Yesterday was a big day for Nintendo. While inevitably it was the DSi which took centre stage among the plethora of announcements what the company also put on show, less explicitly but equally importantly, was a shift in its marketing strategy.

Without any real doubt, Nintendo has seen the greatest success of this hardware generation, both commercially and culturally. However, like all successful companies Nintendo has run the risk - and especially so in this last year - of becoming its own worst enemy. When you see your revolutionary and ambitious marketing strategy work with resounding success, such as Nintendo has, the temptation is to just leave it alone and not meddle. The result has been a brand with strong ideas initially but has since been lacking in the short-term, day-to-day innovation which gives it needs to respond to rapidly evolving consumer electronics sector.

Nintendo has been decidedly stoic in its approach since the launch of the Wii and the DS Lite, refusing to change or modify any part of its marketing mix. This was personified in the “geeks and otaku” PR palaver, when Nintendo refused to recognise such a blatant inadequacy in its product offering despite the needs of consumers. This is by great contrast to both Sony and Microsoft who have been constantly revising their entire hardware offering every few months.

The new capabilities of the DSi, including improved connectivity, sound, display and camera are all direct responses to changes in the wider electronics market, which Nintendo has until this point pretty much ignored out of hand.
The truth is that while the services consumers require from handheld devices increases the space in their pockets remains pretty much the same. It would be audacious of Nintendo to assume that consumers would lug around another extra device that does nothing other than play games when they could, for example, have an iPhone or G1 which would do that and more.

Right from the launch of the Wii and DS commentators pondered what would happen when the novelty wore off. What the DSi represents is Nintendo accepting open competition with handhelds of all creeds.

Into the future, the challenge for Nintendo will be to ensure it can remain responsive in the current marketing environment and not allow its success turn into a dangerous, all be it comforting, myopia. When a company can completely change what a product means through a single Firmware update or the introduction of an SKU it gives itself the best possible chance to respond to changes in consumer needs. Nintendo must now focus on the building of long term relationships with those consumers who bought into the original promise of the Wii and DS. Hence the expansion of the Club Nintendo reward scheme into North America.

As the line between mobile, mp3 player and handhold console blurs and melds towards the notion of a unified device Nintendo will ultimately have to blur and meld with it in order to remain relevant. Even in the context of the family, consumers will only tolerate a lack of functionality to a point and cannot be expected to remain loyal out of good will alone. The onus is on Nintendo to follow trends within the wider industry whilst still maintaining its own values and vision.