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Everyone has their own personal ideas about a brand, but generally the perception of a brand is the same throughout a socio economic group, so more than likely everyone here will have similar ideas about brands. To see how accurate these identities are Im going to list my personal idea about the company and then analyse how true (or not) my idea is. Well, Here it goes:
Sony
My thoughts: Cutting edge electronics manufacturer. Sony products are usually the best quality, although they are usually a lot more expensive than rivals products. As far as PlayStation is concerned they have a reputation for being the 'cool' brand, although the consoles seem to have less 'character' than Sega's and Nintendo's consoles. Dont have a reputation for making their own games, rely heavily on 3rd party companies.
How Accurate?: They do make some of the best AV equipment on the market, but generally they are stylised versions of equipment that other manufacturers already have out. Their products are not of the best quality, as the quality of their TV's have been bettered by both Toshiba and Panasonic, although Sony products so perform similarly, however for the Sony equivelant of a TV by one of the others you have to pay about 10 -20% extra for the sony brand name and stylings. Playstation is regarded as the cool brand, but more and more people are feeling more attracted to the GameCube because it is more unique and has more character, wheras the PS2 looks like a DVD player, and not a particuarly nice looking one at that. Dont make many games of their own, have bought some 3rd party developers, but have no mascot or central character, as potential mascots have gone multi format.
Nintendo
My thoughts: Character based brand, rather than relying on Hardware to attract customers, they concentrate on creating characters that the public will be interested in and buy games about. They are mostly for kids, and dont appeal to grown up audiences much. Majority of their consoles best games are developed in house - eg. Mario games, StarFox, Perfect Dark(well, they did own Rare)etc. Were saved from doing a Sega(quitting the console business and concentrating on games) by the success of PokeMon.
How Accurate?: Although Nintendo are renowned for their characters and the gameplay of their games, the Hardware they produce has always been extremely powerful, The Snes was more powerful than the Megadrive, The N64 more powerful than the PlayStation, The GameCube compares favourably to The PS2 and X Box, although direct comparisons aren't accurate as they all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas. So Nintendo do have powerful hardware, its just not advertised as much as the games or the characters. Nintendo is not a games company just for kids, although they clearly started targetting that market when the PlayStation took such a large share of the grown up market, but that was out of nececity. Nintendo try to appeal to a broad audience, obviously there is PokeMon, PikMin, etc. For young kids, but there is also Resident Evil which Nintendo have signed up foe GameCube exclusive games, as well as their own Metroid series, which appeal to an older audience. And thats not forgetting the Mario and Super Smash Bros.games which although they feature 'cute' graphics really appeal to members of all age groups. While its true that the majority of the N64's best games were developed in house, this is more than likely due to the fact that not many third party developers liked developing games for the N64, be it due to the limited storage capacity and cost of cartridges, or the limited(compared to PlayStation) number of N64 owners. But with GameCube, a load of 3rd party companies are releasing excellent games, you only have to look at Star Wars Rogue Leader or Resident Evil. And Nintendo also have the software support from their old rival Sega, so the future seems bright for 3rd party GameCube games. Now onto the PokeMon issue, yes it did save Nintendo from going bankrupt after the flop of the N64, but its much the same as how Sonic saved Sega when the MegaDrive came out, a character can attract audiences, which is a lesson Sony may have to learn soon.
Microsoft
My Thoughts:Create often inefficient operating systems for the PC, create PC games that although technically outstanding, when it comes to gameplay they're stuck in the dark ages. Only entering the console market to try to sieze dominance of a market that has produced great revenue in the past few years, they try to overpower other companies with their resources, to make them go bankrupt - leaving them the sole survivors and market leaders. Often do underhanded things to hurt competitors ie.telling software developers to only develop for Microsoft O.S.'s and not competitors if they want to be able to release on Microsoft O.S.'s (the market leader and over 90% of the market to boot). Overall very evil people.
How Accurate: All true. Especially the evil part. Seem content to push the X Box's stats down our throats instead of producing a large number of extremely playable games (they'll still be singing the praises of Halo next year, after all what else are they going to have).
Sega
My thoughts: Excellent games developer, make good harware, especially for arcade use, not very good at marketing their products.
