Topic: Kaplan, Llewellyn, and Harrison All Call it Quits

[Strell]

Again I never called for her to be fired.  Ever.

[oohhboy]

I would have been perfectly happy if she just explained herself. She might be considered bad, but she is amazing compared to the crap that MS and Sony put out. With her, even if she dd make a mistake it was still a 2 way dialouge. With the others, they will happyly BS anything and everything without taking a breath. It is far more insulting to be told that there is nothing wrong with the hardware and it is within "Industry norms" and its our fault than to be called a freak.

[Ian Sane]

"Because it is so obvious that marketing has been terrible for NDS and Wii right?"

I haven't seen any improvement over the Cube and GBA marketing.  The DS and Wii have succeeded despite the marketing, not because of it.

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: Strell It was the constant - constant - misinformation coming out of her mouth, rapidfire, with little to no downtime in between.  Granted, this information pretty much only affects the hardcore audience (since no casual gamer gives a crap about region-free), but it was still incredibly annoying.

That's not spin, that's not a technique, that's not anything, and all it really served to do was inject a very strong "NoA doesn't know wtf they are doing" note into discussion.

Well...said.

I'm betting Reggie wanted to get rid of her just so he could stop apologizing for the unending misinformation.

Know why I don't like Kaplan? Not because she insulted Nintendo's fans, not because she spewed a constant stream of misinformation and not because she was clearly trying to get into Matt Cassimassina's (spelling) pants every interview.

I don't like her because every time I read an interview with her, I get a bad impression of Nintendo and I'm a huge fan of Nintendo. The job of PR and marketing people is to make people feel good about the company, to be full of confidence and have every word instill more of a sense of pride in owning Nintendo hardware. Perrin was better at instilling FUD about Nintendo than most Sony/MS reps are.

So again, I don't like Perrin because SHE WAS BAD AT HER JOB, and thankfully, Nintendo understands this and offered her a generous severance package but probably a piss poor salary, their own way of saying, "Hey, this boat's leaving, and you won't be on it."

Good riddance.

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Originally posted by: Ian Sane I haven't seen any improvement over the Cube and GBA marketing.  The DS and Wii have succeeded despite the marketing, not because of it.

Again, agreed in full.

Reggie and the free press did a much, MUCH better job getting the word of the Wii out there than any commercials ever did, and the rest was all viral marketing.

Nintendo probably took a long, hard look at what they were doing for advertising and said, "Why are we paying these assh*les again?"

[BlackNMild2k1]

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
Perrin was better at instilling FUD about Nintendo than most Sony/MS reps are.

So again, I don't like Perrin because SHE WAS BAD AT HER JOB, and thankfully, Nintendo understands this and offered her a generous severance package but probably a piss poor salary, their own way of saying, "Hey, this boat's leaving, and you won't be on it."

Good riddance.

It was either that or Nintendo offer her a promotion with a corner office at the building across the street.
 

[Smash_Brother]

I'd laugh myself into a hernia if MS hires her.

Then she can go about making 360 owners ashamed and afraid of owning the console.  

[NWR_pap64]

The DS advertising I agree can be better (the EBA commercials were so vague I am surprised it sold very well in the US), but the Wii has been very solid and an improvement over the GC commercials.

But I agree that it was the systems' appeal and games that made them successful, not the advertising.

[mantidor]

Kaplan interviews never made me feel bad about Nintendo, I don't know what the hell smash_brother is talking about, and she wasn't fired either, stop making up things, and it also appears the whole thing is still speculation for now according to Nintendo.

Besides, this isn't a Kaplan issue since George Harrison and apparently 90% of the staff is leaving as well, so don't turn it into one, its not about Kaplan is about Nintendo moving.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

So are we back to that part of the cycle where word-of-mouth is much more prominent than big-budget advertising?  

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: mantidor
Kaplan interviews never made me feel bad about Nintendo, I don't know what the hell smash_brother is talking about, and she wasn't fired either, stop making up things, and it also appears the whole thing is still speculation for now according to Nintendo.

