Topic: The Name Wii: Why I Don't Like It

[Kairon]

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Originally posted by: mantidor
I think its obvious the console would have sold just as well without the hideous name anyway.

That is entirely 100% opinion Mantidor. I actually believe that the name was a boon to the system, and HELPED it sell.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: mantidor
I think its obvious the console would have sold just as well without the hideous name anyway.

Like I stated in another thread, the Wii name has the same selling power as something like iPod. The way it is designed, and the ease it is said does impact not only sales but also whether or not it becomes a commonly used term. Would the Wii have sold well with the Revolution name? I am not sure, because in a way that name sounds "hardcore" and really does not have much meaning to those who have never thought about playing a game console before, in fact it may chase them away. The Wii name is unique, and does have meaning to people, not to mention it is fun to say in a strange way.

[odifiend]

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Originally posted by: Kairon

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Originally posted by: mantidor
I think its obvious the console would have sold just as well without the hideous name anyway.

That is entirely 100% opinion Mantidor. I actually believe that the name was a boon to the system, and HELPED it sell.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

Also 100% opinion...  I never got passionate about the name.  Though I was a little dissappointed that they paid money for the name 'wii'.  It did all work out, but I agree with Mantidor - the wii is not selling so well because of its name.  Revolution might have been too hardcore, but people pay for the experience, not the name.
Did anyone mention that wii might have been given its name because that is the sound one makes when playing the console?  I could never figure out why they went with 'wii' but that seems very plausible right now.

[Ian Sane]

"I actually believe that the name was a boon to the system, and HELPED it sell."

I say the opposite.  The console has sold well despite the stupid name because it's interesting enough that people are willing to look into it.  The name isn't enough to make them uninterested.  But then how to do you prove what effect the name had?  The console itself is of good quality and thus deserves to sell.  Therefore it's kind of hard to see what impact the marketing had on it.  The easiest way to tell the effect of marketing is if the opposite of what logically makes sense occurs.  If a good product doesn't sell worth a damn it can be fair to assume it was the result of poor marketing while at the same time a crappy product selling really well can be said to have been marketed really well.  But if a good product sells really well or a bad product bombs that's the way the world is supposed to work so how do you know how effective the marketing was?

I sure as hell don't think naming it "Revolution" or "N5" would have screwed sales up or anything.

And I like the name iPod so I just personally don't get why it's an example of weird name that caught on.  Unlike Wii it actually makes a lot of sense and doesn't sound like potty talk.  It's a personal music player.  Thus "i" as in myself and "pod" is like calling it a capsule or a box, which is common with electronics.

I also think the DS succeeded despite not using the Gameboy name.  I think it actually would have sold even better in North America as GBA sales continued to be high after the DS was released.  I figure those who bought a GBA at that point were unaware that the DS can play GBA games and assumed that Gameboy Advance was the "top" of the Gameboy line when for all intents and purposes the DS is.  But then Nintendo is probably happy that a large group of complete saps bought GBAs after it made logically no sense to do so (ie: the true motivation for the third pillar strategy).

[optimisticlimbo]

I partially disagree with your logic about the GBA selling despite the DS.  I know of many cases, up until the cheaper Lite came out, where getting the GBA was the better option because of price.  It was, at the time, a $70 price difference between the two units.  Why spend the extra cash when you really just wanted the GBA games?  Just a thought.

As for the Wii, name helped.  It's unoffensive, and that helps a lot when bringing in new people.  It's short and easy to remember.  No more acronyms, butchering of the name, or using words from other systems.

[Deguello]

I'd like to see some evidence of the Wii's name hurting sales from people who did not have a negative opinion of it from the outset.  They'd be... how shall I say... tempted to read the evidence in a way that fits their opinion.

[GoldenPhoenix]

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Originally posted by: Deguello
I'd like to see some evidence of the Wii's name hurting sales from people who did not have a negative opinion of it from the outset.  They'd be... how shall I say... tempted to read the evidence in a way that fits their opinion.

