Management
INTRODUCTION
Zynga Inc. is the largest game developer in the world with nearly 290 million monthly active users per month who are playing their games mainly on Facebook such as Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker, Frontier Ville, City Ville, Farm Ville, among others. Moreover, Zynga offers its game through several platforms such as My Space, iPad, Yahoo, iPhone and Android (Survey Analytics).
The leader of Zynga, Mark Pincus, founded the company in 2007 and led the company with his leadership skills making the company to be a pioneer in the social gaming industry. Although it is important for a leader to welcome creative ideas of employees and emphasizing them to think out of the box; however, the business model of Zynga is more relied on copying the material, games designs and ideas from other developers of the games. Similarly, the company has ran into several controversies, allegations and litigations due to unethical practices enforced by Mark Pincus on the employees and freelancers to copy ideas, games etc., and market it first from the game originators. Moreover, it is also observed that the company’s leadership is more of bureaucratic control with top-down and command and control approach. Another factor that shows ineffectiveness of leadership approach of Mark Pincus is that the company lacks support staff, poor response to customers, and no customer service initiatives which are the prime contributor to customer’s satisfaction. Moreover, the employees of Zynga are required to work for long hours, under aggressive culture and stressful deadlines. The poor leadership approach chosen by Mark Pincus has led to the development of feudal state within Zynga which is an alarming concern as with the increase in the level of discord, it is expected that the will worsen affecting the ability of Zynga to retain top talented employees (Team). Thus, the company’s leadership approach is not appropriate and ineffective which might turn the gaming giant company to face losses and increase allegations.
BASIS OF ZYNGA’S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND POTENTIAL CHALLENGES TO ITS STRATEGY
There are several factors through which Zynga has achieved competitive advantage. One major competitive advantage that the company has is its large number of users and massive user base. Similarly, the company pioneers in gaming industry by offering social games that an individual could play with their family and friends. Likewise, the company has a huge market share. Moreover, the team of employees and owner has the most experience who all aims to increase the attraction of users to the games offered by Zynga. One more advantage that the company has is that the users could transfer from one game to another making them to engage in a large number of games offered by Zynga.
The business strategy, i.e., mainly copying the ideas, content and game designs from other game developers have even though benefitted the company to a large scale. However, several potential challenges could be faced by Zynga due to its strategy. For instance, the company could have negative impact on its employees as they are forced to be an imitator. Similarly, unethical practices that results from its business strategy could make the company to face several allegations, charges, penalties, etc., besides affecting the brand image negatively among its potential customers/ users. Therefore, it is important for Zynga to change its business strategy and work ethically while continuing to be social gaming leader in its industry.
SUGGESTED GROWTH STRATEGIES
In order to expand and grow, Zynga could implement any of the four strategies from the ANSOFF model, i.e., market development, product development, market penetration and diversification (McDonald and Kolsaker 147). However, the company is suggested to implement product development strategy and market development to increase its revenue and to re-establish its brand image among the customers. Moreover, proper marketing plan with effective marketing mix should be used while pursuing the following strategies:
With respect to market development strategy, as the company already offers several games through the identified platforms that could be accessed globally, such as My Space, Facebook, iPad, Yahoo, iPhone and Android; Zynga should offer games through more such platforms in all countries such as Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation where different levels will be cleared by the users without any credit purchase. However, the cost of the game will be high.
With respect to product development strategy, Zynga should introduce more latest and innovative games to cater users of different age groups through its existing and new (suggested) platforms. Moreover, partnership with different game developers could be made so as to reduce allegations, unethical act, minimize expenses and increase revenue.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, it could be concluded that Zynga is a leading company in social gaming industry; however, ineffective leadership of Mark Pincus and unethical business model could lead the company to face substantial losses in near future. Therefore, in order to construct its brand image, grow and continue increasing its user’s satisfaction, Zynga could use market development and product development strategies. Moreover, the Mark Pincus is also required to change its leadership approach as it will benefit both employer and the employees.
Works Cited
McDonald, M and Ailsa Kolsaker. MBA Marketing. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.
Survey Analytics. Zynga: Connecting The World Through Games. 2011. Survey Analytics. Print
Team, Trefis. “Zynga Stock Should Be Above $10 But Corporate Culture Puts A Lid On Growth”. Yahoo News. 20 December 2011. Web. 22 April 2016
