EA GAMES (ELECTRONIC ARTS)
Introduction into the world of EA GAMES
You can not talk about the gaming industry without
talking about EA Games. EA are one of the biggest gaming companies
in the world producing over thousands of games since its inception in 1982.
According to statista (2015), EA is the 6th largest gaming company with a
revenue of $3.25 Billion. EA were one of the first gaming companies to
start producing games in the early years of computers. They make tons of games
which are released on a yearly basis. EA was established in 1982 by Trip Hawkins, formally an employee of Apple Inc. who was the Director
of marketing. Since then they have been making games and never looked back.
EA began to really make it big during the 1990s
with games like Fifa,NHL Hockey and Madden NFL. These games are what really
put EA on the map. With the acquisition of small key gaming companies such Dreamworks, Mythic, Westwood and Maxis during
the late 1990s, pushed EA to the top. EA had various brands baring the EA logo.
EA Big was created in 2000 for extreme
sport games and was discontinued in 2008, after 8 years of extreme games, such
as, Fifa street, SSX, NBA streets and NFL streets. EA today are one of
the biggest gaming companies in the world. Everyone knows who EA games are now
and they aren't stopping just there. EA have now tapped into the E-sport
market, a market that is half a billion dollars and with different branches all
over the globe all producing various games to satisfy every kind of customer,
from family games to sports, EA will continue to grow bigger for years to come.
PRODUCT
According
to google (2016) “a product is an article or substance that is manufactured or
refined for sale”. It can also be said in marketing terms that, products are “everything, both favorable and unfavorable,
tangible and intangible, received in an exchange of an idea, service or good”’
(S. Dibb, L. Simkin, W. M. Pride and O.C. Ferrell: Marketing concepts and
strategies 6th edition 2012). In the case of EA, their products are mainly the games they produce,
below are some example of EA products:
TYPES
OF PRODUCTS
CONSUMER
PRODUCTS
Convenience Products:
These kinds of products are inexpensive and are bought everyday. These sorts of
product range from Magazines, Newspapers, chocolate chewing gum, petrol etc.
Usually the consumer uses less effort to purchase this or doesn’t think too
hard before purchasing these kinds of products. Even buyers who want a specific
brand are ready to choose a different type if theirs isn’t around.
Shopping products: These
products are carefully chosen than convenience products, buyers spend lots of
effort looking for specific brands, shops, quality, services, prices and
sometimes guarantees. For example people prefer EAs FIFA games to Konamis Pro
Evolution soccer because to most FIFA games are more realistic than Pro Evolution Soccer. If FIFA is
out of stock from their various retail shops, they would not go in for any substitute
but go to another shop and look for where FIFA is sold at.
Pes stands for PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER.
People lining up for the new Playstation.
Specialty Products: These products have something different or a unique
characteristic which buyers will go extreme lengths sometimes to obtain that
product. Buyers carefully plan; they know exactly what they want and will get it at any cost (S. Dibb, L. Simkin, W. M. Pride and O.C. Ferrell
2012). A typical example was when Playstation decided to release their latest
tech, the Playstation VR.
Unsought products: Shawn Grimsley of study.com (2015) said “An unsought product is a product of which
consumers are unaware or are not that interested in actively pursuing for
purchase. A high degree of marketing, including heavy advertising and
aggressive sales techniques, is often necessary due to consumer unawareness of
the product or no real desire to purchase it”. Example of unsought products
are life insurance, Accident Insurance, prepaid funeral plans.
BUSINESS
PRODUCTS
Raw Materials: Raw
materials are the basic materials that are used in making the products. These
may include wood, chemicals, agricultural products etc. In the case of EA, the
raw materials in making their games may vary since their games are both on CDs
and digital (downloaded). EAs raw material could be the artists imagination, since they will draw the characters that are needed for the game.
Major Equipment: These
are large tools or equipment that are used in the production process such as
computers and software that are made for specific functions or tuned to make
specific things. For instance, EA uses the “Frostbite” game engine to design FIFA
for all platforms (Playstation, Xbox, Nitendo and PC), this engine basically
provides all the physique, player visuals and the actions needed in the game.
Accessory Equipment:
According to Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.303 ), these are equipment
that do not become part of the final physical product, but it is used in
production or office activities. These can be the telephone systems, the
internet service, stationary supplies, etc.
