Topic: Nintendo wins Marketer of the Year

[Mashiro]

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Actually I think the name Gamecube did hurt the system along with other things (including the design). It sounded like a kids system, and the look of the system didn't change that either! I do want to say that you don't have to consciously get the "We" connotation, you can also get it subliminally or sub-consciously. Wii was a great name for the simple fact that it can't be shortened, and the name itself drives interest in what it is. Some of the best advertisers are ones that can think of a name that is so different that people need to know what it is, and when it becomes mainstream it may even become synonymous with that type of product.

Agreed.

Wii has established itself in the mainstream, it's widley successful and all I can say is this . . .

You can say all you want about other factors leading to the consoles success (and I agree PS3 being a phenomenal flop is one of them) but when push came to shove, on launch day, and weeks after launch, in my community people of all ages were lining up for the system. Some for Zelda, some for Wii sports and the thrill of trying a gadget that actually lets you have motion controls.

Word got out and 3 weeks of waiting in line to try and get one makes me believe Nintendo HAD to do something right, and all that wild success and continued success means they really did do something right. Not all of that can be attributed to the PSfail.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I also agree, Sony dropping the ball helped Wii, but all indications is that it still would have been successful because it has drawn in a different crowd from the one that would have gotten a PS3 early on. When you have a system that people in nursing homes play, you did something RIGHT.

[SixthAngel]

Remember that Ian never thinks a company ever does anything right, they just don't screw up or screw up less then the competition.

The name Wii is pretty brilliant.  Besides what has been mentioned here and more importantly it is easy to pronounce remember and differentiates itself from the competition with the name alone.  Another important point is that it never has to be shortened.  The xbox360, Gamecube and playstation 2/3 quickly become shortened because they are too long or have nonsensical numbers.  Every system but the Wii has some little graphic that represents the console but the Wii's graphic is just the name.  People will never wonder what some symbol means and will always immediately know it is the Wii.  I think Sony should have had the balls to stick with their original controller design, it got laughs just like the Wii name at first but everyone would have forgotten relatively quickly.

The Wii hype train had already began before launch.  The e3 before launch had massive lines for Wii hands on time with little to none for other systems in comparison.  That has nothing to do with dropping the ball but Nintendo getting everyone on board the Wii train as early as possible.

Lets not forget the decision to pack Wii Sports in outside Japan.  They realized how the different markets behaved and made the right call.

[Adrock]

I still consider the name silly, but I was never put off by it. For me, it is the console with the most games I want to play. I'm a sucker for Nintendo games and they could call their console anything and I'd buy it as long as the quality was there.

In terms of the general public, the Wii by any other name would still be recognizable as "that system where I wave sh*t around." I still hear people who are surprised by the whole Wii/We connection. I always thought Nintendo's explanation was kind of convoluted. I hardly think the name is as important as people made or are making it out to be. Before people thought it was a mistake, but now that Wii is a bona fide success, it's treated as a stroke of genius. Honestly, I think it was neither. It's just a name, it was always just a name. The slick design of the console and (mostly) its innovative approach to control is why it's selling and what it's known for.

Think about how dumb most consoles names sound. They were successful/unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. I just don't think the names had very much to do with that.

[NWR_insanolord]

The name of the console wouldn't have any real effect on whether or not gamers would buy it. Whether you like Nintendo or you don't, whether you like the motion controls or the specific games that are made, that's what goes into making the decision for a gamer. I do think, however, that among the non-gamers it matters at least a little bit. I don't think that the console would be having the same level of success if they had kept the name Revolution.

[son of lucas]

Well, I guess the bottom-line on this one is that success makes geniuses out of fools.

The name of the console wouldn't have any real effect on whether or not gamers would buy it.

That's a beautiful sentiment, but it's also complete bull.

Anyone remember when Disney announced the name of "The Emperor's New Groove"?  It killed the movies positive buzz and is still looked at as an embarrassment for the company.  But if you actually watch the movie, you see that it's got a Warner Bros. vibe that makes it one of Disney's fresher attempts in the years just before they closed down production.  People just didn't give it a chance.

