Rhapsody And The Art Of The Up-Sell

Real
Photo by Thomas Hawk

One of my very first jobs was working behind a concession counter for a big multiplex cinema. It isn’t the sort of place where one would expect to learn a life skill, but early on I learned an important lesson in business — the art of the up-sell.

You see, movie theaters make very little from the box office receipts, so the concessions counter is the lifeblood of the industry. The setup is pretty much the same at every theater, but most people don’t tend to think about it. Because the actual cost of the popcorn and soda is so low, the theaters reap big profits from selling captive customers overpriced snacks and beverages.

To help “encourage” movie goers to pay the max, theaters will price their small popcorns at ridiculously expensive levels and then have a minor jump in price from small to medium and medium to large. If you were to price the popcorn by ounce, a small would cost four times as much as a large, but because of the high cost at the small level, it makes it easier to convince consumers to pay a little bit extra for a lot more food. My sales pitch would typically go, “Did you know you can get a large for only 50 cents extra?” That was all it took and at least 75% of the customers would go big.

Read more

Digital Media Bytes: Last100 Edition

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100: 10 years on Blockbuster still lacks a digital strategy Blockbuster’s management talks a good digital game but it’s nothing more than “marketing fluff”, often confusing the company’s dominance in physical media with that of digital. The company’s underwhelming and late to the game set-top … Read more

American Film Institute Takes Video Online

In keeping with the growing trend of publishing archives online, the American Film Institute (AFI) has launched its own video portal with material collected over the last 42 years. The launch takes place just as the Institute is honoring Michael Douglas today with a Life Achievement Award. Tribute coverage of Michael Douglas is featured along … Read more

TiVo on Twitter

TiVo gets a mixed review when it comes to online community outreach (aka “Social Media” – whatever that means). They pioneered customer engagement on a company-focused forum. Yet, TiVo has stumbled in the blogosphere…. from joining the conversation late (and still currently suffering from trust issues) to their own craptastic blog initiative. Fortunately, they’re leading … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: YouTube, Upstream Bandwidth, and Channel Bonding It wasn’t long ago that YouTube’s maximum upload size was 10 MB. Then it jumped to 100 MB, followed by 1 GB last fall, followed now by a new 2 GB ceiling. YouTube’s upload file sizes are increasing to … Read more

TiVo and Best Buy to Develop DVR TV

You probably don’t remember that Humax LCD TV with builtin TiVo… which never launched in 2005. As a clutter-free minimalist (to the best of my ability), I do. And TiVo’s new tie-up with Best Buy indicates they’re going down this path again, entering the Internet Widget TV fray under the Insignia brand: As part of … Read more

Pandora Now Safe, But Some Costs Involved

Popular Internet radio provider, Pandora are impacted by a new deal in which webcasters are covered by an “alternative set of rates and terms” from SoundExchange, the group managing performers’ royalties in the U.S. This should put Pandora, and other online streaming music services, in a much better position for survival going forward. Users of … Read more

Twitter Users Agree: TiVo Search is Sloooow

TiVo’s User Experience veep Margret Schmidt, @tivodesign, queried her Twitter followers last night: Broadband-connected TiVo DVR users: do you use “Search by Title” or “TiVo Search” in “Find Programs” to find shows? Why? I don’t know if this was an informal usability poll or more in the way of Twitter marketing. In all likelihood, it’s … Read more