Marketing Strategies and Issues: A Case Study of Rockstar Developers

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Rockstar Games' marketing strategies, focusing on their approach to the video game industry. It examines the company's marketing activities and practices, including interactive marketing, guerrilla tactics, and pre-order bonuses. The report identifies key issues in managing marketing operations, such as repetitive campaigns, resource inadequacy, and brand asset management. It also explores tools and techniques that support marketing managers, including Porter's Five Forces Model and the 4Ps of marketing. The analysis highlights Rockstar's market orientation, competitive advantages, and strategies for customer engagement, ultimately contributing to their success in the competitive video game market. The report concludes with an overview of key trends in marketing management.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Analysis and evaluation of Rockstar developer marketing strategies, activities and practices1
The key issues identified in managing marketing operations within organization................3
Tools and techniques that support the marketing manager in development of strategies, plans
and operations.........................................................................................................................4
Importance, mechanism, control and evaluation within marketing management..................6
Key trends in marketing management....................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The video gaming industry is considered to be among the most interactive sectors being a
part of the economic sector which involves development, marketing and sales of video gaming.
This sector has gathered much needed curiosity in the mid 1970's which was the era of growth in
computers and video games. Since then, United Kingdom has been remarked as one of the
largest video gaming markets in Europe and is among the 3rd largest in the world as per the sales
(Zimmerman, and Blythe, 2013).
Among many, the best seller of video games in UK was the Grand Theft Auto which is
primarily developed by Rockstar, North in Edinburgh, Scotland. Herein, this report has been
done to analyse the Market-orientation of Nintendo. Furthermore, the report shall identify
different tools and techniques that can be applied for demonstrating the reasons for which
Rockstar is “market-oriented”. Lastly, the contribution of marketing in gathering success of
organization is assessed in detail.
Analysis and evaluation of Rockstar developer’s marketing strategies, activities and practices
Rockstar was established in late 90's when the need for games was not seen much. They
were dedicated to develop video games that had the potential to attract the masses. With its first
success attained from the “Blood Money”, it moved to the publishing of Grand Theft Auto in
1997. The creator of grand Theft Auto, Rockstar Games, became the leader in video gaming
industry in terms of revenue (Glowik and Smyczek, 2011).
Their idea was to make a game that was cool and had the potential to appeal the wide
masses of audience. The product was designed and marketed to gather the attention of its
customers. GTA 2 was launched in London in 1969 and in 1999, it sold 2 million copies. With
the success captured from the release of GTA 2, company released GTA 3 which also acquired a
substantial rate of public interests.
With the constant selling and by meeting the customer wants, Rockstar has built a series of
its bestselling game, that is, Grand theft Auto.
The latest release of Grand theft Auto V is seen to remark the same level of success. The
reason to its assured success is its marketing strategy. In the beginning of video game era,
marketing of games was done by word of mouth, cheesy television advertisements and magazine
articles. These days, games have a plethora of channels to market their products to win the hearts
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of their consumers. Today's marketing strategy that are employed by the marketers of Rockstar
are-
1. Interactive marketing strategy- When it comes to advertising, it is fun to see the way in
which consumers are involved in implementing a video game marketing strategy. It is an
innovative means to connect with the die-hard fans of company (Glynn and Woodside,
2012). Rockstar has been calculus about the way to customize video game with
considering the perception of customers. Rockstar has been adamant about incorporating
the view of its customers. To make this dream come true, in GTA V, it established its
own unique website for the Epsilon Program. The players were invited to show their
participation in the program. The participation was to gather a casting call of its fans.
Five members of the program were selected to be the actors in their game. This was not
the first time it actually made a customer interaction, but in GTA IV, Rockstar has
encouraged its users to send their recordings of themselves ranting.
2. Guerrilla marketing tactics- Rockstar uses low cost without any set customized
marketing strategy that can deliver the positive returns on investments (Hughes, 2007).
