$16 for a hotel in-room movie is ridiculous

Posted on March 12, 2012 by markkolier

In the highly competitive hotel industry, creating revenue from sources other than the actual room charge itself is critical. Hotel food and drinks are priced substantially higher than what would be considered ‘normal’ retail prices. And anyone that has stayed in a hotel recently knows that movies are priced at exorbitant prices. This is keeping in mind that you are only watching the movie once and not buying it. For me, the selection of movies advertised by the ‘in-room entertainment channel’ is not as extensive or chock full of great ‘new’ movies as they would like to have you believe.

I don’t know at what price movie studio and distributors sell movies to hotel chains but my intuition tells me it ends up being less than $2 per movie against the total price the guest pays per movie. For the hotel chains the more popular movies will supplement the cost of the less popular movies. The hotel guest gets a per movie price of $13.99 (that seems to be most common to me), or in the case of the hotel I stayed at over the weekend – $15.99. I daresay the profit margins are impressive either way.

With internet television rising distribution, I wondered if it’s just a matter of time before Netflix and/or Amazon.com make arrangements with hotel chains to deliver movies off of your own account into your hotel room. The technology and ability to manage have been available to do that for quite some time.
It’s obvious that one big obstacle (maybe THE big obstacle) to having hotels agree to this is that the hotels and movie distributors would sacrifice a too-big profit opportunity.
As far as I am concerned fleecing customers just because you can when there are limited other options is a lousy business model. Of course guests can bring in their own movies and watch them on their tablets, but hotels do not go out of their way to allow you to connect your tablet to the television for obvious reasons.

So I ask, where’s that bold hotel chain that wants to get out in front and offer in-room movies for $5 per movie? Do you think that could impact a hotel chain’s amount of new customers, or increase customer loyalty either initially or eventually?

Posted in Best business practices, Marketing stuff, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The New York Lottery Announcer – He might have the best job ever – but what’s his name?

Posted on March 9, 2012 by markkolier

The New York Lottery began in 1967 and according to Wikipedia its first slogan was “Your Chance of a Lifetime to Help Education”. It has generated over $34 billion in aid to education revenue. It continues to have the highest sales in the United States of any state lottery.

For those of us that live in the greater metropolitan New York City area the New York Lottery has been running television and radio spots for as long as the lottery itself (over 40 years). The announcer on air has seemingly been there for at least half that time. I wondered who the actor was and decided to try to find out. I was unsuccessful at first and that’s probably the way the New York Lottery wants it to be. Finally I was able to find out his name – Ralph Buckley. The man who may have the best job ever.

A 2007 New York Lottery television spot featuring Don Lafontaine and Ed McMahon (both of whom have passed on) notes their names but includes no information about the name of the New York Lottery Announcer the aforementioned Mr. Buckley.

I cannot recall ever seeing Mr. Buckley do any other role. I’ve never seen him interviewed (couldn’t you see him on Letterman or Leno?) and know absolutely nothing about him. I assume he is very well off (think residuals!) and after all these years I could recognize his voice in seconds whether it is on television or radio.

The job does not appear to be all that difficult and apparently the job security is very good. Sadly I was never aware of the audition for that job when it took place all those years ago. Too bad.

Did you know what his name was?

Posted in Brand Advertising, Marketing stuff, Media, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Why isn’t professional tennis marketed in the U.S.A?

Posted on March 7, 2012 by markkolier

I’ve been playing tennis since I was a teenager and have been a fan of the game for longer than that. For many Americans professional tennis in the United States is all about the United States Open and little else. In fact the U.S. Open is the only major tennis tournament not run by the ATP or WTA Tours, it is run by the United States Tennis Association (USTA.org).

Interestingly the U.S. Open in New York City (held yearly in late August through mid-September) is the highest grossing sporting event in the United States on a per diem basis. But as many American tennis fans know there are few young American stars on the rise and attendance at non-U.S. Open tennis events is declining. The lack of rising American tennis stars plays a part in that decline here in the U.S. (as opposed to Europe and Asia where the game is increasingly popular as a spectator sport). But the lack of marketing promotion and support for the game on the part of the ATP and WTA tours is also responsible.

