2. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Rate My 1
Game 1
Marketing Plan 1
Executive 3
Summary 3
Rate My 4
Game at a glance 4
Strategic focus and Plan 5
Value Proposition 6
SWOT 7
Swot Explained 8
Industry 9
Analysis 9
Industry 10
Analysis 10
Competitive 11
Analysis 11
Customer 14
Analysis 14
Marketing 15
Strategy 15
Price Strategy 17
Contact 18
Gordon Elliott 18
St. Bonaventure University 18
elliotgr11@bonaventure.edu 18
(585) 727-5156 18
Work Cited 19
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3. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Executive
Summary
This marketing plan is to give an overview of the start up company,
Rate My Game, and show how to best market and grow the company.
Dis︎closur︎e:
This pla︎n has b︎een︎ de︎veloped th︎rough D︎r. Russell’s Mar︎ketin︎g Case
Applic︎ation︎s sen︎ior︎ c︎our︎se at St. Bon︎av︎en︎tur︎e U︎niv︎er︎sity︎. The follow︎in︎g
plan︎ c︎on︎tain︎s the opi︎nion︎s a︎nd a︎naly︎sis of the studen︎t ︎con︎duct︎in︎g the
︎researc︎︎h, an︎d ︎︎ ︎by ︎no mean︎s should b︎e r︎egar︎ded as a p︎rofession︎al
r︎ec︎o︎mm︎edation︎. St. Bonaventure is not affiliated with the opinions and
analysis in this report
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4. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Rate My
Game at a glance
The gamer market
is different than the
stereo type would lead
you to believe.
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5. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Strategic focus
and Plan
Mission Statement
Rate My Game seeks to create an place where gamers and
developers can collaborate to create the best games for production.
Financial Goal
Rate My Game will generate revenue from advertisements. By May of next year the company
should be generating a profit.
Non-Financial Goal
To continue to add content to the site is the biggest goal of the company. By next January the
site will be launched with 25 games available to play.
Core Competencies
The core of the company comes from the quality of content produced. The games on the site
are to be on par with that being produced for consoles.
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
With a network of game programmer the competition will be unable to produce games at the
same speed and quality.
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6. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Value Proposition
The site allows for developer, and publishers to gain an
understanding about how games will be received in the gaming market.
They can see what games are doing well and partner with a publisher to
make a full version of the game.
The gamers will be anxious for the opportunity to critique and help
work out he bugs in games before they are released. They get to have a
sneak peek at properties. This will hold them over until the full game
comes out. It gives them a demo of a game they may have never seen
otherwise.
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7. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
SWOT
Page 7
Strengths
• Original Product
• Low Entry Costs
• Low Production Cost
Weaknesses
• Still in Early development
stage
•New Product, needs to be
marketed
•No games offered yet
•NO publicity
Opportunities
✴ Young programmers and
designers coming out of college
✴ 195 million gamers in the
United States
✴ An average of 2 gamers per
household
✴ Gaming is continuing to
grow
Threats
• Many Competitors
• ESRB interference
• Powerful Competition- EA,
and other big publishers
• The rise of the casual gamer
• Long Development process
8. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Swot Explained
Strengths
The website provides a unique experience to game developers. It allows them
to get instant feedback from people, who will buy the game. To develop a website
and run it costs next to nothing. This is a unique product offering to both sides of the
gaming community. The independent developers get the opportunity to get their
work showcased for publishers and played by gamers. The gamers get a first hand
look at new games and a way to review games quickly and easily.
Weaknesses
The website is a new property and will have to marketed and become part of
the gaming lexicon. Right now gamers are pretty locked into the sources they go to
for their gaming needs. Also the process of finding developers can be difficult and
ensuring a quality is difficult without seeing previous work.
Opportunities
The idea of being a gamer is not considered nerdy. Many people play casual
games on their phones or tablets. These customers view buying a console or a
stronger PC as too much of a commitment. Rate My Game can be the bridge to more
developed games. The more serious gamers can test new IP’s that can become
franchises.
