Following my prior post Muzzy Lane’s Marketing 101 Wins Serious Games Showcase & Challenge For Business, when I announced Muzzy Lane as the 2010 Serious Games Showcase & Challenge winner for the business game category with Marketing 101 - The Principles of Marketing, McGraw-Hill has just rebranded the game PRACTICE Marketing;
A 3D representation of a Marketplace
In the game, players are able to fully experience the seven underlying principles upon which to base marketing strategy and efforts: Image, Differentiation, Repeat Business, Ease of Doing Business, Networking, Likability, and Emotion.
Gameplay
You've been selected to manage a company’s new entry into the backpack market. Your first step in the game is to create a strong product that appeals to a specific market segment and price it appropriately.
You are upfront presented with the info you need to analyze the market, provided by market research, who has narrowed the backpack market down to five potential segments for you to consider targeting, selecting the one that looks the most promising.
Once you have selected a target market, you can use the backpack builder to design a pack that meets the needs of its particular demographic.
Before you put it the market you have to set a competitive price.
Then you have to negotiate distribution agreements with retail channels and pick how the bag is marketed and advertised.
At the end of each turn, you can review and submit your marketing decisions and then see your quarterly /yearly P&L (Profit &Loss) data, market trends and positioning, competitors’ data and customers’ feedback, among several other results.
The game is robust for testing your “adherence” to marketing fundamentals and incredibly fun.