The top ten ranked players in the world both male and female all can speak English even though there’s only one American out of ten on the men’s side (Mardy Fish), and zero American women ranked in the top ten (Serena Williams is currently ranked 11th). With longtime top ten player Andy Roddick nearing the end of his solid pro tennis career and Serena being over 30, American tennis fans will have to root for non-Americans if they want to root for a champion – at least for the foreseeable future.

The cost of tickets for non-U.S. Open tennis tournament in the United States is a still relatively expensive proposition. True it is a day long experience (or a night long experience) so there is value there in that most sporting events are not scheduled for 4 hours or more as are most tennis sessions. The problem is that most people have no idea about the experience of going to a tennis tournament. The action up close is great to watch and a much different experience than watching it on television. In order for tennis to have an opportunity to regain some of its prior prominence the casual tennis fan has to be encouraged (via incentives, promotions, contests, sponsorships) to attend tournaments in their area.

Last night something called ‘Tennis Night in America’ http://www.tennisnight.com was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. You probably had no knowledge of it but it was televised on ESPN 2 and will be re-broadcast in a couple of weeks. The evening consisted of two exhibition matches – one between Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki (both former world #1 players) and the other between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer (yes also both former world #1 players).

I did not watch as exhibition matches hardly constitute ‘Tennis night in America’ as far as I am concerned. By the way Ms. Sharapova defeated Ms. Wozniacki with Rory McIIroy (Wozniacki’s boyfriend and pro golf’s current #1 player) actually getting on the court to play a point with Sharapova (he won the point). Mr. Roddick defeated Mr. Federer bringing his career record against the legend to 2-12.

I think events like this do more to hurt the growth and promotion of professional tennis than to help it. Sure the players receive win or lose guarantees and there are a few laughs but nobody in the stands or on the courts takes it seriously. So how can it be Tennis Night in America?

Professional tennis could use a lot of marketing help here in the U.S.A., and yes we’d like to volunteer for the job. But somehow I don’t think the management of either the ATP or WTA is paying much attention.

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Zynga and Yelp – did you buy in?

Posted on March 5, 2012 by markkolier

Yelp.com had a very successful IPO last week with shares jumping 64% in the first day of trading last Friday – http://usat.ly/zrYhvu. The offering valued Yelp at $900 million. Yelp.com with 66 million monthly users had 2011 revenue of $83.3 million and also had a net loss of $16.7 million for the year. I was impressed that there were 25 million reviews. It was also interesting to me to read that 38% of the reviews on Yelp were five stars, the highest rating possible and just 11% were one star reviews. Who knew the culinary state in the U.S. was so high?

Zynga, which had its own IPO this past December 15th, has seen its share price climb more than 40% since the offering price of $10/share and on March 1st http://bit.ly/wM5A7n announced a new platform that it is counting on bringing new revenues and profits.

I have not yet invested in Yelp or Zynga and am not likely to. While the potential scope of both companies is impressive, Zynga’s foundation is built within Facebook and it remains to be seen if the company can truly ‘go it alone’. Add to that the fact that people will eventually tire of social media gaming, just as MMO (massive multiplayer online game) star World of Warcraft began its slow fade last year.

Yelp is different but still has an imperfect revenue model and kept advertisements and reviews separate. Noble as that is, I wonder how long the equity markets will remain patient now that Yelp has become a publicly traded company. Wall Street investors are hardly known for their patience. Zynga shareholders should be mindful of that same caution.

I don’t play games on Zynga but at least tried it once to see what the buzz was about. I can understand how those games can become addicting which is exactly why I don’t play. I’ve used Yelp – more in other cities than locally, and while the reviews are mildly useful, I primarily pay attention to the location of the restaurants near my location first, then I look at reviews only for general guidance.

How long do you think the Zynga and Yelp furor will last? Do you think they have staying power and if so, why?