Threats
The gaming industry is full of developers and publishers that make simple
small games and large publishers that control the gaming landscape. Games often
are in development for years because of changes in hardware and customer trends.
The ESRB is the rating body that regulates the games and what audiences it is
appropriate for.
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9. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Industry
Analysis
The video game industry is one of the
three entertainment industries and
reaches around the world with various
levels of involvement. The gaming
industry is a 21.53 billion dollar
industry with 15.39 billion of that
coming from content. It is a growing
market with overall industry sales
increasing by 55% from 2012 to 2013.
It continues to grow with the
development of the new gaming
consoles the industry shows further
growth. E3 the video game expo is
already sold out for this year as there
are many things that are going to be
unveiled this year. The industry takes
the entire LA Convention Center and
is a three day convention. The industry
has many levels at which they operate
and make money.
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10. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Industry
Analysis
Japanese consumer electronics firm Sony Corp on Wednesday raised its
earnings estimates for the second time in three months, citing higher-than-expected
sales of camera sensors and video games. Sony said it probably made an operating
profit of 68 billion yen (380.68 million pounds) in the year ended March 31, 2015
compared with 26.5 billion yen a year earlier. That compares with its previous
estimated operating profit of 20 billion yen.
Although these numbers are encouraging for Sony, they are misleading about
the industry. The gaming industry is in the midst of a shift as many companies are
focusing on the growing mobile gaming market. The era of the home console is dying
as the cost of entry is increasing.
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11. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Competitive
Analysis
There is no direct competition. However Rate My Game falls in a unique niche
in the video game industry. There are numerous game sites online that put casual and
social games to the public for free. Also there are sites that are for a single massive
multiplayer online game. The console games are for the more serious gamer. Rate My
Game falls in between these two categories, it provides free services but the games
are for the more serious gamer.
The major game developers are BioWare, 2K, and Bungie. They make
the games from a software perspective. These companies are three of the most well
known developers and continue to produce some of the best games in recent years.
They have great brand recognition and have iconic mascots that further their image.
The main weakness of these companies is the lack of customer feedback throughout
the process. This has affected customer reception of games like Mass Effect 3.
BioWare had to release additional content to appease the players.
Another key competitor is GameFly, a site that offers game rentals for a
monthly fee. They serve as a model for the pricing we want to offer. The main
weakness is that you are limited in how many games you can have out at once. To
have two games out at once costs $18.99 a month. The company also does not have
original content. This makes it able to be exploited with the service of Rate My Game
The cost saving competitor is the free gaming sites like Addictinggames.com
and other free sites that provide games. These sites however do not provide the
quality of games that the others do. The games are numerous and often cause fatigue
in looking through them.
While PCs and video game consoles still reign among hardcore players, the
industry has broadened its platform footprint significantly over the years to include
smartphones and cloud gaming, among other innovative advancements. ESA’s report
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12. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
shows 44 percent of gamers play games on their smartphone, and 33 percent play on
their wireless devices (e.g. iPad, laptop).
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13. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Page 13
Online Marketing Strategy
Developer
Banner Ad
Developer
Youtube Ad
Launch
Ad
Gamer
Youtube Ad
Gamer
Banner Ad
Twitch
Partnership
E3
Expo
Booth
TV Spot
November 2015 $50 $50
December 2015 $50 $50
January 2016 $50 $50 $400 $200 $200
February 2016 $50 $50 $400 $200 $200
March 2016 $50 $50 $400 $200 $200
April 2016 $200 $200
May 2016 $200 $200 $1500 $750
June 2016 $50 $50 $200 $200 $1500
July 2016 $50 $50
August 2016 $50 $50
September 2016 $50 $50 $200 $200
October 2016 $50 $50 $200 $200
November 2016 $50 $50 $200 $200
December 2016 $50 $50 $200 $200
January 2017 $50 $50 $200 $200
February 2017 $50 $50 $200 $200
March 2017 $50 $50 $200 $200
April 2017 $200 $200
May 2017 $200 $200
June 2017 $50 $50 $200 $200
July 2017 $50 $50
August 2017 $50 $50
14. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Customer
Analysis
The average age of people who play video games being 31, with
purchasers averaging 35 years old. The games are bought one at a
time at stores like Gamestop, where the salespeople are
knowledgable and can give advice in which games they maybe
interested in. They are trained to look for pre-orders, however
customers may not know the games they are pre-ordering and will
be uninformed. This creates an opportunity for a service to provide
games to try to the public.
