1. I chose to focus on Nintendo, more specifically their brand around the Animal Crossing: New Horizons videogame. It's not hard to find people talking on social media about how much they love this game and Animal Crossing as a whole. Along with all the love for this game, there is still plenty of criticism towards the decisions Nintendo has made the past year for the brand. I was interested in this because I love the game and find Nintendo's current marketing choices a bit questionable.
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizon's value proposition is a wholesome life stimulation game allowing its consumers to disconnect from the outside world and build their own little island in whatever way they please. It's very relaxing and since it came out at the beginning of a pandemic the joyful nature of the game is very appealing.
3. A lot of what I have been seeing lately is people disappointed with some of the decisions Nintendo has been making when it comes to releasing new products and updates. When the Animal Crossing x Build-A-Bear collab was realized there was a lot of disappointment from fans about Isabelle and Tom Nook being the only characters available in the collab. Fans were hoping for more options with their favorite NPCs and Villagers. A while back when Nintendo announced you could buy Amiibo cards at Target to add the Sanrio villagers to your game consumers were annoyed to find that Nintendo underproduced these cards and most of them were bought out by scalpers trying to resell them. Nintendo needs to stop underestimating their supply and demand for Animal Crossing products. Another complaint from fans is that the game hasn't had a serious update in a while. Holiday updates or collaborations with other brands are common but a lot of the updates consumers have been requesting since the game's launch in March 2020 have gone ignored.
4. Nintendo is trying to promote and build a strong fan following around a new game for the Animal Crossing franchise that can be played on the Nintendo Switch. This game brand has a lot of nostalgia around it for many consumers. The game brand encourages creativity, virtual socializing, and relaxation.
5. Nintendo is a strong brand and Animal Crossing is an extremely popular gaming franchise. As a brand, they have been very successful in gaining the attention of their fans and consumers. They have a personal Twitter account for one of the main characters, Isabelle. On their youtube channel, they release frequent youtube videos of gamers playing updates of the game. For each month and update, they release and a new video to let consumers know what is coming to the game. With all that and collaborating with other popular brands is easy to see that engaging with their customers and keeping sales high is an important goal for them. This could prove to become more difficult for Nintendo though if they keep disappointing their customers with their marketing choices.
6. There hasn't been much response from Nintendo considering their customer's criticisms. Instead of taking the feedback and giving fans what they want, Nintendo continues to make decisions that they think are the best direction for the brand in order to make money. I don't think this is a good decision. It is important to listen to what your consumers have to say and take it into consideration moving forward.
7. If I were the brand manager I would do my best to listen to what customers have to say and make an effort to satisfy what they want to see from the brand. Of course, I would consider how this could affect the brand's financial situation but I think that making more stock and adding better updates to the game is a reasonable demand.
8. I learned companies need to take advantage of social media as a way to get feedback from their consumers instead of just using it as a way to advertise.
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