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Nintendo's 'Wii' Just A Marketing Gimmick?
An anonymous reader writes "Tom's Hardware has an editorial up on the Nintendo Wii in which the author postulates that the new name may be a bigger PR stunt than it looks. From the article: 'Saying Wii is controversial mainly in the English-speaking world (the Japanese can't even pronounce it); in France, for instance, it's a homonym for oui. But the upcoming E3 Expo plays mostly to an English-speaking crowd, even though it's an international event. It's just over a week to E3, where Sony fans will be all giddy and running around like they have a Blu-ray chasing their tails. Amid all this, Nintendo announces a name change which is not only interesting, but controversial. You can't not notice it. Essentially, Nintendo steals more than a wee bit of Sony's thunder.'"
I don't think they're going to rename it again to get rid of the naysayers, but the timing of the announcement and the uniqueness of it was pretty clearly a PR ploy.
If Nintendo said they were going to call the Wii say the Nintendo GameCube 2, would they have gotten near as much PR for the name? Lots of people know they name of nintendos new console, and Nintendo did little more than release a press release, it wasn't a multi million dollar ad campaign. genious!
The Japanese can pronounce it about as well as most loan words, and just as well as "revolution." There's also the added bonus of greater consistency in the pronunciation of difthongs, so it's not even ambiguous.
Aside from the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis, I don't think I remember there ever being a cool-sounding console or hand-held name. Nintendo 64? Dreamcast? Xbox... 360? PlayStation? Wonder... [i]Swan[/i]?
To me, all these names sounded ridiculous, and I know I'm not alone. We made fun of the 360's name but now it's pretty much accepted and any complaints about it have nothing to do with the name.
By July, at the latest, this will be a non-issue.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Look I didnt read thge article, but I read the post about it here on Slashdot. I lived with 5 guys from Thailand and they couldnt pronounce 'Will'. But they could pronouce the W, just not the ll'. In fact, it came out sounding like 'Wiww'. Even more W's!. Japanese people cant pronounce W's or E's? Its essentially 'Wee', right? Can they pronounce Wakizashi? So I dont get that.
And last time I checked, all names are marketing gimmicks. I thought we all walked around knowing that. Ive seen countless articles and comments about this. Mission accomplished, Nintendo. Your marketing guys probably deserve their exorbitant salaries now. I hope the console lives up to all the talk. Also, I dont know Japanese, but I believe I heard about some point pictograms have a relation to words in Japanese. That makes the Wii/Controller/Multiplayer concept somewhat Japanese in its thinking. I applaud them for an original name for a product as well, instead of the cheesy techno names like the Playstation or the XBox. What tired thinking.
Finally, how dumb an idea would it be to call a product the revolution if for whatever reason it ended up sucking? It would be an even bigger disaster.
I think the FA's author is mistaking the apparent lack of a 'wi' character in the modern Japanese phoenetic alphabets as an indication that the sound does not exist in the language. This is not, as far as a quick google (and my hazy memory of the Japanese I took in college) indicates, true.
m l.
There was a specific kana for 'wi' in the ancient form of hiragana, according to
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/japanese/wvowels.ht
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
IDNSJ (I Do Not Speak Japanese) but it seems unlikely that it would be true to say "the japanese can't pronounce it".
..etc. It's actually quite clever because it is a word in each of those languages. A single name and logo, and one can get "Wii play together" or "Parole juste Wii" (just say yes) or "Wii wir umziehen, wii wir spielen" (how we move, how we play).
It seems more likely that they will use the same stylized logo and spelling (IIRC romanji is considered very stylish in japan anyway) and simply adjust the pronounciation to fit the local language.
In English speaking countries, it is "We"
In German speaking countries, "wie"
In French speaking countries, "oui"
These are just theoretical ideas of course, but it nintendo were able to do find homonyms in other languages, it could create a globally recognized product name.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
From the article:
The moment you have to begin to explain your branding in pedantic detail - which Nintendo is doing through both its spokespeople and its promotional material - you're screwed.
On the surface, this seems quite logical. After all, a good brand should be instantly recognizable to the observer. People should immediately know what you are talking about, and why it should matter to them.
But what the writer is missing out on is the fact that ALL brands must go through a building phase. Even the name 'Revolution' had to be spoken, explained, and repeated. (Let's be honest - the name wasn't an obvious fit until AFTER we saw the controller!)
But I digress, back to the point of my post. Every brand must be talked up to become a useful marketing tool. I used to work for GTE. I was there when they merged with Bell Atlantic to become 'Verizon'. Boy did that sound like a stupid name. I remember all the internal e-mails and printed flyers that were circulated, explaining to all of us just why this was such a cool name, pointing out all the absurd meanings behind the name, the logo, even the frickin' colors for crying out loud. But look at the Verizon brand now. Instantly recognized. You immediately know what services they offer, and why you need (or don't need) them.
As cool as the name 'Revolution' was, it's appeal was primarily to the current gaming audience. Just as with the Sega Genesis, the significance of the name was only meaningful to those already interested in the video game industry.
Which is not Nintendo's target audience. Not anymore. It costs too much to cater to such a demanding lot. And the word 'revolution' doesn't exactly conjur up an image of friendly fun for the soft core mass market.
So even though all of us here wish the Revolution name had stuck, that doesn't mean that this name won't actually be a more marketable, more recognizable choice for Nintendo.
And a plea to those companies making game console "skins" - a nice flashy Revolution logo will sell like HOTCAKES!
Must... think up... something... clever!
I don't know if it is applicable in this specific case (the english "w" sound in german), but there are precedents in linguistics that phonemes that are not used in a language are lost to speakers of that language. In some native american languages there are sounds that most non-speakers cannot discern, i.e. two distinct words that native speakers can easily differentiate sound identical to people who don't speak the language. And things like glottal stops and dipthongs in some languages are, at best, difficult for the average english-only speaker to replicate.
Some see the vessel as half full; others see it as half-empty; We pour it out on the floor and laugh
Nintendo's real target audience (read: not what the fucktards assume) is EVERYONE - not just kids. You know, the mainstream. The general masses. That kind of thing.
Now, one could argue that kind of mentality (targeting "EVERYONE" rather than a niche market of mature gamers) is "OMG K1DD13". To that, I could argue that only those with super-fragile self-image issues would think such things.
Living in Japan for several years now, I can most definitely attest to the fact that it is very trivial for the Japanese to pronounce it. However, the kids at my school don't really think much of the name. They could have named it Revolution and the Japanese would have just shortened it to "rebo" or something. After all, "Famicom" was short for "Family Computer," so it's not like Nintendo hasn't abused the Japanese with awkward naming conventions before.
And your German is a bit off. You used the word "umziehen," which means "to move" as in the sense of changing residences. You should have used "bewegen."
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life