A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the efforts of some comic book publishers to reach out and attract female readers. Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) DC Comics and Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) are among the industry leaders looking to find growth by targeting the 50% of the population that's been overlooked by publishers for decades. They're finding great success with sales of manga, a Japanese genre of animation.
The strategy of targeting women is brilliant, and very similar to what Nintendo has done with Wii, allowing it to thrash Sony's (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 in the video game wars. While video games are wildly popular, it's still a relatively small percentage of the population that plays them fanatically. For years, game makers have been targeting that hardcore group and making little in the way of progress in attracting new gamers. With Wii, Nintendo essentially told Sony, "You can have those hardcore, graphics-obsessed video game geeks" and focused on developing a product that would have massive appeal, especially to those who probably wouldn't even consider buying a PlayStation.
Rather than battling Sony for market share with the the small fraction of game buyers, Wii went and expanded the market, bringing in new gamers. They kill Sony, essentially by not competing with them directly. It's a great strategy, and it will probably lead to great growth for the comic book industry as well.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-10-2007 @ 8:52PM
Dustin said...
I introduced my female cousin to some Alan Moore comics a couple of years ago. She was not too keen on the super hero books. But she has definitely become a fan of non hero comics such as Y: the last man. Hopefully the big publishers will keep pursuing the female audience, comics could use an injection of the opposite sex.
6-10-2007 @ 10:02PM
ya said...
BALONI!
6-11-2007 @ 6:18AM
lol said...
lol you spelled baloni wrong its Bologna just playing with ya didnt have anything interstine to say about this expect go Wii!