Here are the Marketing Games Available on Great Ideas
In addition to the range of resources and activities for teaching marketing, we also have EIGHT marketing games and Sim Games available on this website – with most of them provided for free.
These marketing education games are:
- Restaurant Pricing Game (free)
- Pizza Store Design Game (free)
- Interactive Marketing (Trading) Game (free)
- Price-Place Marketing Sim Game (free)
- Base Sim Game: How to Play Guide (free)
- Marketing Mix Sim Game (free)
- The Advanced Positioning Simulation Game (included free for Members)
- Expert-level Marketing Sim Game (included free for Members)
- Retail Wars Sim Game (included free for Members)
These games are in addition to the three digital escape rooms (on the marketing mix, marketing plans, and consumer behavior), also provided for free on Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing.
Quick Comparison Summary of these Teaching Games
|
Educational Game |
Estimated Time to Play | Learning Difficulty | Key Concepts |
Resources Provided |
|
Restaurant Pricing Game |
30-45 mins |
Easy |
Pricing Competition Game Theory Relationships |
|
|
Pizza Store Design Game (Non-interactive version) |
1 hour |
Easy (design of store), easy-medium (cost management) |
Marketing Mix (7P’s) Retailing Profits/Costs |
|
|
Pizza Store Design Game (Interactive version) |
2-3 hours |
Easy (design of store), easy-medium (cost management and trading) |
Marketing Mix (7P’s) Retailing Profits/Costs Personal Selling |
|
|
Interactive Marketing (Trading) Game |
2-3 hours |
Medium |
Profits/Costs B2B relationships Logistics Product Mix Retailing |
|
|
Price-Place Marketing Sim Game (non-interactive version of the above game) |
1-2 hours |
Easy-medium |
Profits/Costs Planning Logistics Product Mix |
|
|
Marketing Mix Sim Game
|
3-4 hours |
Medium+ |
Marketing mix Target markets Brand management Competition |
|
|
Basic Positioning Game |
1-2 hours |
Easy |
Positioning Segments New Products Competition |
|
|
Retail Wars Sim Game |
2-4 hours |
Easy |
Marketing mix 7Ps Locations Metrics Competition Financials |
|
|
Advanced Positioning Game |
2-3 hours |
Easy-medium |
Positioning Segments New Products Competition Marketing Environment |
|
|
Expert Marketing Sim Game |
15+ hours (need to play over time) |
Difficult |
Strategy New Products Product Management SWOT Competition Profits/Costs
|
|
Overview of the Three POSITIONING Marketing Sim Games
Three of these decision games are built around a central marketplace that is visualized by a perceptual (positioning) map. These three games can be played independently or can used in succession (over time) to progress your students through an array of marketing concepts and competitive decision making.
Introductory/basic-level Sim Game
This introductory-level marketing simulation game is ideal to run over 1-2 classes (1-2 hours) for either junior undergraduate or high school student level, or even as a team building exercise at any university level, or for the corporate training and team-building. It primarily introduces students to the concepts of:
- Market segmentation and target market selection
- Product positioning
- Competitive rivalry
- New product development versus product management
- Payback time
This game available for FREE download on this website. This is a great place to start and evaluate the suitability of using this style of simulation game with your students.
Click here for more information and to download the game for free
Advanced-level Sim Game
This next level decision game is more advanced and builds upon the concepts in the introductory-level game, but is also a standalone game in its own right. It is a more complex game, requiring more decision and analysis time.
Typically around 30 minutes is required per decision, plus around an hour “training” time for students to get a good sense of how the game works. Therefore, it is best to run over several weeks/months (as there are eight decision rounds).
This advanced game is suitable for undergraduate and junior postgraduate student groups. In addition to the marketing concepts listed above (for the introductory game) it also helps teach:
- Basic marketing strategy
- Dynamic consumer needs
- Financial forecasts and return on marketing investment
- Opportunity costs and trade-off
- Long-term versus short-term product development challenges
- Profit goals versus market share goals
This game is included for free for GITM Members.
Click here to go to the download page for the advanced simulation game
Expert-level Sim Game
This top-level decision game builds upon all of the marketing concepts in both of the simulation games above. Again this game is a standalone game in its own right, but can also played as the “third installment” of the games if you are progressing your student’s marketing knowledge over several semesters/terms.
It is a far more complex game (hence the “expert-level” title) and it requires significant decision and analysis time. Around 60 minutes is required per decision, plus several hours “training” time for students (note: instructional videos are available).
In this case, it will be necessary to run the game over several sessions/weeks (as there are eight decision rounds). This expert-level game is suitable for more senior students and classes. In addition to the marketing concepts listed above (for both the introductory and advanced games) it helps with:
- Complex marketing strategy
- Consumer behavior and decision making
- Brand management and brand development
- Niche marketing and the role of differentiation
- Pricing and profit management
- The role of promotion
- Competitive analysis and responsive
- Financial forecasting and scenario testing
This game is included for free for GITM Members.
Click here for more information on the expert-level simulation game
Quick Overview of the PLACE and PRICE (B2B) Sim Games
Two other teaching games have a B2B basis and rely upon trading between retailers and manufacturers. These games are built around a marketing channel structure, where manufacturers sell/trade with retailers. Below is an overview of each of these games.
In the first version of this channel/price based, student teams are allocated to the role of a manufacturer, with the choice of three different retail channels to which they can offer products. They need to decide which channels to target, what quantities to produce for each channel, and what price to set for their products.
In the second version of this simulation game, it requires an interactive component between student teams. In this sim game, some student teams are allocated to the role of manufacturer, while the other teams are allocated to the role of a retailer.
This necessitates a “trading marketplace”, where price and quantity purchases need to be negotiated and agreed upon by the various teams – tends to be a lot of fun for the students, as well as a valuable learning opportunity.
Both these games are also available for free – follow these links to their download page.
Channel/price marketing simulation game
Interactive marketing simulation game
The Two Restaurant-oriented Marketing Games
The restaurant pricing game is the simplest game to play – as students only need to determine the price that they would charge for the meals. However, the market has been set to be very elastic and minor changes in price lead to substantial changes in market share and profitability.
As a result, this game becomes quite competitive within the classroom. It is normally a lot of fun for students, please check out the information on how to play the restaurant pricing game.
In the pizza design store game, students need to design their own pizza store, including the 7P’s marketing mix, but with cost implications in mind. I have used this game many times at different teaching levels with great success – check out how to play the pizza store design game here.
Further information