Our February Promo didn't work out as we had hoped

[direct007]

As a test, for the month of February, we tried our double feature Rent one movie at regular price, get the 2nd movie free.  There were no limitations as to the selections...any movie including blu-ray/adult/new releases just to make sure we offered the best deal to our customers.

The results were disappointing.

We increased rentals by just 50 compared to January,  Revenue was down substantially and we only signed up 4 more customers compared to January.  The weather was working in our favor with all of the snow, the only other factors were the Olympics being on TV which normally affects business, but not to such a significant degree and February is 3 days shorter than January.

We can't match Redbox rates, so we are going back to business as usual and hope that things improve with a better slate of movies.

[mcmarc]

How did you advertise this?

[direct007]

we sent out direct mail postcards to every customer that has rented in the previous 24 months, in-store signage as well as on our outdoor LED message sign.

[MerlinMikey]

The way we are dealing with those Box thingy's and Netflix is to make sure our discs is in excellent condition when they are checked in and when they are handed to the customer we check each one in front of them. Yep, its an extra step but they appreciate it, and we say that those box things don't do it and Netflixs doesn't either! Makes them think about it. We even offer Disc Scratch repair service for their personal disc and advertise that. We even modified a poster advertising the disc repair that states: "We will fix those disc you get from Netflix or those box things that don't work when you get them, because we CAN and they DON'T. Haven't had any takers yet, but it gets a lot of laughs.

Should introduce myself... I have had a video store in the same small town (but services a lot of area) in southern oregon for 23 years. Our store is about 3300 sq ft. Stay positive!

[moviecritic202]

Welcome, MerlinMikey.  That's about how long my store has been around in my small town too (I've only owned it for 2 1/2 years though).  I actually had someone bring in a Redbox disc for me to fix.  We fixed it no problem but my employee & I had a good laugh about it later.

[direct007]

We aren't discouraged, but after doing this for 29 years, we have to reinvent the wheel as trying to compete against price has always been a challenge, but now we are competing for people's time and resources.

Coming up with creative ways to get people back in the store is getting very challenging.  If you have been in business through the mid 80's, you remember when all you had to do was open up your doors and having enough movies available for rental was the biggest issue.  Today, it's not just availability and rental rates, but when and where the customer gets their movies from.

I am watching how Blockbuster competes with Redbox and Netflix very closely as charging a minimum $5 for a movie rental vs $1 overnight at Redbox or their own machines is very interesting.

We are hoping to fill the niche in between by offering a larger selection, blu-ray and adult but not charging the $5 that Blockbuster is charging nor the $1 that Redbox is charging.

[MerlinMikey]

Thanks for the Welcome moviecritic202...
And I'm glad to see you made money from RedBox by fixing that disc!

direct007 - I started in 1987 and yeah it was easier times. But with most, if not all , things change with technology. Those machines and kiosk will shoot themselves in the foot with the old adage: Garbage In, Garbage Out! I'm sure your discs don't look like the one that those machines spit out. If mine did, I'd be very lonely in my store. My biggest challenge everyday is teaching my "aging" customers the new technology. I don't know how many times I have asked, "have you updated your firmware for your Bluray player"? I always get that blank stare. I then go on and tell them that if the salesman that sold you the player told you you'd have to upgrade the firmware occasionally, would you have bought it? What's firmware, and how do I do that? I love new revenue sources 

Mike