Let’s talk about Marketing shall we? I just got my Master’s degree in it 3 days ago, and am (theoretically) working towards a PHD in it. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, welcome to class one.
Marketing, as a concept, and the way we assess it for Xbox is destined to be narrowly scratching the surface. Why is this the case? Well, to put it bluntly, we don’t know shit. We can guess, we can surmise, we can crawl through eons of interviews and “insider scoops” but we really do not know the full extent of their efforts. Does that mean we shouldn’t try? Heavens no, but it is important to signify.
With this being said, I’d like to take you through all facets of a typical marketing strategy and we can better assess how MS is handling things.
As it stands, the typical Marketing department is divided into the following categories: Marketing Research, Product Development, Communications, Social and Publicity Strategy, Experiential Affairs, Brand Management and Business to Business Affairs (Contrary to popular belief, Xbox is as much a Business-oriented brand as it is a consumer-oriented one). The grand scheme of things is obviously more complex than this, but these are the typical categories.
Of course, the immediate complication here is a lack of consistency across departments. The goal of a marketing department is to oversee all of these factors, but they are already segregated by product (Game Pass’s team is not entirely Hardware’s team which isn’t the B2B or Games team). These teams are then segmented further by publisher and studio, with some teams such as Compulsion and 343 handling Brand Management in-house, whereas Zenimax handles everything in-house. Oh, and ABK is coming. Right off the bat, this is the first problem. It’s also in some regards a good one to have. This reduces employment redundancies, minimizes layoffs and ensures the people who know the product sell it, but from the bat, I suspect asymmetry in info like this is why something like the Grounded debacle happens. Oh, and all 3 publishers in their family (pending regulatory bla bla) outsource some of this stuff too, so that adds some fun.
Now, with this being established, I thought I would dive into each of these categories and assess truthfully how Xbox is doing.
Marketing Research
This is arguably the hardest to quantify as an outsider. We do not know the extent of MS’s marketing research efforts, nor the overall impacts it has. We know, for example, that games like Forza Motorsport and Halo Infinite were focus tested. We also know MS has access to some of the largest data stores in the world.
However, the full extent of their marketing research efforts such as whether they AB test websites, UI elements, mechanics, etc., whether they qualitatively assess the impact of their games, whether they track social listening, etc. is unclear. It is likely they do this, but we do not know.
Product Development
Product Development is another one we cannot fully assess, and it is a case wherein multiple departments and ample research is required. However, to put it simply, there are 6Ps in the world of Marketing.
Product
Place
Price
Promotion
People
Presentation
Beginning with the product, I hazard to judge Xbox in the slightest here. The games they release are often times at least good, Game Pass is great, hardware is great.
In Price, from a consumer POV, they are winning as well. Best value, most affordable, the best bang for your buck. All terms regularly used to describe Xbox offerings.
Place is an interesting one. Xbox is no doubt struggling in some regions and inordinately strong in others. One need only compare last gen in Japan and Mexico to see what I’m getting at. Regardless, Xbox is working to get better in their globalized approach, and early indications in Japan and Korea, for example, are promising. But regardless, It’s still not hard to say that they are lagging behind their competitors here.
People is unclear. Most workers appear happy. Varies by studio. Some places need more help than others in this regard.
However, Promotion and Presentation is where things differ the most. From the jump, Xbox’s promotional efforts are in some regards atypical for the industry. We will touch on them more in the communications and experiential sections, but to make a long story short, they tend to opt for a more digital savvy approach with sales activations over the more traditional approach favoured by Sony and Nintendo. Does this work? That’s where Presentation comes in. This is, in essence, how people view the brand, and this will differ from person to person. You can quantify this through social listening or studies, but as is, this is forever fluid. All indicators point to Xbox, on a large level, being viewed as neutral to positive.
Communications, Social and Publicity Strategy
This, alongside the Promotional strategy section covered, are what most people think of when it comes to marketing. In this section, Xbox is a very mixed bag.
Beginning with the positives, Xbox is surprisingly transparent with the public. Phil, Aaron and Sarah are on Twitter constantly communicating to the public, sharing stories, telling jokes, and sending love and support. Phil went on our freaking podcast in between shows on CNBC and CNN!!! That is a crazy level of communication with the public.
Xbox also largely understands social media. They won the best brand of the year on Twitter for a reason. They do a great job of understanding the needs of their consumers and communicating with them. From 5 second memes to high-effort campaigns, they understand many social platforms.
