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Practice Marketing Serious Game: Silver Medal @ Serious Play

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Following my prior post Serious Games Award Winners Announced @ Serious Play, here is a re-publishing of my prior post Practice Marketing: Real World Multiplayer Serious Game. 

McGraw-Hill Education Practice Marketing (McGraw-Hill Education International and Muzzy Lane SW) was one of the 6 Silver Medal Winners at the Serious Play Conference, Tuesday – Thursday, August 23 – 25, 2011 at the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Wash.

A 3D representation of a Marketplace

Developed for McGraw Hill Higher Education Education UK, PRACTICE Marketing is a 3D turn-based Serious Game intended to teach college kids the principles of product marketing and competition.

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, Likeability, 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.