As someone who is currently stuck on the last level of the Candy crush Saga before the next update, I can attest to the highly addictive nature of the game.
In an article posted today by Forbes, the six marketing lessons that can be learnt from this game are:
– Scarcity Increases Desire
– “Free” Motivates
– Our Brain Like “Easy”
– Candy is likable
– Rewards keep you going
– It has Community
None of these are really new concepts in todays marketing strategies but as we can see with the success of Candy Crush (it generates close to a million dollars a day) the right balance between them can be very profitable.
Each of these concepts can be found in other products:
– Limited edition Tee shirts by Johnny Cupcakes has done wonders for this Boston based entreupreneur.
– Free trials of most software products reduces the risk and fear of the purchase and entices you to then upgrade to a paid version if it suits your needs, or in the case of Candy Crush an extra life.
– Keeping it simple has always worked wonders, for example playing ‘noughts and crossess’ is easier than learning to play chess. Similarly, the path to purchase can make all the difference in abandonment and/or upsell rates of a site.
– Associating the design/ imagery to an object that everyone likes; just like candy in Candy Crush The Original Cute Bear on Hallmark card’s gives us that warm fuzzy feeling.
– Rewards are motivating, just like in the real world when we are praised for doing something well we are motivated to keep going, push a little harder and give a little more of our time to it. The concept is central to gamification, a great example is Badgeville which has done a great job in integrating this into the workforce practices.
– Finally, the social integration ensures that Candy Crush is not only getting more exposure but also fullfilling people’s need to belong while also tapping into the competitive nature of some. Many digital campaigns utilise this, but one I love from work is the Ferrero facebook community page.
I do wonder, as someone who will surly suffer from whithdrawl symptoms shortly if there is no update, if the right balance of all these marketing concepts will ensure the longevity of the game or like so many dwindle to just the fanatics…anyone remember farmville?