How accurate: Clearly from their vast acatalogue of classic games ranging from Sonic, to Virtua Fighter, to house of the dead, to jet set radio and so much more, it is clear that sega make great games. Their arcade hardware is second to none and is always a step ahead of the competitors, comparing Segas Model 3 to Namcos System 32 which was releases after the Model 3 shows just how great the difference is. Not only can Sega hardware push a lot of polygons a second, and do all fancy tricks the cabinets are also specialised and so provide even more uniqueness, anyone who's played Star Wars Arcade, or Virtua On can attest to that. They know their stuff when it comes to arcade machines. Then theres the home market, the only console of theirs that performed as well as its competitors was the Megadrive, which was the console that was marketed as the cool one, after all it had sonic, what did nintendo have Mario? And who can forget the Pirat adverts etc. Sega did it right. And then the saturn happened, not as powerful as its competitoers and underadvertised, sega were hoping their Megadrive owners would upgrate, but thanks to lower prices and prehaps excessive advertising, they decided to get a Sony PlayStation instead. And the dreamcast? Sony started advertising the power of PS2 before dreamcast was released - over a year befor PS2 was released, and it worked, people held off and bought a PS2 - the problem advertising. Segas future doesnt look bleak though, their games have gone multi format, which is good news as more people can experience their games, and they can concentrate on what they do best - good games.
Whew, I know this has been one helluva long post, but thanks to anyone who read all of this rant, and comments/arguments would be appreciated.
PS. Microsoft ARE evil.
Sony
My thoughts: Cutting edge electronics manufacturer. Sony products are usually the best quality, although they are usually a lot more expensive than rivals products. As far as PlayStation is concerned they have a reputation for being the 'cool' brand, although the consoles seem to have less 'character' than Sega's and Nintendo's consoles. Dont have a reputation for making their own games, rely heavily on 3rd party companies.
How Accurate?: They do make some of the best AV equipment on the market, but generally they are stylised versions of equipment that other manufacturers already have out. Their products are not of the best quality, as the quality of their TV's have been bettered by both Toshiba and Panasonic, although Sony products so perform similarly, however for the Sony equivelant of a TV by one of the others you have to pay about 10 -20% extra for the sony brand name and stylings. Playstation is regarded as the cool brand, but more and more people are feeling more attracted to the GameCube because it is more unique and has more character, wheras the PS2 looks like a DVD player, and not a particuarly nice looking one at that. Dont make many games of their own, have bought some 3rd party developers, but have no mascot or central character, as potential mascots have gone multi format.
Nintendo
My thoughts: Character based brand, rather than relying on Hardware to attract customers, they concentrate on creating characters that the public will be interested in and buy games about. They are mostly for kids, and dont appeal to grown up audiences much. Majority of their consoles best games are developed in house - eg. Mario games, StarFox, Perfect Dark(well, they did own Rare)etc. Were saved from doing a Sega(quitting the console business and concentrating on games) by the success of PokeMon.
How Accurate?: Although Nintendo are renowned for their characters and the gameplay of their games, the Hardware they produce has always been extremely powerful, The Snes was more powerful than the Megadrive, The N64 more powerful than the PlayStation, The GameCube compares favourably to The PS2 and X Box, although direct comparisons aren't accurate as they all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas. So Nintendo do have powerful hardware, its just not advertised as much as the games or the characters. Nintendo is not a games company just for kids, although they clearly started targetting that market when the PlayStation took such a large share of the grown up market, but that was out of nececity. Nintendo try to appeal to a broad audience, obviously there is PokeMon, PikMin, etc. For young kids, but there is also Resident Evil which Nintendo have signed up foe GameCube exclusive games, as well as their own Metroid series, which appeal to an older audience. And thats not forgetting the Mario and Super Smash Bros.games which although they feature 'cute' graphics really appeal to members of all age groups. While its true that the majority of the N64's best games were developed in house, this is more than likely due to the fact that not many third party developers liked developing games for the N64, be it due to the limited storage capacity and cost of cartridges, or the limited(compared to PlayStation) number of N64 owners. But with GameCube, a load of 3rd party companies are releasing excellent games, you only have to look at Star Wars Rogue Leader or Resident Evil. And Nintendo also have the software support from their old rival Sega, so the future seems bright for 3rd party GameCube games. Now onto the PokeMon issue, yes it did save Nintendo from going bankrupt after the flop of the N64, but its much the same as how Sonic saved Sega when the MegaDrive came out, a character can attract audiences, which is a lesson Sony may have to learn soon.
