The conceit in this internal Gamestop training video is that you’re watching a sort of nature video with a British anthropologist investigating a strange and mysterious species: woman— and how to sell to them. Offensive – or just a low-budget industrial video team trying to get its audience to pay attention? Take our poll inside and you be the judge, but either way, you can be pretty sure Gamestop never intended any customer to see this video.
[via Kotaku]
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I’m pretty sure her accent is either South African, or meant to be South African, but there is no way it is British.
Also, I could not watch beyond the introduction. It was just too crappy (and not in an enjoyable way).
yes- it reinforces negative stereotypes about anthropology!!
I see how quite a few GS employees treat the women that come in there and they definitely need a training video!
That being said I see nothing horribly wrong with this “training” video. It came across as more mocking towards the “boys club” mentality in Gamestop and gamers in general. At least that’s my opinion…
It is not a real video shown to GameStop employees and shame on the Consumerist for not checking their facts. There is a thing called satire. This video is thick with it. After this story hit on Kotaku I talked to several of my friends that work at GameStop and they say that they have never seen it and it is fake.
As a 21 year old female who only casually plays video games (usually Viva Pinata on my DS), I can see the need for a video such as this. It’s unfortunate when actual gamers get condescending tones from salespeople, but you can’t assume that everyone that walks into a GameStop knows anything about video games.
I wouldn’t assume that a guy who walks into a handbag store knows anything about handbags (and trust me there are plenty of guys that take an active interest in womens apparel and accessories).
This video is entirely too poorly produced. It just SCREAMS fake to me.
Women don’t like to be condescended to. Except by this video, right?
It would be fine if the video was how to sell to non-hardcore gamers. But when it’s couched in terms of gender, that’s just reinforcing stereotypes.
I have always received excellent service at GameStop, with my sample being 7 or 8 different outlets in 3 different regions of the US (but all major metropolitan areas)
One time I called a GameStop to see if they had Resistance: Fall of Man, and then asked them to hold it for me. The clerk told me that I’d have to bring an ID showing I was over 17, or bring an adult with me. Whatever, I figured it was just boilerplate they said to everyone. When I showed up at the counter that evening and asked for it, the clerk did a double take. That’s when I realized that he must have assumed from my voice on the phone that I was a 12-year-old boy, and was surprised when a middle-aged woman showed up. But he was immediately cool and professional and sold it to me (and didn’t bother to check my ID).
My other amusing GameStop-and-gender story was the time I was on a business trip. After dinner my coworker said she wanted to check out the mall near our hotel. Our male boss said dismissively, “I’m not going to go *shopping* at a *mall*.” We went without him, and we both wound up making only one purchase: used games at the GameStop.
This could work for either males or females. The only marketing difference is that the magazines cater to mostly female audience. It makes perfect sense to expand one’s customer base as much as possible. Beyond being slightly amusing, there’s nothing of note here.
It is a bit silly
I can condense a great ‘how to sell to women’ lesson down into a few simple lines:
1. Dangle your keys in front of her for a moment. Women love shiny things. (It is ok to stare at her breasts only AFTER the desired effect is reached.)
2. Don’t use fancy tech terms like ‘gizmo’ and ‘whatjamagig’. The easiest way to determine what kind of game system they are buying for is color, and then size and age.
3. Consumerist ladies, please don’t hurt me. =p
I hate to say it but I am the person they are talking about in this video. I’m not completely clueless when it comes to this new-fangled video game stuff everyone is buzzing about. I’m just saying it’s days are numbered. I mean, who can manage all those buttons at once?
Honestly, I have been in need of some advice at my local Game Stop before and the geeks, I mean young men, there were surprisingly unhelpful. I know nothing about PSP’s and what games might be appropriate for my 7 year old and they were sort of like “yeah, the games are over here…”. Duh.
