EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

[mjussawalla]

In my day-to-day work I am a partner at a strategy consulting firm which looks at how companies can leverage consumer tribes (i.e. core fans).

I have put together a blog post discussing the different strategies of the NCAA/Madden teams. Enjoy!

http://www.accelteon.com/blog/2009/07/02/ea-sports-a-tale-of-two-tribal-strategies/

[cornbox]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Point on, very interesting. Why do you think they have evolved so differently?

[pfunk880]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Very interesting blog post. It will certainly be interesting to see how the two philosophies affect sales and customer response this year.

[JMD]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

I'm a fan of video game football, but I do not belong to any "Tribe" .

[mjussawalla]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Thanks guys.

Not sure why exactly. Perhaps at some point one of the developers from Tiburon could explain (not sure if they can though). But we have seen this several times in various businesses. Think of Vans Shoes, Harley Davidson, Apple for example.

First, it takes leadership - you have to have guts to say - 'we are going to focus our efforts on the top 10-20% of our customer base.' Thus, NCAA's team is playing it safe by using the trusted formula of building slowly (which is understandable). Madden's team must have decided to gun it and say 'we are going to build the most realistic experience' (of course at the risk of alienating the masses who want something more playable and fun). For example, MLB 2K9 may be terrible for core baseball fans, but it maybe good enough for me.

Second, you have to have a long term strategy. We always stress, that this is a 2-3 year plan - not something that will make changes in 1-2 quarters or at the end of the year. I am not 100% sure, but I believe the Madden team has a better idea of what Madden 12 looks like than the NCAA team has of what NCAA Football 12 looks like.

[mjussawalla]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

I'm a fan of video game football, but I do not belong to any "Tribe" .

You may not belong to any official group; but you are interacting with other members of the community - and share a common passion with them. Otherwise you would not have over 600 posts on this site.


Also, please don't take it that the NCAA has not been supportive; as I blogged about earlier, I thought that the idea to enable Brad Nessler to add our name in the game was brilliant and was supporting the tribe 100%.

http://www.accelteon.com/blog/2009/01/21/ea-sports-finds-the-magic-bullet-that-connects-brand-with-the-tribe/

[da ThRONe]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

I think the key is to appeal to the tribe. A good marketing team should be able to market anything to the casual fan. For example Madden will market there game as "Everything on Sunday". Its a lot harder to convince the tribe. And alot of game buzz is not based on marketing its based on word of mouth. Especially when you consider that presentation is something that because it adds to replayability it is something both tribe and mass audience want in there games.

[mjussawalla]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

I think the key is to appeal to the tribe. A good marketing team should be able to market anything to the casual fan. For example Madden will market there game as "Everything on Sunday". Its a lot harder to convince the tribe. And alot of game buzz is not based on marketing its based on word of mouth. Especially when you consider that presentation is something that because it adds to replayability it is something both tribe and mass audience want in there games.

Definitely agree with you.

In fact, you could say that Adam, Ian and the others at EA have done more to market this game (whether they realize it or not) than the marketing department has. I come here more often to find out info about the game than I do the official site.

No glossy magazine ad, slick TV commercial, or box design will convince us one way or another to purchase this game.

[hcopenhagenh]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

I am not 100% sure, but I believe the Madden team has a better idea of what Madden 12 looks like than the NCAA team has of what NCAA Football 12 looks like.

Maybe even NCAA 10.

[Watson]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

just like walla said, EA can't make us buy a game just from a cardboard cutout or TV ad. Or features like SS. And thats why it's being laughed at. SS was a half-assed concept that was supposed to bring in money because lets face it - NCAA has penis envy for madden. They are trying to rack in as much money as possible to make themselves look even with Madden.



/short rant over.

[JAYMO76]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Call a spade a spade.... MADDEN makes more money and therefore gets more love.

[kestrel]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Trying to take everything in, this is my observation. Both games are developed in the same house--Tiburon. People there say both teams interact, to a certain degree.

With that said, it seems the higher ups want two football games to appeal to two different groups--the hardcore football fan that wants details and realism and the casual football fan that simply wants a (generic) football experience. So, the decision was made to make the NFL game the hardcore game and the NCAA game the casual game.