Microsoft
My Thoughts:Create often inefficient operating systems for the PC, create PC games that although technically outstanding, when it comes to gameplay they're stuck in the dark ages. Only entering the console market to try to sieze dominance of a market that has produced great revenue in the past few years, they try to overpower other companies with their resources, to make them go bankrupt - leaving them the sole survivors and market leaders. Often do underhanded things to hurt competitors ie.telling software developers to only develop for Microsoft O.S.'s and not competitors if they want to be able to release on Microsoft O.S.'s (the market leader and over 90% of the market to boot). Overall very evil people.
How Accurate: All true. Especially the evil part. Seem content to push the X Box's stats down our throats instead of producing a large number of extremely playable games (they'll still be singing the praises of Halo next year, after all what else are they going to have).
Sega
My thoughts: Excellent games developer, make good harware, especially for arcade use, not very good at marketing their products.
How accurate: Clearly from their vast acatalogue of classic games ranging from Sonic, to Virtua Fighter, to house of the dead, to jet set radio and so much more, it is clear that sega make great games. Their arcade hardware is second to none and is always a step ahead of the competitors, comparing Segas Model 3 to Namcos System 32 which was releases after the Model 3 shows just how great the difference is. Not only can Sega hardware push a lot of polygons a second, and do all fancy tricks the cabinets are also specialised and so provide even more uniqueness, anyone who's played Star Wars Arcade, or Virtua On can attest to that. They know their stuff when it comes to arcade machines. Then theres the home market, the only console of theirs that performed as well as its competitors was the Megadrive, which was the console that was marketed as the cool one, after all it had sonic, what did nintendo have Mario? And who can forget the Pirat adverts etc. Sega did it right. And then the saturn happened, not as powerful as its competitoers and underadvertised, sega were hoping their Megadrive owners would upgrate, but thanks to lower prices and prehaps excessive advertising, they decided to get a Sony PlayStation instead. And the dreamcast? Sony started advertising the power of PS2 before dreamcast was released - over a year befor PS2 was released, and it worked, people held off and bought a PS2 - the problem advertising. Segas future doesnt look bleak though, their games have gone multi format, which is good news as more people can experience their games, and they can concentrate on what they do best - good games.
Whew, I know this has been one helluva long post, but thanks to anyone who read all of this rant, and comments/arguments would be appreciated.
PS. Microsoft ARE evil.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Everyone has their own personal ideas about a brand, but generally the perception of a brand is the same throughout a socio economic group, so more than likely everyone here will have similar ideas about brands. To see how accurate these identities are Im going to list my personal idea about the company and then analyse how true (or not) my idea is. Well, Here it goes:
Sony
My thoughts: Cutting edge electronics manufacturer. Sony products are usually the best quality, although they are usually a lot more expensive than rivals products. As far as PlayStation is concerned they have a reputation for being the 'cool' brand, although the consoles seem to have less 'character' than Sega's and Nintendo's consoles. Dont have a reputation for making their own games, rely heavily on 3rd party companies.
How Accurate?: They do make some of the best AV equipment on the market, but generally they are stylised versions of equipment that other manufacturers already have out. Their products are not of the best quality, as the quality of their TV's have been bettered by both Toshiba and Panasonic, although Sony products so perform similarly, however for the Sony equivelant of a TV by one of the others you have to pay about 10 -20% extra for the sony brand name and stylings. Playstation is regarded as the cool brand, but more and more people are feeling more attracted to the GameCube because it is more unique and has more character, wheras the PS2 looks like a DVD player, and not a particuarly nice looking one at that. Dont make many games of their own, have bought some 3rd party developers, but have no mascot or central character, as potential mascots have gone multi format.
Nintendo
My thoughts: Character based brand, rather than relying on Hardware to attract customers, they concentrate on creating characters that the public will be interested in and buy games about. They are mostly for kids, and dont appeal to grown up audiences much. Majority of their consoles best games are developed in house - eg. Mario games, StarFox, Perfect Dark(well, they did own Rare)etc. Were saved from doing a Sega(quitting the console business and concentrating on games) by the success of PokeMon.
