Please identify at least 6 competitive factors (factors that consumers consider in making their buying decision)
Add-on from multi-media is a major competitive factor that enables game console to perform varied functions like an entertainment box. It can act as Mp3 player, plays high definition (HD) video disks, CD player, as well as ripping and burning of CDs (Iacovoni 72).
Different companies work towards addressing this factor in order to be in line with the clients’ tastes and preferences. Simplicity of starting games is another fundamental factor offering competitiveness in the market. The length of the instruction manual and the language used determine the ease of launching gaming.
These parameters affect the time required to make connections, activate controllers, make connections to the visual presentation, and start the game. The hassle involved in beginning gaming makes consumers prefer a company to others.
Pricing is another competitive factor (Iacovoni 88). Companies compete based on pricing, but the factor depends on a company’s net worth and brand in the market. For instance, Game Zone will need to lower its prices in order to compete effectively with the market giants like Gamespot and Kotaku.
This is as opposed to the two giant gaming companies that dominate the market; they cannot be under pressure to lower their prices, as their loyal customers buy the brand name. Exertainment are controllers allowing gamers to move and exercise while playing the game (“Potential Product Competing Factors” par. 2).
Graphic sophistication involves the image quality and graphics that game console renders. Game Zone meets all the graphic requirements in the competition list, hence no need to make changes as opposed to other competitors (Kim and Mauborgne par. 5). The complexity of games must be considered to enhance mastery of content by gamers.
Please identify 3 different competitors. Rank yourself and each competitor for each of the competitive factors creating a strategy curve
The competitors include Gamespot, Kotaku, and Joystiq. The ranking of the three competitors against Game Zone are elaborated in excel sheet and shown in the table below.
Apply the four-action framework of eliminate, raise, reduce, and create
Game Zone needs to eliminate multi-media add-ons and unnecessary adverts, as the rating is 10 in both. With a rating of 8 for complexities and high resolution, Game Zone has to work on how to eliminate these factors in order to remain competitive.
For a company like Gamespot, the rating of 0 in all the four competitive factors shows that it has no factor to eliminate. Game Zone has to work on online support quality as well as ease and simplicity of starting games. Joystiq has to raise all the factors noted. On the reduce aspect, Game Zone being lower than the three companies in terms of net worth, pricing should not be a major factor to reduce – it has a rating of 0. Game Zone should include exertainment in its consoles to compete the major market controllers (Yip par. 7).
Please identify the value innovation that you will be creating to move your business into a Blue Ocean market space
Being a relatively smaller company among the market controllers like Gamespot, Kotaku, and Joystiq, Game Zone has to apply the product differentiation strategy for different games in order to move from Red Ocean to Blue Ocean. The approach will enable customers to differentiate its products from those of the competitors (“Strategy Notes: Blue Ocean Strategy Simulation Game” par. 5).
Notably, the company should employ different strategies from those of the existing competitors. The unique approach will be quite innovative and helps in capturing new demand in the market (Layton par. 3). In addition, the strategy taps into the uncontested market, and not continues competing in the already existing market space with the aim of making the existing competition in the market irrelevant.
Works Cited
Iacovoni, Alberto. Game Zone: Playgrounds between Virtual Scenarios and Reality. Basel Birkhäuser, 2004. Print.
Kim, Chan, and Renée Mauborgne. Boss Presentation Games. 2012.
Layton, Sarah. Blue Ocean Strategy Tools: The Four Actions Framework and ERRC Grid. 6 July 2009.
Potential Product Competing Factors. 2015.
Strategy Notes: Blue Ocean Strategy Simulation Game. 2015.
Yip, Khai Biau. Blue Ocean Strategy – Summary and Examples. 21 Apr. 2010.