The Future of Global Marketing
The Nintendo Wii
So, Nintendo has finally revealed the name of their upcoming console. It’s no longer Revolution. It’s Nintendo Wii. My first reaction was revulsion.
Globally-Friendly Branding
Think Wii is great? Then you’re in luck because the emerging global consumer market is going to bring more and more short made-up words as product names. You see, Wii isn’t tied to any particular culture’s language. If they had called it Revolution (which I liked), marketing this in many non-english territories would have been a little more difficult as “Revolution” only has understandable meaning to countries whose language stems from Europe.
Other Reasons Why They Chose This Name
- They wanted a name like “iPod” but putting “i” in front of a product name is sooo late 90s, so they put the i after. Then they added one more to try to get you to pronounce it as “we”.
- They wanted to emphasize it’s WiFi capabilities, but they could call it WiFi, so they just took out the F.
- The marketing folks love the idea of swapping out the “i”s for the new Nintendo controller.
Lame in the US, Fine Everywhere Else?
Keep in mind that in Japan this name will probably go over just fine and Nintendo has a history of making sure whatever it does works well in the Japanese market first. It’s the market they understand the best and that way if something doesn’t go well globally, they still have their home revenue source to keep things healthy.
I haven’t a clue as to how this name will do in Europe. I just don’t know enough about the current culture there.
Great Systems Can Have Lame Names
I always thought Nintendo Entertainment System was a pretty lame name, which we all called either “Nes” or simply “Nintendo” as a result, but it didn’t stop the machine from being a huge success.
I don’t think the name “Nintendo Wii” is going to make or break the Nintendo Wii. The games will and quite frankly, I’m seriously excited about trying them out.
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Comments (8)
I’ll be calling it “The Piss”.
“Hey, pause the game. I’ve gotta take a wicked wii.”
Somehow I knew that you had already blogged about this.
I don’t think wii is going to catch on, but maybe… I think I’ll still call it Revolution, or maybe just “the new nintendo”. But I agree, the system looks awesome.
You may have just figured out what will happen. If the name doesn’t catch on but the system does, everyone will simply call it “Nintendo” as in “I’m going to go play Nintendo.” just like with the NES. Sounds right to me.
What are they going to do in France where the name is pronounced the same as their word for “yes?”
8 months later, when someone says Wii everyone knows you don’t need the bog. Or is that just mii?
The concept behind the name for Nintendo’s new console is simple and pretty clever marketing if you ask me.
A) The name is easy to remember, just Wii!
B) The name Wii is spelled with two i’s for an important reason. The first being obviously that it sounds like “we” which emphasies the concept of “we play together” and the second being that 2 lower case i’s resemble 2 match stick men sitting together emphasising people playing games together.
Getting everybody involved in playing games has been Nintendo’s goal from day one with this console. The Wii is designed to have enough challenging games for hardcore gamers whilst introducing people new to video games with simpler party games and with a control system which is easy to pick up and play almost instinctively.
If you ask me Nintendo appear to have struck gold with the Wii concept thus far!
Im just wondering if any of those who stated it would never catch on feel like total a-holes yet? haha