Gaming the market: Montana State professor's research provides insights for board game industry

BOZEMAN - Anyone who has ever damaged a friendship over a supposedly friendly game of Monopoly knows the allure of the board game.

The board game industry is fast evolving, with producers creating complex games with elaborate thematic art to appeal to a slate of consumers. According to industry data, game sales and popularity spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, making board games a topical area of research in the entrepreneurial and marketing space.

Faculty at Montana State University have strengthened the scholarship on entrepreneurship, marketing and business strategy. Matthew Barlow, a management professor in the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship and director of the Jabs Entrepreneurship Center, co-authored a paper about product distinctiveness in the board game industry. It was published in the Journal of Business Venturing Insights this summer.

The paper presents strategic findings that are useful for board game producers and are also applicable for producers of what Barlow calls "experience goods," or products that consumers have to, essentially, experience before forming their opinion. Other examples of such goods include craft beer and novels.

"It's hard to judge these products sometimes," Barlow said. "For example, with a board game, you really have to play it to understand it. With a craft beer, you have to taste it. Just by looking at an advertisement, you may not be getting the whole picture."

With board games, there is sometimes a mismatch between producer expectations of the consumer experience and the actual consumer experience, the researchers found.

Specifically, the paper identified a "misalignment" in the perceived distinctiveness of different board games. Put more simply: producers believe the board games they create are more distinctive and unique than consumers believe they are.

The analysis was based on firsthand interviews with 28 board game designers and 381 unique quantitative surveys made by 127 experienced consumers of board games.

Barlow said the findings offer important takeaways.

"I think any entrepreneur, to a certain extent, should make sure that their customers understand their product," Barlow said. "And they also need to understand that consumer perceptions really matter."

The researchers proposed that entrepreneurs strive for "optimal distinctiveness" to maximize their success. Barlow said the concept changes across products and industries.

"Optimal distinctiveness is this theory we're building on, which essentially says that entrepreneurs or businesses should aim to balance wanting to be similar enough to other things so people understand them, but also novel enough that they're different and can reduce competition," he said.

Board games are also interesting to study, Barlow added, because some producers, such as larger, commercial companies, are motivated by profit incentive. But others make games as a creative outlet and art form. So, optimal distinctiveness may mean something different to different producers. Regardless, Barlow said, producers should ensure the message they want to communicate is the message consumers receive.

The paper put forth some strategies on how to close the perceived distinctiveness gap.

First, he said making efforts to test a prototype or display a new game at a convention - anything to get it "in front of people's eyes early" and receive feedback - is a good idea.

Additionally, producers can tailor their messaging to include the "reference point" game they want consumers to think of when playing the new game, Barlow said. That can provide more control over which games players are comparing the new game to.

How to create the most effective messaging is a question for future research.

"Positioning is likely to be helpful, but we just don't understand exactly how to draw that comparison in a way that is most effective," Barlow said. "So that's something we're thinking about trying to look into." That could involve a future study of creating test advertisements that use comparisons to reference games, and then gauging consumer feedback, he said.

"This is strategy work- how do I position in a way that what I think I'm helping the consumers see is what they're seeing? How do I draw those comparisons and see what actually helps?" Barlow said.

Brian Gillespie, dean of the business college, said Barlow's research demonstrates how students who want to launch their own products and businesses can get a leg up at MSU.

"Every day, our faculty work on research that helps entrepreneurs increase their efficiency and profitability," Gillespie said. "At the same time, resources like the Jabs Entrepreneurship Center and MSU Launchpad provide professional and financial support for students to turn their ideas into reality. We're proud to have created an ecosystem that supports self-starters from day one."