Topic: My Wii Focus Group & Results

[Jonnyboy117]

To test the appeal of "Wii" for non-gamers, I did a non-scientific experiment at another forum I visit everyday.  This is a literature forum at which I am the youngest poster.  Many of the frequent posters are over 50 years old, and some are over 80 years old.  More than half are women.  Here's what I posted:

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I want to do a little experiment with you all, and it's easy to participate.

Today, Nintendo announced that its new game system will be officially named "Wii". It is pronounced the same as "we". Without knowing anything else about the system, or even video games in general, what do you think of that name?

Jonathan

Here are the answers.  (I'm not including names because I didn't ask their permission to use their names.)

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My immediate reaction is that it would be pronounced "why."

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I can hear the wii-wii jokes now.

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wwII missing the second w? or wii not?

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I think it's pretty lame. Besides looking like a typo, which probably doesn't really matter to the text messaging crowd, the sound "wee" sounds small and insignificant. Are they trying to play off "we" as in "all us players"? Or maybe they're trying to piss off the French and misspell "Oui."

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I took it for a typo and had no clue how to pronounce it.

My first thought was "wiki" without the "k," and then, as Ricki says, WWII without the second "W".

By the way, here's a riddle I saw online yesterday:

Q: Where do dogs keep their music?

A: In an I-pawed.

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It reminds me of Intel's 'viiv', which I read as a rather ridiculous way of jumping on Apple's roman-numeral bandwagon. Where a 'w' comes into that I'm not sure. But that's what it makes me think of.

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Perhaps, it's meant to evoke "wheeee!"

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I read the item in the paper this morning, dismissed it as not a catchy name, thought maybe the company hoped the product's popularity would establish the name and that it would work because of its difference and peculiarity. If I associated it at all, it was with Wikopedia.

At this point, I explained the purpose of soliciting these responses and briefly mentioned my own antipathy towards the name.  The following responses were posted after that point:

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One more afterthought, on this subject...

Two brand-new words in my vocabulary these days are "wiki" and "wi-fi."

Having no precedents to compare them to, it's taken me a while to get it through my head that "wiki" has a short "I" and "wi-fi" a long one. Without a similar clue, "wii" doesn't compute for me at all. Although, if I saw a few thousand TV commercials with the word on the screen in huge letters while being pronounced by a distinctive, erotic/exotic female voice, I'm sure it would begin to sink in.

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Perhaps you should have said that the system was very wiird.

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A little late, but this thread intruiged me. My first read of wii was as "Y" "I", or as the Geordie accent in England would say "whyI", not so much a question, more a speech introduction. But then why not "whyI?", also the technie part of me could read it as w2 as in web2? I suppose the "we" has a more joined in feel to it, which presumably fits better with the online gaming world, than the individualistic "I" sound. However, without your guidance on pronunciation, it is more interesting name

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I skipped by all the responses my first impression..."war
2."it his me as wwii...but remember I have dyslexia so I don't
know if I count as a valid voice...now I'm going back to read
what others posted...

[Kairon]

Yum, viral marketting amongst the non-gamer crowd!

Now, if only they had demo booths out for these people to try...

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Arbok]

Nice post and survey, even if the results are depressing, if not predictable.

[Kairon]

The results do't depress me. It sounds like everyone of them is saying "huh? what is this?" And I don't think that anyone is disputing that that is the sense Nintendo wants to create. The reason this should be paired with the controller though, is so that people have a chance to act on their curiousity, not just be curious for a moment and then forget about it.

I would suggest this experiment: Have two links, one of the links is labelled just "Wii" and links to the Nintendo TGS Controller teaser trailer. The other link would be labelled just "Revolution" and links to the same trailer. Which link's thread will get more attention in a non-gamer forum, I wonder?

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Caliban]

Well Jon, you did try not to reveal any of their names lol, you tried but you failed.

On topic, yeah that was an interesting experiment, I wouldn't still consider it perfect 'cause your lab-rats had no hands on the system.

[Renny]

I wouldn't call it perfect either (nor did Jonny). But the results seem to fall in line with all other anecdotal samplings: the name sucks.

Viva la Revolution.  

[thepoga]

and people seeing random advertisements outside will always have their hands on it.

It's really frustrating a little bit. I've gotten used to the name, but I find myself trying to be careful in the way I talk about it. Even developers have to be careful. One developer said "You really have to touch the revolution to really understand it." This was AFTER the name Wii was announced. I don't want to have to be careful in how I say the name of something.  

