Question: How do companies in the media industry diffrentiate themselves from one another?
Summary: (Excerpt) "These days, it seems like everyone has an affiliation program of some sort. Airlines have had them for years (probably decades), and car rental companies have them, though they usually just award airline miles. Hotels give you airline miles or points towards free stays (some even give you both). One of the more recent entrants into this arena is for frequent movie goers. Some of you might realize that I watch movies, so this holds some interest to me, even if I don't always go to the movies to see them. So which is better - AMC's MovieWatcher or Regal's Crown Club?"
Analysis: Today's media market is all about competition. Television programs compete with each other, nwspapers and magazines compete with each other, movie theatres compete with each other -eveyone competes with someone else. As of right now, I want to focus on the latter - the movie theatres. The two main movie theater industries that constantly compete with each other are the Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Theatres. Because the main product of these two theatres is the same - movies - it is hard to keep coming up with new ideas to bring more audience in. They would need smething that would not only attract new people, but also something that would insure their customer's loyalty.
So what did AMC and Regal do to "stay afloat" and stay afloat with a "full boat of loyal custmers"? They each created programs that would provide their customers with some kinds of benefis. Regal now has Crown Club Rewards and AMC has MovieWatcher Rewards. Although the names do sound similar (at least the last parts do), they each have different perks.
For example, with a Crown Club Rewars, you can get free popcorn on tuesdays but with the MovieWatcher Rewards, you get discounted prices on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays before noon. Then in Regal, in order to get a free poporn, yu have to earn 40 points, but in AMC you only need 10 for the same thing.
So two different companies have different ways of luring peole in, but in the end both of them have approximately same number of advantages and disadvantages, so they still get about the same number of people coming in everyday.
Sources: http://www.cxliv.org/2007/07/10/amc_moviewatcher_versus_regal_crown_club.php
It's interesting that their methods of differentiating themselves from each other are two rewards programs, which are very similar. In the end, I don't know how much different you can make a movie theater.
ReplyDeleteI think a large portion of the "differentiation" comes from them being located in different places. Usually, weather or not I go to a movie theater is based on where that theater is located - closer or farther away.
However, in places where the two are very close and you are really presented with a choice, I can see why these rewards programs would be so important. They give customers a *reason* to pick one theater over another, without forcing them to lower their prices to a breaking point.
I was unaware that both these companies had rewards programs. But now that I know, I wonder which is more successful. I'd like to know which system is more popular and--more importantly--which is more profitable. I do agree with Thadius in that the two theatres aren't actually differentiating themselves by creating these rewards programs; they're assimilating. This is interesting because most companies try to distinguish themselves, while many of the media companies are trying to become more similar to their competitors.
ReplyDeleteCompeting against another person with an identical product as yours must be incredibly tough. One method which I have noticed is that the Regal has show-like programs which give behind the scenes looks at upcoming movies before the shows start - which has influenced my movie choice in the past, because I'd much rather watch "The Twenty" (or other names which they call the show based on region) than just the standard advertisements shown at other theaters.
ReplyDeleteOther than something like that and a rewards program, theaters have trouble finding innovative ways to differentiate their services other than losing money by charging less or investing in small things like better chairs.