How Razer Pioneered a New Genre of Entertainment
When I saw the garish green on black, and those delicious words, “For Gamers, By Gamers,” I knew I wanted to spend my hard-earned lawn mowing money on the outrageously green peripherals. I was thirteen or fourteen, and one could hardly say my desire was informed by good taste, but I was willing to drop over a hundred dollars on headsets, mice, and mousepads with names like “Kraken,” “Deathadder,” and “Goliathus.”
Why?
In 1999 Razer released the Boomslang. It was the first gaming mouse ever. Razer had created a new market, and so had to build a new genre of marketing. They had to connect with and sell to people whose parents told them gaming was for losers, and who were stereotyped as nerds in a basement covered in Cheeto dust. They had to make them feel cool.
I remember the days when shopping for t-shirts at Goodwill was mostly a matter of looking for neon orange and bright red, preferably with a lion or snake’s head graphic. Razer understood that they were targeting a new demographic with their product, so they committed to the loud colors and edgy names that adolescents love so much.
And it worked. Their website was covered in photos of accessories I could only dream of, and graphs and charts listing data such as “10,000 DPI” and “50 mm drivers” that made it feel like I was investing in a tool for my trade. They dominated the gaming peripherals scene, but they weren’t done.
In the words of CEO and co-founder Min-Liang Tan, “When you’re playing a game, you’re always looking forward, looking for the next challenge. We’re the biggest brand in the world for gaming, but can we be the biggest brand in the world for entertainment? We’re looking for the next big challenge.”
They created a lifestyle around their products, building everything from high-end laptops to water bottles. Gaming is a 100 billion dollar industry, bigger than the movie industry. Razer didn’t care that their target demographic was negatively stereotyped by older generations. They knew that, just like comic-book nerds of the 60s, gamers would take over the world.
Razer has adapted to the times and grown with their audience. If they had continued to focus solely on garish gaming equipment, I would have forgotten them as I entered the obligations of adulthood. But they kept innovating with novel devices, which even though never sold to the public, piqued my interest when they showed them off at conventions. Razer made whole pages and pitches with exciting pictures and features for things they never sold. It included me in their iteration process, and signaled that they were spending money and time to push the gaming industry forward, which in turn signaled to me that this was a company I should keep my eye on.
Razer didn’t just build prototypes for the future, promising evolution. They evolved.
Razer transitioned into the Productivity market with their Razer Book (curiously slim and silver, like another mobile computing device whose name ends with “book”), and released professionally acceptable black and white color schemes for their earbuds and headphones.
With 45% of gamers being women, Razer expanded their market again with accessories such as the Kraken Kitty Edition.
Razer continues to reach a wider audience, while never losing sight of their core market. People have tattooed the triple-headed snake logo on themselves, with one fan going so far as to tattoo Min’s face on his arm. If real human beings are permanently applying your logo to their bodies, you know you’ve done a good job creating your brand.
Razer could have been a fluke, a niche company that appealed to gamers before gaming was an accepted form of entertainment. But through an exceptional marriage of product design and marketing, they evolved into a world-renowned tech brand.
And who wouldn’t want every aspect of their life transformed into an RGB light show?
