A defensive trademark : Genesisn't

[tripletopper]

I wonder if it's legal in the United States trademarks  to have a defensive trademark.  Meaning you trademark the word so it cannot be used against you.  Kind of like if your website was sega.com you buy websites like Ihatesega.com and segasucks.com etc except with trademarks not with websites.

 

If that was legal I would be surprised if Sega of America didn't take out a defenseive trademark on the word "Genesisn't".  it probably would not have been a Super Nintendo ad campaign because it was until they were behind in America where they advertise Donkey Kong country, not with Sega, no CDs, no 32 bits add ons.  Which is funny because that was really Nintendo's only anti Sega ad and he just did it with showing the graphics of the game and saying those above words as chyrons.

 

But when TurboGrafx was owned by the company that bought it from NEC, they had anti-Genesis ads for the Turbo Duo.  I wonder if they ever contemplated "Turbo graphics is what Genesisn't".  If turbo graphics either didn't think of that or did think of that and shelve it, I certainly hope for Turbo Grafx's sakes that the word Genesisn't was defensively trademarked.

 

Or Neo Geo they could have said "Neo Geo is the arcade brought home. Genesisn't."

 

3DO and Jaguar had their own versions of anti Genesis and anti SNES ads.  3dio and jaguar head to draw from both Genesis and SNES, so a Genesisn't ad campaign leaves your back facing the Nintendo army.

 

Based on the fact that five companies had a crack at Sega Genesis, and that one of them used the word Genesisn't shows that probably defensive trademarks are legal and Sega did  probably employ a defensive trademark.

 

How do I search to see if Sega their defensive trademark on the word Genesisn't?

Edited November 11, 2019 by tripletopper
My android misheard me on a couple of words.

[derFunkenstein]

I can't parse this. Are you asking if Sega could've prevented attack ads? 

[carlsson]

Don't you need a product or service to describe in order to register a trademark? I don't think you can register single words to block for others to use without filling in a registration for your product, even if it still is a concept on paper. You would even have to fill in which class(es) your trademark should apply to, and the more you select the higher is the fee, I believe.

Edited November 11, 2019 by carlsson

[tripletopper]

If the answer isn't Sega defensively trademarking the word Genesisn't,  how could something that obvious slip by 3 competitors? TurboGrafx and Neo Geo were mudslinging at Sega a lot in the US.   I remember Turbografx having these anti Sega ads, calling them Faka. (pronounced Fake-uh).

 

 

I don't exactly know how ad slogans are created and what the legality of a defensive trademark would be.  If I thought of it  and a couple other people in the web thought of it, there's a good chance Sega's competitors could have thought of it.  And probably because it was easy enough for Sega's competitors, someone at Sega thought about about it before they released the campaign. Did some executive say "If we take this Nintendon't approach, someone could turn it back on us and turn it into Genesisn't.  Are you sure it's a wise move long term?"

 

If the Nintendo Switch had achievements in Mario Sonic Olympics 2020,  I can think of two cool achievements,  one called "Nintendon't" where you take a team of all Sega characters in a team sport and beat a team of all Nintendo characters, and "Genesisn't" which is exact opposite.

 

The reason why Sega is no longer in the system business is because the system business was just the way to improve the arcade business sega's primary business.

 

Sega predicted arcades would go the way of the dodo by making the Dreamcast the first game console with standard internet for online gaming.

 

I guess Sega said it's a more important that they make games do they make systems.

 

I heard Sega was contemplating both a Sega console and being third parties onnother consoles, having some sort of campaign where when Segabgoes ahead of the other three techwise, says it's first on the other's,  best on Sega and vice versa when sega's considered inferior to the other three first son Sega, better elsewhere.  I'm not explaining it as an advertising tagline cuz that would suck as one but the idea is that when sega's most powerful system they saved the best version for last I would say good as the least powerful system they get the exclusive.

