Competitive Advantage of PlayStation and Nintendo: A Marketing Mix Analysis

This report analyzes the marketing mix of PlayStation and Nintendo to understand their competitive advantage. It covers their target market, brand personality, pricing strategy, distribution channels, and promotional methods. The report concludes that PlayStation has better utilized marketing mix to gain advantage in the market.

Principles of Marketing

Executive summary:
The aim of this report was to understand competitive advantage between respective
brands. It was concluded through methods and models that PlayStation has better utilized
marketing mix in order to gain advantage in the market.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Target market..........................................................................................................................1
Brand......................................................................................................................................1
Price........................................................................................................................................3
Place.......................................................................................................................................4
Promotion...............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Marketing mix refers to a mix of factors that are used together in order to develop a
marketing strategy in order to promote brands and products in the market. For the present report,
two brands are taken into consideration. Play station 5 gaming console has been taken into
consideration for this report. It was established in 1994 by Sony interactive entertainment and
has a market share of over 58% with a constant increase in sales trend. Nintendo switch gaming
console has also been taken into consideration to provide a comparative analysis to the report.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 and has a market share of over 0.02% in console game industry
and have a constant growth in their sale. This report will include comparative analysis of
respective brands by utilizing marketing mix.
MAIN BODY
Target market
It refers to conducting research and understanding prospective customers for a product or
service based upon factors such as interest, age, gender, lifestyle and disposable income (Fuchs .,
2020). The target market of Play station 5 and Nintendo switch are elaborated below:
PlayStation 5:
It focuses on targeting predominantly male customers between the ages of 17 to 40. Due
to its high price point the product is directed towards the middle and upper social class.
Nintendo switch:
This product is targeted towards ages of 15 to 30 and directed to individuals who are
interested in entertainment at home and prefer portability. The product is popular among men,
women and families due to its reasonable pricing.
Brand
It is an intangible concept of business and marketing which assist customers in
identifying specific products of a company. In order to further understand value of brand,
Levitt’s model and Aaker’s brand personality framework are used and elaborated below:
Levitt’s model:
This model is based on the idea which refers to a product as stratification of level. It
shows the different levels of needs customers have for a product (Hassey ., 2019). The various
levels of this model are mentioned below in context to chosen brands:
1

Core benefit:
It refers to the actual need or want that customers satisfy when they purchase products. In
context to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo switch, both the products are able to provide their
customers with optimum level of satisfaction by providing high experience of entertainment at
their home.
Basic product:
It refers to the basic version of the product and is comprised of features necessary for it to
function. In context to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo switch, although both products are build to
last with high quality material, the Nintendo switch is comparatively compact to PlayStation 5
which makes it preferable to customers who pay emphasis on portability of the product.
Expected product:
It refers to set features and abilities of a product that customers expect while purchasing
them. In context to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo switch, despite the price of PlayStation 5 being
high it offers more features and qualities when compared to the Nintendo switch. This makes it
appealing to customers looking for a more advances gaming console and a better gaming
experience.
Augmented product:
It refers to any variations, extra features that help a product to be differentiated as
compare to its competitors (Levitt ., 2019). In context to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo switch, both
products are available in different colour variants for customers to choose from. Nintendo switch
is available in a wider range of colours when compared to PlayStation 5. This gives Nintendo
switch an advantage over PlayStation 5 as its ability to be customized can attract more
customers.
Potential Product:
It refers to ability of products to undergo transformation in the future in order to keep
customers satisfied in the long-run. In context to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo switch, both the
products offer their customers with timely system updates and offer new games to keep the
customers satisfied. Comparatively Nintendo switch consist of a larger number of games when
compared to PlayStation 5 and increases its probability to satisfy a larger number of customers.
Aaker’s brand personality framework:
2

It is a frame work that consist of 5 dimensions of brand personality. These personality
affect how a brands image is formed among customers and in the market (Lim ., 2021). The
various dimensions of this framework are elaborated below:
Excitement:
This dimension focuses on a brand that is a carefree, youthful and has a spirited attitude.
These brands often appeal to a younger demographics (Limanto ., 2021). In context to
PlayStation 5 and Nintendo switch, both the brands function in excitement dimension as their
main objective is to provide entertainment and excitement through games to their customers,
moreover there are majorly directed towards the young demographics.
Sincerity:
This dimension pays emphasis on brands that are sincere to the customers relative to their
products and have honest, cheerful and wholesome attributes.
Ruggedness:
This dimension is concerned with brands that focus on a tough built to last image for their
products. brands in this dimension has high-quality, authentic and hard-working.
Competence:
In this dimension brands are required to be reliable, intelligent and successful. This
dimension focus brands that can be counted on.
Sophisticated:
Brands in this dimension possess the personality of luxury, upper class and glamorous in
nature. These brands function at the upper end of the price range.
Price
It is the monetary amount customers are willing to pay for a product or services. Price of
a product is determined by developing a pricing strategy (Soroya and Ameen ., 2021). The
pricing strategy of the respective brands are mentioned below:
Pricing strategy Explanation
Cost-plus pricing This strategy refers to determining cost of the product and
adding a percentage on to of that price to determine the
3