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The Target.com website has nothing worth buying

Posted on March 2, 2012 by markkolier

Have you ever gone to the Target.com website? I had a couple of Target gift cards from the holidays and there’s no Target store all that close to where I live. So I finally decided to try to use the gift cards online. I had money to burn and could not find anything to spend it on. Maybe that’s the point people have told me. It’s as if Target wants you to go into the store, and by having a less than great user experience to buy something on its website you will be forced to go into the store.

As I’ve noted in prior posts, like many men in know, I am not much of a shopper and am more of a buyer. I go into a store to buy what I need and get out. I act the same way online.

Target is a good operation. The occasions that I’ve been in their store have been positive experiences.
That’s in stark contrast to what I found online. The online selection was skimpy at best and the few things that might have been worth considering were out of stock. I was looking for slippers for instance – the selection was awful. I looked for clothing and again was disappointed. I had heard about Jason Wu as a featured designer for Target. On the Target website every Jason Wu item was out of stock. After about 15 minutes of futile searching I finally gave up.

Let’s assume that I am not the target Target.com shopper (sorry I just had to). So maybe I am being overly critical of their online platform but somehow I don’t really believe that. Could their business model really be to have people not want to shop online at all and compel them to go into the store?

Unredeemed gift cards are a big profit center for big box retailers as more than 30% of gift cards go unredeemed. The more I think about it the more I have to admit that the lousy website experience provided by Target (and probably other big box retailers) is completely intentional.

Have you had similar experiences with Target.com or other big box retailers? Did it frustrate you like it did me?

Posted in Brand Advertising, Communication, Customer Experiences, Marketing stuff, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Ink on Paper – when a business career gets lost in transition

Posted on February 29, 2012 by markkolier

I recently sat next to a printing sales guy at a direct marketing industry luncheon. He works for a well-known manufacturer that has been in business for many years. A very bright and engaging fellow, he asked me how I had managed to change the focus of my career from being print-sales focused to that of a marketer – something I told him I began back in 2004. We both agreed that the market for print sales today continues to shrink and what’s left has been marginalized.

Even though he isa few years younger than me, he lamented that in his view I had a more than 7 year head start on reshaping our business model. He feared it might be too late. At the time I disagreed and said it’s never too late to learn new skills. But it was clear to me that the skills he had developed to help him enjoy success were not only no longer as relevant, they would likely not ever be relevant again.

I know this because I have skills that I used every day for more than 15 years that I rarely use today. When I think of what I was doing ten years ago in my day to day business activities it’s hard to believe it’s been only ten years since what I do daily now is vastly different than what I did back then.

A recently as eight years ago were spending a large part of our time helping clients print and distribute (mail, inserts etc.) millions of pieces; there were press form layouts, optimal folding considerations, paper purchasing and delivery considerations. We knew the labor rates and run times for our print manufacturers and could accurately estimate their costs for a printing job and how much paper they would require. In fact many printers would be surprised when we would indicate to them what we felt their pricing should be on a project – and we were right. We were good. Really good. Unfortunately those skills are not required nearly as much today.

One thing I did not do was limit myself to thinking we were ‘only’ a print re-seller. We knew which packages worked and which did not by how often they were printed and if they were altered – or not. There’s no better evidence of a successful control than seeing it run time and again. That insight had us move into marketing strategy and creative that would be used to formulate and execute future marketing plans. It wasn’t easy then and is still not easy today but that transition enabled our company to stay relevant for the time being. Irrelevance is always a possible future for any company.

What will my colleague and others like him do? Well if the current status of many of our 2004 clients (those that were responsible for print production) is any indication, finding another line of work is most likely. All those skills and all that knowledge will be lost in transition. I can’t say it’s not fair since it happens all the time, now more than ever.

Who knew you had to be an oracle in order to have a long career?