 

that way they can get the Sega nuts who supported the Dreamcast to make 9/9/99 a successful day, but appeal to those on the sidelines.

 

Sega has been third-party developers before.  They had Space Harrier and Shinobi on the NES via Tengen games, because the Master System failed in America, and they made a couple of games for the turbo graphics 16 in Japan where the Mega Drive failed.  (Are there American versions of Sega games on turbografx 16?)

 

I guess Sega was thinking like Atari and in television and ColecoVision where they were all jumping into each each each other's ecosystems and there were three separate divisions of these companies,. Systems and peripherals division, native games,. and ported out games, Atari was even more spiders web with arcade, home computer and 5200 divisions in Atari too.

 

in 2001-2002 everyone was insisting you have to have broadband in order to play games.  World Trade Federation?  I only have dial-up and these Dreamcast games play perfectly fine.  And I heard slower speeds have lower ping times because there's less processing time to compress signals.  And also take more direct routes over the telephone, versus broadband which is very pingy by nature originally.

 

And the funny thing is if you had broadband in 2000 you were actually locked out of Sega playing,  like me before we moved.

 

I played ChuChu Rocket for like the first couple months before in the spring, we switch to broadband.  Then we moved in 2001 to a place that had dial-up only.

 

How unlucky.  I couldn't play Sega in 2000, and I couldn't play anything else other than Dreamcast after 2001, and a trickle of PS2 dial up games until 2007 thanks to Sprint 3G.

[tripletopper]

6 hours ago, derFunkenstein said:

I can't parse this. Are you asking if Sega could've prevented attack ads? 

I was asking if Sega anticipated the obviousness of Genesisn't, and did somethong about it.  And if they didn't, why did none of the other ones use the term Genesisn't?

Edited November 11, 2019 by tripletopper

[CatPix]

Maybe because it wasn't so obvious? "Genesisn't" sounds like a mouthful to say, unlike Nintendon't (opinion from a foreigner, for what's it's worth).

Also, remember that the "Genesis does what Nintendon't" ran mostly during the era where the Genesis' opponent was the NES, not the SNES; so it had quite an impact because there was a real technological gap.

Nintendo doing that even with the SNES would have felt very petty and uninspired, and the Turbografx advert and release in the US was apparently an ongoing trainwreck.

Using this as a replica would have been perceived, IMO, as a petty, child-level fight. Maybe kids used it in the US? I don't know.

 

In addition, was "comparative ad" allowed in the US at the time?

Genesis is a product, Nintendo is a brand.

So Sega were comparing a product with a brand, which was proably borderline but okay. But anyone using "Genesisn't" would be pointing to a product and not a brand.

Edited November 12, 2019 by CatPix

[tripletopper]

7 hours ago, CatPix said:

Maybe because it wasn't so obvious? "Genesisn't" sounds like a mouthful to say, unlike Nintendon't (opinion from a foreigner, for what's it's worth).

Also, remember that the "Genesis does what Nintendon't" ran mostly during the era where the Genesis' opponent was the NES, not the SNES; so it had quite an impact because there was a real technological gap.

Nintendo doing that even with the SNES would have felt very petty and uninspired, and the Turbografx advert and release in the US was apparently an ongoing trainwreck.

Using this as a replica would have been perceived, IMO, as a petty, child-level fight. Maybe kids used it in the US? I don't know.

 

In addition, was "comparative ad" allowed in the US at the time?

Genesis is a product, Nintendo is a brand.

So Sega were comparing a product with a brand, which was proably borderline but okay. But anyone using "Genesisn't" would be pointing to a product and not a brand.

I don't know what comparative advertising law allowed.  in the old days you had to call it the national leading brand or Brand X.  Then someone put their logo and your opponents logo back to back and showed the results and that was deemed illegal for showing opponents trademarked logo.  

 

But "plain print" referring to your opposition is legal in the US.