Ideally the customer that would be targeted would be younger, around high
school and college age, and is just getting into gaming. The site would cater to them
by giving them samples of games in development. The customer has a lot of extra
time and not enough income to purchase the games for themselves. The target is
14-21 year olds that are beginning to learn about video games, the games are more
action based. Action games are more popular among serious gamers and are the
most popular for individual players. For these customers the cost of buying video
games is too high for them to make constant purchases. Without the ability to make
consistent purchases a service like Rate My Game that has a monthly charge for
unlimited gaming is appealing and can create a base for developers to sell to for
years to come. It is the strategy employed by many gaming companies.
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15. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Marketing
Strategy
This site is designed to host user generated content and serve as a
platform for the developers to showcase and perfect their games. The
gamers are looking for a forum to voice their opinions and play well
crafted games. To adequately market to both gamers and developers two
campaigns need to be constructed.
The campaign for the developers is to focus on building a portfolio
and refining their projects. This site serves as a showcase for college
graduates to present their value to a company.
The gamers’ campaign will be about giving them a say in the media
they consume regularly. They are being given the rare opportunity to
influence a game in progress to make the best product for everyone.
On the next page is the strategy for how the project will be
marketed. The red indicates developer targeted marketing, purple is
gamer, and green is both. Once the site is coded you market to the
developers with ads to have them submit work to the site for a January
launch. Leading up to launch banner ads as well as Youtube ads will
appear. By June of next year the goal is to be able to host a booth at E3
to attract the professional developers to post content.
By June 2016 there will be a deal in place to host Twitch parties for
gamers to watch their favorite streamers play our games.
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16. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
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FISCAL YEAR END 6/31 2017 2016 2015
Revenues $8,000 $5,000 $2,500
Cost of Goods Sold $0 $0 $0
GROSS PROFIT $8,000 $5,000 $2,500
2017 2016 2015
Operating Expenses $27 $27 $27
Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses $2,700 $2,700 1900
Depreciation and Amortization $0 $0 $0
Other Expenses $500 $0 $0
OPERATING PROFIT $4,773 $2,273 573
2017 2016 2015
Interest Expense $0 $0 $0
Other Revenues or Gains $0 $0 $0
Other Expenses or Losses $0 $0 $0
EARNINGS BEFORE TAXES $4,773 $2,273 573
2017 2016 2015
Income Taxes $477 $227 $57
NET INCOME $4,296 $2,046 515.7
Income
Statement
17. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Price Strategy
Tier Pricing
• The best way to penetrate the gaming market is to have tiered pricing for every level of
gaming commitment.
• Tier 1-Free
• Tier 2-$5.99/month
• The free service will allow access to a selection of games for a month and then will rotate to
the next set of games. The $5.99 will give you access to the entire library of games at the
same time and alert you when new games come out.
• This will incentivize the $5.99 pricing plan. This price comes in other sites such as Gamefly
who currently charge $8.95 in their base package.
Banner Advertising
• Banner advertising is a way to generate revenue and promote other interests of the
customers.
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18. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Contact
Gordon Elliott
St. Bonaventure University
elliotgr11@bonaventure.edu
(585) 727-5156
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19. Gordon Elliott
April 22, 2015
Work Cited
1. Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry.
Kbh.: Serviceforbundet, 2014. Electronic Software Association. Web.
2. "Sony Raises Profit View as Higher Sensors, Videogame Sales
Herald Turnaround." Reuters UK. 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/22/uk-sony-outlook-
idUKKBN0ND0NT20150422>.
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