Component Parts:
These are parts that become part of the physical products, that are finished or
need little processing before assembly. Although they DO become part of the
finished products, they are often easily identified. For instance what is used to make game cases polypropylene plastic
Process Materials: They
are materials that are directly used in production of other products. Unlike
how component parts are physical, these products are products that are not really
identified in the finished product, but they form part of the finished
product.
Consumable Supplies: These
are supplies that facilitate production and operations but do not become part
of the finished product (Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell 2012 p.303). Some
examples are pencils, paints in some cases papers that are use to draw the characters and story-line.
Industrial/business services: “Business services is a general term that describes work that supports a business but does not produce a tangible commodity. Information technology (IT) is an important business service that supports many other business services such as procurement, shipping and finance” (Margaret Rouse, 2015).
This how EA make their FIFA games.
THE
LEVELS OF PRODUCTS
Gamers
or just people who love games know what kind of benefits and services to expect
when they buy EA product. The EA network or as it’s called “EA Access” brings
people together from all around the world, to communicate and play against each
other. With every game they produce EA always have the customer in mind, how to make the game better, and every year this CORE part of the level of product, is always improved and makes people want to purchase their products. “Core products are a company's products or services which are most
directly related to their core competencies. They refer to the use, benefit or
problem-solving service that the consumer is really buying when purchasing the
product”(Wikipedia 2016).
The EA brand has gone through some changes over its inception in 1982. From its logo
to its motto. The name Electronic Arts is a recognized brand name around the world.
Its famous motto that appears when the player is about to play a sport game “EA
Sports, it’s in the game” has become somewhat like a brand name in some sense that EA customers identify themselves with. Their game packaging for some
notable games such as FIFA and Madden are always anticipated every single year
because every one wants to see who graces the cover of their beloved game. The packaging is
designed to protect the CDs , a manual on how the game works and the different platforms that it’s going to be played
on. An ACTUAL product is said to be Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.304)
that “A composite of the features and capabilities offered in a product,
quality and durability, design and product, styling, packaging and brand name”.
One
of the best things about games in general is that, you do not need to necessarily
go to a retailer, because it can be bought online and that means it is accessible, can be carried everywhere or played anywhere at any time
as long as you have internet connection. But people still go to retailers or go
directly to EA to purchase their products. The AUGMENTED part of EA product do all
they can to satisfy the customer, especially as I mentioned earlier,
EAs network for gaming, EA Access. EA Access, just doesn’t help connect gamers and people but it helps when the customer has a problem with the game and it delivers 24/7
help online, it is fast and can also be accessed everywhere no matter where
you are. Some game prices differ sometimes, for instance for a product like FIFA 17, there are different versions; there’s the standard edition which costs less,
there is the deluxe edition and super deluxe edition. All bring different things together. i.e. the super deluxe edition is the most expensive one. According to Investopedia.com
(2016) “An augmented
product is a commodity that has both the primary physical attributes and the
non-physical attributes that are added to increase the product's value”.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/augmented-product.asp#ixzz4QXtoJNxo
PRODUCT LINE/PRODUCT MIX
The Product Line depth are the different games that EA make, and the Product Mix width are the different genre of games EA have
PROMOTION
Investopia.com
(2016) says, “promotion refers to a
different sort of advancement”. The economic times (2016) also says “Promotions refers to the entire set of
activities, which communicate the product, brand or service to the user. The
idea is to make people aware, attract and induce to buy the product, in
preference over others”. From time to time EA reduces the prices of
their game as a promotion. The most notable ones are the demos. When
there’s a new game about to be released, EA give out free demos, for customers to
try the new game and to have a feel of the game before they buy it.
SALES PROMOTION
One way which EA games do their sales promo
From the picture at the top this shows some kinds of sale promo EA have incorporated, by price reductions on their
hottest games. Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.563) said that “Sales
promotion is an activity or material that acts as a direct inducement and
offers added value to incentive to buy the product”.
They also have these kinds of promotions, where they place a
free game in the box of the platform the customer is going to buy and play on. Usually
the price of the console isn’t affected by the free game.
An example of EAs sale promotion
SALES PROMOTION
METHODS
There are various
methods of promotion, and EA adopts a few in their organisation. We shall take a look at some of
the various methods EA uses.
Coupons: EA uses the coupon methods, it is used by mostly
one of their online resources called Origin, which is owned and developed by
EA. They usually give coupons to purchase in-game stuff or reduction on latest
games. Coupons are made to reduce the purchase price of an item in order to make
the buyer try new stuff and that’s what origin does for EA.