Posted in Best business practices, Living in the World Today | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Paying it forward – it’s a beautiful thing

Posted on February 27, 2012 by markkolier

Back in 2000 the movie ‘Paying it Forward’ starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment explored the idea of doing something for someone else just to ‘pay it forward’ as opposed to being paid back for a good deed. I stumbled upon the movie over the weekend and found myself compelled to watch again having really not seen it since 2000.

I’ve also seen a number of television spots from Liberty Mutual Insurance from a 2011 campaign they call ‘Doing the right thing’. Here is one of the spots –

. I love the music associated with the spots as well as the feeling generated from the good deeds and actions depicted in the one minute spot. There’s also a 30 second spot along the same lines but different music

.

Last week I had my own experience of someone doing the wrong thing, and others doing a good thing. I returned from New York late in the evening and it was raining and I noticed a plastic bag on my windshield. Inside the plastic bag was a note that said “A Subaru Forrester, I think New Jersey Plates ****** could have possibly been Connecticut plates, hit your car in parking lot’. Multiple witnesses. And three people signed their name and gave their telephone numbers.

I stood there in the light rain for a moment trying to process what had happened. It was dark and I did not immediately notice where my car had been damaged. Finally I saw that the front bumper had been scratched but the damage appeared to rather minor. Still, from the initial outrage of how could someone hit my car and just drive away, my thoughts turned to how amazing it was that three total strangers would stick their necks out, take the time to write a note (not everyone has a pen and paper handy) and find a plastic bag in which to put the note so that it would be legible.

I contacted the people that wrote the note and thanked them for their considerate acts. I also contacted the local police department to report the incident but as yet have not heard back from anyone as I left a voice mail since it was hardly an emergency.

So I start my week with the positive notion of keeping in mind what it feels like to be the person who was treated right, instead of the person that was wronged. I hope and will look for an opportunity this week to pay it forward myself. And it should be that way every day, every week.

It’s worth it don’t you think?

Posted in Community, Living in the World Today, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Oscar Sunday night – live from the USA for now and forever?

Posted on February 24, 2012 by markkolier

One of the great things about watching the Oscars (aside from seeing movie stars decked out in the finest duds on the planet) is that we all watch it at the same time. There are not many events left that are quite like that – the Olympics, the Super Bowl, Grammy’s and as I wrote in 2010 even the World Cup http://wp.me/pJX7l-ca . It should be noted that viewer time shifting (DVR, Hulu or other video sharing services) do not work for sporting events nearly as well as for television programs and movies.

Today when there are major events like the Oscars people watch with their mobile devices, and tweet or post updates to Facebook opining on what they see and think. Brand advertisers love live television events more than anything since the ads cannot be deleted or fast-forwarded through.

The Academy Awards (Oscars) have been held in Los Angeles (mostly in Hollywood) since their inception in 1929. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences AMPAS (I am not sure where the science aspect comes in) has done a great job of managing the awards process for more than 83 years. The U.S. has (rightly) great pride in having created not only the film industry but maybe more importantly acting as a steward for the industry itself.

With the motion picture industry now being truly a worldwide industry could the Academy Awards consider being hosted in another country other than the USA? Would that be heresy? Many movies made today generate more income outside the U.S. than they do in the U.S. How about hosting the Academy awards in Mumbai? The film industry in India is booming as it is in China. The U.K. has been making terrific films for years – how about London hosting the Academy Awards? Since most of the movie stars travel to the awards from wherever they are, location is not a stumbling block in moving the awards.

I am not suggesting every year the awards be held outside the U.S. But maybe once every five or ten years the show could be hosted and rotated into different countries. And English should remain the language of the Oscars. But would it be the end of AMPAS to consider moving the awards out of the U.S. even if only occasionally? Or might it show that the Academy acknowledges (beyond the ‘Best Foreign Film award) the Academy Awards are an international phenomenon and by sharing the hosting of the awards it could strengthen its brand?

I’ve never been to the Academy Awards myself. So the view is the same from my living room every year. Of course holding the awards in India would necessitate the show being broadcast out of prime time – or at 6:30AM in Mumbai to hit prime time in the U.S (8PM). I guess neither is likely and that’s too bad. It would be cool to share the Oscar hosting experience with some other countries.

