Mission And Moto

Or is that motto and moto is an abbreviation for Motorola? I do like their phones regardless of which is correct.

Every company needs a mission statement. Even your tiny indie game company needs one. I like to start all my conversations by pointing out that a mission statement in no way has to be loaded with corporate jargon about leveraging synergy on dynamic platforms. Did you know that Pepsi's mission statement was two words? "Beat Coke" is all they had. Compelling isnt it?

Why do you need one though? Well it serves as a compass for your business. Remember that movie Office Space? There is a part where they hang a banner up that says "Is this good for the company?" and they tell everybody to refer to that when making a decision. Your mission statement helps to answer that question whenever you are trying to decide what to do, where to go, and how to do it.

Skill City had a very simple mission statement when we started out, but it required some re-working as I read over it last week and discovered that it had fallen out of date. We had changed some of the direction we wanted to go, and by so doing negated our original mission statement which was a little too narrow in places, and a little too wide in others.

Now our mission statement is this:
Skill City will provide a superior casual games community that will appeal to both new and experienced game players. Skill City is committed to providing an ever expanding interactive world that is rich in content and customization.

Our moto: Casual Games, Serious Rewards (tm)

Yup. I filed a trademark on the motto. Why? Because I would really hate to have somebody else use it, and trademarks are cheap in comparison to the damage that could be done if somebody else started using what I think is just a really great pairing of words that conveys exactly what Skill City is. We are casual games, with rewards that are more than just points or your name on a list.

We also made a list of what makes Skill City different from its competitors, and what is just plain special about us. Using that list we narrowed down to 4 main topics. Those 4 topics, we feel, are the powerful ones that will really set us apart. We also think they are the aspects of our company that will capture the market and make us attractive to anybody who looks. Therefore those 4 elements now become the highlight of all our advertising.

So in summary, a short 2 hour meeting Friday afternoon has formed a guidline for us in a blizzard of options. Having such a thing is a big confidence and morale booster, but also helps you as a business owner when somebody asks the pervasive question: So what do you do?