My super secret spy risked everything to get this image. Now that he has safely returned, I will post it on the Internet. With understanding of this image, the right company could TAKE OVER GAMING.

Ominous music fills the blog post.

“They tried to stop me,” exasperated the super secret spy. “They did! You wouldn’t believe how many Nintendo ninjas I had to fight through! But this image is like the ring in Lord of the Rings, he who understands it will be able to take over any market.”

What is this image that will alter the course of any business market? Well, here it is:

There are two worlds, the company and the customer. It is the Industry and the Gamer. Two seperated worlds where each are puzzled about the other.

For too long, we have been concerned about what is happening on the Industry planet. Which company has more marketshare? That is a question that would be on this Industry planet. But the true magic, where the tire hits the road, is not on the ‘Industry planet’, it is on the ‘Customer Planet’. This might sound simplistic, but think it over.

The Blue Ocean Strategy of its ‘blue oceans’ and ‘red oceans’ can easily be divided in the above photo. The ‘red ocean’ is the Industry Planet where people do price cuts and where the competitor is ‘very important’. But on the Customer Planet, the competitor is not important at all. The competitor is, after all, another world away.

Disruption can also be seen in that photo. When a disruptive product appears, the “Industry” will think it is a crappy product for crappy consumers. Meanwhile, on the ‘Customer Planet’, a very different perspective is taking place. The ‘disruptive product’ is all the rage on the ‘Customer Planet’ and the ‘non-disruptive’ products are just dull. The ‘Industry Planet’ is baffled and cannot understand why.

When game developers talk about just how visionary they are, and just how many books he has read, we know he is on the Industry Planet. A developer on the Customer Planet wouldn’t really be talking about himself.

The secret to Nintendo is that they operate on the ‘Customer Planet’ and don’t seem to care about the ‘Industry Planet’. This is why ‘Industry’ analysts keep predicting Nintendo wrong because they believe Nintendo is on the ‘Industry Planet’ and wants to better spread over it. This is why Nintendo “HAS TO” (in analysts’ minds) cut the price of the Wii or come up with a Wii HD by next year. Nintendo will do neither and keep baffling analysts because Nintendo is on the ‘Customer Planet’ which is full of current customers and non-customers. Studying the disinterested consumers is the best way to know which way Nintendo will be jumping next.

Both planets can expand. When the ‘Industry’ planet does it, it is considered ‘Growth of an Industry’. When the ‘Customer’ planet does it, it is considered ‘Growth of a Movement’.