EA Games – Segmenting, Targeting & Positioning

Segmentation:-

Market Segmentation is a group of customers sharing a similar set of wants. Thus, we would distinguish between game buyers who are primarily seeking low-cost basic games and those high-cost adventurous games. The company has created, licensed and acquired a group of highly recognizable brands that it markets to a growing variety of consumer demographics.

EA is a leader in PC and console games and possesses the ability to publish interactive software game modules for several platforms. The company also earns revenues by selling subscriptions for its online games and publishing advertisements on its website.

The company conducted business under two segments in fiscal 2002. They were called EA Core business segment and EA.com business segment. However, beginning April 2003, the company integrated its online business segment into its core business segment and operates as a single entity. The EA Core business segment dealt with the creation, marketing and distribution of entertainment software.

These software games and modules were playable on a variety of platforms such as Play station, manufactured by separate platform manufacturers such as Sony and Nintendo. The EA.com segment was involved in the creation, marketing and distribution of entertainment software that could be played or sold online. The segment also managed subscriptions for its online games to customers and published advertisements through its web pages. The company also sells its software products in conjunction with other products through co-selling agreements.

Interestingly, EA found that the Heavy Gamers segment only comprises three percent of the total game playing population, “contrary to common assumption that these serious gamers constitute a larger percentage of the game-playing population and retail sales dollars.”

Targeting:-

The EA games is set to release new data on the game demographic tomorrow that dispels the notion that the vast majority of “heavy gamers” (i.e. hardcore) are 18- to 34-year-old males. According to the EA’s Video Gamer Segmentation Report, 45 percent of the EA Heavy Video Gamer segment and almost a third of the Avid Console Gamer segment (which represents the largest group) are between the ages of six and 17.

The report, the first of its kind from the EA, categorizes gamers into six segments: Heavy Gamers, Avid Console Gamers, Mass Market Gamers, Prefer Portable Gamers, Secondary Gamers, and Infrequent Gamers. The data used in the report was collected via an online survey in which 16,670 respondents ages six to 44 (who currently own video game systems, portable and console) were targeted.

Gaming industry is doing more to cater to a mature audience, but the kids market cannot be ignored. “They are aware of importance of kids to the video games market for a long time.” Over 50% of industry sales typically come from E-rated games, so there is plenty of family friendly fare available. So I don’t think it’s a lack of content, but perhaps more of perception issue here. Kids, and specifically teens, are vital to the health of this industry. They’re the people who have more free time on their hands, and therefore more time to play games. They’re truly the ‘core’ audience for video games as opposed to the mythical 18-34 year-old core player

Positioning:-

Positioning is an act of designing the company’s offer so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the prospect’s mind. Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. You position the product in the mind of the product.

Electronic Arts is uniquely positioned with the resources, scale and creative bandwidth to simultaneously accomplish these ambitious goals. EA s worldwide leadership is extended in the current generation of technology, while dedicating a large group of engineers, artists and technologists to prepare us for the next generation of game platforms.

EA is looking in to three major components for positioning are customer targets, which are the product of the segmentation study; competitor targets, which are a product of the analysis of external environment; and competitive advantage, which is also a product of the environmental analysis.

For developing the positioning, EA Understands how the mind receives, stores or rejects information is improving the positioning objective coincide with actual positioning in the target audience.

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Tags: Avid Console Gamers, Console Games, EA Games, EA.com, Electronic Arts, Hardcore Games, Heavy Games, Infrequent Gamers, Interactive Software, Mass Market Gamers, Modules, Nintendo, Online Games, Play station, Positioning, Prefer Portable Gamers, Revenue, Secondary Gamers, Segmenting, Sony, Targeting