Maybe the fine folks at Game Stop need to be able to recognize a customer who is out of his or her element but this video was over the top. I’m sure someone there thought they were being cute by making it and that the angle would make sales people feel superior, which I’m sure they aren’t used to in REAL life. While I don’t find it offensive, I don’t find it clever. Just misguided.
It’s the let’s get primitive, go on a safari, and talk about women theme that’s troubling; it’s the British accent that’s funny; it’s the idea that Gamestop employees are trained that is most offensive.
LOL, “I love Cosmo!”
Look, I think it’s entirely realistic to assume that an older woman is not going to know much about video games…older men (depending on how old), might still be more comfortable with video games, even if they don’t know any current games or systems.
Now, if this were focusing on women in their early 20′s to early 30′s, I’d find that *incredibly* offensive…if only because EVERY LAST female I know, my own age, does in fact play, and enjoy, video games.
Being treated like an idiot by Gamestop staff is not something limited to just one sex. I’m about as junk-laden as they come and almost every Gamestop employee under 25 has treated me as if I’m a moron when I’m looking to buy a game. Coupled with the idiots who spend their whole day hanging out in Gamestop and arguing about games, it’s easily my least favorite shopping experience on earth. I love videogames and absolutely hate Gamestop.
This video wasn’t necessarily offensive, or at least it really shouldn’t be to women, it makes fun of the typical male, nerdish, close-minded gamestop employee a lot more than it does the female consumer. I don’t work in retail, but if I did and my company decided that we needed to watch a video on how to sell our products to a group that comprises a little more than 50% of the population, I’d be insulted.
the american version was more about handling the different types of customers… “the hardcore gamer”, the casual gamer” and the “the gifter” or “woman”
lol
Andrew is a living example right there of what girls with geek boyfriends are terrified they will turn into if they buy them World of Warcrack. If you want us to buy the men in our lives more video games, don’t let your employees look like we’d be better off getting them an Iron Gym then Call of Duty.
I’m more offended for the employees this vid is directed at since it presumes if you work there you have no social or retail skills beyond sweaty neck-bearded nerds.
You can sum up the video by this:
1) Don’t be mean to moms, they have the money.
2) Females need the incentive of stupid magazines, I’m sorry, “personal growth periodicals”.
3) The Orbitz girl has hit a new low.
@Meangirl.is.for.the.Horde: World of Warcrack = win. Also, go Alliance.
@LadySiren wants her avatar: Meh, Horde PvP all the way. We don’t have time for love and “manners” on Boulderfist.
I do not believe she’s the Director of Womanly Studies. At all.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch the full thing as I’m not getting paid for it. The gist as I understand it is, “TALK TO THEM LIKE THEY ARE HUMAN.” Is it absolutely idiotic? Yes. It doesn’t make me feel oppressed, though.
I think the GameStop employees are viewing a video that suggest you get up close and flirt with female customers while asking them if they’d like to trade in their old game once the associate find out the customer actually plays games. The last time I went into a GameStop, I got that uber-creepy vibe and I haven’t been in a GameStop since.
Although to be fair, most of the women I see coming into GameStop are like in the video: clueless moms buying games for the family or a bratty child. Would be more tasteful if they did the video singling out clueless men /and/ women buying games for their gamer families since I see just as many clueless men wandering in pondering what games to get for their sons.
I’ve seen a lot of cheesy and dumb training videos in my youth like McDonald’s but this is the worst, it crosses over into a bad parody it’s so awful, just like Gamestop.
#@%& Gamestop.
Getting offended over that seems kind of… I dunno, trite. An example for the opposite is going to a cooking store to get a new wok or something, and having the clerk ask if you were buying that for your wife. I can’t imagine many guys that would get offended by this comment, they would just say no it’s for me and be on their way.
I can understand a video like this because the demographic that gamestop hires from is kinda notorious for not communicating well with the opposite gender. I would consider it more demeaning to gamestop employees than I would females.
They don’t want any employees to see it either.