How EA uses Coupons in their sale promo
EA Origin
Demonstration event of Star Wars: Battlefront, An EA game
Demonstration: Usually demonstration for any game or EA
products are really big events because they just don’t give a demonstration
about the new game that's about to be launched, they are fully loaded with lots of things to
explore at the events. Demonstrations show how the game looks like, how it feels like and when it will be out in some cases. Basically demonstrations “shows the performance of a product
in actual use conditions, or encourages trial
purchase and use of the product for evaluation by the customer”
(Businessdictionary.com 2015).
SPONSORSHIP
PLACE
The
distribution channels of EA is quiet a large one, since it is a very big
organisation with different companies doing their own thing. According to
Wikipedia (2016) “ a distribution channel
or marketing channel is a set of practices or activities necessary to
transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the point of
consumption. It is the way products and services get to the end-user, the
consumer”. As said before, EAs distribution channel is really big and
since it’s a big organisation with companies situated in different parts of the
world, each company does its own thing and has its own way of distribution.
EA
is located in 30 countries across the world, each of them do different things.
Usually the distribution is done from the producer (EA), to the wholesaler, retailer and
then to the buyer, which Dibb, Smkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.422)
labelled it as channel ‘C’.
One of the many various stores where games are sold
EA
are trying to refer from this kind of distribution and go into the
e-commerce. “E-commerce refers to the purchase and sale of goods and/or services
via electronic channels such as the Internet” (Businessnewsdaily.com 2015).
More and more games are being sold online on Origin (EAs digital distribution
network) and other gaming companies sell their games on EAs Origin. http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/ea-promises-to-go-totally-digital-for-game-distribution-in-the-future-1087894
.
Majority
of people still prefer to buy games on discs, in fact an overwhelming number. “Of EA's $4.3 billion in sales last year, a
record $2.2 billion came from Internet sales of both full games and add-ons.
Sales from EA's growing library of titles for smartphones and tablets also hit
a new record, ringing up $524 million for the year” (Cnet.com 2016). What
does this mean? It means EA has the digital market aspect down and very soon
games would just be bought online. Which will not make retailers really happy at that point.
PRODUCT
According
to google (2016) “a product is an article or substance that is manufactured or
refined for sale”. It can also be said in marketing terms that, products are “everything, both favorable and unfavorable,
tangible and intangible, received in an exchange of an idea, service or good”’
(S. Dibb, L. Simkin, W. M. Pride and O.C. Ferrell: Marketing concepts and
strategies 6th edition 2012). In the case of EA, their products are mainly the games they produce,
below are some example of EA products:
TYPES
OF PRODUCTS
Products
can be grouped into two types: Consumer products and Business or Industrial
Products. Basically consumer products are products that are purchased by the consumer and business products are purchased by a company or an organization in bulk.
CONSUMER
PRODUCTS
Consumer
products are widely accepted approach to classifying products (S.
Dibb, L. Simkin, W. M. Pride and O.C. Ferrell 2012). It usually relies on the
consumer buying behavior. Consumer product are divided into four categories, 1)
Convenience products, 2) Shopping products 3) Specialty products and 4)
Unsought Products. In some cases one product can fit into more than one
category.
Convenience Products:
These kinds of products are inexpensive and are bought everyday. These sorts of
product range from Magazines, Newspapers, chocolate chewing gum, petrol etc.
Usually the consumer uses less effort to purchase this or doesn’t think too
hard before purchasing these kinds of products. Even buyers who want a specific
brand are ready to choose a different type if theirs isn’t around.
Shopping products: These
products are carefully chosen than convenience products, buyers spend lots of
effort looking for specific brands, shops, quality, services, prices and
sometimes guarantees. For example people prefer EAs FIFA games to Konamis Pro
Evolution soccer because to most FIFA games are more realistic than Pro Evolution Soccer. If FIFA is
out of stock from their various retail shops, they would not go in for any substitute
but go to another shop and look for where FIFA is sold at.
 |
| Pes stands for PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER. |
 |
| People lining up for the new Playstation. |
Specialty Products: These products have something different or a unique characteristic which buyers will go extreme lengths sometimes to obtain that product. Buyers carefully plan; they know exactly what they want and will get it at any cost (S. Dibb, L. Simkin, W. M. Pride and O.C. Ferrell 2012). A typical example was when Playstation decided to release their latest tech, the Playstation VR.
