Week 6 - Nintendo's Business

Nintendo has been a pretty popular and influential company for many decades now. It has been the home for many beloved childhood consoles, games, and beloved brands such as Pokémon. It was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Japan. It started out with producing and selling playing cards. 

Does the company do a good job communicating on its website and social media platforms? 

Nintendo's official page, Donkey Kong is the main focus here.

I would say that the company does provide a good job on communicating on its official website. There are all of the typical buttons you would see on many other official sites, especially ones that sell games and consoles. You are also greeted with one of their games at the top of the page.

On their social media pages they also do provide a good job communicating as well. Once you click on one of their social media pages such as Instagram, you are immediately greeted with content that they have. 

Nintendo's American Instagram page (Ignore my friend's users).

You can see that they have organized their Instagram stories by games such as Zelda or Animal crossing. This can provide easy navigation for the users browsing their Instagram page. As for twitter there is not an option for more organized navigation (like Instagram's stories), but the content is pretty similar to their Instagram page. 

Overall they do a good job when it comes to advertising the content they have. This is pretty much the main reason why they have social media pages and the official site. They promote many of their different games and consoles (as seen in the pinned image on Instagram) so there are many chances to draw in customers. It is simple and not too overwhelming.

On the company website, what is featured at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom of the home page? Why do you think they have it organized this way? Is it effective?

At the very top of the page, it provides categories, a search bar, and other buttons. It is pretty effective since you do want to have a site that can be easily accessible for users. Once you click on a category such as "My Nintendo Store," you are give options for where you want to go. There is also a search bar so you can find what you want. What I really like the most is that the support button is also at the top. Sometimes the support button is at the bottom for some company sites. I think the reason for why they have made these choices for the top of the page is to make sure users can navigate their site immediately. 

In the middle is where the main content is at. They provide a list of best sellers for digital games, characters you can click on and view, news, new releases, and more. It is overall the major part of the official site. I like the fact that they included a place for popular characters. It leads them to a site where they are from. If you clicked on Pokémon, it'd lead you to the official site for Pokémon, and you can find all the content for it (videos, games, Pokédex, etc.). 

At the bottom of the page will provide more information about Nintendo. It will also provide information about privacy, community, policies, orders, and more shop links. It also provides more specific links for support, so if you need support for your Nintendo account or your Nintendo Switch, they have that there. They also have provided buttons for their social media pages.

I would say the site is effective and has what you need. It is overall simple in finding whatever reason you may have gotten on the site for and this is probably the main reason why they made the site this way. As for the color choices, red and white are the company's colors, so it makes sense why their site has a red and white theme. 

Does the business communicate an identity online?

As mentioned before, Nintendo has been around since 1889. Obviously our planet has changed drastically since 1889 and Nintendo had to adapt to our world that consumes social media. I think one of the major parts of Nintendo's online identity are the consoles and games it has made. For most people their consoles and games have been a huge part of their childhood for many generations and still are for newer generations. It provides happiness to them and I think that is a major part of their online identity that Nintendo has communicated. It is also a part of their mission to bring smiles on people's faces and provide entertainment. One of the ways they manage to contribute to this is their partnership with the Starlight Children's Foundation. They have stated, "Through our line of devices using Nintendo gaming systems, the partnership aims to alleviate stress, anxiety and loneliness among pediatric patients." Additionally, they also have a goal to reduce harmful impacts that they could bring onto our environment. 

Where could the company improve its online communication?   

Of course everything is not going to be completely perfect. There are some areas Nintendo can improve their online communication to make it even more effective. I do personally think the site could have certain things smaller so that way it does not take up too much space. People will probably want to have less scrolling to do and this could make it quicker. I also have noticed that it is harder to find the goals (reducing environment impact) they have listed and I do think it would benefit them more if they promote that to their audience. It can help spread awareness and bring in more customers who share the same goal in helping our environment. 

References:

The Rhetorical Act: Thinking, Speaking, and Writing Critically, 5th Edition (2015). . Copyright Clearance Center.

Nintendo official site: Consoles, games, news, and more. Nintendo Official Site: Consoles, Games, News, and More. (n.d.). https://www.nintendo.com/us/