Research and Marketing

This week has been a week of researching and marketing. I spent much of the time thinking about what the market for Immix Games is. Even within the Tabletop community, there are many different types of consumers and I was curious as to how many of them Immix Games would be able to reach. So I thought I would create a survey. Here's the thing about surveys: In order to get the right answers, you have to ask the right questions.

What are the right questions to ask? That is a good question. After a while, I settled on trying to understand their need. Simply asking them which type of game is their favorite wouldn't work since they may love family games but think that cooperative hobby games are right up there, and so I need to have them create a weighted scale for each type.

I found out a lot about my target audience simply by attempting to write the right questions they would like to answer. The elevator pitch we have been doing for my business class was the same way. In order to pitch my business properly, I have to first know the questions that they are going to be asking about my company and answer them before they even ask it.

My products need to do this too. I need to be able to fulfill the needs (or wants, or desires) of the customers before they even realize that it is a need, want, or desire. How then can we do this? Marketing! Unless you are a business major or have been around business a lot, you probably think of marketing as only advertising. I know I did until a little while ago, but I have found it to be much more than that. There is one thing that makes marketing marketing: Research.

I spent much of the week listening to podcasts and videos of "famous" board game bloggers and critiquers to try to understand the types of products that would make it onto their show. I asked myself during one of their videos (Top 10 unique board games), how can I make it so that the next time they do this video, every single one of the games on their list are Immix Games games?

I will be taking these surveys with me to the convention in March, and keeping my eye out to get the answers I might not receive. This research will then lead into the marketing of my own products to make it onto such lists.