Besides, this isn't a Kaplan issue since George Harrison and apparently 90% of the staff is leaving as well, so don't turn it into one, its not about Kaplan is about Nintendo moving.

Let's ask a hypothetical business question, shall we?

Say you're a business who wants to get rid of some dead-weight employees who are doing squat for you.

Do you:

A) Fire them all, thus resulting in a massive amount of media backlash and casting shadows upon the future of your company due to "layoffs".

or

B) Move the headquarters they're located in across the country with no offer of a salary increase, basically forcing 90% of them to resign on their own to pursue other opportunities and making the severance packages look very generous.

The point is not that the move made keeping the job unappealing to these executives. The point is that Nintendo didn't make any effort to keep them on payroll via a salary increase, paying for relocation costs, etc.

It's a win-win for Nintendo: they get to relieve the company of unnecessary salary expenditures while not getting even a whiff of bad press for firing people as a result.

[UltimatePartyBear]

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
The point is not that the move made keeping the job unappealing to these executives. The point is that Nintendo didn't make any effort to keep them on payroll via a salary increase, paying for relocation costs, etc.

There is no basis for that assumption.

On a lighter note, Perrin Kaplan's name always sounded like Klingon to me.  I'll miss that.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I think it's a good opportunity to hire JACK THOMPSON in place of Perrin.

That man KNOWS how to TALK.

[Ceric]

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Originally posted by: pap64
The DS advertising I agree can be better (the EBA commercials were so vague I am surprised it sold very well in the US), but the Wii has been very solid and an improvement over the GC commercials.

But I agree that it was the systems' appeal and games that made them successful, not the advertising.

Any commercial without a customed character is an improvement of the Gamecube.

[Kairon]

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother

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Originally posted by: mantidor
Kaplan interviews never made me feel bad about Nintendo, I don't know what the hell smash_brother is talking about, and she wasn't fired either, stop making up things, and it also appears the whole thing is still speculation for now according to Nintendo.

Besides, this isn't a Kaplan issue since George Harrison and apparently 90% of the staff is leaving as well, so don't turn it into one, its not about Kaplan is about Nintendo moving.

Let's ask a hypothetical business question, shall we?

Say you're a business who wants to get rid of some dead-weight employees who are doing squat for you.

Do you:

A) Fire them all, thus resulting in a massive amount of media backlash and casting shadows upon the future of your company due to "layoffs".

or

B) Move the headquarters they're located in across the country with no offer of a salary increase, basically forcing 90% of them to resign on their own to pursue other opportunities and making the severance packages look very generous.

The point is not that the move made keeping the job unappealing to these executives. The point is that Nintendo didn't make any effort to keep them on payroll via a salary increase, paying for relocation costs, etc.

It's a win-win for Nintendo: they get to relieve the company of unnecessary salary expenditures while not getting even a whiff of bad press for firing people as a result.

How in the world is 90% of your marketing and sales force deadweight?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

... more and more I'm suspecting that this is Reggie making a move at consolidating power and drastically overhauling NOA's marketting in his own image.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I TOLD YOU HE'S CLONING HIMSELF

[UltimatePartyBear]

Nintendo of America will be reorganized into the FIRST. GALACTIC. EMPIRE!

[Kairon]

So this is how freedom dies. With thunderous forum posts.

[BigJim]

This is definitely a Reggie move, including the outsourcing of NP.  It'll be interesting to see how he repositions the pieces going forward.

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Fire them all, thus resulting in a massive amount of media backlash and casting shadows upon the future of your company due to "layoffs".

Any analyst can look at the company's performance and know they're in no crisis.  

[ThePerm]

My problem with Kaplan is that she didn't do anything at her job, it may not have been her fault, but what we all knew was that all she was just supposed to do was reroute information to us. The real people doing the work are in NCL. Basically, She is sort of like a translator. She's given a script to remember and all the information that NCL wants us to know. A puppet exec. By eliminating this staff, all they are doing is eliminating the middle-person.