3. Pre order booking bonuses and discounts- Before the release date of Grand Theft V,
they were assured about their success. With the estimated hit, Rockstar promoted its
products by providing discounts for pre-booking and if purchases were made by the
customers from its own website’s signature, GTA V T-Shirts were distributed online. The
bonuses and discounts were a good means of locking the sales before release of their
product.
4. Online Marketing- Rockstar games tweeted an article in connection with the game, that
is, Grand Theft Auto V with a link for GTA V website. The fans have visited the site to
have a glimpse of new game trailer. The countdown timer on website also created a
heightened excitement among customers (Motta and Schewe, 2008). Rockstar games also
realized 6 trailers within 20 months which helped company in building anticipation for
their products. These tactics are used for promoting GTA V online that created a buzz for
its latest edition of its game.
These marketing strategies are introduced by company to gather the attention, perception
and views of customers for its products. Rockstar with its promotional activities was able to
create hype for its products and simultaneously, assess the demand that persist in the video game
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market. Company has always been curious to collect the customer’s views and opinions for its
products. The practices such as interactive strategies undertaken by Rockstar were to take into
consideration the opinions of its customers as well as to gain their satisfaction from company
(Madsen and Pedersen, 2013).
The demand for video games in UK market has been increasing day by day. The
increasing demand among customers and development of video gaming industry has impelled
UK government to implement the tax relief for UK game developers. This opportunity has
helped companies to generate multiple revenues and to pass it on to customers by giving
discounts and bonus on editions at its pre-booking events.
Key issues identified in managing marketing operations within an organization
The global launch of product and continued focus on multi-channel can make it difficult
to execute the desired level of marketing of product. The issues that hinder in this whole
marketing process are-
1. Marketing teams often make their marketing campaigns repetitive from one year to
another on the basis of historical statistics. The anticipation of future likeliness is often
misleading due to lack of proper alignment of business objectives with the marketing
executions (Atorough and Martin, 2012).
2. The inadequacy in availability of resources is one of the biggest issues in conducting
marketing operations within organization. Most of the marketing budgeting activities are
manual, iterative and constitute ad-hoc services. This leads to unnecessary expenditure in
wasteful marketing operations (Sharma, 2009).
3. Often, project managers working in the marketing department are directed to coordinate a
large number of marketing projects in the context of product advertisement, launching
events, sponsorship and promotions. The communication between marketing managers
and external service providers tends to be ad hoc, uniform and subjective which leads to
inconsistency in their results.
4. The most common and over-looked aspect of an effective marketing strategy is
management of company's brand assets. To ensure consistency and positive expression of
brands, the marketing managers need to provide a conjunction between its brand strategy
and promotion.
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5. Internet marketing through website promotion can create privacy concerns. Email
marketing can be a spot for invasion of an outsider in the personal space. The regular
spamming complaints are the indication of the way in which violation internet marketing
can be created.
With the passing time, it has been seen that the marketing operations management has
expanded both in its scope and significance. The utilization of Marketing Operations
Management assists in creation of marketing culture which will help it in streamlining the
marketing process that is conducted at both operational and campaign level which will propel it
to reduce the waste of efforts and would help in generation of higher revenues (Thomas, 2006).
To acquire the estimated marketing efficiency, a combination of marketing skill and operational
management will be required.
Tools and techniques that support the marketing manager in development of strategies, plans and
operations
The marketing management process has turned out to be more complex and costly. With
the growing competitiveness in the field of video gaming, it is important for marketers to assist
the strategic managers to develop a wide range of tools and techniques that can be employed to
contour this process.
To analyse the alignment of Rockstar Developers towards its customers and to bring it in
tune with the level of competitiveness, Porter's Five Forces Model can be used-
1. Intensity of Rivalry (Moderate) - Rockstar Developers directly compete with the
Nintendo, Valve and Atari developers. The intensified rivalry among the firms has led to
employing of new ideas to attract different segments for boosting up the new market
areas. Rivalry among these competitors has instilled them on fighting for new creative
gaming. Rivalry is lowered since the market is fast-moving and the number of firms is
diminishing their effect on competitor’s strong move. This is so because the product lines
are highly differentiated and appeal of Rockstar is different to varied segments (Glowik
and Smyczek, 2011).