I wasn’t provided with even an hour of training while I worked at Gamestop, even when I was required to sign off on emails saying I’d been “fully trained” on new policies.
It’s a very “sink or swim (Here, please hold these cinder blocks)” type environment.
Man am I glad my local gamestop doesn’t do that crap. I get treated no different than the male customers.
This is a legit video. Men and women are different, and need to be treated differently when you are selling to them. I have worked as a sales person, and this is fact.
The fact is, most hardcore gamers (or any hardcore hobbiest0 wont walk into a shop not knowing what they want, they walk into their shop of choice, and the only interaction with a sales person is going to be “where is X” and maybe some general chitchat, most don’t need to be sold to, and at most, it will be an accessory, or pitching some deal going on, either way, the person is easily recognizable and the technique to get their money is the same.
The casual shopper (in this case the casual gamer)is much much different. Guys, for the most part, like to think they know wtf they are doing and talking about. You stroke their ego, and talk to them like they are equals to you, if not your superior, while not overwhelming them with jargon etc. You basically dumb things down but make them think they are on the up and up with whats current, and then you sell them hard and fast, men like to make quick decisions and be confident about them.
Women are very different from men. Many will come in and let you know right off that they don’t know what they are looking for, and they look for sympathy. Some salesmen will play on that and give them the sympathy, but this makes the women feel bad becasue unless the sales guy is really good, he will come off as condescending. The safe route is to make them think that you think they are underestimating them selves. joke around and just focus on what they do know, and slide in what they don’t like its no big deal. Girls don’t like hard fast sells, they like to make informed decisions, and like to know there is a plan B, and C (return policies etc) in case they made a bad decision.Be gentle, take your time, and be charming and you will sell to a woman.
If a man and a woman come in together and if you get a feeling they are in a relationship, sell to the woman. Women in relationships control men, period. If the woman wants something, the guy is going to get it. but don’t flirt with the girl, this will piss the guy off and he will leave. So sell to the girl, but use the same techniques above as the guy, this way you don’t point out what he doesn’t know, but he still gets the info as you explain it to the girl and his ego is saved.
and as bad as it sounds, there are selling techniques for race, age, religion, and sexual orientation as well. Will they make a video about those? nope. Will they teach sales men about them? Only if they want to make money.
I learned this stuff when I worked as a sales person. I lead my position in sales nation wide a lot of the time in a large electronics retailer. The tops sales men were great at reading people, and would adapt their sales technique to the person once they got some info on them, but used generalizations like this to start with.
The generalizations are not ALWAYS right, but they are right often enough to make them worth using, and for the most part, if a person is different then the category you put them in, its going to be apparent within the first few words.
It’s not sexist in my view, it’s just someone in an HR dept somewhere trying to be clever to get targeted marketing tactics across in a Jane Goodall parody. Obviously the HR person is somewhat deluded and hugely out of touch tho as that is an incredibly obscure approach for the teens to 20s clerks who mostly comprise the staff!
This is an hilarious video. If this was on TV, it’ll be comedic genius. But because it’s by Gamestop (which everyone likes to hate), some don’t think it’s funny.
When I worked in marketing at GameStop, I remember at one point the VP asked me to compile a report on the older-women market for the CEO. That was, like, 4 years ago… looks like they finally decided to act on that interest, I guess?
I’m more struck by the poor quality of the video than the content. It reeks of in-house production.
I think it’s more offensive to gamestop employees, sortof, “Obviously you know NOTHING about women, so here’s a video for you…”
I think Kristen Wiig made a cameo in this.
Also blinking at 7:56 and 8:08.
The main problem with this vdeo is that it is targeted specifically to women and not just confused shoppers in general. There are plenty of Dad’s who walk into a Gamespot and don’t have a clue what their looking for either but you don’t see a special video made with just them in mind. It’s basically saying that men can just walk into a video game store and be fine whereas women need some type of special treatment. It’s true that the employees at these stores can be very condescending and need to fix that but why single out a specific sex? They can be that way to males and females alike.
