Gamestop Gopro Strategic Alliance

The Potential for GameStop to Create a Strategic Alliance with GoPro
GameStop has partnered with companies like Cricket and Apple via SimplyMac in the past in order to sell phone subscriptions and Apple devices. Now, with the next generation of consumers coming up in the Digital Era, GameStop can form a strategic alliance with GoPro, the number one producer of action cameras, to get more consumers interested in merging video gaming with filmmaking. As more and more gamers are posting content on YouTube, attracting audiences, developing their own brands, and making fortunes in the process (Grzesiak, 2018), it makes perfect sense that GameStop should ally with GoPro as vlogging and gaming are becoming integrated in the consumer-sphere (Brown, 2016).
This strategic alliance would work because GameStop and GoPro already have similar business models in which consumers can buy the desired products, use them for a while, and then trade them in for different products or take advantage of a trade-up offer. GoPro allows consumers to trade-up to purchase its newest action camera options like the Hero 5 Black. GameStop essentially works the same way with its video games and consoles. By stocking GoPro action cameras in its stores, GameStop could attract even more business while expanding its offerings to meet the needs of the YouTube gamer/vlogger market, which needs not only access to great new games (which GameStop can currently provide) but also great action cameras that can be used to record live streams, action footage, and any other type of vlog that the gamer might like to film for YouTube.
The alliance would allow GameStop to stock, sell, and accept trades of GoPro action cameras for other cameras or games. GoPro would be able to link online sales of merchandise with GameStop, and vice versa. Both businesses could partake in a campaign to unite the two companies’ products in an online marketing blitz aimed at YouTubers, gamers, vloggers, and anyone interested in creating their own brand for the YouTube generation using Digital Era technology and recreational products. The alliance would allow the two worlds of gaming and outdoor activities to unite—which is really well represented by so many YouTube personalities who have started out as gamers and become professional vloggers with videos ranging from indoor productions to outdoor activities like skating, swimming, hiking, canoeing and so on (Grzesiak, 2018). In other words, gaming videos help YouTubers attract a following—and from there the vlogger can expand in a multitude of directions, using the GoPro action camera to film a variety of experiences that can be shared via the YouTube platform. Both GameStop and GoPro could likewise share in producing their own GameStop-GoPro YouTube channel on which user-generated content could be uploaded to further market their strategic alliance and increase visibility for their respective products and services and thereby increase revenue streams.
In conclusion, the Digital Era has now seen an entire generation come of age—and that generation is eschewing both old media and old media marketing concepts. The next generation of consumers not only want to have fun playing video games, they also want to share those experiences with others via social media and develop their own autonomous brands. To help that generation achieve their aims, GameStop and GoPro can form the perfect strategic alliance that will facilitate the attainment of Generation Z’s ambitions. The future of consumption among the techies of tomorrow is the merger of gaming and vlogging using the action camera.
References
Brown, S. (2016). Postmodern marketing: dead and buried or alive and kicking?. In The
Marketing Book (pp. 43-58). New York, NY: Routledge.
Grzesiak, M. (2018). Personal Branding on YouTube in the United States and in Poland:
Comparative Analysis Based on Academic Literature and Published Marketing Studies. In Personal Brand Creation in the Digital Age (pp. 71-96). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.