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| Subject: Team, Up Against Giants | |
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Author: Dennis S. Vogel |
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Date Posted: 22:35:05 11/14/07 Wed In reply to: Netflix Competitor 's message, "Re: The Curse Of Knowledge --.Never Assume People Know Things" on 19:58:47 11/13/07 Tue Other small video stores must be having similar trouble (especially since big companies like Movie Gallery are having so much trouble). After you find small video store owners, you can offer something like inter-library loans. It may reduce each of your profits, but if there’s still enough margin left, you should propose it. By doing this, you each may get more transactions you wouldn’t have had without this effort. If each of you find a popular & profitable specialty, you may trade (instead of loan) tapes & DVDs, so each of you has enough for your specialties. Specializing is especially good if you’re in a highly populated area where there may be enough people interested in certain themes or genres. What may be less expensive is getting inventory lists of what you & the others have & won’t sell. (If you sell things from your inventory lists, you’ll frustrate people who counted on you to have something.) When another video store--“partner”--has something your customer wants, you can ask your “partner” in another city to send it to your customer. Your customer can return the tape or DVD to you, so you can send it back. It may get a bit complicated if a partner’s tape or DVD is damaged or lost. You should agree what to do in those cases. But this way, the customer wouldn’t have to wait for you to get a tape or DVD, then wait for your call to pick it up. Each of you would have to figure if the shipping costs should be added to the rental fees. If there’s a trustworthy person who travels between your city & the other anyway (to commute for a job or as part of job or business) s/he may charge less than a courier service. S/he may do in exchange for rental fees, if so, it may cost even less. Where I live, libraries regularly send things back & forth. Pharmacies make deliveries in nearby cities. If you arrange to have their people transport things for you, be sure each of you agrees about personal & property liabilities. If you don’t have a written agreement a lawsuit—somebody suing each business for injury or damage could lead to another lawsuit—a business suing the other to establish liability & recoup expenses. There may be multi-unit businesses or other cooperating businesses already transporting things. Ask other business owners if they have or need a service like this. If you hire somebody to do it as a business you own, you could phase out your video business & scale up your courier business. (If so, do your best to have cargo to haul both ways. Running empty is unprofitable.) Pony Up For Express Service The US Post Service & competitors (you can use a search engine to find their URLs) are apt to have envelopes or boxes & charts to show how much they’d charge for a certain weight (number of tapes or DVDs). When you have this information, you won’t have to wait in line to get things weighed. Some carriers have a service of sending anything, which will fit, in a certain sized box for a flat rate. I don’t know which country you’re in, but for example: “Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelopes can be used for both domestic and international shipping: — Available anywhere in the U.S. for $4.60” & “Priority Mail Box Flat Rate Box.” You should check UPS, FedEx & others. I think UPS & FedEx have locked boxes with drop off slots (like public mail boxes) so items can be put in, then picked up later by delivery personnel. By using these, you don’t have wait in line or wait for somebody to pick up packages. You’d already know how to pay for sending the package if it’s a flat rate. Netflix Could Burn Out or Fade Away Netflix is still relatively new, so its novelty hasn’t worn off. Plus, investors probably want a quick ROI & push Netflix to expand its subscriber base quickly. If it expands too quickly, people are apt to get slower service & employees are apt to make mistakes. Because of lack of time &/or low morale, some DVDs may not be thoroughly checked when they’re returned. If so, they could be damaged but sent out again anyway. People may expect to get movies from their list sooner than Netflix can send them because too many DVDs are in circulation. I don’t know much about their streamed movie service, but I have some theories. Streamed movies may only be available once without the cost of streaming again. For a subscription, I wonder how many times a movie can be stopped & restarted. What if a phone rings, can somebody stop the movie, take the call, then half an hour later restart the movie? Would it count as watching it once or twice? Parents may be interrupted while watching a streamed movie & may not be able to stop & start it again easily. What if there’s a power failure before the movie is over, is the already streamed part of the movie still in a hard drive. If so, where? Maybe it’s in a hard to find temporary file directory. Not So User-friendly Here’s a statement from the Netflix site: “What are the system requirements to watch movies instantly on my PC? “You must have a computer running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, or Windows Vista; Internet Explorer version 6 or higher; Windows Media Player version 11 or higher; an active broadband connection to the Internet; 1.0 GHz processor; 512 MB RAM; 3 GB free hard disk drive space.” People who have old, slow computers need not apply. Minimum system requirements aren’t always enough for optimal use. According to Microsoft Office Word 2000, the Netflix Terms of Use is 14 pages containing 10,762 words. If you require customers to agree to significantly fewer legalities, you can use this as a marketing point. People better read & know what the Terms of Use mean or they could have a lot of trouble they aren’t ready for. This is besides the Netflix Privacy Policy. Companies tend to change (add to) their Terms of Use & Privacy Policy, which means customers better read each update to avoid problems. Every time people upgrade software (even if it’s free), they’re required to agree new license agreements. So, when Netflix or another firm requires more advanced minimum system requirements, people will be subjected to other license agreements & installation hassles. Each upgrade could cause more problems & the software companies require users to accept programs as is. Be careful about the content of your marketing messages, if a competitor changes something, it could make your messages invalid. You’d lose credibility. Track competitors’ changes & update your messages. Plus, some people & governments are against “knocking” comparison advertising, so be careful about how you portray competitors. People may be insulted; if they think you’ve insulted a product/service they’ve chosen. Dennis S. Vogel Be sure your marketing methods fit your competitive situation. You may need to adjust your marketing methods when your competitive situation changes. I have some methods you need in my free information web site & this forum. http://www.thrivingbusiness.lakefield.net/ http://www.voy.com/31049/ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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