Evaluation

Brief

Develop an advertising strategy aimed at increasing sales in the post 65 group

Research

I undertook the following research:

Wii Sellers

I phoned two different Wii sellers to ask questions about the type of games older people may be interested in and also if they actually went into the shop. This was very useful in deciding what type of games to design and where to market them as there was no point in the stores themselves.

Advertising Strategy

Even though I did an advertising and marketing brief as part of the HND, it’s such a long time ago that I felt a reminder would be helpful.

“An advertising strategy is the formulation of a message that communicates to the market the benefits or problem solution characteristics of the product or service. Show that your product has more beneficial characteristics than the competitions”

Target Market

As my parents are in the target group, I asked them if they’d played on the Wii and what games they’d like to play. My dad had played the golf game and my mum the tennis game. My mum commented on how much fun it was but she never would have realised if they hadn’t been introduced to it by younger friends of theirs.

This sparked off an idea about how to market the Wii to the over 65s as older people are often intimidated or by the technology and the unknown. They don’t think it’s applicable to them but as my parents have proved they can have just as much fun. I would need to market it somewhere where both younger and older people were, which made me think of town centres and shopping centres. Then I thought of having demonstrations where older people and younger people were all playing together to show how much fun it is for all.

Competition

I looked briefly at Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft XBOX 360 as they had already been evaluated in my research. I didn’t dwell on this too much as they are very different systems; the Wii is mainly a very active whole body gaming experience whereas the others require the player to be sat down with a controller

Marketing

I picked out a few websites that discussed what makes the Wii different and what they were doing to market the Wii at the moment. Wii parties are very big at the moment, this also helped to form the idea of the street and care home demonstrations

Wii Games

I wanted to know what Wii games are out there now so I wouldn’t duplicate any ideas ie fishing and brain training type games

Ideas

This is how my ideas formed

Sightseeing Saga Holidays Rambling

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Travel

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Virtual Tours of cities and places of interest Visiting centuries

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“Wii Wish you were here!”

Talking to parents

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Introduced through younger people

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Wii Generations (all ages involved)

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“How young can you become?”

Tai Chi

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Dancing Styles

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Music of their era

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“My Generation song” links to above idea

Advertising Methods

After thinking of ideas I needed to think of different ways to reach the target group. Out of the many options I wrote down, the ones I developed into visuals were:

TV Advert

I thought the most appropriate for a TV advert would be the “Wii wish you were here” game as I imagine a lot of people of that age like and could relate to Judith Chalmers. The advert could show an older person walking round a beautiful city or stately home etc but then it cuts back to a daughter on the telephone to that person, showing that they’re really just playing a game

Post Office Screens

A way to strike a cord with people is often through music. Playing some songs from their era may make them look up and watch. Different screen shots of different age groups playing together would look lots of fun and encourage both older and younger people to buy the game. And if the game in some way depends on older people playing, then it is likely this way that younger people would persuade them to play it.

Demonstrations

In my opinion this would be the most effective way of reaching the over 65s. As they are often seen walking around town centres with partners or children, what better way to entice them by seeing people of all ages playing the game, showing them it’s fun, has health benefits and not scary after all. Added to this music they can relate to playing in the background. Controllers with big buttons could be developed and big notices saying “Free of charge set up and installation for over 65s” to overcome the fear factor.

Saga Magazine and Newspaper Adverts

Finally I drew a couple of sketches that could appear in these publications. They would need to fit in with the Wii brand but yet have a 40s/50s feel to them to stand out.

Presentation

I took in a Wii controller and a game for anyone who hadn’t seen one before. Patrick really liked my slogan "How young can you become?" especially because of the insinuation that the Wii will make you healthier through activity, but also younger as will be using technology. He liked the fact I'd looked into how to really reach them (through the demonstrations in the street with older people playing them and younger players to entice the age group in through their children/grandchildren). He also appreciated the fact I'd phoned the stores up to see if over 65s actually went in and what games would be suitable to them. He also made a comment about me speaking to the target group (my parents) to get their opinion because however much we want to we can't speak objectively about them from our limited perspective

All the group liked my ideas and thought that some of them could really work. Bringing in a Wii game and a Wii controller helped for people that hadn't seen them before, plus it helped bring the presentation to life a bit more. Gavin mentioned that my research was very good however I could do with making it a bit punchier by bullet pointing it. I take that on board as I do go overboard with research!