From that point of view, I think they made the wrong decision. Again, from my observation, fans of the college game are the more hardcore fans while the more casual football fan attaches to the NFL game. That's not the hard and fast rule, as you'll find casual college ball fans and hardcore NFL fans, but generally, most fans fall into those lines. There are a number of reasons, but that is the subject of another post.

If they had made the NCAA game the hardcore game and the NFL game the casual game, following what I think is the real-world trend, it would probably have been the better strategy. Better yet, if they could have included modes in both game so that a casual gamer or hardcore gamer could be happy with either or both titles, we wouldn't have such debates, and these and other forums would be a more peaceful place. The tricky part is in making two different games, still; otherwise, you could have the same game wearing an NFL or NCAA skin (which may not be a bad thing). You also run into the issue of having enough time resources to do such things.

The OP's observations and blog seem to back this up, at least the way I interpret it.

[mjussawalla]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Call a spade a spade.... MADDEN makes more money and therefore gets more love.

Both titles make money, otherwise EA would have killed the title. There is a reason why EA killed the MVP Baseball and Arena Football (even before the AFL suspended play for this year).

The key for any business unit/brand is to maximize profits - regardless of its size. Madden believes its strategy should be to focus in on the core gamers, while NCAA is to have a wider appeal.

Which strategy will lead to a greater % of increased sales? Which one will be more cost effective (on a per unit basis)? We'll find out eventually [or should I say EA will find out eventually].

[cornbox]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Thanks guys.

Not sure why exactly. Perhaps at some point one of the developers from Tiburon could explain (not sure if they can though). But we have seen this several times in various businesses. Think of Vans Shoes, Harley Davidson, Apple for example.

First, it takes leadership - you have to have guts to say - 'we are going to focus our efforts on the top 10-20% of our customer base.' Thus, NCAA's team is playing it safe by using the trusted formula of building slowly (which is understandable). Madden's team must have decided to gun it and say 'we are going to build the most realistic experience' (of course at the risk of alienating the masses who want something more playable and fun). For example, MLB 2K9 may be terrible for core baseball fans, but it maybe good enough for me.

Second, you have to have a long term strategy. We always stress, that this is a 2-3 year plan - not something that will make changes in 1-2 quarters or at the end of the year. I am not 100% sure, but I believe the Madden team has a better idea of what Madden 12 looks like than the NCAA team has of what NCAA Football 12 looks like.

Well EA hasnt won me over. Im not going to buy Madden this year. Im going to go get one of the other NFL Xbox 360 games this year... is that NFL 2K10 out yet?

[yanks26ngoin]

Re: EA Sports - A Tale of Two Tribal Strategies

Both titles make money, otherwise EA would have killed the title. There is a reason why EA killed the MVP Baseball and Arena Football (even before the AFL suspended play for this year).

The key for any business unit/brand is to maximize profits - regardless of its size. Madden believes its strategy should be to focus in on the core gamers, while NCAA is to have a wider appeal.

Which strategy will lead to a greater % of increased sales? Which one will be more cost effective (on a per unit basis)? We'll find out eventually [or should I say EA will find out eventually].

Your darn right. Its called the licensing contract came to an end after the 2005 installment. Then 2k bought the exclusive rights. MVP made alot of money particularly 2005. To be honest, I didnt like the MVP series at all. I bought 2004 and 2005. I wasnt impressed at all. 2k baseball was alot better, IMO. Then 2k7 was great. But 2k8 was horendous. So they changed developing companies, and the game is pretty good this year, if you change the sliders. It has its issues, but I like it. I want to play The Show, though, and compare. But I dont have a PS3.

Also, people think that massive improvements were made to Madden. New features may have been added but they go to waste if a bug kills it. The gameplay maybe fixed, but how the hell do we know that there isnt a bug in it? In my opinion, Madden is all hype, at this point. Ian has done an amazing job at communicating with the community, and has done a great job at adding the little stuff, like handwarmers and crap like that. But, I wouldnt call them "huge new features". They may enhance the gameplay, but honestly, you probably wont see them outside of replay's. NCAA is getting alot of heat because of a few issues, and that gimmick new feature known as "Season Showdown".