Regal Vs. AMC

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

Recent Consumer Behavior Trends

Articles in this blog post:

“In the Living Room, Hooked on Pay TV”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/business/media/23couch.html?ref=consumerbehavior

Question: What are some recent consumer behavior trends that are influencing the industry?

ARTICLE SUMMARY: With the growing power of Netflix and other online video streamers, a new concept has emerged: dropping paying for television all together and just using online streaming. However, while this may seem cheaper and overall better, the number of Americans who have “cut the cord” has not been significant, with the number of subscribers to television being fairly consistent despite Netflix also rising. While many other industries suffered heavy losses due to the Internet replacing them, cable and satellite companies have two distinct advantages. First, several services, like sports games and channels like HBO, have avoided making contracts with online streaming companies, meaning that customers have to still pay for television; second, the companies have adapted to the internet age by letting consumers watch television on their computers and other electronic devices. Still, several people under the age of 45 have begun living without television and many more admit that they could possibly take that course of action also. While cable and satellite numbers remain strong, there is a possibility of big losses, and companies have still already a minor hit in the number of pay-per-view shows ordered.

My Opinion: For the most part, I agree with what the article states. While the likes of Comcast and DirecTV are still taking in revenue, they have to continue working hard to satisfy the consumer. As a college student, I lack a television and I typically watch shows that air through my Hulu Plus subscription and turn to Netflix for movies, as the television in my hall’s lounge is small and inconvenient to use. While streaming is convenient, there are still many restrictions: I cannot watch shows like The Big Bang Theory unless I watch an actual television, while some shows like The Simpsons, while available on Hulu Plus, wait more than a week before being uploaded to the website. Television is also convenient in its ability to have shows already recorded, while with streaming if I want to watch a show I typically have to wait for it to buffer or else the episode will lag – and if I want to rewind or fast forward, it takes a minute to buffer again. As such, there are many perks to television that I miss now that I am in college, though I do not fully know if, after college, those perks are worth the price of spending more for television.

What is the competitive landscape of this industry in the USA?

Question: What is the competitive landscape of this industry in the USA?

Summary: The media industry has been focusing on digitalization for the last decade or so. The competitive landscape is defined primarily by which companies are converting their traditional media methods into more digital ones.

Though broadcasting, advertising, and other media sectors have been engaging in this digitalization, the publishing industry has been the industry which has been the one most visibly going through the transition. Paper products, such as newspapers, magazines, and books, are the first products that come to mind when one discusses converting information into electronic format. Competitive companies have been those most quickly and efficiently joining the digital revolution. For example, Barnes and Noble has managed to survive in part by more quickly entering the ereader market with the Nook, while Borders failed, having been too late to become a part of the ebook market.

One of the companies investing in new, more digital methods of publishing and production is the Perseus Book Group. Recently, they have created a new branch to allow e-book authors to self publish, outlined in the article below;

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/business/media/perseus-creates-new-service-for-authors-seeking-to-self-publish.html?_r=1&ref=media

Also outlined in the article are publishing companies which have found their own niche in the e-book publishing industry. "Bloomsbury, a publisher based in Britain, said on Wednesday it had created a new publishing arm that would release digital-only titles. Companies like Open Road Integrated Media have successfully published digital editions of backlist books whose rights were not held by a publisher."

Opinion: The competitive landscape of the media industry is not being shaped by which companies are entering or leaving, but by where the currently existing companies are moving. To retain a place in the industry, publishing companies are moving into digital formats and into ebooks. The creation of these services by Perseus Media Group, Bloomsbury, and Open Road Integrated Media is one of the best ways for them to keep themselves alive through the digital revolution which has already claimed publishing and book giant Borders.

Current Events

YouTube Prepares to Launch Scheduled Channels

Question: What are some current events in your industry? What is the impact of these events on the industry?

