Project Natal Midterm

Project Natal
Nowadays there are more and more products coming out that are intended to surprise us or enlighten us with a new sense of being. Project Natal by XBOX360 is one of those products. This product is one of the new evolutionary products coming out during the holiday season of 2010. As if the Nintendo Wii was not good enough, Xbox 360 decided to step up its game in creating an even more revolutionary product that doesn’t require you to use a remote control. This is a new evolution for video gaming. However, this new product has been created in such a way that it produces a desire to consumers, appeals to our emotions, and has even created a “brand culture.” Project Natal is the product that attains all of these attributes.
Project Natal was first introduced on June 1, 2009 according to Wikipedia. The name “Natal” derives from the term “controller-free,” which in this case fits the new console perfectly. Using under the radar marketing, the videos and idea of Project Natal were released on sites like Youtube. After watching Project Natal on Youtube, news sites, and the original homepage for Xbox 360 this new product became a new spread of disease in the world of technology. I was taken away at how advanced technology has become. As we all know, technology has been advancing nonstop for the last decade. Each year a new model of a previous product is coming out or a new feature to existing products that makes it that more appealing to the consumer. When you appeal to the consumer, the product holds a desire that most consumers want, hence leading to the purchase to that particular product. Project Natal will easily top this factor. This new product creates a desire that almost everyone will want to have. People are obsessed with having the latest product with the new technological advances such as the Iphone or the Itouch. These two products got everybody talking and everybody to want one. Project Natal is going to do just that. The newest feature in the Xbox 360 console is the controller-free handling, but still getting the same (if not a greater) affect that the game gave before. This new feature has made all the headlines in the video gaming world because it is the first system that is ultimately hands-free. This is the latest technological advancement in video gaming so therefore a lot of people are going to want this product. Everybody, who is anybody, wants the latest piece of technology that has just come out on the market so that they can show that they are (in a sense) bigger and better than anybody else. For instance: when the Nintendo Wii came out on the market everybody went crazy at the thought of a gaming system that used a wand to maneuver the controls to the game. Everybody loved the fact at how engaged you became with a game and how much more active you are from using a controller that moved according to the way that you moved based off of sensors. This is exactly what Project Natal does only minus the controller. This creates a desire to be more efficient as well because now the consumer does not have to spend money on batteries to fit in a remote or even worry about losing a remote. With the controller-free console, video gamers can have as many people play as they want within a certain radius to the Natal sensors. Many consumers are going to want it based off of that aspect because people don’t have to worry about if they misplace a controller, don’t have enough for all the people to use, or have the money to buy multiple controllers. Not only is it free of controllers, but the Project Natal let’s you become one with the game. It becomes personalized.
This is what appeals to a consumer’s emotion. The personalization of Project Natal is what has created such a buzz around the country. The one video that is being replayed throughout sites like Youtube is the one where a boy scans his own skateboard and then begins riding it in the actual game. However, the boy doesn’t need to use his own skateboard once it is scanned into the system and by scanning I mean just holding it up in front of the sensors. This takes about a millisecond to do and then the boy can ride all the ramps and jumps that Tony Hawk rides on his own skateboard. The personalization is what captures the emotions of the consumers to make it that much more appealing to buy. After the boy scans his own skateboard in; the boy is happy and feels as if he can take on the world because he is skating on the exact course that Tony Hawk is skating on. This works well in other ways too. For example there is another video that shows a girl holding a dress of hers in front of the scanner. On the screen is her girlfriend that lives somewhere else. Almost instantly that dress is visible to act as if a virtual dressing room has been set up for the girl’s friend. In seconds that girl is visually seeing herself wearing the dress that her friend scanned in. It makes shopping and borrowing clothes that much simpler. For someone who has a stressful life this could appeal to their emotions at the fact that it could just take seconds to view themselves in a piece of clothing from a store without having to go to the store or even going through the hassle of dressing rooms. Those people will feel relieved and as if they are sitting in the lap of luxury. Another example is someone who is trying to lose weight. Since America is facing the overwhelming struggle of obesity; Project Natal might be that extra step of encouragement that everyone has been looking for. When you stand in front of Natal it will scan your body size. Like Nintendo Wii where you can make your own Mii character and you can make them larger or thinner; Project Natal can do the same thing except it would actually be you that you would see on the screen. Say a person wants to drop 10 pounds, but has no motivation to do it. Project Natal will let that person view themselves losing 10 pounds so that they can decide if they think they look better losing the 10 pounds or not. This appeal to emotion might just be what America needs to feel better about themselves and to want to work harder at getting the things that they want to accomplish in life based off of motivation and happiness. Project Natal is not intended to make anybody feel less of an individual because it includes everybody.
