I'd like some suggestions. Imagine that you have some games and some non-game applications/utilities that you wish to market. How might you do it?

Do you keep the interests completely separate? i.e. different websites, no cross-selling, etc

Do you have one website for the company broken up into a "games" and "tools" (or whatever) section?

Something else?

And from a larger perspective, what do you suppose the company structure might look like? (One company, two companies, one company with subsidiaries?)

Forgive me if I sound like a complete marketing ameteur, but... I am! =) Maybe I'll just leave it at these questions and ask more as I figure stuff out...

Thx

This question is really about image (I am on an image kick lately I think).

It is not a question of which is better, it is a question of what image do you want to tell people about your company.

For instance:

You offer a utility on the same page as a game.

What does this say about your company?

Some thoughts that come to mind: (Positive) is versitile. Some that come to mind (negative) is amature (which can be dispelled by an impressive well divided layout).

Stardock.net is an example of a very successful company that has both on the same page.

Lets say you make one a back page of the other. Say, games in front and a subdirectory link for the utilities.

What does this say to your customer? says you are concentrating on games, but also have utilities availible. It says you have placed a priority on a given project.

Lets say you seperate the two into two different companies (or a subcompany of another)

What does this say? It doesnt say anything about the relationship between the two companies. If one is a subgroup of the other company it may bring negative thoughts like 'unstable.' If they are totally seperate what does it say about each company? 'specialized'

So there you go, some real basic examples of how the general layout of your company structure can affect the way you are percieved by the public.

Marketing 101 :-)

Hope it helps your thought process,
Joseph Lieberman

Focus on one thing. Having certain product line is crucial for your business.

In 1996, I released The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal) on my own, and the original Paintball Net with my brother. At that time, I had only a personal Web page, and I simply listed both of them there.

As the separate businesses grew, though, it made sense to split them out into first separate sub-pages on the same site, and then completely separate them onto their own sites.

Over the years, I've tried to come up with a meaningful, non-stupid way to cross-promote The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal) from Samu Games, and vice versa, but I've decided that it's not worth the loss of user/player credibility to do that. They are very different products, with very different audiences. I don't mind mentioning either one to users/players of the other, but I never do it "officially." The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal) doesn't sing the praises of Artifact (http://www.samugames.com/artifact/) to IT professionals who only want to track what they did today, or to the author who is working on his novel--the *last* thing he needs is a new distraction. Similarly, Artifact (http://www.samugames.com/artifact/) doesn't plug The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal) because the players are busy directing their armies and managing their cities. People who journal also play, and people who play also journal. But seldom at the same time.

All of that to say: It makes sense to keep separate products separate. If there is an obvious overlap, link back and forth. Otherwise, you're basically selling popunder ads to yourself and undermining your professional credibility.

-David

I've struggled with this issue a lot. I've released a couple of applications and am now planning to release a game sometime next year.

You have to realize that for most people, the only impression that you get to make is from your website. If someone looking for a business application sees a bunch of games or an unprofessional website, it will turn them off. Your website should try to instill trust in your company so that they wouldn't feel suspicious of buying from you. People want to know that you're devoted to your products and it's not just something you did and will abandon in another few months.

I thought of releasing both games and application on a website, or creating two websites that are linked closely. But in the end I've decided to make two different websites and two different companies. Yes, it's probably more work but the amount of cross-selling you'd gain wouldn't be worth it for the loss of image.

Just my two cents.
Graeme