technoballs » walmart

Blockbuster Tries To Convince Market That All Those Empty Stores Are Really A Good Thing

the ballmaster — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:57:34 +0000

Blockuster Video, that one-time killer of the Ma & Pa video rental store, is in a tough bind. Having received a going-concern warning from its auditors in April, it has been trying to show investors that it has a real plan to turn its fortunes around.

It hasn’t been easy.

First, it’s getting walloped by Netflix, which owns mail-order rentals. Netflix is powerful enough to have beaten back Walmart’s nascent attempts to carve-out a corner of mail-order for itself. Next, Coinstar’s RedBox kiosks have provided cash-strapped consumers with an affordable alternative to the steep rental (and penalty) fees associated with Blockbuster.

So what’s the plan? Get ready for it: all those enormous stores are a good thing. Far from being a drag on profits, its stores will provide consumers with something the competition cannot: choices–

Thursday, the company will announce that if Blockbuster customers want a movie that isn’t available at their local store, they have another option: Blockbuster will mail the movie, on a rental basis, even if the customers don't subscribe to the company’s by-mail subscription plan, and charge the in-store rental price.

In addition, the company announced Wednesday an iPhone application that will let Blockbuster customers check in-store availability and manage their online movie queues.

“It’s not always about price,” says Mr. Keyes, who led the turnaround of convenience retailer 7-Eleven in his days as chief executive there. “It’s more about value, being able to provide a whole package. That’s where we think Blockbuster will prevail.”

I doubt the market– or consumers –will perceive the value proposition in quite the same way. The notion that a customer who visits a Blockbuster store only to find their intended video out-of-stock will be impressed by the fact that they can–

Wait in line
Place an order with a clerk
Receive the intended video several days later in the mail

–is highly doubtful. If I were to visit a video rental store and was unable to find the video I wanted, I would go home and look for it on Netflix’s innovative Instant Viewing service, which allows me to stream the movie right to my TV.

Or, better yet: I would avoid going to Blockbuster at all.

Let’s see if anyone buys this Jedi mind-trick.

via Blockbuster Tries to Recast Itself – WSJ.com.

How the Crowd Compares Target to Walmart

the ballmaster — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:21:47 +0000

No surprises here: online conversations about Target skew much more favorably than conversations about Walmart:

Overall, Target enjoys mostly positive chatter. About 75 percent of conversations were positive, according to Crimson Hexagon. Walmart, on the other hand, is discussed in a negative light 61 percent of the time.

The problem? Many conversations about Walmart center around the way it treats its employees and its effect upon communities. Target is not exactly in the clear, however, as 1 in 5 fanboys specifically mention price as a discriminating factor in their decision to shop at the big-box retailer. For a brand that is trying to convince the world that it’s not just about low prices, that poses a challenge.

via In Online Chatter, Target Bests Walmart.

You Pay, I Tweet.

the ballmaster — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:49:54 +0000

The growing practice of tweeting for dollars raises understandable concerns regarding transparency and disclosure: how do you know if a person is promoting a product or service because she really likes it, or if she’s a paid spokesperson for the company in question?

According to the research firm PQ Media, word-of-mouth marketing increased 14.2 percent to $1.54 billion in 2008. Sponsored Tweets hopes to capture some of those dollars.

As Twitter is is currently set up, there is no easy way for your followers to opt out of commercial messages while accepting your (presumably) noncommercial posts about the brand of cereal you ate for breakfast.

The Obama Administration has recently signaled its interest in such issues, without specifically mentioning paid tweets. Advertisers should accept that disclosure is the way to go; no one wants to be duped by a covertly-paid promoter. You’d have thought that Walmarting Across America would have taught them something by now.

via Tweeting for Dollars – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com.