Unsought products: Shawn Grimsley of study.com (2015) said “An unsought product is a product of which
consumers are unaware or are not that interested in actively pursuing for
purchase. A high degree of marketing, including heavy advertising and
aggressive sales techniques, is often necessary due to consumer unawareness of
the product or no real desire to purchase it”. Example of unsought products
are life insurance, Accident Insurance, prepaid funeral plans.
BUSINESS
PRODUCTS
Business
products are sold to other companies or to other businesses as opposed to
consumer products (boundless.com 2016). Business products contain the raw
material, the major equipment, the accessory equipment, the component parts,
process materials, consumable supplies and the industrial or business service
Raw Materials: Raw
materials are the basic materials that are used in making the products. These
may include wood, chemicals, agricultural products etc. In the case of EA, the
raw materials in making their games may vary since their games are both on CDs
and digital (downloaded). EAs raw material could be the artists imagination, since they will draw the characters that are needed for the game.
Accessory Equipment:
According to Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.303 ), these are equipment
that do not become part of the final physical product, but it is used in
production or office activities. These can be the telephone systems, the
internet service, stationary supplies, etc.
Component Parts:
These are parts that become part of the physical products, that are finished or
need little processing before assembly. Although they DO become part of the
finished products, they are often easily identified. For instance what is used to make game cases polypropylene plastic
Process Materials: They
are materials that are directly used in production of other products. Unlike
how component parts are physical, these products are products that are not really
identified in the finished product, but they form part of the finished
product.
Consumable Supplies: These
are supplies that facilitate production and operations but do not become part
of the finished product (Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell 2012 p.303). Some
examples are pencils, paints in some cases papers that are use to draw the characters and story-line.
Industrial/business services: “Business services is a general term that describes work that supports a business but does not produce a tangible commodity. Information technology (IT) is an important business service that supports many other business services such as procurement, shipping and finance” (Margaret Rouse, 2015).
Industrial/business services: “Business services is a general term that describes work that supports a business but does not produce a tangible commodity. Information technology (IT) is an important business service that supports many other business services such as procurement, shipping and finance” (Margaret Rouse, 2015).
This how EA make their FIFA games.
THE
LEVELS OF PRODUCTS
One
of the best things about games in general is that, you do not need to necessarily
go to a retailer, because it can be bought online and that means it is accessible, can be carried everywhere or played anywhere at any time
as long as you have internet connection. But people still go to retailers or go
directly to EA to purchase their products. The AUGMENTED part of EA product do all
they can to satisfy the customer, especially as I mentioned earlier,
EAs network for gaming, EA Access. EA Access, just doesn’t help connect gamers and people but it helps when the customer has a problem with the game and it delivers 24/7
help online, it is fast and can also be accessed everywhere no matter where
you are. Some game prices differ sometimes, for instance for a product like FIFA 17, there are different versions; there’s the standard edition which costs less,
there is the deluxe edition and super deluxe edition. All bring different things together. i.e. the super deluxe edition is the most expensive one. According to Investopedia.com
(2016) “An augmented
product is a commodity that has both the primary physical attributes and the
non-physical attributes that are added to increase the product's value”.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/augmented-product.asp#ixzz4QXtoJNxo
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/augmented-product.asp#ixzz4QXtoJNxo
PRODUCT LINE/PRODUCT MIX
To talk about PRODUCT MIX we first have to know what PRODUCT LINES are. Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.305) said "A product line is a group of closely related product items that are considered a unit because of marketing technical or end-use consideration". For example Fifa 15, Madden 16, Battlefield 1, NBA 16, are all product lines of EA. “A
company/organization creates a group of products, which has in common most of
their main characteristics”( Senthilnathan Srinivasan, Linkedin.com, 2016). In
other words the total range of products offered by a company is the product
mix. Below is the various depth and width of EAs Product Line and Mix
 |
| The Product Line depth are the different games that EA make, and the Product Mix width are the different genre of games EA have |
PROMOTION
Investopia.com
(2016) says, “promotion refers to a
different sort of advancement”. The economic times (2016) also says “Promotions refers to the entire set of
activities, which communicate the product, brand or service to the user. The
idea is to make people aware, attract and induce to buy the product, in
preference over others”. From time to time EA reduces the prices of
their game as a promotion. The most notable ones are the demos. When
there’s a new game about to be released, EA give out free demos, for customers to
try the new game and to have a feel of the game before they buy it.
