EA Sports
It's in the Game
About EA Sports
The logo is a simple silver circle with the writing "EA Sports" in it. It is a simple logo but it is recognized worldwide for the leader in sports games. Along with the brand, it one of the most know slogans by video game players around the globe. EA Sports affiliates itself with the slogan "EA Sports, Its in the game".
Products and Services
EA Sports creates close to every sport video game on the market. They create games in almost every sport that is big in today's society. If there's a professional league for that sport, EA will have a game to represent it. Some of their biggest games include; NHL, NFL Madden, NASCAR, NBA Live, and lastly the most popular game they have, FIFA.
Target market
The target market for EA Sports in teenage males who enjoy to play video games. It appeals to the younger teens because a majority of their games are rated E(Everyone) so everybody can play. But it also related to older teens because sports can relate to everyone. A secondary market would be adult males and even teenage girls who like to play sports video games.
Promotion
EA relies heavily on one main style of promotion, Advertising. They create ads which they then broadcast all over all different forms of media. Things like billboards, commercials, websites, social media; are all different things that EA promotes on.
Endorsements
EA Sports endorses many sports athletes. Every year for every game, they have an athlete, or even a few that they put on the front cover. They endorse major athletes like Lionel Messi, Rory Mcilroy, Jonathan Toews etc. By having these popular athletes, it brings more recognition to the brand/game which in the end sells more copies.
Sponsorship
They dont do too much in the sponsorship category but they do have some sponsorship's going on right now. One of the biggest sponsorship's was the branding of EA Sports on the La Liga socks. They had their brand logo placed on the socks of each team. Along with that was the sponsoring of the football club Swindon Town FC. As well is the annual EA Sports Cup which is a competition for Irish Football teams to compete in for the title.
Competition - 2K Sports
2K Sports is EA's biggest competition in the market of sports video games. 2K's biggest game is NBA2K16 which trumps over EA's version of an NBA game. In all other aspects though, EA is by far the superior brand. Some other competitors would be PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) which competes with FIFA and also every other video game company seeing its a very competitive market for the plays from young adults.
BRAND POSITIONING
EA Sports brand positioning is being the best at what they do while giving the consumer the best user experience possible. They're brand is implying how they are the best at making sporting video games and will make the best game for the consumer ever year.
EA Sports is located where it is for the reason that it has one of the highest user friendly ratings and everyone of its game has its different game-modes for users to interact with. It wasn't ranked as high in new/innovative because many sports games can be changed too much because at the end of the day, the game has to be the same as real life, and sports dont change drastically every year, so its not the most innovative and new company. Its main competitor is around the same in innovative ranking because they are both in the multi sports gaming industry, but their user experience rating is low for the fact that they just dont have the built-ins that EA Sports has. They are missing a whole bunch of things. I've included some other companies like PES, who basically release the same game every year with little to no changes, that why they are ranked so low. Then there is Nintendo and Sony Entertainment who both only ave 1 or 2 games in the sports industry but having their brand names bring good user experience even though it may not be the most innovative new game out there
HEAD-TO-HEAD POSITIONING
EA Sports positioning style is more of a head to head approach with the competition. As of right now, EA Sports main competitor in the market is 2K Sports. Obviously EA would want to be the best, so they take on 2K and exploit their weaknesses. By enhancing their games and adding things that 2K doesn't have, its gives itself that advantage. For example, 2K makes one of the biggest games which is NBA 2K16. But other than that, they dont have other games to match that. But EA has its biggest game FIFA, and a good bunch of other sports games that support themselves that 2K doesnt have out.
Value Proposition
EA Sports is the main company that everyone thinks of for sports video games. Buying an EA Sports video game is buying the best of the best. They give you everything you can think of. The game is built for playing. Its built for people to interact with others and play the sports game they love. Your not paying for a game that you have seen before, you're playing a game that represents and is the most life like to the current time.
Advantage through Positioning
With EA's current positioning, they care for the user and how they interact with the game. Saying this, they have added many aspects to their games that have given them an advantage over the competitors. One of the biggest add on's was the addition of Ultimate Team. This is a game mode where users create their own teams and face other users teams. Another addition to games was the introduction of EASHL in the game NHL, where people create their own player and play with their own teams against other peoples teams. Its user friendly things like these that give EA the competitive advantage to sell more copies of game and be the biggest sports video games seller.
Errors
One of the main errors with EA Sports would be the lack of innovative and new enhancements to their games. With sporting games, there isn't much that can be changed to the way its played because sports always stay the same. So with their current positioning, the main error is coming up with ways to advance the game and make it new and enhanced from the last years version.