Summary: The Google owned video giant is finalizing contracts for several "channels" to post regular videos on various topics. The channels are expected to launch in early 2012. As of yet, no specific information on the subject is being published by Google itself, however it is becoming clear that Google aims to create Youtube into a serious competitor of TV. YouTube is paying anywhere from a few hundred thousand to several million dollars to people creating content for these channels whose program format is going to be similar to that of TV, gathering required revenue from advertisements.

Opinion: While this is a very short article, I believe it is very illustrative of a trend currently happening in media. The prominence of traditional TV broadcasting is decreasing and its competitors on the internet have a significant advantage of being easily, inexpensively, and widely accessible. YouTube's foray into channel based content is not unlike Hulu's stealing of TV show audiences from cable TV. The question is, however, if YouTube will be able to break away from its homemade-movie image. While it is a form of entertainment that many, especially in the younger generations, enjoy, few associate it with the type of things one wants to get from TV channels. Nonetheless, whether it will be through YouTube or not, the future of video isn't cable - it's on the internet. If traditional companies want to survive in the long run, they should be making the effort now to establish their presence.

Walt Disney Co. and CSR

Question:

Which companies in the industry stand out in regards to their view and actions in CSR?

Summary:

The Walt Disney Company is a fantastic example of a company in the media industry that pays close attention to its corporate social responsibility. According to its "About Disney" section, Walt Disney has earned many titles and ratings that indicate its social responsibility. Disney is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, which is a corporation of SAM Group, STOXX Limited, and Dow Jones Indexes. Members perform well in terms of "economic, environmental and social criteria." Disney was named a 2010 Bronze Class member. Disney is also part of the FTSE4Good Index Series for "[meeting] stringent social, ethical, and environmental criteria." Finally, Disney has also been a member of many KLD Indexes since 1990 for "defining strategies and benchmarking investments that integrate environmental, social and governance factors."

Analysis:

It is a positive thing for any company to be recognized by many criterion for its corporate social responsibility. It is even more crucial, however, that a company that markets to children (such as the Walt Disney Company) be socially responsible for the purposes of maintaining good standing with families, schools, and other societal functions that are meant to be family-friendly.

The difference between Disney and, say, Exxon Mobil is that Disney is catering to completely different demographic: children, parents, families, teachers, etc. who most commonly wish to see companies taking social responsibility--economically, ethically, and environmentally. Customers of Exxon Mobil are probably less concerned with the environment and the ways in which the oil is obtained and distributed; they just want their cars to function. It is definitely smart for Disney to concern itself with CSR.

Sources:

http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/cr_indices.html

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9YoLAIZX_icI06msA1XeMosvBvJhDqgc9HDxEyuk08L8tgM6YcDPNEIZnuzBBMC79bCVYOWhyIsesmO3jKXdmqUzwJdqPLc88KDfiHLZXkkA44mTdZ17jTcO8ZDgxrrPt6IiAEGNq_1S/s400/disney-green.jpg

PHD Book Predicts Impact of Technology in 2016

Question: What are some current events in your industry? What is the impact of these events on the industry?

Summary: In five years time, the Cloud will store all of our music and videos, most TVs will be connected to the internet, fitted with Ultra-HD technology, and one in every two people in the developed world will be now connected to a social network, according to Omnicom media agency PHD.
PHD paints the picture of the future media landscape in a book called '2016: Beyond the Horizon', out today (19 September).

It explores the technological developments the agency deems likely, including internet speeds of up to 100Mbps, and YouTube battling Sky for the media rights to the Premier League 2016-2019.
David Fischer, vice president of advertising and global operations at Facebook, said: "The future PHD outlines is a place where technology enables us to connect with our friends and harness their collective wisdom to make better decisions. It is a future that is connected, networked and, while uncertain, certainly better."
The book also uses Zappar augmented reality technology to bring the views of industry professionals like Unilever's chief marketing and communications officer, Keith Weed, to life.
In February, PHD celebrated its 21st birthday by releasing an ad in which it challenged marketers to "up their game" ready for the next generation of consumers.

