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I've been observing Nintendo's techniques when it comes to marketing the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U lately, and in the wake of Nintendo's failure to meet expected Wii U sales, ideas have been dawning upon me as to how Nintendo can revamp their marketing strategies and hopefully make the Wii U a success.
Recently, Nintendo's Wii U marketing has been a tad casual. It focuses on families (mainly with younger children). In practice, there isn't necessarily anything wrong with this. However, Nintendo has been failing to tap into the hearts of the veteran gamer. The gamer that's been playing their consoles since back in the 80's and 90's. Most gamers have a warm spot in their hearts for Nintendo, since they've been a part of our lives for so long.
What I'm proposing here is that Nintendo has a hidden ace-in-the-hole that they haven't decided to tap into for some reason: the nostalgia factor. The inducing of warm, fuzzy feelings in one's heart from remembering good times in the past. Good times playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on NES or Ocarina of Time on N64. These are cherished memories for many people.
Allow me to cite this video as an example of the nostalgia factor executed masterfully:
Not only does this fan-made commercial remind you of past games (and past memories), it shows you Super Mario Galaxy, and you feel like you're being reintroduced to an old friend after several years. And you want to get to know them all over again. Because that's what the nostalgia factor does. It tugs at your heartstrings and makes you yearn for what once made you happy.
Now then, onto how the nostalgia factor can potentially aid Nintendo in this dismal time. The Wii U is a fantastic console. It's set up to have some fantastic games throughout the course of the year. The only problem is that consumers, for some reason, seem to see the Wii U as something that's detached from it's older console brothers. The key in luring the gamer demographic for the Wii U is reintroducing them to the Wii U with a heavy dose of the nostalgia factor.
Film commercials showing children playing older Nintendo consoles like the NES in a 1980's setting, then maybe segue into newer consoles as time goes on, showing the children getting older along with the consoles, and finally stopping at the Wii U. Start with something like the original Legend of Zelda for NES when the commercial starts, and go through the games such as Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker & Twilight Princess until it stops at the new Zelda for Wii U.
Another possible way to do this is by reintroducing the businessmen from the original commercials for the Wii. Here's an example of them in action:
These commercials were done extremely well, displaying what you could do with the Wii, and showing gameplay at the same time. Not only that, but they were very popular back when they were shown, and got people talking about the Wii. What I think is that they could bring these two back, driving in the same little car with the same music. They get out of their car, go up to somebody's door, say:
"Wii would like to play...with U."
They then hold up the Wii U GamePad, and showcase something like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. The concept is genius in my opinion, and I think something like that would really make some buzz around the Wii U.
What do you guys think?