[NWR_insanolord]

It is not complete bull. The gamers that don't buy the Wii do so because they want better graphics, or they don't like the motion controls, or they don't like Nintendo's recent track record or the games they make. Sure, some gamers make fun of the name, but the name isn't why they didn't buy the console.

[GoldenPhoenix]

That is a good point, usually when people don't like something (well the less mature ones) they mock the name or something.  

[Ian Sane]

"One thing I will NEVER understand is 'we' is used all the time but people like to focus on some stupid westernized context that is immature beyond belief."

It's simple English.  You would never say "the we" to refer to us.  The only time "the" would be in front of "we" would be for urine.  "The we are going to the store" isn't a correct sentence but "careful to not slip in the wee" is.  Maybe Nintendo wanted the console to be just called Wii with no "the" in front of it but it's naive to think people would do that.  It's like assuming that because Nintendo spelled it "GAMECUBE" all in caps that everyone else would too.  I think the whole thing just reaks of Engrish.  The Japanese Nintendo execs who came up with the name probably didn't realize that "we" as in "you and I" doesn't work as a proper noun while "wee" as in "piss" does.

[BigJim]

The effect of the name can't ultimately be proven either way. Just because the Wii is popular, it doesn't prove the name is a positive. But while nothing particularly positive is said of the name, it doesn't mean it's not effective. It helped get attention for any number of reasons. The Wii is bigger than the sum of its parts, and that is why it's successful.

Sure, the other systems' problems helped to SOME extent, but I give credit to Nintendo for creating the "noise" in the first place. Most, if not all, of us saw the E3 2006 video where everybody was racing towards the Wii booth. Nintendo created a great level of curiosity. Sony and MS had nothing to do with that. Nintendo gets full credit for creating a "package" people were eager to experiment with. The name only added to the intrigue.

Good or bad, it didn't matter. It probably wasn't even the point. It got a reaction, and that's what mattered most. THAT is good marketing.

Anecdotally, I don't hear piss jokes anymore. I only hear "Weeeeeee" in a high-pitched voice, which has a fun/silly connotation. Maybe sometimes to pick on it, but most of the time not.  

[couchmonkey]

Everyone I know has fun with the name.  It's a joke or it's not, but now that the machine is out there, Wii isn't a stupid word, it's...just another word.  I personally think the name was a great choice.  We can't prove it, but I believe it's non-threatening compared to other console names.

As for the larger issue of winning a marketing award, I do feel Nintendo's marketing has been strong on this product, but I also feel that the product really sells itself.  I guess it is a marketing success in that Nintendo designed the Wii well in the first place.

[UltimatePartyBear]

I still think better names were possible, and I still laugh at the unintentional innuendo sometimes, but I knew the name wasn't going to be a problem when Stephen Colbert gots him one on TV to box the Mii of a politician.  When he first said the name, he squealed it in a high-pitched voice, and he didn't make any jokes about it beyond that.  I don't know if Nintendo paid for that moment, but it went a long way toward allaying my own qualms.

[Smash_Brother]

I still think they could have chosen a name that wasn't a proper noun, but it did its job aside from that by making Nintendo stand out from the competition.

I still think Sony's colossal failure had something to do with the Wii's success.

I'm certain that the number of parents who went looking for "the next" Playstation and gawked at the $600 price tag helped Nintendo because it forced those parents to look at the competition. Also, the media typically chooses to love one and only one console and the others are thrown to the wolves. Since the PS3 was such a joke, it forced them to reconsider.

Had Sony shipped a $399 PS3 with some decent games, I'm quite certain that fewer Sony fans would have abandoned them and gone looking for greener pastures, including the media types, meaning that those media types would have otherwise remained in Sony's camp and been mocking Nintendo and its "wee" the whole time.

[GoldenPhoenix]

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Originally posted by: BigJim
The effect of the name can't ultimately be proven either way. Just because the Wii is popular, it doesn't prove the name is a positive. But while nothing particularly positive is said of the name, it doesn't mean it's not effective. It helped get attention for any number of reasons. The Wii is bigger than the sum of its parts, and that is why it's successful.