How Accurate?: Although Nintendo are renowned for their characters and the gameplay of their games, the Hardware they produce has always been extremely powerful, The Snes was more powerful than the Megadrive, The N64 more powerful than the PlayStation, The GameCube compares favourably to The PS2 and X Box, although direct comparisons aren't accurate as they all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas. So Nintendo do have powerful hardware, its just not advertised as much as the games or the characters. Nintendo is not a games company just for kids, although they clearly started targetting that market when the PlayStation took such a large share of the grown up market, but that was out of nececity. Nintendo try to appeal to a broad audience, obviously there is PokeMon, PikMin, etc. For young kids, but there is also Resident Evil which Nintendo have signed up foe GameCube exclusive games, as well as their own Metroid series, which appeal to an older audience. And thats not forgetting the Mario and Super Smash Bros.games which although they feature 'cute' graphics really appeal to members of all age groups. While its true that the majority of the N64's best games were developed in house, this is more than likely due to the fact that not many third party developers liked developing games for the N64, be it due to the limited storage capacity and cost of cartridges, or the limited(compared to PlayStation) number of N64 owners. But with GameCube, a load of 3rd party companies are releasing excellent games, you only have to look at Star Wars Rogue Leader or Resident Evil. And Nintendo also have the software support from their old rival Sega, so the future seems bright for 3rd party GameCube games. Now onto the PokeMon issue, yes it did save Nintendo from going bankrupt after the flop of the N64, but its much the same as how Sonic saved Sega when the MegaDrive came out, a character can attract audiences, which is a lesson Sony may have to learn soon.
Microsoft
My Thoughts:Create often inefficient operating systems for the PC, create PC games that although technically outstanding, when it comes to gameplay they're stuck in the dark ages. Only entering the console market to try to sieze dominance of a market that has produced great revenue in the past few years, they try to overpower other companies with their resources, to make them go bankrupt - leaving them the sole survivors and market leaders. Often do underhanded things to hurt competitors ie.telling software developers to only develop for Microsoft O.S.'s and not competitors if they want to be able to release on Microsoft O.S.'s (the market leader and over 90% of the market to boot). Overall very evil people.
How Accurate: All true. Especially the evil part. Seem content to push the X Box's stats down our throats instead of producing a large number of extremely playable games (they'll still be singing the praises of Halo next year, after all what else are they going to have).
Sega
My thoughts: Excellent games developer, make good harware, especially for arcade use, not very good at marketing their products.
How accurate: Clearly from their vast acatalogue of classic games ranging from Sonic, to Virtua Fighter, to house of the dead, to jet set radio and so much more, it is clear that sega make great games. Their arcade hardware is second to none and is always a step ahead of the competitors, comparing Segas Model 3 to Namcos System 32 which was releases after the Model 3 shows just how great the difference is. Not only can Sega hardware push a lot of polygons a second, and do all fancy tricks the cabinets are also specialised and so provide even more uniqueness, anyone who's played Star Wars Arcade, or Virtua On can attest to that. They know their stuff when it comes to arcade machines. Then theres the home market, the only console of theirs that performed as well as its competitors was the Megadrive, which was the console that was marketed as the cool one, after all it had sonic, what did nintendo have Mario? And who can forget the Pirat adverts etc. Sega did it right. And then the saturn happened, not as powerful as its competitoers and underadvertised, sega were hoping their Megadrive owners would upgrate, but thanks to lower prices and prehaps excessive advertising, they decided to get a Sony PlayStation instead. And the dreamcast? Sony started advertising the power of PS2 before dreamcast was released - over a year befor PS2 was released, and it worked, people held off and bought a PS2 - the problem advertising. Segas future doesnt look bleak though, their games have gone multi format, which is good news as more people can experience their games, and they can concentrate on what they do best - good games.
Whew, I know this has been one helluva long post, but thanks to anyone who read all of this rant, and comments/arguments would be appreciated.
PS. Microsoft ARE evil.
Sony
My thoughts: Cutting edge electronics manufacturer. Sony products are usually the best quality, although they are usually a lot more expensive than rivals products. As far as PlayStation is concerned they have a reputation for being the 'cool' brand, although the consoles seem to have less 'character' than Sega's and Nintendo's consoles. Dont have a reputation for making their own games, rely heavily on 3rd party companies.
How Accurate?: They do make some of the best AV equipment on the market, but generally they are stylised versions of equipment that other manufacturers already have out. Their products are not of the best quality, as the quality of their TV's have been bettered by both Toshiba and Panasonic, although Sony products so perform similarly, however for the Sony equivelant of a TV by one of the others you have to pay about 10 -20% extra for the sony brand name and stylings. Playstation is regarded as the cool brand, but more and more people are feeling more attracted to the GameCube because it is more unique and has more character, wheras the PS2 looks like a DVD player, and not a particuarly nice looking one at that. Dont make many games of their own, have bought some 3rd party developers, but have no mascot or central character, as potential mascots have gone multi format.
