2012-14

Analysis of Hasbro Games-POX (A)

Swati Agarwal Saahil Sinha Ashish Madnoorkar Nitisha Pagaria Devarshi Bajpai Parnamoy Dutta Group 3 PGDM-IB

Hasbro Games POX (A)

Which marketing tool would have been used while idea development and why?

Reasons for Product Development Strategy: As the company wanted to capture more market share in the existing market. Changing times which basically hinted to movement of interest to electronic medium.

Situational Analysis The industry relied on the increased volume for market growth. Kids getting older younger. Children were losing interests in traditional toys by age 8 and theyre getting more interested in electronics. Holidays and the fourth quarters churned out 70% annual sales. Cemented its marketer leader position in 1990s.

Three main components for games fantasy, competition, and collecting. Hasbro was a leader in the stand-alone category. It was geared for boys (and girls) aging from 8 to 12. The target customers were Tweens who were mature, brand loyal and technologically proficient. The life expectancy of grandparents. Household income was increasing.

POXs SWOT Analysis

Strengths Targeting retail price $25. The game is less confrontational. RF wireless technology. Multi-players at any time anywhere. Small handheld.

Weaknesses Black-and-white display. Delayed action. 1-hour waiting period. Playing as an individual instead of a team.

Opportunities Target customer number is over 12 million. Target customers are loyal to brands. Growth of households income. Children were spending less time with their parents. Tweens are on to electronics.

Threats Competition from cartridge based gaming systems like Nitendos Game Boy. Potential competition from PS2, Computer-Games, Internet, etc. Toy industry is shrinking.

Problems The main problem for Hasbro is the market strategy for POX. How to promote POX to Tweens who usually follow the latest trend and who are not easily marketed to by traditional advertising? Even POX is popular among its target customer, but that is the parents who pay for the bill. How to convince parents to buy the handset video games for their kids who might play POX in the class? Recommendations For Tweens, the back-story is not as important as the game itself. Focus more on advertising that they can play at anytime and anywhere with wireless connection would be more helpful than advertising its back-story. Buzz campaign can raise awareness among this particular target customer group, so it is recommended to have this campaign before the product is introduced to the market. For advertising on TV, it is not recommended to focus too much on gaming function since the parents would be the decider. Introduction of the game in Game-Parlours, Fun-Houses meant for the Tweens during the festival time. The print advertisements should be, but not limited to hoardings in malls, game magazines, tech-pages in news papers and in action comics section. Organizing gaming competition and giving introductory offers to the winners or participants. Merchandising can be an additional way to create more awareness and increasing availability.

Creating the image:

Merchandizing: T-shirts:

Sippers:

Advertisements: Hoardings:

Comic Strip: