Competition is a very large issue in the marketplace. It forces companies to readapt in order to survive, taking on the motto “survivial of the fittest”. Earlier in the course, we discussed Blockbuster, and its movie kiosks, which had failed. Redbox, their competitor, was outbeating them. The movie industry is extremely competitive; there are competitors online, such as Netflix, who let users stream movies conveniently from their computers, as well as cheap rental stands, such as DVDPlay, where one can rent new releases for less than 2 dollars.
Cineplex Entertainment, a movie theatre company, has decided to expand its services to include movie rentals online. Cineplex, does have a competitive advantage in some sense. It has a brand name value in Canada, that is already associated with movies. This new service will be advertised in the theatres, thereby making it more aware to the public.
Cineplex’s new service is very similar to Apple’s ITunes music store. Of course, Cineplex has a different brand image than Apple, yet they both will offer movie rental or purchase directly on the hard drive. This makes me question Cineplex’s move. It will need to differentiate itself in this marketplace. One possible move that Cineplex can make is to provide an incentive for customers. For example, if a customer goes to the theatre to watch a movie, he will receive a discount code for the purchase of the movie online when it comes out of DVD. This will let Cineplex gain a larger market share.
Only time will tell if Cineplex is successful.