SALES PROMOTION
 |
| One way which EA games do their sales promo |
From the picture at the top this shows some kinds of sale promo EA have incorporated, by price reductions on their
hottest games. Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.563) said that “Sales
promotion is an activity or material that acts as a direct inducement and
offers added value to incentive to buy the product”.
They also have these kinds of promotions, where they place a
free game in the box of the platform the customer is going to buy and play on. Usually
the price of the console isn’t affected by the free game.
 |
| An example of EAs sale promotion |
SALES PROMOTION
METHODS
There are various
methods of promotion, and EA adopts a few in their organisation. We shall take a look at some of
the various methods EA uses.
Coupons: EA uses the coupon methods, it is used by mostly
one of their online resources called Origin, which is owned and developed by
EA. They usually give coupons to purchase in-game stuff or reduction on latest
games. Coupons are made to reduce the purchase price of an item in order to make
the buyer try new stuff and that’s what origin does for EA.
 |
| How EA uses Coupons in their sale promo |
 |
| EA Origin |
 |
| Demonstration event of Star Wars: Battlefront, An EA game |
Demonstration: Usually demonstration for any game or EA
products are really big events because they just don’t give a demonstration
about the new game that's about to be launched, they are fully loaded with lots of things to
explore at the events. Demonstrations show how the game looks like, how it feels like and when it will be out in some cases. Basically demonstrations “shows the performance of a product
in actual use conditions, or encourages trial
purchase and use of the product for evaluation by the customer”
(Businessdictionary.com 2015).
Free Samples: Free samples are like free trials for a product
to increase its sales in the early stages of a product. Free trials are always
seen when there are new games. This can be seen when EA was releasing their
latest installment for Sims. There was a duration for which the buyer had to
play and it’s called “Game time”. If the time runs out and the buyer feels like
it’s a good game, he or she either goes on to EAs Origin and buys it or goes to
a retail shop to get the game.
SPONSORSHIP
“Sponsorship
is a form of marketing in which a corporation pays for all or some of the costs
associated with a project or program in exchange for recognition” (Investopia.com
2016).
One
of EAs brands (EA Sports) are proud sponsors of the Barclays premier league.
Just this year they renewed their contracts to go for another 2 years with the Barclays Premier League. https://www.easports.com/fifa/news/2016/premier-league-partner
. They just don’t sponsor the premier league, they also sponsor the Spanish
Premier League: La Liga.
PLACE
The
distribution channels of EA is quiet a large one, since it is a very big
organisation with different companies doing their own thing. According to
Wikipedia (2016) “ a distribution channel
or marketing channel is a set of practices or activities necessary to
transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the point of
consumption. It is the way products and services get to the end-user, the
consumer”. As said before, EAs distribution channel is really big and
since it’s a big organisation with companies situated in different parts of the
world, each company does its own thing and has its own way of distribution.
EA
is located in 30 countries across the world, each of them do different things.
Usually the distribution is done from the producer (EA), to the wholesaler, retailer and
then to the buyer, which Dibb, Smkin, Pride and Ferrell (2012 p.422)
labelled it as channel ‘C’.
 |
| One of the many various stores where games are sold |
EA
are trying to refer from this kind of distribution and go into the
e-commerce. “E-commerce refers to the purchase and sale of goods and/or services
via electronic channels such as the Internet” (Businessnewsdaily.com 2015).
More and more games are being sold online on Origin (EAs digital distribution
network) and other gaming companies sell their games on EAs Origin. http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/ea-promises-to-go-totally-digital-for-game-distribution-in-the-future-1087894
.
Also,
EA distributes to other online shopping platforms such as Amazon, Playstation network, Googles playstore,
Apples Itunes, Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace, etc.
Majority
of people still prefer to buy games on discs, in fact an overwhelming number. “Of EA's $4.3 billion in sales last year, a
record $2.2 billion came from Internet sales of both full games and add-ons.
Sales from EA's growing library of titles for smartphones and tablets also hit
a new record, ringing up $524 million for the year” (Cnet.com 2016). What
does this mean? It means EA has the digital market aspect down and very soon
games would just be bought online. Which will not make retailers really happy at that point.
