Last weekend I saw the “Facebook” movie at Empire Theatres, Guildford, and while impatiently waiting for the boring and mundane advertisement’s to stop, one actually caught my eye. It was promoting the recently adopted strategy of providing services for businesses – “putting your business on the big screen.” Businesses can rent out a single theatre to display their presentations on the big screen, and in return get to watch a movie of their choice for no cost!

Empire Theatres has stepped away from conventions and has come up with an effective strategy to bring in some extra profit. This service will not incur any extra costs for it will not cost them any more for the lighting or the space. They will not be losing profit by allowing the businesses to watch a free movie because they would not have acquired these people in the first place. 

Meetings are often during the day, and theatres slowest hours are during the day. ET noticed where they needed to improve performance and came up with an innovative way to not only widen the range of customers but to increase their productivity during the day.

This strategy would be effective for businesses when doing presentations for a large number of people; where the board room office is too small, for presenting significant material, and for celebratory presentations.  This is very risky, as with all new implementations and the business personnel’s will either love it or hate it.

Love it:
– Large venue = more available positions for people to attend
– Comfortable seating
– Everyone can easily see the information
– Reasonable cost
– Free movie

Hate it:
– It may detract from the dignity of the presentations by being held at a “movie theatre”
–  Employees may not be as engaged in such a large venue, and may be distracted by the mouth watering aroma of the popcorn or the free movie they get to see afterwards
– Costs $$; whereas if just used own boardroom they wouldn’t be incurring any costs
– May create employee conflicts; differing opinions
– It doesn’t coincide with the ‘business image’; arriving at a movie theatre dressed in Jimmy Choos and a Yves Saint Laurent suit attending an important meeting regarding the merger of Vogue and Elle doesn’t have a sophisticated ring to it. 

The weight is heavily leaning more towards “hate it”, however the true test will be after their financial statements come out.

Making sure they market this new feature is key to its success – a few ideas are:

1. Flyers sent to all local businesses
2. Newspaper and business magazine (Bloomberg’s) ads
3. Having info available on their website & allowing booking online
4. Commercials

A new trend in the world of fashion has rapidly diffused across the Japanese society, and they are known as Japanese knickers.

These are not see-through skirts, but rather prints on the skirt to give the allusion that the panties are visible.

1. Words mean different things to different people (efficiency & free market have no direct translation in Russian)
2.  Barriers caused by word connotations (the Japanese word hai translates as “yes”, but its connotation may be “yes, I am listening,” rather than “yes, I agree.”
3. Barriers caused by tone difference
4. Barriers caused by differences in perception 

Bottom line is that our culture may not be as accepting to this fashion trend as the Japanese are and understanding cultural differences is important in a companies success.

I look forward to North Americans’ reaction when these hit home!

With the movie market being bombarded with more convenient, cheaper and even free ways to watch movies, it is no wonder that the well established company, Blockbuster has filed for bankruptcy. There are “video vending machines” at grocery stores, like Safeway, that allow you to rent a movie for less than at a video store.  It targets/appeals to those rushing home on a Friday night reluctant to stop for groceries, and a movie; making a convenient one stop shop.

Shaw on demand allows you to purchase movies without leaving your pajamas!  Applying the cost-benefit principle, a rational person would purchase the movie off Shaw and demand, even though the prices are higher than at a video store. Why? Because the costs – time it takes to drive there and back, $$ spent on gas, and the purchase of the movie itself, exceeds the benefits.

With the rising internet capabilities, one can download movies off the internet for free!

Blockbuster needs to, get out of debt, and come up with a new strategy that will steal back its customers and market share. One recommendation is they could team up with a delivery service organization, say Pizza Hut, delivering pizza and/or a movie, which would likely increase both organizations profits!

In the world of fashion, one can buy a dress for just $6.95 from H&M retail, while I spend more than that at Starbucks! Starbucks may be just one big rip off, but it makes me question, the quality of the clothing, and the underlying incentives the retailers may have; like pricing items questionably low to encourage customers to actually buy more than they would if the prices were high, making more profit. The cost for Chinese labour is increasing, however retailers must think strategically that if they up their prices, their profits will likely decrease. Retailers have to cut their prices in order to meet the equilibrium price and quantity, which has shifted due to a change in expectations by the customers. For a retail store to be successful they must constantly be on their toes ready to increase or decrease their prices according to customer’s willingness to buy, and economy scale. While the margins are fairly high now, with the continually rising manufacturing cost, it will be difficult for retailers to maintain those low prices, meaning they will have to lower their prices or bring in less profit. Until this happens, right now is the prime time to shop, shop, shop! 

WORK CITED: “H&M OFFERS A DRESS FOR LESS” – Canadian Business Magazine