Hi, again,
It's been a busy week. I've earned a promotion at work, and am now the GM of the TLA stores, and my dad has been really sick. But, I promised I wouldn't flood the forum with questions, and frankly, I'd much rather read your responses.
In response to Question #1, I received some honest, but not entirely unsurprising answers, but the one that I found most interesting, because it is at the heart of any such effort to effect change, and I agree with is what Raul said in his post, and I quote...
I really believe that EDUCATION is the target both EMA and the iDEA group should be pointing their guns at. An ad campaign in the mainstream media, not just the specialty and high end video magazines coupled with "tech" segments in various talk and news will help you accomplish this.
Education is the answer here, not just a sales pitch. Education has detail and knowledge attached to it; sales pitches tend to be loud and slightly annoying. Indie video stores, especially those who have been around for years, are a great source of knowledge, and tend to lean to the side of sharing info and discovery, rather than the old "What's New, What's Good".
To that end, how intense should an education effort be? Remember, a customer who asks us to fill them in on new technology, is the same as the person who comes to this forum for answers; they don't wany any bullshit, and they wnat the razzle-dazzle to come from the HD or BluRay, not from the clerk.
Remember, also, that we would have time to educate them, but not unlimited time. To that end, what suggestions would you offer up to an indie retailer to educate their customer, as well as educate the people in their neighborhood, city, state? Should the education be one-on-one, or should the format do the talking? How keyed up should any printed materials be? Should the focus be a case of "which comes first...chicken and egg", in this case, the format or the content available and in the pipeline. And to that end, should the education be aimed at one particular format, or are we far enough away from a resolution of the "format wars" that the concept of a Hi-Def DVD player should take precedence over a specific format.
After all, we are also competing against VOD, digital downloads, etc, so is it a case of making sure that we keep them coming into the store, and just be prepared for any coming shift in the Hi-Def marketplace?
Thanks in advance,
Adrian
It's been a busy week. I've earned a promotion at work, and am now the GM of the TLA stores, and my dad has been really sick. But, I promised I wouldn't flood the forum with questions, and frankly, I'd much rather read your responses.
In response to Question #1, I received some honest, but not entirely unsurprising answers, but the one that I found most interesting, because it is at the heart of any such effort to effect change, and I agree with is what Raul said in his post, and I quote...
I really believe that EDUCATION is the target both EMA and the iDEA group should be pointing their guns at. An ad campaign in the mainstream media, not just the specialty and high end video magazines coupled with "tech" segments in various talk and news will help you accomplish this.
Education is the answer here, not just a sales pitch. Education has detail and knowledge attached to it; sales pitches tend to be loud and slightly annoying. Indie video stores, especially those who have been around for years, are a great source of knowledge, and tend to lean to the side of sharing info and discovery, rather than the old "What's New, What's Good".
To that end, how intense should an education effort be? Remember, a customer who asks us to fill them in on new technology, is the same as the person who comes to this forum for answers; they don't wany any bullshit, and they wnat the razzle-dazzle to come from the HD or BluRay, not from the clerk.
Remember, also, that we would have time to educate them, but not unlimited time. To that end, what suggestions would you offer up to an indie retailer to educate their customer, as well as educate the people in their neighborhood, city, state? Should the education be one-on-one, or should the format do the talking? How keyed up should any printed materials be? Should the focus be a case of "which comes first...chicken and egg", in this case, the format or the content available and in the pipeline. And to that end, should the education be aimed at one particular format, or are we far enough away from a resolution of the "format wars" that the concept of a Hi-Def DVD player should take precedence over a specific format.
After all, we are also competing against VOD, digital downloads, etc, so is it a case of making sure that we keep them coming into the store, and just be prepared for any coming shift in the Hi-Def marketplace?
Thanks in advance,
Adrian