Nintendo
My thoughts: Character based brand, rather than relying on Hardware to attract customers, they concentrate on creating characters that the public will be interested in and buy games about. They are mostly for kids, and dont appeal to grown up audiences much. Majority of their consoles best games are developed in house - eg. Mario games, StarFox, Perfect Dark(well, they did own Rare)etc. Were saved from doing a Sega(quitting the console business and concentrating on games) by the success of PokeMon.
How Accurate?: Although Nintendo are renowned for their characters and the gameplay of their games, the Hardware they produce has always been extremely powerful, The Snes was more powerful than the Megadrive, The N64 more powerful than the PlayStation, The GameCube compares favourably to The PS2 and X Box, although direct comparisons aren't accurate as they all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas. So Nintendo do have powerful hardware, its just not advertised as much as the games or the characters. Nintendo is not a games company just for kids, although they clearly started targetting that market when the PlayStation took such a large share of the grown up market, but that was out of nececity. Nintendo try to appeal to a broad audience, obviously there is PokeMon, PikMin, etc. For young kids, but there is also Resident Evil which Nintendo have signed up foe GameCube exclusive games, as well as their own Metroid series, which appeal to an older audience. And thats not forgetting the Mario and Super Smash Bros.games which although they feature 'cute' graphics really appeal to members of all age groups. While its true that the majority of the N64's best games were developed in house, this is more than likely due to the fact that not many third party developers liked developing games for the N64, be it due to the limited storage capacity and cost of cartridges, or the limited(compared to PlayStation) number of N64 owners. But with GameCube, a load of 3rd party companies are releasing excellent games, you only have to look at Star Wars Rogue Leader or Resident Evil. And Nintendo also have the software support from their old rival Sega, so the future seems bright for 3rd party GameCube games. Now onto the PokeMon issue, yes it did save Nintendo from going bankrupt after the flop of the N64, but its much the same as how Sonic saved Sega when the MegaDrive came out, a character can attract audiences, which is a lesson Sony may have to learn soon.
Microsoft
My Thoughts:Create often inefficient operating systems for the PC, create PC games that although technically outstanding, when it comes to gameplay they're stuck in the dark ages. Only entering the console market to try to sieze dominance of a market that has produced great revenue in the past few years, they try to overpower other companies with their resources, to make them go bankrupt - leaving them the sole survivors and market leaders. Often do underhanded things to hurt competitors ie.telling software developers to only develop for Microsoft O.S.'s and not competitors if they want to be able to release on Microsoft O.S.'s (the market leader and over 90% of the market to boot). Overall very evil people.
How Accurate: All true. Especially the evil part. Seem content to push the X Box's stats down our throats instead of producing a large number of extremely playable games (they'll still be singing the praises of Halo next year, after all what else are they going to have).
Sega
My thoughts: Excellent games developer, make good harware, especially for arcade use, not very good at marketing their products.
How accurate: Clearly from their vast acatalogue of classic games ranging from Sonic, to Virtua Fighter, to house of the dead, to jet set radio and so much more, it is clear that sega make great games. Their arcade hardware is second to none and is always a step ahead of the competitors, comparing Segas Model 3 to Namcos System 32 which was releases after the Model 3 shows just how great the difference is. Not only can Sega hardware push a lot of polygons a second, and do all fancy tricks the cabinets are also specialised and so provide even more uniqueness, anyone who's played Star Wars Arcade, or Virtua On can attest to that. They know their stuff when it comes to arcade machines. Then theres the home market, the only console of theirs that performed as well as its competitors was the Megadrive, which was the console that was marketed as the cool one, after all it had sonic, what did nintendo have Mario? And who can forget the Pirat adverts etc. Sega did it right. And then the saturn happened, not as powerful as its competitoers and underadvertised, sega were hoping their Megadrive owners would upgrate, but thanks to lower prices and prehaps excessive advertising, they decided to get a Sony PlayStation instead. And the dreamcast? Sony started advertising the power of PS2 before dreamcast was released - over a year befor PS2 was released, and it worked, people held off and bought a PS2 - the problem advertising. Segas future doesnt look bleak though, their games have gone multi format, which is good news as more people can experience their games, and they can concentrate on what they do best - good games.
Whew, I know this has been one helluva long post, but thanks to anyone who read all of this rant, and comments/arguments would be appreciated.
PS. Microsoft ARE evil.