There are a couple errors, here and there, but this is my overall opinion on the current state of affairs, regarding player retention. Feel free to correct me, or add insight
Wall of text warning!Summary
As of August 2012 the beginning of the product life cycle of Guns of Icarus Online, up to December, 1, 2015, Muse's product GIO has seen massive swings in customer base (base amount of customers on at any given point). These massive swings have resulted in only small gains in customer base, leading to the conclusion that customer retention is not being maintained at a reasonable rate. This plan is to highlight why this problem exists and to offer a solution that could solve this problem. This plan will first identify the problems with the current marketing strategy and then it will outline a solution that can fix the current state of affairs. The final points will be in regards to the costs and benefits of this specific solution, along with expert advice inserted when needed throughout the paper.
Problems
As mentioned earlier, Muse Games has seen poor retention rates even though the product has amassed many positive reviews as well as awards. Poor retention rates lead to customer use fluctuating greatly, usually in a pattern of a spike in growth in one month with a loss in customer base spread out over the following months. This usually ends with the player base back to before the spike in growth (as seen by the steam chart). Retention as stated by Forbes Editor Jerry Jao is the key to a company’s success. As Jao puts it, customer retention is by the most necessary parts of a company, and goes on to state that companies need to go as far as to restructure in order to eliminate poor retention (Jao). GIO is far from that state though, as the reason for its low retention rate stems from its current marketing strategy
The first problem of the current marketing strategy, is how customers are brought to the product. Many customers are attracted to GIO by social media entertainers from sites like YouTube. These customers are not usually attracted to the game, but the entertainer themselves. This can be inferred from the steam charts drop in customers immediately after each entertainer posts there advertising content and leaves (one of the largest gains in GIO has been from the popular YouTube entertainer “PewdiePie” with around 4,000 new customers, more than 2/3 left after only a month.). This type of marketing is harmful as the product attracts many new customers, but fails to retain their interests, thus preventing a meaningful company-customer relationship.
Our second problem is that these temporary customers get a false sense of the product through these social media entertainers. GIO is a product that requires a lot of consumer knowledge to be enjoyed fully with other individuals, and most social media entertainers don't highlight this fact. This causes a gap between the customer and the product when they actually get to use it. To put it simply, by having entertainers who only lightly follow how the product is meant to be used, is bound to have an impact on those customers who watched them. This leads to a misunderstanding of how the product is meant to be used.
The final problem is the customers that stay past the initial wave usually leave over the course of the following months. There could be a multitude of reasons for this such as disinterest or a new game caught their attention, however, after doing research on the matter I have come to the firm conclusion that is most likely due to a lack of incentive. Customers need incentives to have something to motivate them to continue coming back, and with GIO almost every part of the product can be experienced by the customer immediately, while this would be fine for a single use product but, GIO benefits from multiple customers using their product multiple times. Many companies who face similar problems dealing with this by locking away features until customers have played enough to unlock them, keeping customers coming back to achieve what another customer may have unlocked. GIO holds a firm stance that any features that effect the product via use should not be held back, however, there are possible alternatives that could be looked at.
Solutions
If we are to fix this, we must first fix the issue with the marketing done by social media entertainers. The benefit of these entertainers is undeniable, however, it is my belief that in order to keep these entertainers as the main marketing pull, we need to have them more properly reflect how the product is used. This may turn away some of their viewers, however, by more accurately portraying the specifics of the product, customers will not be confused by the product when they actually use it and are more likely to stay around longer. Jao also reflects this by stating that there needs to be a balance between acquisition and retention (Jao). It is stated by Chuck Williams Management Student Edition that you need to keep in mind that presentation is important when working on a retention strategy (Williams, p.284). With this information in mind continuing on, community representatives should join with these entertainers to maintain that the focus stays on the product, and not just on the entertainers by providing the knowledge needed to properly use the product. It's imperative that potential customers see that the product can be appealing on its own, and how it should be used. A possible collaboration between the entertainers and community representatives, would be to have a competitions between the two groups to show the clear difference between knowledgeable and unknowledgeable use of the product. By doing this we could maintain a balance between entertainment and factual use of the product.
Next a new strategy needs to be set in place to maintain new customer interest. A simple way to achieve this is by creating an incentive program. A simple incentive can provide a daily opportunity to obtain something or more of it, would encourage customers to come back to the product more often, even if only just for the incentive. Hayley Pearce a writer for app lift, also wrote an article that coincides with my point, in which she mentions that engaging users is a key priority in customer retention (Pearce). Getting the customer in the door, may be just enough to keep them from leaving. Lamb, Charles, and Hair’s Student Marketing Edition also states the importance of retaining customer, providing information that having loyalty programs are a great way to keep the best customers (Lambs, Charles, Hair, p.346). For GIO the incentive could possibly be if a customer returns X amount of days, then he/she could receive a reward. I think this could be taken a step farther and used to create an in product economy (an in game currency), which could be used to unlock in product features (in game cosmetics). These usually are left behind pay walls (real monetary transactions) and customers who cannot afford multiple purchases would instead earn these purchases. This would create a system that rewards returning customers and more customers means an increase in customer base.
Earlier it was mentioned that some potential customers that may prefer a more casual (A style of gaming for games that are easy to pick up and play, ex: Candy Crush) approach to a product may be turned away, this can also be solved. GIO’s new extended dlc (downloadable content) Guns of Icarus Online Adventure Mode, could be promoted with these customers in mind. In adventure mode optimized strategies as well as coordination will not be as important as in the current product due to the lesser restrictions for knowledgeable use. If the main product is promoted separately then its dlc, two groups of consumers can be targeted and specifically promoted. This is also supported by Pearce’s article, through her statements on retargeting the consumer, to more specifically cater to their needs (Pearce).
Costs and Benefits
Changing marketing strategy will have multiple benefits such as increased consumer knowledge, an increased focus on finding the right customer, and an increase in customer base. The costs of the strategy will vary, depending on the amount of time needed to create and test a new customer rewards system, however, it will be significantly outweighed by the increase in customer base. In a short interview with (Cannot mention real name) an upcoming software engineer, I was explained to that the average salary in the industry was around S90,000 per year (cannot mention real name). He also stated that only one months’ worth of work with as few as one engineer could produce a new currency system (he considered it an overestimate). The payment of entertainers on the other hand will be significantly reduced as the amount of entertainers could be theoretically cut in half, as promotion of the main game can be managed by community representatives, while the new dlc is promoted by the entertainers.
Conclusion
It is important to consider changing strategy to retain more customers. By simply focusing efforts on maintaining a marketing plan which reflects how the product is properly used, and which creates an incentive that keeps customers. As always customer retention should always remain the focus of businesses, and I thank GIO and any others who review this plan for taking time to read and review.
Did a few edits to take out some names, of irl people, I did interviews with.