 

that's why many third-party unlicensed peripheral makers can say works for Wii or works for Xbox 360,. But they can't use the actual fonts or logos those companies respectively use.

 

I decided to save and post further thoughts on visual brand recognition, and how Aldi tried to make 90 of their customers, foreigners, illiterates, and word-of mouth referers.  Link will be on next post.

[jhd]

On 11/11/2019 at 10:34 AM, carlsson said:

Don't you need a product or service to describe in order to register a trademark?

 

That is my understanding of the law, too -- a trademark must actually be used in commerce to be enforceable.

 

So, in theory, someone could trademark "Genesisn't" for some game-related product. Sega's recourse would be to challenge it as creating confusion in the minds of consumers. Note that the hypothetical product would have to be in the same industry else Sega would have no basis to challenge it. (So, go ahead and start selling Genesisn't Deodorant Soap.)

 

For example, here in Canada, MacAvity's is used as a trademark by a commercial bakery and a supplier of industrial pipelines, fire hydrants, etc. They are both able to use the same name/trademark as there is no potential confusion amongst consumers that they are the same firm. 

[Flojomojo]

On 11/11/2019 at 6:30 PM, tripletopper said:

in 2001-2002 everyone was insisting you have to have broadband in order to play games.  World Trade Federation?  I only have dial-up and these Dreamcast games play perfectly fine.  And I heard slower speeds have lower ping times because there's less processing time to compress signals.  And also take more direct routes over the telephone, versus broadband which is very pingy by nature originally.

Fortunately for SEGA, they had the machine that goes PING!

 

[Gentlegamer]

Hey Kids! Don't fall for the lies of those FEKA™ goons!

[Flojomojo]

@tripletopper relevant reading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advertising

[tripletopper]

There are other copyrightable aspects.  For example the Nintendon't campaign made it so Turbo Grafx and Neo Geo couldn't use the word Nintendon't in video game advertising.

 

Looks for products like fonts and logos are considered factors when making either a competitive product or an unauthorized third-party.  Notice nowhere in the ads did Sega copy the Nintendo logo or font.  I think in the Super Maruo World vs Sonic pushy salesman ad, they showed back to back footage of SMW and Sonic 1.  

 

For example for how a product's look is protected.  a whole bunch of name brand  grocery producers and  retailers sued Aldi the in the US.  Aldi had this looklike brands that were so close, thst  if they were written in Chinese  Arabic,  Hebrew,  Japanese,or Korean, or any foreign language with no Greco Roman Characters, you could not tell them apart unless you were holding both back to back and even then you'd question the legitsmacy,  if you were unaware of the language.

 

On google  all "aldi lookslike" examples are current.  These are borderline.  But in the 1990s i went into Aldi, and saw brands whose oaxkaging was SO CLOSE, i thought i could have had a good stand- up routine after cruising the aisles.

 

Look at pre 2000 Aldi labels for hilarious examples. Strange that Google doesn't have them.  All i see are modern foreign examples.

 

The US courts said they cannot have blatant ripoff packaging.

 

Socertain aspects unique to a brand are protected.  If ficticious word Nintendon't and their deriatives are considered unique to the Sega brand, then maybe that's enough to have a legally defined defense against Genesisn't already built in.

 

If Nintendo just blatently reversed the campaign, so that "Super Nintendo is what Genesin't" it would very likely  violate Sega's copyright on their ad campaigns.  

 

A middle case would be if it was not just a blatent copy and invert, but someone actually put a little more thought,  like "Neo Geo is the arcade brought home. Grnesisn't".

 

It's not a mere reversal.  But that idea wouldn't be in SNK's heads if the Sega's Nintendon't  ad didn't exist.

 

I guess if Sega wants to actually be snarky yet actively defend against Genesisn't being used against them, they could have made a mock SNES campaign, and say that that in somr ways we at Sega admit that in some ways Supet Nintendo is what Genesisn't.

