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.

Ch. 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

This week for my retail store I visited Gamestop because my company Square Enix does not have a location in New York. Gamestop is a chain store that sells as you would guess video games. The GameStop in Peter Cooper village which is the one that I visited had a very gamer friendly atmosphere. the games are almost always neatly organized and in the right section. they also have some select consoles for customers to try before either purchasing the console or buying a game for that specific console. As for the layout of this particular Gamestop the aisles are somewhat small and can get crowded easily. Something that I didn't like where how the personnel seemed more interested in each other then in the customers. However this is not always the case as I have had some personal remember me even a month after I've gone and have started a conversation with me as well. Also, when asked a question One answer that I've gotten is I don't know or something very brief. this was pretty much my experience of when I went to visit and I know that not all Gamestop are like this but this particular one

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

As a consumer of Square Enix products for a few years now, I have always made sure to do some research on a specific product that I would like to buy from them. Not only with this but any product. I make sure I show my involvement and know what it is that I'm buying. When I was deciding on whether or not I wanted to buy a specific product from Square Enix,  I made sure to do my research.  My friend had bought the product I was deciding on and I got to see it in action.  Although I only partake in one specific franchise from the company, I always have my involvement as a consumer. Being able to know what I'm buying is important to me because I don't want to waste a purchase on a product I don't like.

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Square Enix's has shown an example of global vision this past week. This past week, Square Enix has released a game that they helped published. The new title Thief, has been advertised over the Internet as well as on television. It has been released for current and last generation consoles on both Playstation and Xbox platforms as well as pc.

For the pc, the game featured a contest held by Amazon and Square Enix. The contest is still open and is said to end on April 15th of this year.

 "One winner from each category will receive a rangeof prizes such as:

- A high-end gaming AMD rig which includes an AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics card". This is just one of the six prizes that are available. This a sign of global vision because Square Enix saw an opportunity to partner with a global seller and allowed most everyone to see their product. For any other gaming companies, this is publicity that does not happen very often. Square Enix realized and reacted to a situation where they would have international marketing opportunities. 

Sources:

http://na.square-enix.com/us/blog/thief-ultimate-mod-contest

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

All companies have target markets for certain poducts. Square Enix has one main product that revolves around the whole company and that's video games. There's not a certain age range for their video games. some games are rated E for Everyone and some games are rated T for teen. The main target Market Square Enix focuses on is gamers. Weather the market economy may be in Asia, Europe, or North America,  these are the people that keep the company going. A brief article by Gamer's Investment has a quote that states that, Japanese games don't have a strong international presence these days. Because of this, Square Enix is most likely geared to the western market economy. Although this may be true, Square Enix states that they do not separate their target market into different categories but considers everything as a whole.

Sources:
http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/index.php/2009/12/28/square-enix-we-dont-separate-our-target-market-into-japanese-or-western-categories/

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

The gaming company Square Enix which originally started in Japan does not only bring happiness and great memories to gamers all over. As a company, Square Enix is also ethically responsible. The company has showed a case of corporate social responsibility or CSR. Back in 2011, Japan was struck with the Tohoku Pacific Earthquakes and the tsunami.

After this unfortunate tragedy,  Square Enix stated that the company would donate 100 million Japanese yen to aid the relief and recovery efforts to the regions that were effected. Not only did the company do this but Square Enix also stated that they would be collecting charity donations from employees worldwide that would also go towards the cause of rebuilding.  This incident shows that Square Enix has corporate social responsibility and that they have a concern for the welfare of the welfare of the society.  

Sources: 

http://m.prnewswire.com/news-releases/square-enix-group-support-for-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-relief-efforts-118185534.html

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Square Enix has many game fans because of the high quality game work they put into their franchises. I believe that Square Enix has a prime focus on market penetration and some focus on market development as marketing strategies. One of the most famous and well known game franchises created by Square Enix is the Final Fantasy series.

One of the main reasons this franchise is well known and liked is because it has a lot of hard work put into it. This is where the market penetration strategy comes in. In an interview, Yoichi Wada (current president of Square Enix) stated, "Square Enix only releases a product once everyone are satisfied with it, as the company will never release a product of low quality. We will never lower a franchise's reputation". From this it easy to see that that the strategy of market penetration is there. By continuing to better improve the gaming experience, the market share among existing customers will continue to rise.

Another game franchise created by Square Enix that is famous and well known by gamers is Kingdom Hearts.

This was first released in North America on September 17th, 2002. From then on it began to continously expand and reach new new fans. I believe that with this franchise, Square Enix has used the marketing strategy of market development. I believe this to be true because last year the first two games of the franchise were re released in an HD format. This not only allowed old fans to relive the experience of the game from their childhood, but also allowed new fans to be attained. Because it was already an existing product, the strategy being used was market development. These are the reasons I believe Square Enix is using the marketing strategies of market penetration and market development.

Sources:
http://n4g.com/news/89607/square-enix-boss-talks-marketing-strategy#c-642946

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kingdom_Hearts_media

Ch. 1 - Overview of Marketing (Brief History and Mission Statement)

Before Square Enix became what it was today, it started as two different gaming companies. these two companies were Enix and Square. Originally, Enix was named Eidansha Boshu Service Centre. Founded in 1975, the Eidansha Boshu Service Centre was a branch of Eidansha Systems.  In 1982, Eidansha Boshu Service Centre was renamed Enix. In 1986, Masafumi Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi founded Square which was a branch of the Denshuya Electric Company.  One of the big hit games made by Enix was Dragon Quest. 

Using Dragon Quest as inspiration, Square created a big hit game in 1987 which is still popular among gamers today. This game was the very first Final Fantasy title that was released. 

In time, sequels were created to the big game franchise. In 2001, the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was released.  This film lost Square 120 million dollars. after losing its financial stability, Sony gave a 14.9 billion dollar contract to Square which led to the merger with Enix. From that day forth, it these two companies were known as Square Enix. 

As for their mission statement, it is; "To spread happiness across the globe by providing unforgettable experiences."

Sources:

http://plaintxt.org/square_enix_mission_statement/

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/411524/features/history-lesson-the-birth-of-square-enix/