and expand its
business HD platform. The organisation gets succeed in gaming console was watch and game
series. The firm developed games like role playing games and augmented reality game like
Pokémon Go.
Price strategy
Nintendo has a price strategy of keeping various prices of a specific product throughout
the life cycle of product. The prices of product are made competitive in the market as it has the
new customers and new technology. The product prices are made discounts, promotional with
benefits in order to attract customers. The company offered additional facilities in order to push
the product whenever it reaches the bargaining point. The business applied price skimming
strategy in order to reduce price to competitive parity.
Whereas, the PlayStation 5 are sold at relatively high prices because of its high demand
and good quality (Li, Larimo and Leonidou, 2021). The price strategy of company shows market
oriented and value-based pricing strategy. The firm focuses on premium pricing strategy in
which high quality products are being sold than the market average. This supports its premium
brand image and ensures competitiveness in order to achieve high profits margins.
Place strategy
In order to make Nintendo product available the company has a huge distribution
network all over the world. The brand makes their products available on stores and online
distribution network for their customers convenience. The game console, electronic gadgets are
available in retail stores like game planet and Walmart. They are also available online shopping
sites like amazon.com and others. The customers may find one or two second hand bargains on
website of eBay.com.
On the other side, PlayStation 5 allow customers to access the products in the places like
stores, website and media, authorized sellers (Mintz and et.al., 2021). The firm also earns profits
from smartphones and computer stores and other electronic big shops. The company has official
websites for PlayStation content and other related product for their customer satisfaction. The
brand maintains a different places to distribute its product or services effectively in order to
reach their target market.

Promotion strategy
Nintendo uses its marketing strategy in order to help their customers to be aware about their new
launches and features of products they offer. The company invites people to visit and experience
their new launches themselves and they distribute free console cases and t-shirts in order to
attract their clients. The company launches its campaign where they distributed free goodies. So,
in this way Nintendo apply various ways to develop product promotion strategy by launching on
special days.
Whereas, the brand promotes its services and products in as different ways and forms in
order to communicate with its target market (Lim, 2021). The company advertise their products
with the help of direct marketing, digital marketing, sales promotion, public relations and
personal selling. For every brand or business advertise is the most significant method to reach
customers. To build brand awareness the company uses online and print media, organise or
sponsor sports and music events. By offering special discounts for its gaming products in order
to attract customers. With penetration efforts the company highlights its marketing mix
promotional strategy that support the company’s performance.
Recommendation
By investigating the report, it is suggested to both the company that they must utilize new
innovation and technique in order to compete in market.
Market research- the process of determining strategies and new services, launches and
product in the market. It allows a company to find out the target market and get options or
feedback from audience about their interest and preferences in the gaming world. With the help
of surveys, interview, focus groups and other method the company can find out the needs and
interest of audience.
Developing infrastructure and technology - For enriching the product portfolio, both
the organisation must expand its internet network. The companies can utilize the increasing
resources and target new competitive market. By finding out the generic strategies of different
gaming consoles they can improve its performance. It is recommended to Nintendo that the
company needs to diversify its portfolio of product and expand its business to more serious
segment. The company needs to understand the strategies of another brand like Xbox. So far,
Nintendo struggles in targeting big markets because of the unique selling of cartoonish content.
Nowadays, gaming and technology worlds have a mutual dependency and without them the

company cannot achieve goals. VR/AR technology and developing graphics are growing
opportunities in innovation world. The company needs to focus on emerging technologies to get
success.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, the path to achieve goals in technology world is full of challenges. The present
companies’ segmentation strategy and marketing mix become cornerstones of the brand.
Further, human imagination is the only challenging part to the potential of a goals. By
investigating the case study, it is suggested to the company needs to focus on gaming
technology and new characters. To achieve success in gaming technology, a lot of hard work
needs to go into finding out the customer preferences.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Lim, W. M., 2021. A marketing mix typology for integrated care: the 10 Ps. Journal of Strategic
Marketing. 29(5). pp.453-469.
Mintz, O. and et.al., 2021. The right metrics for marketing-mix decisions. International Journal
of Research in Marketing. 38(1). pp.32-49.
Li, F., Larimo, J. and Leonidou, L. C., 2021. Social media marketing strategy: definition,
conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science. 49(1). pp.51-70.
Sheth, J., 2021. New areas of research in marketing strategy, consumer behavior, and marketing
analytics: the future is bright. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. 29(1). pp.3-12.
Liu, J., 2021, June. Research on Nintendo’s Marketing Strategy During the Epidemic. In 2021
International Conference on Enterprise Management and Economic Development
(ICEMED 2021) (pp. 154-158). Atlantis Press.
Shay, R. and Palomba, A., 2020. First-party success or first-party failure? A case study on
audience perceptions of the Nintendo brand during the Wii U’s product life cycle. Games
and culture. 15(5). pp.475-500.
SRITHONGIN, T. and Gulid, N., 2021. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE INFLUENTIALIN
FACEBOOK-BASED CUSTOMERS'DECISION MAKINGTO PURCHASE
PLAYSTATION PRODUCT AND SERVICE FROM RETAIL STORE.
Burak, P., 2021. Sony and its Most Profitable Division—PlayStation. In Japanese Management:
Market Entry, Crisis and Corporate Growth (pp. 99-111).
Zylbeari, A. K. and et.al., 2021. DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCT STRATEGY. Economic
Vision, 8(15/16).
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Sony corporation’s Marketing mix. 2021. [Online]. Available through: <
http://panmore.com/sony-corporation-marketing-mix-4ps-analysis>