However, Xbox has also struggled with communication in the past. They have overhyped or otherwise failed to properly set expectations for many events, including their most recent one. They have had large inconsistencies across their departments as mentioned prior. You have had moments like the Bethesda exclusivity question which was dodged and then lead to the clashing of figures in public. You have had moments where games are announced far too early and then rumours are allowed to persist for months before you address them. You’ve had far too much confusion over the terms “Exclusive”, “Console Exclusive”, “Console Launch Exclusive”, “Timed Exclusive” and “Launching Exclusively into Game Pass” that even the most in-tune of us cannot surmise. You’ve had exclusive games announced without platforms, and multiplatform games announced as exclusive. Xbox One versions appear, disappear and reappear from listings. It can be a genuine mess at times.
On the whole, considering the size of the organization, I think Xbox has done more right than wrong here, but that is up for interpretation.
Experiential Affairs
This includes pretty much all events and live activations Xbox has done over the past while. On the whole, I think they have done a good job here. They cater their content well, their pacing is much improved, and anyone who has had the privilege to go to a live event of Xbox’s knows that they treat you like bloody royalty.
The only difficulty here is that they frankly don’t do them as often as a brand of their size should yet tie a significant amount of their announcements to them. Xbox seems aware of this and are seemingly staffing up.
Brand Management
The traditional school of Brand Management basically encompasses what I have just discussed. The new wave school, the merits of which are still debated, argues that the two biggest priorities for the brand are in building Mental Availability and Physical Availaibility.
In terms of their Physical Availability, they are doing well. They are selling more than they can fucking make of the Series X, and most people who want a Series S can get them. They have even invested in ensuring that Xbox is the premiere brand in stores. When you walk into a Game Stop, the first thing you see is an Xbox. That is by design because they paid GS a shitton to make this so. Same thing in many Walmarts. If you want an Xbox, you can find one usually. If you are looking for a system in general, Xbox often shows up first.
In terms of Mental Availability, this is still the biggest challenge facing Xbox. Brand image is a major part here, but an even bigger part is building associations with the brand. You say video game to a Boomer, they think Atari. Say it to a Gen Xer, they think Nintendo or SEGA. Say it to a Millennial, probably PlayStation. That is an uphill battle Xbox is facing right off the bat.
That is why they are trying to associate Xbox with as much as they fucking can. WRPGs? Xbox. Shooters? Xbox. Bethesda and Activision? Xbox. EA? Also Xbox. Premier League Soccer? Xbox. Pringles? Xbox. Paramount+? Xbox. Disney+? Also Xbox. Mandalorian? Xbox. You get the picture.
Xbox is trying to associate with notable games and properties and buying up what they can to own these. Are they successful? In some regards, yes! Most WRPG and FPS fans talk Xbox. CoD will do wonders for Game Pass. Most of the Bethesda community has joined the Xbox community. But they are not perfect here. Sony has strategically aligned with several other brands to great success as well. This is not a battle, it’s a 100-year war.
Business to Business Affairs
This is hard to assess for certain, but this basically just implies that MS is maintaining strong relationships with its suppliers or in this case, devs. Given the deals Game Pass keeps getting, their strong dev-supported initiatives such as Azure and Havok, the recent string of support from Japan, their relationship with partner brands such as Razer and Gamestop and overall dev satisfaction with ID@Xbox, I think they are doing quite well.
Conclusion/TLDR
So, what I have given you is just a taste. I could lecture a class’s worth of content on Xbox. But if there’s anything you takeaway, I’d like it to be the following. Xbox’s marketing, for an organization of its size, is fine. There will be growing pains as formerly independent teams are integrated into the Xbox marketing pipeline.
However, as well, marketing is more than most people realize or give it credit for. It spans all facets of the product and its life over time. I barely scratched the surface here. I did not, for instance, discuss political and legal regulations, opportunity identification, retrospective analysis/post-mortems, creative strategy, brand storytelling and persona generation (my favourite in my field), crisis management, SEO, Content curation/email marketing, channel selection, online advertising, full aspects of traditional/digital, lead generation, funnel preparation and management, copywriting, still “photography”/in-game content capture, graphic design, a “small” thing called B2B sales, etc., etc., etc.
At the end of the day though, when you say “Xbox has marketing problems”, more often than not this is just patently false. Where most people seem to take issue with Xbox is in promotion, advertising, social and communications which makes sense. That’s the public-facing stuff. But it’s just a fraction of what the marketing teams do, so maybe think twice before asking for Greenie to be fired or whatever the hell. Not saying you lot do, you’re cool, but some do.