 

(Of course, Dega will highlight only the bad things SNES is and Genesisn't.)

 

Like  SNES is more expensive.  SNES is the home to more expensive game cartridges of the same title.   SNES is exclusively for babies with censored arcade classics. SNES is the exclusive home to Mario. ...

 

Scratch that!  There are 2 Mario games on Genesis. 

 

Skip over nect patagraph if you don't want the answer to the 2 Genesis Mario games.  I can't find the spoiler tag/ hide until aftively revealed code on my Android using Chrome on atariage.com

 

 

 

 

 

They are Mario Andretti Racing and Mario Lemieux Hockey, and the second one is a Nintendon't.

 

 

 

 

 

Also if Neo Geo and TG16 gain in sales, use similar tactics.

 

If they would have kept to the same tactics, a new campaign could have been "Saturn offers what Playstashuns."

 

Sony called Saturn by the unflattering name of Uranus. ( pronounced "Your Anus")   Sega's anti PS1 campaign was awful.

 

But when you're too busy trying to be NOT somebody, you couldn't find what the unique YOU truly is.

 

Sega could have had it bringing human competition hone, but in 1 year, dial up became a last tesort option.

 

But the Dreamcast games played VERY welk in dual up.  I exoerienced no glutches except for a lack of players sonetimes.

 

BTW visit dreamcastlive.net to play Dreamcast online games TODAY.  with a real DC and a real disc, or an SD card attachment and SD card data of an online game you're missing.

 

AND NO, you don't need dial up to play.  You can use hopefully a 200 k inbound, 100 k outbound OR FASTER connection, and a DreamPi program for Raspberry Pi which simulates a dial up modem with no landlibe or voip. (BTW voip lines won't work.  Too long of lag)

 

 

[Tursi]

Close... but copyright only protects works, not ideas. Flipping around the Genesis advertising campaign wouldn't be a copyright infringement unless they used parts of the original work. Now, it might run afoul of other protections.

 

The super over-simplified summary:

 

Copyright - works, meaning something that has been created. In the US, automatic without registration. No defense or activity required to be valid. Lasts longer than your lifespan.

Patent - ideas. Limited duration. Must be registered. Must be the first. Can be invalidated for many reasons.

Trademark - phrases, words or images that represent a company or product. Must be called out but need not be registered. Scope limited to the reasonable market. Must be active and must be defended.

 

The usages of these over the years has made them all fairly complicated, and sometimes they seem to bleed over into each others spaces these days. Lawyers can do anything.

 

[tripletopper]

48 minutes ago, Tursi said:

Close... but copyright only protects works, not ideas. Flipping around the Genesis advertising campaign wouldn't be a copyright infringement unless they used parts of the original work. Now, it might run afoul of other protections.

 

The super over-simplified summary:

 

Copyright - works, meaning something that has been created. In the US, automatic without registration. No defense or activity required to be valid. Lasts longer than your lifespan.

Patent - ideas. Limited duration. Must be registered. Must be the first. Can be invalidated for many reasons.

Trademark - phrases, words or images that represent a company or product. Must be called out but need not be registered. Scope limited to the reasonable market. Must be active and must be defended.

 

The usages of these over the years has made them all fairly complicated, and sometimes they seem to bleed over into each others spaces these days. Lawyers can do anything.

 

Okay I'm I never took any pre-law classes in college,. And I don't know the exact technical terms.  And I know lawyers like to smear terms by putting them in Greek or Latin, like caveat emptor ( that and quid pro quo are probably the 2 most common latin pharses that  non Latin speakers understand, just due to popular use.)

 

As I said I probably wouldn't know what avenue to take.  but probably someone at Sega, I presume, ask the question about  what if someone made a Genesisn't campaign how do we protect against that?  Probably Sega of America went to their lawyers and asked "is a protection built-in? Can we register something as a protection? Or if we put this out, would we expose ourselves to such attack?"