2. Potential new entrants (Low) - The growing opportunities have led to rapid growth of
industry which has positively resulted in higher returns for companies that are operating
within this business (Kotler, 2000). The threat of new entrants in the video game software
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market is to some extent lowered due to barriers to entry and existence of learning
(experience) curve. Profits have drawn the attention of new entrants but inadequacy of
sufficient expertise and resources have set the group of small developers behind.
The notable barriers to new entrants consist of sizable economies of scale in production,
strong brand positioning, difficulty in establishment of network of distribution and high initial
capital outlay.
3. Threat of substitution (High) - It is important to see whether the substitutes are readily
available and if attractively pricing is quoted or not. The video game software business is
a concern of broader entertainment business that is intended to provide leisure and
arbitrary spending of consumers. While, on the other hand, movies, music, mobile apps,
television etc. exerts strong competitive pressure which is readily available with attractive
pricing (Milliken, 2001). The switching cost for customers is also low. Thus, the
substitution of video games by consumers is high.
4. Bargaining Power of suppliers (Low) - The bargaining power can be exerted by
suppliers where switching cost is high and a supplier has the differentiated input which
can lead to enhancement in quality or performance of their product. In the video game
industry, Nintendo exerts one of the strongest competitions that are depicting its powerful
bargaining position over suppliers. Rockstar Developer has also its licensed technology
which helps it in differentiating its product and in parting itself from others. This has
helped it in reducing the supplier’s bargaining power (Kotler and Keller, 2012).
5. Bargaining Power of Buyers (Low) - At a large scale, bargaining power of buyers is
high, but with the frequent popularity and games reviews together, it has helped in
sustaining its discretion over the buyer’s bargaining power. GTA Vice city is a popular
and renowned video game name in UK industry which reduces the power of consumers
to bargain on it.
After analysing the collective strength of Porter's competitive forces, it becomes clear
that the video game software industry has growing opportunities and is extremely profitable
sector of business. Rockstar is able to survive in this competitive environment by differentiating
its products by serving the expectations of consumers that are preventing it from others to affect
the business (Malaval and Bénaroya, 2002).
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4 P's of marketing can be utilized as a tool to support the marketing manager of Rockstar
Developers in strategy, planning and activities.
1. Product- GTA games are published in every two years with its first version launch in
1997, next in 1999, 2001 and so on. It has been able to establish its set of fans through
product innovation. According to one of the articles posted in Forbes, it has been seen
that the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto V cost $250 million is much more than the
movies like Avengers, Avatar and Toy story. It counter-effects this cost with increasing
revenues by reaching the satisfactory level of customer's expectations through its
innovation in its games. The game formed consists of a combination of Action +
Ambition + Adventurous games.
2. Price- Price is one of the key elements of marketing mix which relates to revenue
generation. Prices are set reasonable for customers to make them easily affordable. In this
manner, it is able to keep into consideration the capacity of people to pay for the game.
Simultaneously, it was seen that the firm was able to provide discounts and bonuses on
pre-bookings (Govindarajan, 2007).
3. Promotion- Rockstar has undertaken a strategy of developing and creation of strong
brand promotion. GTA was the first video game that was able to break the records and
present something aloof from the traditional games. Its controversies added to its
promotions and created much needed hype for its products. It gave what customer
wanted, provided the freedom to play the way it wanted too and also offered different
choices to make. The control was felt in the hands of users.
4. Place- GTA series was ranked among Britain's most successful exports. The final series
of this game sell more than 220 million units that are acclaimed to be commercially
successful in countries like UK, Europe and America etc. The publisher of game is
situated in New York and its shipment to different places has satisfied its customers that
are situated in different parts of the world.