[wandering]

Interesting, thanks. I guess everybody thinks it's a crummy name.

So the name should evoke 'we' but instead evokes WWII, wikipedia, a typo, small, whee, and wee-wee. Also, people don't know how to pronounce it.

The solution, I suppose, is to include an explanatory tagline in all ads, especially print ads. "Together, Wii will change everything" explains the meaning and the pronounciation.

..I guess we already knew that. The question is, is it worth it to trade off a name which is not understandable without advertising (though lots of advertising will be there), in favor of a name that is short, easy to remember, and non-traditional?

[mantidor]

Its interesting that they didnt noticed the trendy mac "i"s, but instead the "W" a lot more. Wikipedia references, world war references, etc.

We sure have learned our fair ammount about names this week I cant recall any name that made me bought or reject a product though. it makes me think the name is really not that important, which makes the choice of the name even more non-sense, they couldve have left it as revolution and I dont see a diferent reaction from the outside crowd, and we would probably have just said "it was expected".

[Kairon]

Well, thepoga, flash "Gamecube" anywhere without anything to sell it and it won't do well either. Either way you have to advertise, but why not have a name that is as capable of evoking curiousity as anything else in advertising or the product?

Oh, and Wawa, what name were you hinting at in your comparison?

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Hostile Creation]

I still think it's ridiculous to draw attention toward the name, identifying it as an entity in and of itself, rather than something describing the product.  Which is what it's supposed to do.
People will hear about the system through word of mouth and seeing what it can do (via commercials, etc).  In most cases, people will hear it pronounced.  Drawing attention to any name will yield indifferent results.  If I asked a bunch of nongamers about the name Revolution without a reasonable explanation, they'd probably be even less interested, because it sounds generic.  And confused as to why it's named that, as well.

In short, you should give a reasonable description and mention the name, don't make it the focus.  Otherwise you're going to have fundamentally flawed results.

I'm not totally refuting your efforts, they're interesting results.  General confusion toward the name, leaning toward both distaste and, later, mild interest.  I just think everyone's going about it the wrong way.

[trip1eX]

Exactly!  If you would have heard google before you knew it was a search engine you wouldn't have thought much of the name at all.  Even if you knew it was going to be a search engine you wouldn't think anything of the name.  Same with Napster.  How about that internet phone service Skype?  I don't think any of those names would mean anything to anybody before you saw the product and before you used the product. People would be all over the map with their opinions of the names.  

 

[Jonnyboy117]

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Originally posted by: Hostile Creation
I still think it's ridiculous to draw attention toward the name, identifying it as an entity in and of itself, rather than something describing the product.  Which is what it's supposed to do.

If that's the case, why would Nintendo reveal the name in its own announcement, separate from the truly full unveiling of the system at E3?  They just dumped it out there nearly two weeks before E3, in such a way that mainly gamers would hear about it, despite admitting anticipation that gamers would not like the name.  If this name is meant to appeal to everyone, they should have debuted it in national advertising campaigns and done so at the same time they actually show people what the system is meant to do and how real games are played on it.  Nintendo's handling of this matter has been a complete mess, and that's entirely separate from my opinion of the name itself.

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I just think everyone's going about it the wrong way.

Yeah, including Nintendo.

[trip1eX]

The same reason your Mom let's you know you she's going to change your Spiderman sheets to Lex luther sheets a day ahead of time.  And that's so you're prepared for it and not upset and bewildered by a suprise change.  

People's initial reactions are often different than their long term reactions.  Any parent that has dealt with their kids knows this.  

y.

[Kairon]

Johhny, "everyone" won't know about the name until Nintendo DOES do mass advertisements for it.

Only us gamers and other industry people got the premature access.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Hostile Creation]

Oh yeah, start a marketing campaign at least half a year before the system is even released.  That's a brilliant idea.
Nobody's going to hear about it now except for gamers, who will become accustomed to it.  If anyone does hear about it, it'll pass from their minds until they start their advertising campaign.  I don't see how announcing the name, to a bunch of people who know what the system does, is hurting anything.

That said, it seems like you're evading the point of my post, whether you meant to or not.  Nintendo has to announce the name sometime, at least by E3 (and they've already explain their reasoning for doing so beforehand); it would be far worse to change the name after the E3 of the system's release year.
Frankly, you sound more like an indignant gamer than someone who's actually put any worthwhile thought into the matter.

[wandering]

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If this name is meant to appeal to everyone, they should have debuted it in national advertising campaigns and done so at the same time they actually show people what the system is meant to do and how real games are played on it. Nintendo's handling of this matter has been a complete mess, and that's entirely separate from my opinion of the name itself.