selling price to the customers.
Competitive pricing This strategy aims to set price of their products either at same
or comparative near the price of their competitors product
within the market.
Value-based pricing This strategy refers to pricing of products and services based
on the value the brand feels is correct for the market rather
than its historical price.
PlayStation 5:
These brand has priced the product on the bases of value-base pricing due to its high
demand and popularity among customers. This has enabled the brand to increase their sales
regardless of product price being high. This strategy has assisted the brand to increase its
profitability when compared to Nintendo switch.
Nintendo switch:
The brand has used competitive pricing strategy to price its product. The brand functions
among various portable console products and need to have price the product competitively in
order to survive in the market.
Place
It refers to the decision made by a company to identify its distribution channels through
which it will deliver its products and services to their customers in an efficient manner (Yuruk-
Kayapinar ., 2020). The channels of distribution respective to the choose brands are mentioned
below:
PlayStation 5:
The brand offers the product through both online and offline market such as Amazon,
ASDA and Argos in order to keep up with the customers demand. The brand has a huge market
presence and has established various outlets in the internation market to supply its product.
Nintendo switch:
This brand offers its product through their own online store other third party stores such
as Game and Smyths. Moreover, is also available at offline outlets such as Argos and Currys.
4

The brand has a moderate market presence when compared to PlayStation 5 and both offline and
online sales are comparatively low.
Promotion
It refers to a marketing communication process that enable a company to publicize their
products and its features to the customers (Su and Reynolds ., 2019). It is the most expensive and
essential component of marketing mix. The promotional methods of respective brands is
elaborated below:
PlayStation 5:
The brand has spend huge sum of revenue into promotional activities and have come up
with various famous campaigns and slogans such as “Play has no limits”. The brand was earlier
advertised on banners and television but has now moved on to social media and various internet
advertising services in order to attract a larger customer base. The brand pays more emphasis on
advertising their products when compare to Nintendo.
Nintendo switch:
The brand earlier utilized newspaper and billboards to promote its products. Although the
brand has now focused on social media and television commercials in order to promote their
products. This has effect the brand in a positive manner as they are able to reach a larger
audience and promote their product efficiently.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that both the brand use marketing mix to gain
competitive advantage in the market and have utilized it while taking their customers into
consideration. It is observed that PlayStation has been able to optimality utilize marketing mix as
compared to Nintendo. Moreover, Nintendo can improve its promotion by increasing its
advertising campaign in order to gain market advantage.
5

REFERENCES
Book & Journals:
Fuchs, M. E., 2020. Anatomic factors predict urinary continence in patient with anorectal
malformation. Journal of Pediatric Urology, 16(5). pp.545-e1.
Hassey, R. V., 2019. How brand personality and failure-type shape consumer
forgiveness. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
Levitt, J. A 2019. Food tourist segmentation: Attitude, behavioral intentions and travel planning
behavior based on food involvement and motivation. International Journal of Hospitality
& Tourism Administration, 20(2). pp.129-155.
Lim, W. M., 2021. A marketing mix typology for integrated care: the 10 Ps. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 29(5), pp.453-469.
Limanto, Z., 2021. Correlation of Marketing Mix toward Purchase Intention of Teh Roso in
Surabaya and Sidoarjo. iBuss Management, 9(2).
Soroya, S. H. and Ameen, K., 2021. Exploring the Application of Extended 3Ps of Service
Marketing Mix in Academic Libraries. Pakistan Library & Information Science
Journal, 52(2).
Su, N. and Reynolds, D., 2019. Categorical differences of hotel brand personality: Identifying
competition across hotel categories. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management.
Yuruk-Kayapinar, P., 2020. Basic Marketing Strategies and Marketing Mix in Small-Scale
Sports Events. In Principles and Practices of Small-Scale Sport Event Management (pp.
147-173). IGI Global.
6