The techniques are employed by Rockstar for incorporating their ideas about the games
and to provide the ultimate entertainment experience to its consumers (Mathur, 2006). The
realistic approach of the games and freedom to invade has proved the alignment of Rockstar
Developers on market orientation.
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Importance, mechanism, control and evaluation within marketing management
The significance of marketing management is explained like-
1. It helps in planning a systematic way of utilizing the marketing efforts.
2. Marketing management assists in gathering adequate amount of marketing research and
information.
3. The weaknesses and loopholes can be easily spotted.
4. The optimum utilization of funds and human resources for marketing can be made
efficiently and effectively as far as possible.
5. Rockstar can gain a better position to adapt the changes that customers expect and meet
the competition within industry.
6. Marketing is integrated easily within its different departments.
7. Marketing personnel is motivated to attain different marketing objectives.
8. A clear accountability can be defined for marketing (What is Marketing Operations?
2015).
The marketing management mechanism can be recorded by undertaking customer
perceptions and through gathering their responses to meet their expectations and needs. It is clear
that a market mechanism is governed by the fundamental laws of market i.e. law of demand and
supply.
In order to ensure that marketing plans are achieved, they can be monitored in tune with
the marketing objectives and measure the differences as well. The control process plan shall
consists of following steps-
1. Setting up of standards as per the plan
2. Measurement of performance in accordance with the standards
3. Taking corrective measures to set the standards and plans
Rockstar Developers must use different techniques after the execution of marketing plan
to analyse the success in accomplishment of individual marketing objectives and to broadly
evaluate the entire organization’s marketing efforts (Tsai, 2009). The techniques that can be used
are-
1. Marketing auditing
2. Ration analysis (generating efficiency)
3. Marketing profitability and cost analysis
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4. Market-share analysis
5. Sales evaluation
Key trends in marketing management
According to the research, it has been seen that video games industry is estimated to be
worth of £80 billion. However, America and Japan has been dominating in this market. UK
video games sector also employees over 12000 people that generate a per year revenue of £2.5
billion. Many factors have persisted in the growth in this video games sector from mid-90's till
21st century. The similarity in varieties was obstructed by Rockstar edition of GTA Vice city
which was an adult rated game that is collaborating popular actions alive through this game. The
demographics that are featuring the game have also changed. It has been able to still hold the
adults and acquired the upcoming teenager's attention. With the expansion of customer’s base,
the competition has also turned to be fierce and innovative featuring has served to fulfil the
purpose of technological needs of business. The quality in graphics and intense competition to
get connected with the latest technologies has widened the chances of Rockstar to prosper in this
industry. The technological innovation has been seen as a prime part in the Software
development of video games industry. The incorporation of sound and high resolution picture
quality has led to utmost level of experience among customers (Wilson, and Gilligan, 2005). The
game developed has a contribution of its fans and their needs are fulfilled by providing esteem
high-quality of pictures and 3D as well as sound-effects to their game.
The promotional techniques have been changed drastically with the changes in
technologies. The personal website, social media, blogs etc. have surpassed the scope of
gathering customer's attention and attaining their sustained responses. The responses in the form
customer's review and feedback are noted by making it easier to consider their opinions. The
internet accessibility has helped in providing customers with an updated and timely information.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be articulated that Rockstar developers with its early
establishment in the late 90's till date has been constantly revising its marketing techniques and
strategies to meet its customer's expectations. The popularity of Rockstar Developers was
attained through launch of first edition for its well-known game GTA. The GTA was the most
admired experienced game by UK. Since its first launch, Rockstar Developers has not looked
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down and has been bringing its successors with a new edition in every span of 2 years to keep its
customer's satisfied.
They have also introduced marketing promotional techniques which highly focused on
attaining customer interactions which help in acquiring the customer's participation in their field.
Marketing orientation is a business concept which pays attention on delivering the products
which is designed to meet the customer’s needs, desires and requirements (Cant, 2009). This
concept is thoroughly justified by Rockstar Developers who have tried their best promotional
means to capture the customer's attention.
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