 

Likewise Nintendo could have asked their laeyers, "okay we know the perfect answer for Nintendon't.  How about the Genesisn't campaign? Is that legal?"

 

I just wanted to know if a Sega thought of that internally before releasing the Nintendon't,  campaign?  Were they adequately protected or they just lucky!  Also did any competitor think of Genesisn't until their lawyer said "No that's not a good idea."

 

Even the Angry Video Game Nerd,  when he was a child from his mother's and father's home videos was trying to come up with his anti Sega campaign children always think about,  and but couldn't quite exactly think that.  Adult Nerd said  "Kid, the words you're looking for are 'Super Nintendo is with Genesisn't' "

 

By the way the rest of the world outside the USA, you might (/might not) have had something similar with "Megadrive does what Nintendon't".  It could have been used in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other English-speaking Nations,   and they could not be as easily attacked because the name is Mega Drive a much harder name to turn into a negative, unlike Genesis which could become Genesisn't.  (Nega Drive perhaps).  It probably wasn't used outside America.  I'm not sure if other languages have that easy of a translation that's that witty.  I don't know whether Sega of Europe wanted to have an individual campaign for each language represented or one trans-European campaign.

 

But for a lay man who never took a formal high School level introduction to law class, I asked a perfectly legitimate question that I can't seem to find anywhere else on the internet.  If I thought of Genesisn't, the kid AVGN was thinking about a reversal of  Nintendon"t, but his adult self corrected him, then there's probably other people who thought of that including people that say go trying to protect the Nintendon't campaign, as well as competitors trying to attack it.

 

Or am I that brilliant that if I was on team Nintendo and 20 years older I could have suggested Genesisn't as a campaign for Nintendo?  Was every advertising decision maker at Sega and their competitors dumber than a kid 20 years younger?

 

Ibcertainly hope the answer is no.  I hope Sega was smart enough to ask that question.  I hope Nintendo was considering pulling that trigger.  If both sides were that dumb,. and all I did was just played around with it like a junior high student would, then the Great American Console Game died with Atari Mattel and Coleco.  That's why most of our games come from Japan now.

 

Yes there were anerican third parties like Midway, but I can't think of any American corporations organically creating their own games other than Midway.  Or at least if they did, not as proficiently is Midway did.

 

So Tursi, did I do decent for someone with no law schooling?  And do any insiders have any information about Genesisn't campaign that wasn't. Was it thrown out five minutes after it was proposed,. Or was someone trying to actively find a legal way to do it without violating other laws?

 

[Tursi]

In general, they probably didn't care enough. But it's not like companies have never registered negative (but popular) names for themselves -- go look up the McDonald's trademarks someday.  Even so, if they don't /use/ them, they are substantially weakened.

 

Even so, if Nintendo just turned around and copied Sega's ad campaign, people would likely have responded negatively to that. Creativity is rewarded more than "no, you are!"

 

I'm not a lawyer either. I just had some exposure to these concepts in the course of my work.

 

[tripletopper]

Just like Sega was trying to be not Nintendo. Nintendo was trying to be Nintendo.  Nintendo's only real effective anti Sega ad was the one that put the nail in the coffin for the Genesis, the Donkey Kong Country "not for add-ons, not for CDs, not for Sega" ad.  At least 3/4 of the commercial is just footage of the game Donkey Kong Country. 

 

If Sega was succeeding being not Nintendo, then why would Nintendo want to try to be not Nintendo.  The field is already crowded.

 

That's probably true  if someone else made a Genesisn't add, it would not win over any Sega Genesis fans. Over 99% would think it's fake, or me-too.

 

And on top of that, genuine Nintendo fans would say, "If I'd want a Sega, I'd buy a Sega."  Exactly one of the criticisms of New Coke.

 

So you're saying, Sega probably thought if Sega made Nintebdon't, its sheer existence would neuter a Genisin't canpaign as a copycat if used elsewhere.

