Note: This is the first post from the newest member of the Tuned In team, Mark Allen Roberts. Mark is Managing Director of Tuned In Businesses for Pragmatic Marketing.
The video game Guitar Hero has become a breakthrough success. Sales were estimated to be $1 billion in 2007, and growing in 2008. The inventors of this game, Activision, saw an unmet need in the market centered on family or group entertainment that everyone who ever wanted to be a rock star would enjoy. And now throughout the world, households are rallying around the TV playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band, having hours of fun. How did they do that?
When a product or service so perfectly connects to an unmet need there should be no surprises when sales numbers break records, and for the company’s shareholders, value increases.
I was intrigued by this Guitar Hero phenomenon when my son and daughter, and all their friends would want to play the game and interrupt my TV viewing. Admittedly, I was also humbled when I tried it and was “booed” into moving to an easier level!
What was Activision thinking when they said lets launch a video game that makes kids play musical instruments; a game their parents would willingly spend double the price of a regular video game? It is unlikely the average 14 year-old Activision users who were playing Spiderman said “my unresolved problem is I want a new video game in which I play an instrument like a famous rock star.”
So, if their buyers and users did not state the problem, how did they come up with such a hit? They were tuned in to their market.
Much to my surprise, (and that of my son when I shared it with him) 85% of games purchased are in the ”E “ (for everyone) category. Only 15% are ”M” (for mature). I would have bet money the opposite to be true but that is my “gut” and, since I am not tuned in to this market, I would have been “assuming.” Further research helped me understand.
Kids right? Wrong! The mean age for consumers who buy games is just over 35 years old with close to 49% of games bought by the 18-49 age group and those over 50 buying 26% of games.
Okay, but that has to be Dad’s wanting to play some sports game with their son right? Wrong again. Over 40% of games are bought by women.
I look at my children’s collection of games and most were holiday or birthday presents my wife or one their grandmothers bought them, and none fell into the 15% category. Activision did a fantastic job of connecting to the economic buyer of most games…Mom, and their unmet needs. They must have created a video game buyer persona for Mom.
What are some unresolved problems this buyer persona might have? I asked my wife…
- I want more time with my kids
- I want to have fun with my kids like we used to when they were little… now they just run off to their rooms and play video games or go on the internet… I feel like I am losing them
- I like playing video games, I wish there were more out there I could enjoy
- We need more family time
- I wish my kids would play games that do not reinforce things contrary to my family values
So how did she do?
The Entertainment Software Association conducted research and found the following reasons parents play games:
- Fun for the entire family: 72%
- We were asked to play: 71%
- Socialize with our children: 66%
- Monitor game content: 50%
Activision also connected with users of games and gave them an experience they would enjoy. Of the top 20 games sold in 2007, Guitar Hero held 5 positions in the ranking.
What if one unresolved problem is a deep desire to be a rock star, to make music without having to learn to play an instrument or know how to read music? This destroys the musician’s paradigm of taking lessons, learning chords and notes…at first, but arguably this could cause a number of consumers to be exposed to music in a fun way and ultimately buy a real instrument and learn more.
Breakthrough products connect.
Whether you are playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you are having fun with others and spending more money to do so. When you play the game, it provides you a breakthrough experience. You can choose what you look like, the type of instrument you want to play, and which song. Retailers now sell products so you can decorate your guitar and clothing, and a large variety of other accessories. When you play the game you tell your friends and word of mouth makes cash registers sing!
Two questions come from this success story… How many “hero” products are waiting to be found in your market? And, why didn’t Fender, Gibson or PRS develop this billion dollar hero?
