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Four Proven Ways To Extend Board Games Brands

BOARD GAME BRAND EXTENSIONS

One of the best aspects of the board games industry from a business model point of view is that once you have established a successful board game in the market you can often spin off different versions of that game which stand a better chance of succeeding each time versus launching an entirely new game. This is because both consumers and retailers know and trust both the quality & experience that the brand will deliver.

Taking a quick look at the board games market, it is easy to observe four fairly straightforward ways to extend board games brands:

1. Spec/price point variance

This way of extending board games brands is simple. You add or remove contents to increase or decrease the price point. Obviously you need to adapt the gameplay & instructions accordingly! This method of brand extension can open up new distribution opportunities: for instance, if you have a premium brand, you may open up discount/bargain retail channels via a down specced version of your game. Or conversely, if you sell primarily in budget retail you might be able to secure listings in upmarket department store chains by creating a special version with a higher specification and higher price point.

2. Different gameplay format

If the original version of your game is a full board game, maybe you could extend via a dice game version or a cards only game. This way you can add some incremental sales opportunities. Beware though of cannibalisation with this method i.e. if you sell a new dice game version of your game successfully but people just buy that instead of buying the original version of the game that hasn’t necessarily helped you to move forward!

3. Themed/Licensed editions

The classic example of a board games brand with ‘themed’ editions would be Monopoly. Whether it’s a new version for the Olympics or for a new movie, Monopoly has long since proven that one board game brand can sustain many iterations with a different theme.

4. Digital versions

Digital gaming is a major business. Digital extensions of board games can be successful and bring new people into playing the original version of the board game. The major challenge though is that the digital world goes far deeper in terms of interactivity, depth and physical environments versus a board game. We’ve seen some dreadful ‘ports’ of board games which just take the same game & stick it onto mobile, console or online gaming. The game then tends to play badly because it is too shallow and basically not a compelling experience on a digital platform, so it can be easy to deliver a bad experience with a digital extension to an established board game.

We run a Consultancy business helping board games companies to grow. We have experience of most major board games markets around the world and our team has developed more than 200 board games including versions of classic games like Monopoly, Clue/do, Risk, Game of Life etc. For more information on our services (including our Export sales Consultancy) please just click here: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/services/

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The Important Role Of Nostalgia In The Board Games Business

If you received a €uro for every news article you could find with a quick Google search promoting the idea that ‘board games are back’ or that nostalgia is set to see the board games business boom you would have at least €37 based on a quick Google search we conducted.

Board games have obviously never gone away, they have continued to sell as technology has creeped into most aspects of our lives. Nostalgia is such a big part of that longevity. Nostalgia is a sentimental view of the past based more on positive memories and emotions associated with certain past events or past times than actual reality.

Those golden family or friendship group moments that we remember based on playing board games either with our parents growing up or with our friends create a strong emotional driver for the urge to buy and play board games.

As the same Google news search would reveal, this is not just about those classic iconic board games like Monopoly and Scrabble though, it is the entire play pattern based on face to face social interaction in a world where we are all buried in screens most of the day, and certainly for much of our leisure time.

Future generations will probably laugh at how ridiculous our behaviour has been walking round staring at a tiny screen. Technology is heading towards some kind of cyborg humanity where the technology will be much more practical and physically less harmful and risky than staring at a tiny screen all day.

The more that technology ensnares us, the more that nostalgic feeling for the old way of interacting with each other over a board game becomes attractive. So, while many pundits and journalists have been predicting the end of the board games industry since video games came to the fore in the 1970s and 1980s, the board games category is a massive beneficiary of increased tech addiction and consumption.

Anyone who has been in the games business for a while will have discussed what they do with someone at a dinner party or social gathering and been asked ‘Does anyone still play board games any more’, and the answer of course has always been yes. The good news though is that technology trends are increasing the desire of human beings for real old-fashioned social fun, and that’s only going to help the board games business.

Why Board Games Sell Better In Some Countries Vs Others

Board Games are a cultural product. Like books, movies or music they come from somewhere and someone. Therefore, each game is heavily influenced by the culture of the creator and of the company publishing the game.

Of the many reasons why board games succeed or fail, one of the most important is cultural fit. Board games are most often based on a combination of a). social interaction dynamic i.e. the process of playing the game and b). content. Both factors vary from country to country and from culture to culture. In terms of the gameplay dynamic for instance, we could compare the mass market gamer of Germany with the average person who buys and plays a game in the UK. In Germany, what would be considered a family game which children could play and enjoy is (taking a general view) far more complex than what would be seen as the right level of complexity in the UK. From a content point of view also, culture can have a massive impact. Games with trivia content for instance only tend to work on a global basis when they are based on a global entertainment franchise which is all about the show, or when the topic is universal…but even then the content may need some local tweaking.

Artwork is another cultural point of difference. Quite often when we work with companies looking to sell more games outside their own country we have to help them to understand that artwork styles vary a lot by country – the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Japan – these may all be markets in which you want to sell your game but if you are using an illustrated box front it can be quite hard to find a global pack design which appeals equally in each market and does not look out of place.

The media landscape also varies significantly by country and therefore by culture. This can have a massive impact – product placement for instance offers great opportunities to promote some types of board game – for instance advertising a gameshow based game during the gameshow itself or in the advertising break can be extremely effective in terms of driving sales. The challenge though is that media and advertising regulations vary by country.

Therefore, if one of your primary goals is to secure global distribution for a game, you need to incorporate this into your planning and product development process from the start to ensure you end up with a product which meets those goals.

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