Don’t you find Sony’s advertising campaign for the PS3 too clever for its own good? The TV ads and press make no reference to the product itself. They showcase what are apparently characters from PlayStation games. I followed the link to thisisliving.tv, but after 10 minutes was still none the wiser about why I should fork out £400 for a console (see below what you get after signing in).
Well, the editor of Marketing Magazine (on Brand Republic) seems to be in the same camp as me, saying:
"The TBWA-created advertising that supports the console’s launch is
a victory of style over substance typical of the category, laden with
references to games characters that PlayStation diehards will enjoy
greatly. The significant remainder of the potential market will have to
do their own research for the time being. Those dedicated enough will
discover that the inclusion of a Blu-ray Disc player in the PS3 makes
it a market-leading product, ready to play high-definition movies,
which fits neatly into Sony’s family of advanced TV and entertainment brands."
Ah, a man after my own heart, looking for a bit more substance, and a bit less spin/style. And looking to make a bit more out of the PS3’s sausage. The editorial look at prices on eBay as an indication of how hot the console is, with the answer being lukewarm at best. Prices are the same or even below market rate, in contrast with Nintendo’s Wii, where demand higher than supply pushed prices up. The article also quotes examples of cancelled pre-orders from retailers as further evidence of the PS3’s UK launch getting off to a rocky start:
"Woolworths chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones has extrapolated from his own cancelled pre-orders that, across the UK retail market, £10m worth of PS3 console sales had been cancelled ahead of last week’s launch."
What seems like higher demand for Nintendo’s Wii was created by having a differentiated product design that was dramatised in communication. And as the Marketing piece points out, this brought in a whole new load of users, not just die-hard gaming fans.