What do you think?

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Are you a correct spelling snob?

Posted on February 22, 2012 by markkolier

I admit it I am an unabashed correct spelling snob. I am not proud of this since there are not any good things in being termed a snob. Obviously when people write they should use the correct spelling of a word. Spell check is ubiquitous. Context checking, sadly, is not by the way.

It’s almost as if my eyes scan a document on a never ending search for a misspelled word. I am not thinking this constantly but find myself often shaking my head at how badly people spell. Yet today I received an email back from someone with whom I have rare correspondence and while I noticed a misspelled word in the reply what horrified me more was my own error. And it was not even a spelling error. I wrote “I so deeply sorry”…instead of “I am so deeply sorry”. While that’s not a misspelling and I have been diligently studying Mandarin for 17 months, it is not my intention to speak (or write) broken English.

There are some errors that are regular which are not spelling mistakes – like the use of “their” instead of “there” (or even they’re) which are spelled correctly but misused. I am sure it will be easy to come up with a number of most misspelled/misused words.

What we all know is that people make mistakes. Often those can be simple typing mistakes that may not appear as such. Habitual bad spelling is one thing but turning one’s nose up at a spelling error or two is just bad form. Everyone I know is working longer and harder than ever before and (me included) in our collective haste – we occasionally make mistakes.

So the next time you shake your head at what looks like a dumb spelling mistake think about cutting the person some slack. I am going to try to do the same (but old habits die hard).

In the meantime if you have any shining examples of improperly spelled words please do share – we could all use a laugh or two.

Posted in Communication, Living in the World Today | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Now’s the time for more social networks but do you have time for more social networking?

Posted on February 20, 2012 by markkolier

Who’s got more time for social networking? Already I find myself spending less and less time on Facebook. It may seem like I am on FB all the time to some people but I leave the tab open on my computer and take a quick look a few times a day. Still that only has me actively on FB maybe 15 minutes a day. I (like everyone else) get FB updates right on my mobile device and like everyone I can post photos, updates and whatever else I can think of on my mobile FB app. I have a Google+ account but spend even less time on Google + than I do using Facebook.

I spend more time on Linkedin than I do on Facebook since I am working more than I do anything else. Myspace.com is on life-support but as I posted over a year ago http://wp.me/pJX7l-k3 I still doubt Myspace will make it. No news flash there.

For a long time I felt that social networking would be dominated by Facebook and Linkedin, and maybe, just maybe, Google would find a way to get in the game. Twitter is considered to be part of social networking but life streams in 140 characters are not the same.

Recently emerging is Pinterest.com – a site that’s been around for several years and has gained a passionate and dedicated following – both in the personal and professional world. Entrepreneur magazine’s Jason Falls had an interesting piece on ‘How Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business’ – http://bit.ly/zkll1c. A revenue model is still being sought (Foursquare is still working on one as well) but the growth of Pinterest has been impressive.

This weekend I read in the New York Times an article on a new ‘sort-of’ social network called Cowbird.com http://nyti.ms/wN5XDk – The article noted – ‘In less than three months, people from around the world have used Cowbird to create more than 7,600 mostly personal stories about people or moments in their lives, using words, pictures and sounds. All pieces are accompanied with a single photograph and some include audio. Some include a few words of text, others more.’

An article on Forbes.com from Kirsten Bischoff the –co-founder of HATCHEDit.com http://onforb.es/yqAumj highlighted the challenges in creating a new social network, and the benefits of smaller social networks. She writes about another small social networking site called Path.com – both of them look interesting and in fact pretty cool.

The problem for me is if I were to get even more into niche social networks – and the sharing networks are interesting to me although there are times when I prefer not to share, (goes back to an old sandbox problem) and I’d most assuredly get even less work done and have less time to actually do things.

This sharing thing easily turns into over-sharing don’t you think? Are you spending more or less time on social networks these days? Got any cool new ones you’d like to share?

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