Power Gig: The Rise (and Fall) of Music Games

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· Power Gig sought to address an issue that artists had with competitor brands, which was one that consumers in the industry seemed to not relate with. Although artists criticized Rock Band & Guitar Hero for being an inauthentic way of learning an instrument, consumers did not relate. Consumers seemed to enjoy the effortless aspect of Rock Band & Guitar Hero in simulating an instrument or entire band. This targeted market seemed to be quite limited.

· Power Gig thought to use drums and a microphone that was not connected to the gaming aspect of the software. Both were to be used purely for simulation. There seemed to be a lack of research in justifying using this strategy. Again, they incorrectly based this strategy on the criticism that came from the artists and not the consumers themselves.

· Power Gig did not identify that at the point of their entrance, the market was already saturated. This can be seen in the losses Rock Band was starting to incur towards the end of 2009.

The following recommendations may be used to rectify the above noted issues. It is recommended that Chui reassess which segment should be targeted, with the possibility of appealing to multiple markets. Alpert & Saxton (2015) comment that the use of different messages directed towards two or more targeted markets, in the gaming industry, has been beneficial in leveraging more demand. In the 2015 study completed by Alpert & Saxton, it was found that the demand for a product increased once a target segment saw the marketing and advertisement intended for another segment of the market (Alpert & Saxton, 2015). It is recommended that Chiu use this approach to help increase the demand for Power Gig. The second market that should be targeted is music teachers. There has been a recent trend towards using video games in schools for educational purposes (Takeuchi & Vaala, 2014). If Alpert & Saxton (2015) study stems to be true in this context, perhaps the use of targeting to music teachers, their students, and potential students may be of benefit. If students use the software in class, perhaps they will be more inclined to desire its use at home.

In short, First Act’s selling point is to offer players a sense of realism in their gaming experience and it tried to target audience who valued this sentiment. However, due to the limitations of market segmentation process, First Act mispositioned its products. In order to remedy market confidence and increase demands, it is recommended that First Act target multiple segments in hopes of building demand.

References

Alpert, F., & Saxton, M.K. (2015). Can multiple new-product messages attract different

consumer segments? Journal of Advertising Research, 55(3), 307-321. doi:

10.2501/JAR-2015-011

Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing Management: the Millennium Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Maričić, B. R., & Đorđević, A. (2015). Strategic Market Segmentation. Marketing (0354-3471), 46(4), 243-251. Retrieved February 1, 2017, from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6bcccbf8-b291-44dc-832f-77bf7c6c10b5%40sessionmgr104&vid=3&hid=104

Takeuchi, L.M., & Vaala, S. (2014). Level up learning: A national survey on teaching with

digital games. New York: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center. Retrieved February 2,2017, from

http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/publication/level-up-learning-a-national-survey-o

-teaching-with-digital-games/

Wesley, D. (2013). Power Gig: The Rise (and Fall) of Music Games. London, Ontario: Ivey Publishing.