 

But you did say McDonalds took out "defensive legal protection", in other words, owning stuff that would wound them, so no one else can wound them legally.

 

Sega just thought the Copycat label they could use would be enough of a deterrent.

 

 

 

[Flojomojo]

Sounds like you really want Genesisn't to happen. 

[carlsson]

15 hours ago, Tursi said:

go look up the McDonald's trademarks someday

It is less than a year ago that the European Union ruled against McDonalds for the "Big Mac" trademark.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mcdonald-s-corp-trademark-supermacs/mcdonalds-loses-big-mac-trademark-case-to-irish-chain-supermacs-idUSKCN1P92JA

 

So better be careful with your trademarks and copyrights, and don't use them to threaten others when you feel you're infringed but in practise might not be.

[CatPix]

On 11/19/2019 at 10:07 PM, tripletopper said:

By the way the rest of the world outside the USA, you might (/might not) have had something similar with "Megadrive does what Nintendon't".  It could have been used in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other English-speaking Nations,   and they could not be as easily attacked because the name is Mega Drive a much harder name to turn into a negative, unlike Genesis which could become Genesisn't.  (Nega Drive perhaps).  It probably wasn't used outside America.  I'm not sure if other languages have that easy of a translation that's that witty.  I don't know whether Sega of Europe wanted to have an individual campaign for each language represented or one trans-European campaign.

 

The situation was very different in Europe. IN many countries, the NES wasn't released before 1990. In some other, the Master System never made it.

Also laws of different countries would make that kind of ad impossible (French laws at the time banned comparative ads, which included naming a brand other than you own).

Also here, Sega wouldn't have needed to do such a campaign because the SMS sold much better until the Megadrive arrived, which is also around this point that Nintendo took over Bandai for the sales of the NES, in so much that the best year of NES sales in France is 1992.

So basically even if they could have made a "Genesis does what Nintendon't" it wouldn't have been needed since they were the big name.

And negation in French doesn't work that way, so it wouldn't have been done anyway.

If you're curious, French ads featured "Maître Sega" (Master Sega) a disembodied voice that was taunting a big punk guy that tried to beat Sega games.

 

 

And their slogan/catchphrase was "Sega, c'est plus fort que toi" (which translate as "Sega, it's stronger than you" but the real meaning is "Sega, you can't resist it")

 

 

 

[tripletopper]

I kind of figured sone european ad campaigns sound better and are more catchilyy written natively in one language, and very hard to keep the double entendre ( mot all double entendres are dirty ones) intact.  Noticed I only used 3 international examples. UK, Austalia, and New Zealand, because both the government language, and the most spoken language by the people, is English (with each nation, and even regions or classes having a specific sub language/ dialect.)

 

I know by studying German at a high school level and comparing the original English of a Peter Gabriel CD in the original English and translated Gernan that a one-to-one literal translation does not make a good song.  You have to find clever ways to convey basically the same message and have it sound right in a song.  Thankfully German is a less "word order based" language than English.  It's heavy on cases to state gramnatical purposes.

 

Noticed I used 3 English based examples that could have done a Nintendon't ad, and no nations with a different first language.  I know Nintendon't wouldn't translate well in German, so odds are it's uniquely English Language phenonenom.

[carlsson]

3 hours ago, CatPix said:

The situation was very different in Europe. IN many countries, the NES wasn't released before 1990

Hm. I tried to look this up. Many sources say September 1986 for most of Europe, with the exception of the UK and Netherlands where it was released in 1987. However it is true that other companies such as Bandai, Mattel, Bergsala etc handled the sales for Nintendo, and they didn't establish themselves on the European market until a number of years later. Perhaps that is what you meant by 1990, that before they ran their own business they wouldn't have been as much affected by comparative advertising.

[tripletopper]

4 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

Sounds like you really want Genesisn't to happen. 

