At the heart of it, I think the "new release" is a market strategy rather than a consumer goal. Creators want consumers to believe that they should forget everything in light of the "latest and greatest". The creators' strategy is to attempt to drown out all other consumer thoughts with marketing. Consumers just want a good trade-off for their time.
In the past, information was substantially easier to find on things that were new. Finding good movies in the so called "long tail" of a video store involved book research, knowledgeable friends, or lucky guesses. You could choose what had been recently marketed to you or the devil or the unknown box. Modern information networks have changed this reality largely in favor of the unknown box.
The truth is that a large percentage of new creation is not really worth your time. The biggest advantage the new stuff has is frankly that it is new. As information systems progress, people will have an easier time separating hype from substance. This will effectively make older quality creations more desirable.
It is probably fanciful, but I'd expect his statement to be exactly wrong in the long run. The reality may become "why would anyone want to watch new releases"?
Well, I wouldn't worry about share price so much as their overall worth. It's heavily reflected there, though: Netflix ($1.8 billion) has nearly four times the market capitalization of Blockbuster ($472 million).
The fact that the CEO is confused really is obvious in the market as well as in the interview.
"Why would anyone want to watch anything other than new releases" is pretty much the slogan of RedBox. Why pay $5 for a movie rental when you can pay $1 at McDonalds or the grocery store or the gas station for the same new release? Plus, with RedBox, I don't have to show two forms of ID or fill out an application. I pick the DVDs I want, slide my card in, and the movies pop out.
NetFlix has become the premium rental service. RedBox is the budget service. Blockbuster is getting squeezed out of the market from both sides.
It is refreshing that he bluntly admitted his confusion. Most CEOs know enough to BS so that it is not obvious that they are clueless. Give this guy some kind of pity award.
He might know what his customers want, but the problem is his customers are becoming Netflix customers. The market has changed, but his target customer hasn't.
That is exactly how disruptive technologies take over big markets. While they are developing a great service, the big company is still completely focused on the ways of their old customers.
Yeah. Way to fail completely at your job, Keyes. This is a guy who can't imagine anyone using his product in a way different from the way he uses it. Fail.
This is a guy who can't imagine anyone using his product in a way different from the way he uses it.
There is really a different problem here. It's probably true that most people want to see new releases. The problem is that Netflix has new releases and old movies also. So if you go with Blockbuster, you are stuck with only new releases. If you go with Netflix, you get everything. Why bother with Blockbuster?
Also, I guess there is an agile-ish mantra like "design products for yourself first". He is doing this, and is proof that it doesn't work for everyone. :)
"Design Products for Yourself" works in the brave new world of the long tail.
'You' are probably representative of a bunch of consumers worldwide. Enough to make a market.
'He' isn't in that world. He's in the mass market world where you need 'market share' and 'mass appeal.' So being very appealing to some people is no good.
In that world, you needed to be 'good enough' for lots of people. Problem is people will move away from good enough to good when it becomes available. And it almost impossible to be good for everyone.
It works well when other people also like what you're designing for yourself. The solution is not for this guy to start doing something he doesn't understand, but for Blockbuster to get a new CEO.
No history of charging late fees. This is a really important point - in my mind, the name Blockbuster evokes the image of a scolding librarian who sells used cars on the side.
I had Blockbuster's Netflix-like service. At the time I canceled (to switch to Netflix) something like 17 of the 22 movies in my queue were unavailable with a "long wait".
Translation: "I am not qualified for my job. I know nothing about my industry, or what my customers want. I get a nice paycheck though."
I'm frankly confused as to why a CEO would think that being confused about his competition would bring him more business.