Analysis: PHD has been able to predict some of the possible innovations, and even published a book that is called "2016: Beyond the Horizon." Because of this book, we might see those innovations predicted by PHD a bit earlier than 2016. Beyond The Horizon (which, by the way, came out on September 19, 2011), has probably sparked an interest of millions of people, ranging from young adults to elderly. Also, the range has probably included the two groups of people that were probably interested in it the most, were businessmen and entrepreneurs. They are the ones to deliver the end-product to us, and since business (and entrepreneurship) is all about competition, they compete. After reading this book, people will probably start to try and get the product out sooner than their competitors (and I'm not talking about a specific product right now, just goods and services in general). There are so many similar products out there right now, that constantly compete (e.g. Regal and AMC) and every day they all try to improve their products and increase the number of consumers who buy their products. With those predictions described in the book, companies will probably start working twice as hard. Motivation could be one of the reasons why some companies have not even thought on some things that are pointed out in that book). Another reason would be the competition - everyone will try to get the final product out there as soon as possible, so it's possible that by the time we reach the year of 2016, the innovations that were predicted to come out that year would be even more progressed and improved.

Sources: http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/News/MostDiscussed/1093234/PHD-book-predicts-impact-technology-2016/

P.S. This might seem to fit into a "Technology" section more, but I found it in the Media News section and this book does not only talk about technology innovations such as iCloud...there are a lot of media - related innovations as well.

What are some interesting mission statements or values statements of some of the companies in your industry? What do their statements reveal?

Quesiton: What are some interesting mission statements or values statements of some of the companies in your industry? What do their statements reveal?

Time Warner Cable's Mission Statment:
Connect people and businesses with information, entertainment and each other. Give customers control in ways that are simple and easy.

Analysis: The mission statement on the Time Warner Cable website seems to be a relatively simple statement of what the company seeks to achieve as a media corporation. Besides the part about giving control to the customers, nothing in the statement could be directly related to a corporate social responsibility, and seems to reveal little about the company outside of its strict business functions. However, this is certainly not due to a lack of strong social responsibility and involvement in the community, something the business is actually quite heavily involved in. Time Warner simple doesn't see it's application of these principles as separate from its corporate function. While millions are given to charity, the most important outreach and involvement projects taken on by the company are the public service announcements and the distribution of free cable and internet to schools. Directly from the website, "Greater still are the tens of millions of dollars more of in-kind contributions we provide through the production and distribution of public service announcements, free cable and high speed broadband connections to schools..." These activities are not separate from the mission statement - it just applies it in a socially responsible way.
Of course, most companies have mission statements, which often sound high and promising, or at best, aren't bad. What separates companies from each other is in how truly they apply their mission statements. Time Warner Cable has excellent examples of how it has applied it's mission statement in ways that reach beyond the strict business interpretation. For example, the "Connect a Million Minds" initiative, which seeks to "introduce kids to afterschool science, technology, engineering, and math". This program recently reached a milestone, with 400,000 kids as part of it.

http://www.bradenton.com/2011/09/01/3462424/over-400000-young-minds-pledged.html

The initiative follows the mission statement of "connecting people... with information", and is a philanthropic initiative which seeks to contribute something of tremendous importance to the world as a whole.


Opinion: However, an important thing to recognize about mission statements is that they do not usually mandate moral behaivor. News Corp., recently at the center of the "News of the World" scandal in the UK, had the following mission statement:

"Creating and distributing top-quality news, sports and entertainment around the world."

While employees of the paper, which was a subsidiary of News Corp., did violate norms of ethical conduct, not to mention the law, they were technically still following the mission statement of the company. Social responsibility and ethical conduct can rarely be encompassed in something as simple and confined as a mission statement, which is about the goals of an organization and not usually about the methods. Those must be dealt with by a company's code of conduct, a far less general set of rules which deal with the behavior of employees.
In sum, while a mission statement is important, and can be applied to corporate activities beyond official business, it is not a perfect slogan of how a company should and will act. No business can adequately summarize itself in a single sentence.