I didn't want it to happen, but I was wondering if both Sega and competitors were thinking about Genesisn't as a comeback and had strategues about.

 

Like did Nintendo comtemplated it for 1 minute and thought "we'd be called copycats, unoriginal, etc.  Not a way to appeal to the Sega audience.  Not worth it," and threw it out.

 

Was Sega hoping a hypothetical Genesisn't campaign would the cheese in a mouse trap that Sega could leverage if the bait was taken? (Thinking like chess, anticipating a reaction move, and assuming you're correct, you either take a big piece or get in good position to set up checkmate.)

[carlsson]

Not sure if anyone already suggested it, but perhaps Nintendo of America was gaining large enough market shares that they didn't have to resort to comparative advertising and in particular not try to retaliate what their competitors were trying to do. After all, a campaign like "Nintendon't" smells a lot like underdog tactics, a way for a lesser successful player to win market shares.

 

Also if other companies like NEC, SNK, Atari etc would consider comparative advertising, would they pitch their systems against #1 or #2, #3 etc? I mean "TurboGrafx is better than Jaguar" doesn't say very much if SNES was the system most gamers wanted to play anyway.

[CatPix]

30 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Hm. I tried to look this up. Many sources say September 1986 for most of Europe, with the exception of the UK and Netherlands where it was released in 1987. However it is true that other companies such as Bandai, Mattel, Bergsala etc handled the sales for Nintendo, and they didn't establish themselves on the European market until a number of years later. Perhaps that is what you meant by 1990, that before they ran their own business they wouldn't have been as much affected by comparative advertising.

I had looked for it years ago. It's possible that the site then only had infos for Bandai and Mattel and thus considered that countries where import was neither made by those two companies received no NES before 1990 (again date might differ slightly here but it's around that time that Nintendo too over Bandai and Mattel for NES distribution.)

Though it's certain that those companies didn't pushed the NES as muc has they could have, seeing that the sales figures for the UK barely reach 1 million, and France 3,5 millions (though it might be higher as it's a sale figure for 1992, but it's never made clear if it was 3.5 millions NES sold for 1992 alone or from 1986 to 1992)

Edited November 21, 2019 by CatPix

[tripletopper]

It's true.  When a player is dinimant, like Atari 260o or NES. the company name is the name of a product.  Like when I said  i needed to withdraw $400 for s Switch, Zelda BOTW, and Switch Bimberman, Mom asked why wiould you pay $300 for a Switch, my brother hsd yi say "It's a Mario (even though there was no Mario gsme at the time, but that's the best way to get it in a 70+ year old's head who can't hear well is to call it "A Mario"). If I were to explain a PS5 or Xbox Scarlet, to her  it would a different brand of Mario.

 

Mattel pioneered this tactic with George Plimpton Intellivision ads.

 

If Pepsi didn't have a built in audience of blacks in the South, who I assume were refused Coke, they wouldn't be a co-equal brand to Coke, and would be unable to grow from there.  Yes, Pepsi has a competitor's previous racist perception ( intentional or not)  to thank for its start.

 

Mattel people said,:"Before there was one question. It was 'Should I buy a video gane system?'.  We added a second question, which is 'If i want a video game system,which system should I buy?'.".  When you're a monolith, you are just selling ganes   Where you're facing a monolith, you ate selling YOUR AS OPPOSED TO THEIRS.

 

in the INTV/Coleco/5200/Vectrex era where the 2600, Odyssey 2, and Astrocade still had sections in Electronics Boutique and were actively still being advertised,  the companies were selling ganed more than systems.  Coleco put eggs in the 2600 and INTV baskets.  Matell had the M Network label fir the 2600 and Atarisoft nade Atari games for INTV, Colecovision, and non-Atari computers.  Sega didn't have that luxury.  They had to "license NES rights for Sega arcade/ SMS games" to Tengen, (another name for one of 2 companies named Atari) in order to make NES games.