Kind of hard to prove that kind of negative! In the case of the Wii name people were screaming about how it was going to hurt the Wii's image, and guess what it didn't. In fact the Wii has gone on to be one of Nintendo's most successful systems, and people are throwing the name around with a sense of joy, not a sense of "Hey this name sucks". If anything that indicates that the Wii name has NOT hampered its success at all, and even indicates that it contributed to its success (How much that contribution really is, is impossible to prove).

All we know now is that people are using it freely without relating it to some immature pee joke, and are in fact accepting it for what it is and what it means. In regards to the name itself, the design of the name is quite attractive, and it definitely stands out when you see it. Like the iPod, it is short and visually appealing, not to mention easy to say.  

[BigJim]

Nobody can prove anything either way. Just because the Wii is popular, it doesn't prove the name is a positive or a negative. It's bigger than the sum of its parts, as a package, and that is why it's successful.

Anecdotally, I don't hear piss jokes anymore. Rather, they always say it as, "Weeeeeeee!" in a high-pitched voice, which has a more fun/silly connotation... not necessarily a negative one.

[Kairon]

Lol. Yeah, seriously. I can't think of a way to prove factually that the name was either positive OR negative. Both supporters and detractors will depend on complete subjectivity in their arguments... *sigh* It's all 100% opinion (and probably will remain so forever), with the happenstance that the darn thing is actually selling no matter what our personal view.

*sigh* I'm now depressed because of the above realization. Oh well... subjectivity still has its place in argument and discussion, it's just a pity no definitive proof can be brought to bear. Saying the Wii name is helping the system sell is like saying the Gamecube's name didn't.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[GoldenPhoenix]

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Originally posted by: Kairon
Lol. Yeah, seriously. I can't think of a way to prove factually that the name was either positive OR negative. Both supporters and detractors will depend on complete subjectivity in their arguments... *sigh* It's all 100% opinion (and probably will remain so forever), with the happenstance that the darn thing is actually selling no matter what our personal view.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

I wouldn't say 100% opinion because all indicators is that at the very least it is not hurting the Wii, heck you can't even find it in the store! If the name was hurting sales (especially to the point some of the naysayers said) there is nothing to back that claim up if you look at things from outside. Personally I wish I knew more details about great names for products, but I wasn't a marketing major, though I do know the name is still an important piece to the puzzle in pretty much any product, which is why millions is usually spent trying to develop it!

[UltimatePartyBear]

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Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
I wouldn't say 100% opinion because all indicators is that at the very least it is not hurting the Wii, heck you can't even find it in the store! If the name was hurting sales (especially to the point some of the naysayers said) there is nothing to back that claim up if you look at things from outside.

Well, this is being pedantic, but just because demand is exceeding production capacity doesn't mean it's the highest it could possibly be.  It's just not worth worrying about because, once again, demand is exceeding production capacity.  Maybe with a different name, demand might be some percent higher or lower than it is, but as long as demand is exceeding production capacity, that doesn't matter.  By now, so much momentum has been built that it won't matter after that's no longer the case, either.  It truly is moot (in the more recent, pedant-annoying sense of the word).

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Personally I wish I knew more details about great names for products, but I wasn't a marketing major, though I do know the name is still an important piece to the puzzle in pretty much any product, which is why millions is usually spent trying to develop it!

I'm no marketing major either, but I think Nintendo took a big risk with the name, mostly because it's so unconventional.  It seems to have turned out that more people made the "Whee!" connection than anything else, so everything worked out in the end, although I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting the pronoun "we" connection as anything more than a pun used in the commercials.

