Pokeman Case Study
... 4. Separation: Nintendo Branded Pokemon entirely separate from the Nintendo brand. This was to ensure that if Pokemon did not take in the States its downfall would not be a downfall for Nintendo. 5. First to Market: At the time of the introduction of Pokemon in the United States it was the only cartoon of its type that incorporated other products. Many cartoons had action figures but none emphasized the collect ability aspects introduced by the Pokemon cartoons. 6. Controlled Growth: The Pokemon trading card manufacturers were careful in their production quantities. The limited success of the Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, led the Pokemon manufactures to be cautious in their expectations. The limited quantities helped to fuel the demand, since the product was not readily available. Based upon their past success there are the following options: Options Results Continue current practices Controlled Growth Release more licenses Lose quality; over saturation Do Nothing Allow phase out of Pokemon Factors that will affect the success of each option with respect to the continued growth of Pokemon: Factors in favor of continuing current practices 1. Past success of Pokemon promotion in the United States market will continue to grow with the increased emphasis on collect ability of memorabilia. 2. Market in the United States is familiar with the promotion of Pokemon and its growth is largely attributed to the word of mouth advertising given by its younger audience. The target market was children but with the word of mouth promotion it has expanded to include teens as well as adults. Factors in favor of Releasing more licensing 1. Releasing more licensed products will increase the saturation of the market with Pokemon. More companies will have the ability to place the Pokemon characters on their products. 2. The increased licensing will provide more merchandise and awareness to compete against the Digimon characters. This will potentially reduce the cannibalization of Pokemon by Digimon. 3. Licensing will also create more revenue from the Pokemon demand by allowing more royalties to be paid by companies using Pokemon characters. This increased revenue will give the company a more rapid return. Factors in Favor of Do Nothing 1. Pokemon demand may not continue and will eventually become a thing of the past. 2. Will allow the company to avoid the potential loss in revenue by the decline in popularity of Pokemon. The children in the initial target segment will have grown older and Pokemon may not be as successful amongst a new generation. According to the case Tilden seems to seek to continue the growth of Pokemon, thus disregarding the option of doing nothing. The success of Pokemon not only created its own franchise, but also brought back a declining game platform that of Game Boy. Nintendo’s initial fears of having its name wrapped up in Pokemon to avoid potential disaster proved to be the exact opposite of what occurred. Pokemon saved its failing platform, and put its games in the top five of the top ten games. Pokemon Currently dominates the United States Market experiencing little competition until recently. Pokemon cartoon is the top among children cartoons with 12 episodes airing per week. Pokemon movie had the largest initial opening, surpassing titanic in sales. Pokemon trading cards are trading above retail price. Pokemon merchandise and toys are among the top holiday sellers. Pokemon has become a powerful franchise. Companies that use Pokemon for promotions are experiencing double digit increases in revenues. This is evident with Burger King when it released 57 Pokemon characters in 56 days with a character in each kids meal. After just 5 days the promotion had shattered every sales record at Burger King. With responses like the one at Burger King Pokemon is a powerful franchise with the primary customers being children. The introduction of the Pokemon rap song “ 2 B.A. Master” received recognition as Billboard Magazine’s top children’s song of the year. The Pokemon games are the top five games amongst the top ten on all game platforms. The success of this product went far beyond the expectations of its companies. Recommendations For Sustaining Growth This is a marketing strategy for the continuation of the Pokemon franchise. Goals and Objectives 1. Tilden should continue to closely monitor the release of licenses to companies seeking to offer lower quality goods. This is important to protect the reputation of being associated with quality goods. 2. The Pokemon franchise should seek to continue to develop the current customer base that they possess. This will allow them to maintain market share among the aging target market. Pokemon...