As a non-gamer who has shopped at Gamestop and someone who makes a living creating training, I’d have to say that I “get” the underlying message they crudely convey. The gimmick is part of an instructional event called “Gaining Attention”, intended to engage the learner. Unfortunately it’s a stupid gimmick.
As a woman who is not a gamer I am not offended. I’m glad they are making an effort to stop offending me when I go to their store by offering the boneheads who work there some parameters for interacting with me. I’d probably be more offended if I were a guy at the suggestion that men don’t have any idea at any level how to interact with women. They should have clarified the message to expand their customer base to include more women and tied it more closely to the (also stupid) promotion. Yeah, I’m so incredibly likely to buy a DS so I can get a free 4.95 subscription.
There. I just gave them a thousand dollars worth of free consulting. Just kidding.
Now that I’ve gotten time to watch the video: I’m not offended at all. I thought it was amusing, clever, and interesting for a training video. I wish my company’s training material was a tenth this engaging. I was even kindof interested in the promotion they mentioned until I saw what boring magazines they have. Weird that there was no gaming magazine!
It’s demographic-based marketing, plain and simple.
I was treated like absolute dirt at a local Gamestop when looking to buy a WiiWheel. Guys behind the counter on their cell phones, getting up to help other people (men) who walked in, and blatantly ignoring me when I’m asking for them to get the Wheel from behind the counter to ring me out.
Complained to corporate — and got a $25 gift card and a copy of WiiFit held for me.
All in all, par for the course for Gamestop – but I do think a few people “care” over there.
I am a woman, and I thought this video was funny.
As a casual woman gamer this video is not that offensive overall. There are a lot of moms (and dads) who try to buy video games for their family and have no idea what merchandise is out there. So this might help that niche market. However this video assumed all women who buy video games are the same. I am in my mid-20s so I have an idea of the types of games out there and if someone suggested Wii Play to me I would be upset.
The entire video is not offensive but I did find the promotional offer a little offensive in itself. It seems the marketing group for Gamestop believes women will fall for some scam of purchasing more video games to get a magazine subscription. Also the choices of magazines were all “women” publications like Cosmo, Oprah, Good Housekeeping, etc. Perhaps if they expanded the magazine selection it would be less offensive. I rather get The Economist than some magazine that tells me the new lipstick colors for spring and 85% of the issue is ads.
I like how she mentions taking an “unassuming” approach to upselling female customers after the first associate implied the first woman is a housewife by mentioning a free subscription to Good Housekeeping and the second was assuming the gussied up second woman would be more interested in magazines traditionally geared towards women who take more interested in superficial affairs.
As a former GameStop manager, the idiot customer rating is more highly populated with unattentive parents purchasing mature rated games for their 8yr old children. We never video gems this great when I was working for the company, but I am surprised there has not been a claim filed against the company internally for this type of crap.
As a husband, I am also aware of how my wife is interacted with when she enters a GameStop location. She has continually been ignored or spoken down to by employees with less knowledge of the products being sold and usually asked what she’s buying for her husband/boyfriend.
The level of female interaction the employees of any store have is not relevent. This video is insulting and demeaning to female customers.
The very ironic part is the fake-aussie/brit announcer is in front of a Barnes and noble map section (yes, BN owns GS).
As an employee of BN, the BN training videos suck, at LEAST the GS videos are attempting a theme…
But for a stereotype? Think about who is on either side of the counter…’nuff said.
I happen to work at gamestop and like to inform you all this video was a joke from one of the Florida stores it is the main reason why we are never allowed to film instore any more we can even bring in a basic digital camera. And to 12-Inch Idongivafuck Sandwich troll belamely some where else. And to Onion_Volcano we sell opened games as new because we need a box for diplay and don’t want the game stolen so we put the disk on file. We will reseal any game as long as we are asked to and we will usually ask before you can.