Personally, I still think it's a bit lame and sounds too much like it was created by a committee, but I can deal with it.  At the very least, I've long since gotten over arguing about it.  One thing I've noticed, however, is that whenever people bring it up in conversation (which happens more than I expected, which is awesome), they always explain what it is briefly.  They say things like, "Have you tried the Wii?  The new Nintendo console?"  They don't do that when they mention the PS3 or Xbox 360.  Part of that may be that the PS3 and Xbox 360 have sequel names, so everyone's had several years to learn to associate those names with video games.  Another possibility is that Wii is the least descriptive name for a console Nintendo has ever used.  Previous names included the words entertainment, game, or, after it became synonymous with games, Nintendo.  Regardless, it doesn't seem to dampen enthusiasm at all, and I'd chalk it up as a point for the name not having a significant effect either way.

[mantidor]

Well, apparently it wasn't that obvious .

"I think" == "IMO", just to be clear that I was stating my opinion and in no way I was saying it was a fact.

I can see however that naming it the kinetic gamestation 5000 would have slowed sales somewhat (which mean it would be available so it isn't such a bad scenario after all), but nintendo would have never named it like that, something like "rev" would have done the trick just as well.

[Kairon]

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Originally posted by: mantidor
Well, apparently it wasn't that obvious .

"I think" == "IMO", just to be clear that I was stating my opinion and in no way I was saying it was a fact.

I can see however that naming it the kinetic gamestation 5000 would have slowed sales somewhat (which mean it would be available so it isn't such a bad scenario after all), but nintendo would have never named it like that, something like "rev" would have done the trick just as well.

DOH!

I was bamboozled by the close proximity of "I think" and "it should be obvious." Talk about a combination of opposites!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Nick DiMola]

I would say that the Wii name, though stupid probably helped Nintendo. It stirred up alot of press a year ago and really got the mainstream cognizant of the product. In addition to that, the Wii logo and presentation is visually appearing and makes for better marketing materials. I'm guessing people who study this kind of stuff would tell you that Nintendo made all the right choices for the Wii. I think the demand would be the same right now regardless, but I'm not so sure that down the line the name would be as attractive and as fitting to the product.

(I can't believe I just said that. A year ago I was saying that I would never call it the Wii, it would forever be the Revolution, guess I drank the Kool Aid with everyone else...)

[Kairon]

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Originally posted by: Mr. Jack
I would say that the Wii name, though stupid probably helped Nintendo. It stirred up alot of press a year ago and really got the mainstream cognizant of the product. In addition to that, the Wii logo and presentation is visually appearing and makes for better marketing materials. I'm guessing people who study this kind of stuff would tell you that Nintendo made all the right choices for the Wii. I think the demand would be the same right now regardless, but I'm not so sure that down the line the name would be as attractive and as fitting to the product.

(I can't believe I just said that. A year ago I was saying that I would never call it the Wii, it would forever be the Revolution, guess I drank the Kool Aid with everyone else...)

Well, I don't think the name would help in a COMMODITIES market, but something like the game market which is based around emotion, entertainment, and experiences is a different story.

By the way... *gulps down kool-aid through a mega-jumbo-straw* ... how do you like the flavor?

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[GoldenPhoenix]

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Originally posted by: PartyBear

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Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
I wouldn't say 100% opinion because all indicators is that at the very least it is not hurting the Wii, heck you can't even find it in the store! If the name was hurting sales (especially to the point some of the naysayers said) there is nothing to back that claim up if you look at things from outside.

Well, this is being pedantic, but just because demand is exceeding production capacity doesn't mean it's the highest it could possibly be.  It's just not worth worrying about because, once again, demand is exceeding production capacity.  Maybe with a different name, demand might be some percent higher or lower than it is, but as long as demand is exceeding production capacity, that doesn't matter.  By now, so much momentum has been built that it won't matter after that's no longer the case, either.  It truly is moot (in the more recent, pedant-annoying sense of the word).

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Personally I wish I knew more details about great names for products, but I wasn't a marketing major, though I do know the name is still an important piece to the puzzle in pretty much any product, which is why millions is usually spent trying to develop it!

