Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

The very thing that created Square Enix was a strategic alliance between two companies. The first two companies that formed this new one were Square and Enix. I think that the company itself might not believe they are an alliance anymore but originally they were. In the future I think they should should former alliances with other gaming companies to make a new sort of mashed up game. If not this than an alliance with a game distributer like GameStop or someone else. Since the majority of gamers go to this chain to buy their games, it makes sense for any gaming company to do this. An incentive for buyers would be to offer an exclusive item or collector's edition to get people to buy at that location.  Currently Square Enix isn't attached to anyone but maybe Disney because Goofy and Donald Duck are two main characters in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

A strategic alliance might not be necessary at the moment for Square Enix but I hope one day that if they have one, it'll be a good match up and great things come out of it.

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

All games when they are released have an ESRB rating on them. This helps come up with the target market for that specific game. Square Enix usually has a target market that is in most cases teens and up or everyone. Many Final Fantasy titles are rated T for teen by the ESRB.

This is the latest title of the series that was released this year. As you can see the rating of this game is T for teen as shown in the white box below. It's good to have these ratings so it's easier for players to recognize whether the game is targeted towards their age group or not. It is also easier for the company itself to produce new content without having to think too much about who their target market is because it has remained unchanged with this franchise for so long. 

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

Recently, the newest edition to the Final Fantasy series was released. The new title Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII joined the popular Square Enix franchise. When it comes to gaming companies, the ones that use test marketing are always better off. The way gaming companies test market is through releasing demos of their games. A demo allows gamers to play a bit of the game without being able to get the entire story of it. Square Enix released a demo for the newest title to the franchise.

I think that releasing demos as as test marketing strategy is a smart move. This allows players to get an initial feel for the game and decide whether or not to purchase it. It also gives the company free publicity because it causes a buzz in online forums. 

chapter 12

Square Enix sells products that all have a search quality. When it comes to gaming graphics, their products have some of the best graphics out there. One key part to a game most people look at are the graphics. The ability to make the characters almost appear real is a great quality. This search quality can easily be seen in a trailer for one of their games or even on the back of the game box. Here is one example.

 Graphics are one thing most companies still need to work on. Especially with me platforms being in HD. Since Square Enix already has wonderful graphics for their games, they can only improve.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

Square Enix produces and sells video games which can be classified as a shopping product. Since video games are not sold everywhere, there are few competing places to buy them from. Usually, all game retailers sell at the same price. The two popular product lines that Square Enix has to date are "Final Fantasy" and "Kingdom Hearts". Each title is a series of games so far, "Final Fantasy" being the larger one.

All games of this franchise are related to each other. Whether it's connected by a simple character or two stories collide. This product line is much larger than that of Kingdom Hearts because it started way before. 

Although Kingdom Hearts has a smaller product line, it reaches more people because of its additional Disney characters. Doing this makes it possible to pull in new customers like kids and keep the old ones which are now in their late teens or are adults. Both product lines are doing well at this moment in time. 

Chapter 17

Square Enix like some other gaming companies, use knowledge management to help work on their games. On their blog they leave space for people to comment and talk about any issues they ate having with a specific game or what they would like to see in a new game. Although Square Enix obviously can't put everything that is suggested into a game, they try their best to make everyone happy. By using the comments people leave, the company can immediately fix any bugs or see what they can do better in a game next time. I think that many companies do this and that they gather their information to try to make every product better than the last. I think Square Enix could go a little more out of the way though. Perhaps they could do a better job by possibly having people ready to respond to any problems they are having with one of their products because not many gaming companies do that.

chapter 16

In recent years the Internet has become a place where many companies have advertised their products. My company Square Enix, use the internet to reach gamers all over the world. they use their own website to begin spreading information and then fans use forums to inform other players as well as speak about their opinion towards the new products. They also use almost like press conferences to release information or even gameplay video and it spread all over the internet at a very fast pace. I believe that my company using the Internet as a medium of advertising is a very good idea because this way they spend less money advertising for themselves and have other people do it for free. All the company really has to do is say one thing to someone and then eventually it will be spread all over the internet. Because of this fact and the fact that there are a lot of gaming forums there's not much advertising the company needs to do itself other than stating some things or making a demo for the game.