Guitar Hero Marketing Plan

Paper Summary:

This paper presents an overview of the history of Activision's series of music video games called "Guitar Hero," its main competition and the reasons for its enormous succes. The writer then describes the challenges faced by Activision in expanding its market and keeping competition at bay. Next, Activision's marketing strategy and goals are described in detail, and suggestions are offered for achieving those goals. The writer concludes that as long as the company continues to invest in making the games fresh and new, they should easily be able to stay ahead of the competition. This paper contains photos.

Outline:
Executive Summary
Environmental Analysis
The Marketing Environment
Competitive Forces
Economic Forces
Political Forces
Legal and Regulatory Forces
Technological Forces
Socio-cultural Forces
Target Market
Current Marketing Objectives and Performance
SWOT Analysis
Matching Strengths to Opportunities/Converting Weaknesses and Threats
Marketing Objectives
Marketing Strategies
Target Market(s)
Marketing Mix
Marketing Implementation
Marketing Organization
Activities, Responsibilities, and Timetables for Completion
Evaluation and Control
Performance Standards and Financial Controls
Summary

From the Paper:

"The series has been so successful that they have become extremely popular party games, which lead to them being played at a variety of locales. Bars throughout the United States offer a "Guitar Hero Competition Night" in which customers are given a chance to compete with each other on the game. Several concert tours have added Guitar Hero contests to be played between sets. The game is also responsible for prompting 2.5 million out of 12 million children to begin learning a real instrument after they played the series games. Updates to the newly released Guitar Hero: World Tour make it possible for players of any age or skill level to participate. This is due to the fact that Activision, aside from the original four skill levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert, has added a beginner level. The new update is aimed at younger and less skilled players."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Activision Annual Report. Retrieved on December 19, 2008 from Activision.com Website: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ACTI/495342158x0x219409/95c866fa-e1c7-46e9-841d-aa4ece0c4794/Activision_08_AR_full.pdf
• Activision Form 10-K Annual Report. Retrieved on December 19, 2008 from Activision.com Website: http://investor.activision.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1047469-08-7085
• "Activision Inc Conference Call Notables". Retrieved on December 19, 2008 from Stockpicr.com Website: http://www.stockpickr.com/showforums/1/4941/
• Burnes, Andrew. "Activision Responds To Gibson's Guitar Hero Suit". Retrieved on December 19, 2008 from VE3D.com Website: http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/37612/Activision-Responds-To-Gibsons-Guitar-Hero-Suit
• Deleon, Nicholas. "Uh oh: Guitar Hero sales may have peaked". Retrieved on December 19, 2008 from CrunchGear. Website: http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/09/uh-oh-guitar-hero-sales-may-have-peaked/

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