Wii’s Big Challenge: Targeting Women Without Turning Off Young Men

Posted on | April 24, 2008 |

By Andrea Learned

The team behind the Nintendo Wii has got its work cut out for it. Any company or brand that serves the young male market so very well already, is right to pause and reflect a bit before beginning a more women-focused marketing effort. When I saw the title of Suzanne Vranica’s Wall Street Journal article, Nintendo Hopes Its ‘Wii Fit’ Works Out: New Exercise Games are Targeted at women; Alienating Core Gamers?, I thought - uh oh, here comes the pink.

But, as I read the interview with Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing, I could see her team had done its research and were going to go about this in a measured, non-girly way. According to Vranica’s article, the plan is to hold off on big ad campaigns until the Wii Fit is released in mid-May, and so not generate that awful line-up in front of gaming stores (like the one my mom stood in at the holidays to buy a Wii for my nephews). Rather, it sounds like Nintendo is putting a bit more trust in public relations and the word-of-mouth factor for their “expanded audience: women and moms”(I suppose you could just say “women” - but “moms” seem to be a hotter, more specific demographic right now…). As Ms. Dunaway put it, pointing to the savvy-ness of today’s consumer:

“What we see is consumers are increasingly turning to friends, family and news articles as credible sources of information about products, more so than in the past.”

A special women’s market awareness campaign is warranted in this case because gaming has long been considered “for boys” - as many of us would agree. Especially for women who have been buying such games for their kids over the years, a bit of a “this is for you” label/effort may be ust the needed nudge to explore the product. The fact that the tone of the print ads (one is shown in the WSJ piece) is about the positive sportiness/fun factor, and not about the negative “woe is me, I’m a fat mom” factor further helps Nintendo reach and be relevant to women.
As far as possibly alienating young men away from Nintendo products, there may be too many variables to possibly control. If a male kid happens to see a TV or print ad with the smiling, exercising female image, or to know that his friend’s mom loves her Wii Fit - that may start him thinking its a “girl’s game.” Even given all Nintendo’s careful planning in their women-focused marketing steps, we’ll only know what the young men think when the full campaign launches.

As it is, I appreciate that the brand is laying low and at least starting with this calmer, not-so glitzy mass market strategy. If the product is all it would seem to be (from what I’ve read), women actually WILL be the best evangelists and Nintendo won’t have to spend too much money on traditional advertising.

While women are not the only ones looking for more accessible ways to lose weight/get fit, women really may be “the best index of the coming hour” (as per my recent post) in this arena. Those women will then launch the next phase: bringing weight-concerned men into the picture.

Andrea Learned, Learned on Women, published author, Don’t Think Pink, writer The Huffington Post as well as her own blog, and thought leader on Marketing to Women. Andrea is a regular columnist on eBrandMarketing.