The fact that Project Natal includes everybody is what has created a brand culture among everybody. The company Xbox and Microsoft have both created a devoted atmosphere among its consumers. These two companies are devoted in making this video game experience one that no one will forget. It is intended to enlighten the consumer both externally and internally. This product definitely captures the consumers in both ways because of its extraordinary features. Internally the consumer experiences those feelings of emotion and desire. This is what makes the person to actually purchase the product. After the person purchases this product they will be overtaken by all of the one-of-a-kind features it inhibits. For instance, the consumer will be able to feel the effect of the product externally by the way it makes them interact with a game such as a skateboarding game derives a lot of exercise and energy whereas a shopping game doesn’t. In a sense the consumer is getting the best of both worlds by engaging in such a product that shows all of these attributes. In a way this could be construed as rhetorical marketing in the sense that the company has created such a brand image for this product to get consumers to buy it instead of the other leading brand. Rhetorical marketing exists by means of persuading. Project Natal is doing just that even though it has not been released yet. The company has already made it so appealing compared to the other leading gaming manufacturers such as Nintendo. Microsoft and Xbox have already persuaded individuals to want this gaming console by showing people like Xzibit and other leading celebrities using the gaming system. This has already taken the effect over the Nintendo Wii making it look like something of the past. However, Nintendo was introduced to the idea of Project Natal by Microsoft before they introduced it to Xbox 360. As we are all aware; Nintendo declined the idea of Project Natal. So therefore Xbox 360 was granted the permission to link this new feature to their video consoles creating it a whirlwind of discussion. Xbox 360 is known for its first-person-shooter games, but now with Project Natal, the video gaming experience for those individuals has become that much greater. Neuromarketing has created that experience because of studies indicating a higher demand for games built off of sensors to create a better experience. The type of marketing measures the time between cognitive responses. With games becoming a new hands-free feature, neuromarketing seemed to fit in just fine based off of how well of response Nintendo Wii got. However, with the Nintendo Wii there is a controller that you have to worry about accidentally throwing or dropping to mimic the moves on the screen, but with the Project Natal there is no controller to worry about.
Project Natal has become that new evolutionary virtual gaming system that has put everybody at the edge of their seats. With the new feature of being completely controller-free; Project Natal has created an atmosphere where almost anybody can play in. Everybody is included in the virtual world of Project Natal and nobody is left behind. This new product has appealed to people’s wants and desires by the way it attains the new advancements of the latest technology. The fact that it is completely controller-free, are able to scan your own personal things, and everyone is able to participate has created a world for everybody. This virtual world is the newest and latest to exist. It holds all the curiosities that consumers seek in buying a new product. The way that it is a personalized gaming system for the individual has appealed to everybody’s emotions by creating a product where it could almost motivate you to obtain a happy ending. Project Natal is not out to destroy anybody’s self-esteem, but to encourage individuals to all become interactive. This new gaming system has appealed to some kids to try to mimic what their dreams are and in that sense they have become happier individuals. The two companies, Microsoft and Xbox, have come together to create a brand culture between the product and the consumers. This brand culture has related the consumer the internal and external feelings that Project Natal can give them with the product’s sense of interaction. Project Natal is that new gaming system that makes the consumer feel those wants and desires. It has also created such a positive atmosphere by obtaining everybody’s emotions and putting it into one device. Lastly, Project Natal is that gaming experience that the company’s wanted the consumers to feel so that nobody is left behind and everybody is always included.