A complete mess? I disagree.

All of the Wii news released up to this point hasn't made much a splash for non-gamers. So, it'll be like everything is revealed to them all at once, like you want...either when real games are actually shown at E3 and the press reports on it, or when the massive Wii advertising campaign hits. So that covers non-gamers.

For gamers, Nintendo will reveal the most important thing, Wii games, at E3. And when that happens, they want all the focus to be on the games. Not on the lack of HD, not on a sudden name change, not on a funky looking new controller. They've been releasing bits of difficult information during the lead-up to the big reveal not only to keep the Wii on gamer's radars, but also to make sure the big reveal goes as smoothly as possible.

[Crimm]

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Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117

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I think it's pretty lame. Besides looking like a typo, which probably doesn't really matter to the text messaging crowd, the sound "wee" sounds small and insignificant. Are they trying to play off "we" as in "all us players"? Or maybe they're trying to piss off the French and misspell "Oui."

Well someone got it.

 

[Mario]

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If that's the case, why would Nintendo reveal the name in its own announcement, separate from the truly full unveiling of the system at E3? They just dumped it out there nearly two weeks before E3, in such a way that mainly gamers would hear about it, despite admitting anticipation that gamers would not like the name.

So people like you and Rick can get your editorials and focus group studies out now rather than E3 when people just wanna hear about the games.

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If this name is meant to appeal to everyone, they should have debuted it in national advertising campaigns and done so at the same time they actually show people what the system is meant to do and how real games are played on it.

The first time 98% of consumers hear the name will be in those commercials. Which brings up a flaw in your study, the way the name is presented. It's not supposed to be shoved in peoples faces like "look! Wii! THOUGHTS?", it's just supposed to be there. The name above that awesome system you'll the stores. What's this? Wii.

[IceCold]

Jonny, you can vent all you want about the name, but the above few posters are right; Nintendo has handled it as best they could. You contradicted yourself by asking why Nintendo would reveal it in its own announcement, then admitting that "mainly gamers" would hear about it. This thread is about nongamers, right? The backlash from the name would come from the gamers if anywhere, which is why they released it two weeks earlier. The focus at E3 just can't be the name, so it was better to get it over and done with. Then, the nongamers would hear about the name later, together with the system, the games and the controller.

I think you misunderstood Hostile; he meant that your survey was ridiculous in that it asked the nongamers what they felt about the name in itself, and not as a package with the Wii. We already know exactly what the system's features are and what it can do. The software part is pending, but we already have a good idea about what it does. So we can judge the name. However, nongamers don't know much about the system at all. So it's unfair to just give them a name and expect them to react to it.

Also, if you said yourself that not many nongamers have heard of the name yet, then why should Nintendo start a marketing campaign now? Chances are those same nongamers won't hear the name until Nintendo starts advertising, anyway.

[Nick DiMola]

This is my last post regarding the name Wii.

I personally do not like the name, but I hope Nintendo markets it effectively and it becomes a staple in the English language sort of like iPod. In addition, I think we should all stop arguing about the whole name issue because nobody is going to unanimously agree that the name is good or bad. I say we all stop whining/fighting, and look forward to the sweetness E3 2006 will be.

[Kairon]

Leave it to a staff member to reignite the debate, lol.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com  

[Hostile Creation]

IceCold hit the figurative nail on the head, in regards to my post.

[ruby_onix]

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Jonny, you can vent all you want about the name, but the above few posters are right; Nintendo has handled it as best they could. You contradicted yourself by asking why Nintendo would reveal it in its own announcement, then admitting that "mainly gamers" would hear about it. This thread is about nongamers, right? The backlash from the name would come from the gamers if anywhere, which is why they released it two weeks earlier. The focus at E3 just can't be the name, so it was better to get it over and done with. Then, the nongamers would hear about the name later, together with the system, the games and the controller.

Why do people seem to think that in order for Nintendo to have a name that would be acceptable to non-gamers, it inevitably has to be hated by 95% of the gaming population?

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I think you misunderstood Hostile; he meant that your survey was ridiculous in that it asked the nongamers what they felt about the name in itself, and not as a package with the Wii.

Do you honestly believe that "Wii" is the verbal embodiment of the Revolution?

[Kairon]

No.

The verbal embodiment of the revolution is "Itsa-me! Mario!"

Duh! &P

That was the verbal embodiment of the analog stick revolution at least...

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com