Brand Equity in the Video Game Industry Investigating The
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Brand equity in the video game industry Investigating the relationship between perceived brand differentiation and brand loyalty among Generation Y in the Netherlands Student name: Gosse de Reus Student Number: 459767 Supervisor: Ms. Vasiliki Tsagkroni Master Media and Business Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication Erasmus University Rotterdam Master Thesis June 2017 Brand equity in the video game industry Investigating the relationship between perceived brand differentiation and brand loyalty among Generation Y in the Netherlands ABSTRACT This research investigated the role of branding in the video game industry and how perceived brand differentiation influenced brand loyalty among members of Generation Y in the Netherlands. It aims to fill a gap in branding literature investigating the importance of brands in the video game industry. The video game industry is characterized by an oligopolistic structure with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft remaining as the three main video game console manufacturers in the contemporary market. The present study investigated to what extent the target demographic perceives the three brands as differentiated and to what extent this influences their loyalty towards these brands. A quantitative method was used employing a questionnaire in order to assess participants’ opinions about the brands. Statistical analysis allowed for investigating the linear relationship between perceived brand differentiation and brand loyalty. Results show that there is a relationship between the two concepts, meaning that when a participant scores higher on the differentiation scale indicating more differentiation of the brand, it is likely that participants score higher on the loyalty scale. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the strength of the perceived brand differentiation score could account for nearly 50 percent of the score of brand loyalty for all three brands, indicating a high degree of relatedness between the two concepts. The results also stress that there is a certain causality among brand sources that compose brand equity, implying that marketers can focus their attention on multiple steps in gradually building brand equity. For firms operating in the video game industry, it turns out to be viable to focus on differentiating a brand from the competition in terms of software offered on the console and offering advantages that competing brands do not offer. This is likely to increase brand loyalty among Generation Y consumers in the Netherlands. KEYWORDS: Brand, branding, perceived brand differentiation, brand loyalty, brand equity, video game industry 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 4 2. Theoretical framework .................................................................................................................... 11 2.1 Brands, branding in a commercial industry .......................................................................................... 11 2.2 Definition of a brand and its components ............................................................................................ 11 2.3 Brand functions ......................................................................................................................................... 18 2.4 Branding importance in the video game industry ................................................................................ 20 2.5 Conceptual framework overview ............................................................................................................ 28 3. Methodology..................................................................................................................................... 30 3.1 Quantitative approach .............................................................................................................................. 30 3.2 Study population and sampling ............................................................................................................... 31 3.3 Operationalization..................................................................................................................................... 32 3.4 Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................... 33 4. Results ............................................................................................................................................... 34 5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 47 5.1 Significant findings.................................................................................................................................... 47 5.2 Theoretical implications ........................................................................................................................... 49 5.3 Limitations ................................................................................................................................................. 51 5.4 Future research .......................................................................................................................................... 52 References ............................................................................................................................................. 54 Appendix A ........................................................................................................................................... 60 3 1. Introduction The video gaming industry in 2017 is bigger than the movie industry and music industry, with revenues of over 23 billion US dollar in 2015 (ESA, 2016). An evolution recognized by many scholars throughout the last two decades (Williams, 2002) and ascribed to technological progress and innovation throughout every new generation of hardware (Nieborg, 2014). The industry is deemed to be the “fastest growing and most exciting category of mass media for the coming decade” (Marchand & Hennig-Thurau, 2013, p. 141). A negative reputation has stuck to the industry for a long time, being regarded as a pastime for geeks and nerds (Alvisi et al., 2003; Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith & Tosca, 2013). However, this reputation has altered and the industry now has a large impact on contemporary popular culture (Aoyama & Izushi, 2003; Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2013), also visible in the myriad ways that fans of videogames make use of them besides just playing, establishing an entire culture around videogames (Newman, 2008). The videogame industry is argued to have close links to other popular culture industries such as the film industry, but also cartoons (Aoyama & Izushi, 2003). A popular example of which is Pokémon, a video game franchise also exploited through a tv- series and films (Aoyama & Izushi, 2003). In academia, this practice is called transmedia storytelling, defined by Henry Jenkins as the flow of content across multiple media channels and argued to be almost inevitable in an era of media convergence (Jenkins, 2003). In essence, playing video games has become a more widely accepted hobby and an important part of popular culture, also due to the enlargement of its consumer base (Chung, 2005; Juul, 2010). So what are the consequences of the growth of the video game business and its impact on contemporary popular culture? The videogame industry has gained much scholarly attention, mostly focusing on the videogames themselves or the interaction between the games and its players (Crawford, 2011; Johns, 2006; Wesley & Barczak, 2010), while also receiving a lot of attention as a potential new way of educating (Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2013). Aarseth (2001) stated that video games became a viable academic field in 2001, but the focus has since then largely remained on the analysis of the games and the players, a player-centric approach. Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al. (2013) define five major types of analysis concerning video games, namely game, player, culture, ontology and metrics. These also focus more on the player and video game itself than the economic impact of the industry and how it functions. The economic aspect of video games could be ascribed to the culture section, but this section mainly focusses on the impact of video games on popular culture. David Nieborg emphasizes the lack of attention for the role of marketing in his review of Digital Play (Kline, Dyer-Witheford & De Peuter, 2003), 4 academic literature that problematizes the role of marketing in the videogame industry (Nieborg, 2014). The significance of marketing in the video game industry has not received a lot of attention within the academic field of video game studies (Burgess & Spinks, 2014). The lack of attention for marketing practices in the video game industry is striking due to the popularity of the industry and the revenues that are available in the industry (Nieborg, 2014). What can be the significance of marketing in the video game industry and why? Given the highly competitive nature of the video game business, marketing can be of vital importance to firms operating in the industry. Brands are regarded as one of the most valuable intangible assets to any firm, granting firms competitive advantages (Keller, 2013; Kapferer, 2008). The video game industry is also known as a market characterized by an oligopolistic structure,