http://blog.mangagamer.org/2015/03/10/2015-licensing-survey-results/
Anyone notice any surprises in this one?
I thought this part was interesting from their results:
"When surveyed about what respondents considered most important when deciding to purchase a visual novel, ìstoryî and ìartî were significantly the two most important factors, though art held more sway with women than men. Following on the tails of those two factors, what fans find important is greatly divided by gender. For men, the third most significant factor was erotic content, while for women it was the characters and relationship options (IE male/male, female/male, etc.) Next down for women is genre, voice actors, and erotic content, but for men itís characters, gameplay, and length. Having an anime was barely listed as a factor by respondents. In terms of age, it came as no surprise that the teenage bracket was more concerned with lower prices, but it was surprising to see that erotic content became more important to both as they aged.
Given the above, it was no surprise that women greatly preferred the otome and BL genres, while men more strongly preferred nukige and slice-of-life genres (though nukige gains importance with age). It also came as no surprise that romance games were the most strongly preferred across all ages and genders. What did come as a surprise was that yuri was liked equally well by all groups, even though it was one of the less favored genres."
Any chance that JAST USA might run a survey similar to their survey sometime this year?
MG posting that survey was one of the most useful revelations for affiliates working hard to promote visual novels. I even e-mailed MG to provide more detailed info, so I could improve my own marketing effort of their games, but no, they’re smart enough to know that data is golden.
Seriously, the stuff that’s in there… I’m currently in the process of updating my own plans based on their announced results. There’s so many useful conclusions to be made, like about the differences between sexes, the differences between age demographics, spending habits, social media usage…
For example, the blog post said that Tumblr is dominantly a female platform, so the marketing of visual novels in there has to appeal to females and perhaps sexual minorities too. If you want to reach male demographics, 4chan, Reddit or other male-dominated spaces are more suitable. Marketing messaging needs to be crafted differently based on who you want as your customer. Data is essential in constructing a strategy that’s effective.
I found it amusing that females rated art as more important than story, while males ranked them the other way around.