I think NOA should be massively reworked. Currently, most of all the content is being made in japan, and all NOA does ist translate the content. There is NTS and Retro, but what really should happen is there needs to be more internal development stateside.  

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

"I told you already, I deal with the gaud-damn customers so the engineers don't have to.

I HAVE PEOPLE SKILLS!

I AM GOOD. AT DEALING. WITH PEOPLE! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?!"

[Smash_Brother]

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There is no basis for that assumption.

The fact that Kaplan and co were not offered more incentive to relocate to the point where they stayed on board transcends all assumption.

If Nintendo wanted Kaplan and co to stay, they could have simply said, "What will it take to convince you to come with us?"

Furthermore, why was the move done in the first place? What was the official reason?

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Originally posted by: Kairon How in the world is 90% of your marketing and sales force deadweight?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Because Wii Sports did more for selling the Wii than all their advertising combined.

There was a time right after launch when Wiis were somewhat plentiful, but that only changed 2-3 weeks later when the viral effect of Wii Sports caught fire and everyone and their mother (literally) went out to buy one. Had the marketing staff actually done their job, Wiis would have been sold out since day one.

That aside, the Wii has been selling itself like crazy. Why keep an entire marketing staff on the payroll when they're unneeded?

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... more and more I'm suspecting that this is Reggie making a move at consolidating power and drastically overhauling NOA's marketting in his own image.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case.

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Any analyst can look at the company's performance and know they're in no crisis.

True, but if the bad press isn't an issue, the FUD which Sony/MS would present as a result would be.

They're both the type to attempt to attack any perceived weakness Nintendo might have right now and they'd blow it out of proportion.

Besides, it's better all around if Nintendo isn't known for "letting people go" but "losing people in the move".

[King of Twitch]

They've cut component, HD, and DVD capability, why would employees be any diff

[UltimatePartyBear]

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother

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There is no basis for that assumption.

The fact that Kaplan and co were not offered more incentive to relocate to the point where they stayed on board transcends all assumption.

If Nintendo wanted Kaplan and co to stay, they could have simply said, "What will it take to convince you to come with us?"

Furthermore, why was the move done in the first place? What was the official reason?

What if her answer to that question was unreasonable or exceeded her value to the company, whatever it might be?  What if she simply didn't want to leave Redmond?  What if aliens are responsible?  This is still technically a rumor.  There is no official word at all.

To me, it sounds more like the move was a vastly unpopular and probably unwise decision, perhaps made by someone with pointy hair.  That is infinitely more believable than all these conspiracy theories.

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: PartyBear
To me, it sounds more like the move was a vastly unpopular and probably unwise decision, perhaps made by someone with pointy hair.  That is infinitely more believable than all these conspiracy theories.

Businesses thrive upon using loopholes, BS words and what Scott Adams colorfully refers to as "weasel maneuvers" to exercise their will while dodging as many of the normal penalties for doing so as possible.

Firing people is always a bad thing. Never in the business world is this well-received. Either A) people perceive it as bad news for your company or B) people perceive that your company made a mistake in hiring them to start with.

However, if the company launches an initiative to move the headquarters to a new location and just so happens to not entice the unwanted employees to move with them, it was the choice of the employees to not remain with the company.

And on the same subject, why would anyone want to move a marketing division away from the corporate division if the marketing division was doing its job? Answer: they wouldn't.

The entire purpose of moving the marketing division to either NY or San Franciso is so Nintendo will have access to a better pool of talent, meaning that the current talent wasn't up to snuff.

It's a smart business decision: kill two birds with one stone via getting rid of the lousy marketing staff while moving your headquarters to a location where you'll have access to better talent.

[that Baby guy]

Well, I have to agree with SB to an extent, except that for the big three, they could always be demoted to a worse position that has a better title.  Businesses do that all the time.  I don't think it was Nintendo's intention to move just to lose those three, or else that would have happened.  In fact, I'm not too sure about Nintendo wanting to lose those three at all.  The Seattle area has so many big businesses there, that the three of them could have talked to a buddy at say, Starbucks or something, and may have a job for them where they don't have to move.  It's hard to say.