Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), a top leader in multiple-player online games, is committed to creating an interactive, fun environment for gamers and consumers of all ages. One of the company’s popular games, Everquest II, is an innovative, three-dimensional virtual game that was designed by Sony in 2004. A multi-player fantasy game, Everquest II allows players to interact in a fictional world. With high-quality graphics and vivid storylines, players become enraptured with the game, which is based off of Sony’s earlier version, Everquest.

With the emergence of new high-tech, fantasy games, Everquest II has to revamp its marketing strategy to compete in the fast-changing gaming industry. One of its primary competitors is the game, The World of Warcraft developed by Blizzard (Blizzard Entertainment, 2014). Through animated characters, the game has gained massive appeal among consumers and its fan base surpasses Everquest II. Thus, World of Warcraft is the largest MMORPG in the world (Blizzard Entertainment, 2014). But Everquest II has a competitive advantage over the company due to its realistic characters and innovative storyline.

Sony Online Entertainment’s greatest strength is its recognizable, quality brand. But Everquest II weakness lies in its marketing strategy, which needs to be improved to meet the changing trends of the market. The constant threat of new online games with creative marketing campaigns continue to pose as a challenge for the company. Thus, Sony has a great opportunity to boost consumer appeal for Everquest II by focusing on an intensive marketing strategy increases visibility for its strong company brand and appeals to diverse consumers.

According to Gartner, a technology research company, the spending on video online games is expected to reach $112 billion by 2015 (Bilton, 2011). Thus, the gaming market is continually growing at a high rate as newer, tech savvy games hit the market. But with digital devices such as mobile phones, many consumers are transitioning to their mobile phones to play games. Gaming companies such as Everquest II needs to keep up with the changing trends and redesign their marketing strategy to tailor to the unique interests of its consumers.

Sony offers Everquest II at a cost-effective price for its consumers. But with the onset of other games offering similar prices, the company needs to create an effective pricing strategy that will help it to combat its competition. For instance offering discounts on newly released games and other promotional price reductions such as ten dollars off of a particular collectible game will be extremely beneficial for the company. Television commercials and online ads displaying the features of the Everquest II and the promotional discounts will further promote and advertise the company.

Everquest II should also be offered in retail game stores and large stores such as Walmart and Target to increase its visibility and reach diverse consumers. Large stores such as Walmart in areas in close proximity to Everquest’s target consumers will allow Everquest to not only reach its target gamer consumers, but it will also gain high visibility among other diverse consumers as well.

The target consumer base for Everquest II consists of gamers between the ages of 10 to 45 (SOE, 2014). These consumers share similar interests in online gaming, virtual interaction and character, storyline development in fantasy subjects. Also, they devote a lot of time interacting in these games and constantly need to be stimulated by innovative new plots.

With the growing popularity of social media sites, Facebook will be an effective online marketing tool for the company. Sending out creative online posts to all of its Facebook followers advertising the newest game or current discounts will allow Everquest II to reach a large group of consumers. Also, the “likers” of the Everquest page indicate consumers who are interested in online games and support Everquest. Researching profiles from this list and grouping them into categories, such as Casual Gamers and Cafeteria gamers will allow the company to gauge the unique interests and needs of its consumers. Ultimately, online advertising through a popular medium such as Facebook will allow Sony to expand Everquest II’s consumer base and grow both nationally and globally.