Marketing Mix of Nintendo
Company History and Background
Nintendo Company is a Japanese multinational company which was founded in 1889 to produce hanafuda cards. It is now one of the largest corporations in the video game industry.
An Early Nintendo Poster
The company, based in Kyoto, Japan, was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi and was named Nintendo Koppai. Yamauchi started off his empire by producing playing cards for a game known as hanafuda. Due to the popularity of the playing cards, Yamauchi needed to hire extra staff so that that he could deal with the heavy demand for the product.
In 1929, Yamauchi retired from the company and as he didn’t have a son to take over the family business he adopted his son-in-law Sekiryo Kaneda and allowed him to become president of the company. By 1947 Sekiryo had set up the company Marufuka Company Limited in order to distribute the playing cards, both hanafuda and many other cards which Nintendo had introduced over the years. At this time Nintendo were also the first corporation in Japan to manufacture playing cards from plastic, this of course made them unique which therefore lead to them being able to dominate the playing card market.
In 1959, Disney allowed Nintendo the right to use their characters on the back of their playing cards. This partnership was a great success and the company sold over half a million packs in one year. Due to the success of the company Yamauchi made Nintendo public by listing the company on the Osaka Stock Exchange. Following this Nintendo decided to expand into further markets and began to experiment in other areas, for example they set up a taxi company chain, food Company and a toy making company. The toy making company was the only venture which had any success possibly due to the experience which Nintendo had from selling playing cards. Although at this time Japan was enjoying an economic boom because of the Tokyo Olympic Games the playing card industry was not doing well and had reached its
Nintendo Company is a Japanese multinational company which was founded in 1889 to produce hanafuda cards. It is now one of the largest corporations in the video game industry.
An Early Nintendo Poster
The company, based in Kyoto, Japan, was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi and was named Nintendo Koppai. Yamauchi started off his empire by producing playing cards for a game known as hanafuda. Due to the popularity of the playing cards, Yamauchi needed to hire extra staff so that that he could deal with the heavy demand for the product.
In 1929, Yamauchi retired from the company and as he didn’t have a son to take over the family business he adopted his son-in-law Sekiryo Kaneda and allowed him to become president of the company. By 1947 Sekiryo had set up the company Marufuka Company Limited in order to distribute the playing cards, both hanafuda and many other cards which Nintendo had introduced over the years. At this time Nintendo were also the first corporation in Japan to manufacture playing cards from plastic, this of course made them unique which therefore lead to them being able to dominate the playing card market.
In 1959, Disney allowed Nintendo the right to use their characters on the back of their playing cards. This partnership was a great success and the company sold over half a million packs in one year. Due to the success of the company Yamauchi made Nintendo public by listing the company on the Osaka Stock Exchange. Following this Nintendo decided to expand into further markets and began to experiment in other areas, for example they set up a taxi company chain, food Company and a toy making company. The toy making company was the only venture which had any success possibly due to the experience which Nintendo had from selling playing cards. Although at this time Japan was enjoying an economic boom because of the Tokyo Olympic Games the playing card industry was not doing well and had reached its