My thoughts.
All great marketing start with the development of a great product. A product that understands the customer requirements so well it sells itself.
As the described “father of modern management”, Peter Trucker said:
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
Nintendo seems to have understood its target market well. And made good use of its experience in game design to create a great product.
The game does seem to provide a great immersion experience. Again, a great product will always sell itself without too much effort.
But the company went further to create a great adverting video. One that has all the elements of virality. It did go viral as they hoped.
I have talked about creating virality in this radar thread. There is no guarantee with virality. It could catch on or not.
That makes it difficult to rely on solely as a marketing tool.
It’s best when it’s integrated with other marketing tools as part of a multichannel strategy.
I think every marketing tool has its role to play depending on your:
- Target audience
- Product type
- Marketing capability
- Resources at your disposal
Analysis of your peculiar situation. Your set goals based on such situation. And your strategy/plan of action to reach such goals more than anything else determines the success of your marketing. Starting with a great product of course.
Lastly, I think that any marketing not backed by a measurable effort to make a good ROI will lose in this new world order.