Target Marketing for the Nintendo Switch
A brand can significantly benefit from researching and identifying its target audience when developing marketing initiatives. Doing so allows a brand to establish well-thought-out and focused efforts that are cost-effective and drive profitable sales for their product. To begin dissecting the brand’s audience in getting a better understanding of its average customer, one must first consider what the brand is selling, why it’s selling it, and how customers can achieve their personal goals. Market Segmentation is dividing a business market into sub-groups of consumers based on some shared characteristics. By utilizing market segmentation, a brand can identify its customers demographics, geographic location, psychographics, and behaviors to tailor communication efforts for its prime audience. For reference, we can look at the brand Nintendo and its newest gaming console, the Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo debuted the Nintendo Switch console in early 2017 with the brand’s initiative to redefine gaming to fit a diverse and on-the-go lifestyle. The Switch’s compact nature allows gamers to play their favorite games from anywhere with anyone by offering a TV, tabletop, and handheld option. In addition, the brand has conjoined the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS experience into one, with users enjoying a multiplayer feature with 3925 games to choose from, overall appealing to youth and adults of all ages. Looking closely at the brand’s marketing, social media presence, and data sales, we can better understand the exact type of customer that Nintendo should target for the Switch and how to do so across their social platforms.
Demographic and Geographic
Age & Gender: At the Nintendo Switch launch, buyers were between the mid-20s to mid-30s, with 70% males and 30% females. As the years have passed, the age range and male to female ratio have become more evenly distributed, with 31% of owners being under 24, 21% between 35–44 range, and male and females split 50/50. By offering renditions of classic Nintendo games, the console appeals to mostly 20–35 years olds who have been loyal Nintendo users for decades.
Race: Studies on video game demographics indicate that African Americans, Latinx, and Asians are becoming increasingly more active in the gaming community than their white counterparts, with 83% of African American teens playing video games compared to 71% of white teens.
Location: As most Nintendo Switch users fall primarily under 30, users are either single or newly married, and based on the demographic age, most will either be living in a family household located in a suburban neighborhood or apartment near a city. More broadly, according to Nintendos sales, many users are located in the United States with approximately 5.23 billion in sales, followed by Europe as the second highest-grossing region.
Psychographic & Behavioral
The target audience of the Nintendo Switch will have values and beliefs based on family bonding, friendship, teamwork, strategizing, and making time for fun. Their interests will be gaming, hanging out with friends, and socializing with an overall creative and outgoing personality. Additionally, based on the Switches three gaming modes, the lifestyle of the average user will be someone who has a busier schedule of either going to work, school, or both but still enjoys incorporating gaming into their routine. Behaviorally, the average user will be a regular gamer and even a longtime Nintendo user from the variety of classic games that the system offers. Spending habits can vary, but for the Nintendo Switch, starting at $299, this is seen as a Christmas or Birthday gift investment for family and friend social bonding.
How Nintendo Can Market to this Target Audience
Nintendo Switch is like no other gaming console. It has a unique selling point of its convenient three-mode capability and offers various classic and newer games. Having a gaming experience that is convenient and adaptable to the user’s environment is extremely attractive for a gamer or average user who wants to incorporate gaming throughout their daily routines. There is no product or gaming brand on the market that offers the same physical and digital experience as fluid as the Switch.
Additionally, the Nintendo Switch also allows users who enjoyed the classic Nintendo Games such as Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, etc., to relive their childhood while also providing new game releases and updates for games like Fortnite, Animal Crossing, and Minecraft. With thousands of games downloadable at one’s fingertips and multiplayer features, the options are endless to the point that a consumer will find something that they can see fitting about the product.
When developing marketing initiatives for the Nintendo Switch, the prime focus should be to demonstrate the console’s versatility and how customers can benefit from incorporating it into their lives. For example, depicting a fun time amongst family and friends between 10 to 35 years of age will allow the Switch room to appeal to various users. Additionally, taking a culturally relevant stance by reinforcing the sense of social bonding, especially during a global pandemic when many are unable to come together, is a great focus the brand can take to to promote the Switch. The underlying theme of the Switch is to bring people together to bond over their favorite games anywhere, anytime, with anyone,
Based on Nintendo’s target demographics of appealing to 20–35 years olds, the best way to market to this audience would be through social media, public space advertisements, and event marketing. The average age of a social media user is between 18–49 years old. Additionally, across Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter, Nintendo USA alone has successfully accumulated over 31,000,000 followers. The brand can also greatly benefit from deploying public advertisements such as on billboards, bus stops, train stations, and building posters. It’s eye-catching colors and theme is highly appealing to customers while also giving consumers the nostalgia of their favorite childhood games. Additionally, holding public events where people can trial the Switch and purchase it on the spot is a fun and creative way to market the console apart from traditional advertising.
Overall, Nintendo did a phenomenal job identifying its target market and tailoring its brand initiatives to create culturally relevant and interactive content. Doing so will prove successful for the brand as users will remain engaged and loyal to the gaming tycoon as it continues to transcend in the next coming decades. In addition, focusing on a target audience through market segmentation and curating content for those audiences will benefit the communication efforts and search engine optimization for a brand, thus resulting in profitable marketing strategies.
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