So recently I saw one of the greatest examples of targeting … and yet it didn’t come from a major corporation or even an ad agency … it came from a gaming company.
Now you probably are wondering what the hell they could have done to have impressed me so much … so to explain, I have to tell you a backstory.
Are you sitting comfortably?
Are you?
OK … then I’ll begin.
Once upon a time … in a land far away …
Oh what the hell am I going on about. OK, let’s stop with the shenanigans and get on with it.
A few weeks ago I was walking home when I passed a Christian Life shop.
Normally those kind of places scare the living crap out of me however out of curiosity, I decided to pop in.
As I was walking around – trying desperately not to catch anyone’s eye for fear of being ‘religiously mugged’ – I saw at the bottom of an aisle, the guitar from the Playstation/Xbox game, ‘Rock Star’.
Wondering why the hell that would be there [plus I thought I could sneak in a quick game] I headed over but found this …
Yep, that’s right … basically ‘Guitar Hero’ for Christians.
Sheer bloody genius.
Why?
Because rather than taking the ‘easy route’ and simply launching another version of the product that targets the same kids/adults who bought a previous incarnation … the developers realised there were literally millions of Christian kids [or said another way, one of the biggest ‘niche’ groups in the World] who would love to play the original game but couldn’t because the music featured on it [ie: Motley Crue’s “Shout At The Devil”] wasn’t ‘Christian friendly’.
So what do they do?
Well instead of just relying on advertising, they fine tune the product so it not only gets Christian Parental approval – thanks to the songs and lyrics – but ensures the actual user experience is as close to the original as possible because they know for many kids/adults, they want to feel like they ‘belong’ to the wider social group, rather than being freaks of it.
OK so the game has bands on it that could make The Smiths look good – but that’s the exact reason why God loving parents are happy to pay a premium to let their kids play it – because not only is it religiously acceptable, but they can feel the song lyrics are educating their kids about ‘God’s way’.
Whilst I don’t know the exact sales figures it has achieved, the product is on backorder in many countries so I think it’s safe to say it has/is very successful.
Given so much segmentation seems to be almost about minimising customer potential [rather than attracting specific and/or new customers], I think it’s brilliant to see a company realise the best way to truly tap into a niche market is to customise their offering so it fundamentally appeals to a groups needs rather than relying purely on the [flawed] logic of advertising channel targeting.
Seriously, the last time I saw something that made me smile this much was the LG Mecca phone and I just wish I’d been part of the team behind its concept, because I think it’s absolutely brilliant.
Guitar Praise … the Lord really has shone on you with this, brilliant work.