Sure, the other systems' problems helped to SOME extent, but I give credit to Nintendo for creating the "noise" in the first place. Most, if not all, of us saw the E3 2006 video where everybody was racing towards the Wii booth. Nintendo created a great level of curiosity. Sony and MS had nothing to do with that. Nintendo gets full credit for creating a "package" people were eager to experiment with. The name only added to the intrigue.

Good or bad, it didn't matter. It probably wasn't even the point. It got a reaction, and that's what mattered most. THAT is good marketing.

Anecdotally, I don't hear piss jokes anymore. I only hear "Weeeeeee" in a high-pitched voice, which has a fun/silly connotation. Maybe sometimes to pick on it, but most of the time not.

Surprisingly I agree with everything you said Big Jim. I still love the LOOK of the Wii name, it makes for an attractive package with the name in grey and the rest in white.

[BigJim]

I agree I like the look of it too. Very clean and modern. They borrowed a bit from Apple in that regard, I think.

[Kairon]

Laughter is the best medicine.

[Mashiro]

Yeah Nintendo definitely took a queue from Apple in that regard.

Which was a very smart and good thing =)

[IceCold]

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Sure, the other systems' problems helped to SOME extent, but I give credit to Nintendo for creating the "noise" in the first place. Most, if not all, of us saw the E3 2006 video where everybody was racing towards the Wii booth. Nintendo created a great level of curiosity. Sony and MS had nothing to do with that. Nintendo gets full credit for creating a "package" people were eager to experiment with. The name only added to the intrigue.

Thank you very much BigJim. I always get annoyed when people say that Nintendo is only succeeding because Sony screwed up. It obviously helped, but the effect was minimal - Nintend would have sold tonnes of consoles regardless.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: IceCold

Quote
Sure, the other systems' problems helped to SOME extent, but I give credit to Nintendo for creating the "noise" in the first place. Most, if not all, of us saw the E3 2006 video where everybody was racing towards the Wii booth. Nintendo created a great level of curiosity. Sony and MS had nothing to do with that. Nintendo gets full credit for creating a "package" people were eager to experiment with. The name only added to the intrigue.

Thank you very much BigJim. I always get annoyed when people say that Nintendo is only succeeding because Sony screwed up. It obviously helped, but the effect was minimal - Nintend would have sold tonnes of consoles regardless.

The lines at E3 proved that the Wii had something special going for it. I think people forget how crazy things were then!

[UncleBob]

I still dislike the Wii name.  In retail, I get to deal with customers asking for the "Double-You-Eye-Eye", the "W 2", the "Wii 2", the "Wii game" ("Do you have any Wii Games in stock?"  Yeah... like 30 different ones!), the "Why" ("Whi"?), et cetera.  To this very day, people still ask for the system and manage to screw up the name.

The connections to the iPod name are weak at best.  Sure, they're both "plain", but iPod is like Coke or Kleenex.  It's become a universal term for any MP3 player for the general public.  I don't think "Wii" has what it takes to be the brand the general public associates with video gaming anymore.  Although, remember when you used to "Play Nintendo"?

Don't get me wrong - the Wii name isn't *hurting* (per say), but, as I said when it was first announced, the name wouldn't hurt anything.  However, customers know how to say "X Box" and "PlayStation" (or PS2/PS3, if you will).

Nintendo's next system should be called the "Woo"... Then, I can alternate between the two systems on a shelf - Wii-Woo-Wii-Woo-Wii-Woo-Wii-Woo-Wii-Woo....

But then, would we have Moos?  

[that Baby guy]

I think it will be hilarious when Nintendo has to market the "!!M," remember, that's the upside-down "Wii."  I hope it isn't just a Wario Ware thing, and that it's an actual product.  I want to see what they do with it.

[Kairon]

Mii 2.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I think given time people will know how to say Wii and will associate it with gaming. Realize that both the PS and Xbox brands have been around for quite awhile.