I'm no marketing major either, but I think Nintendo took a big risk with the name, mostly because it's so unconventional.  It seems to have turned out that more people made the "Whee!" connection than anything else, so everything worked out in the end, although I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting the pronoun "we" connection as anything more than a pun used in the commercials.

Personally, I still think it's a bit lame and sounds too much like it was created by a committee, but I can deal with it.  At the very least, I've long since gotten over arguing about it.  One thing I've noticed, however, is that whenever people bring it up in conversation (which happens more than I expected, which is awesome), they always explain what it is briefly.  They say things like, "Have you tried the Wii?  The new Nintendo console?"  They don't do that when they mention the PS3 or Xbox 360.  Part of that may be that the PS3 and Xbox 360 have sequel names, so everyone's had several years to learn to associate those names with video games.  Another possibility is that Wii is the least descriptive name for a console Nintendo has ever used.  Previous names included the words entertainment, game, or, after it became synonymous with games, Nintendo.  Regardless, it doesn't seem to dampen enthusiasm at all, and I'd chalk it up as a point for the name not having a significant effect either way.

I have had completely different experiences, people use Wii and everyone knows what it means.

[Mario]

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I'm no marketing major either, but I think Nintendo took a big risk with the name, mostly because it's so unconventional.

The whole damn system was a big risk, that's why it fit.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Revealing your Wii to the public is always a risk.

Flashers beware.

[couchmonkey]

Mario sums up the topic in a sentence.

[vudu]

"I actually believe that the name was a boon to the system, and HELPED it sell."

I say the opposite.  The console has sold well despite the stupid name because it's interesting enough that people are willing to look into it.  The name isn't enough to make them uninterested.  But then how to do you prove what effect the name had?  The console itself is of good quality and thus deserves to sell.  Therefore it's kind of hard to see what impact the marketing had on it.  The easiest way to tell the effect of marketing is if the opposite of what logically makes sense occurs.  If a good product doesn't sell worth a damn it can be fair to assume it was the result of poor marketing while at the same time a crappy product selling really well can be said to have been marketed really well.  But if a good product sells really well or a bad product bombs that's the way the world is supposed to work so how do you know how effective the marketing was?

If the name had no effect that it obviously doesn't matter and isn't worth arguing about.

A name is just that ... a name.  (... a rose by any other name would smell as sweet ...)  Xbox makes no sense (and neither does 360 for that matter) and PlayStation sounds just as juvenile as Game Boy.  They're just labels--who cares?

We all know it comes down to the games (and to a lesser extent the hardware).

[BlackNMild2k1]

But PlayStation was a stolen name, stolen like the idea for it in the system in the first place.

Nintendo Play Station then turns into Sony PlayStation. But I really don't think the playstation would have been any less successful if they had called it something else instead.

We all know it comes down to the games (and to a lesser extent the hardware).

But I think alot of the success was not just from the games, but from the marketing. Same to be said about the Wii. Sony made Nintendo look childish through marketing and that was the biggest factor to making the PS a success. It was cool to own one, and once you owned it, you had to buy the games up keep up the image.

Wii, regardless of the weird name, which was so weird that it cause people to talk about it(product awareness!!), was marketed perfectly to the audience it was trying to reach, the "Real" Mature crowd.
Now in hindsight the name never really mattered.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Ian calls them "dumb people."  Have what you will.

[Caterkiller]

For a moment I was going to say "not this crap again". I really don't think the name did much of anything after all these years, but I do like the name now. I remember hating it but trying to be really cool with it at first.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

The name's gotta be likable to the masses if it's going to succeed in destroying gaming.

[vudu]

But I think alot of the success was not just from the games, but from the marketing. Same to be said about the Wii. Sony made Nintendo look childish through marketing and that was the biggest factor to making the PS a success. It was cool to own one, and once you owned it, you had to buy the games up keep up the image.

If Sony made Nintendo look childish it was via the colorful games and "underpowered" system.  It wasn't because of the name.