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Stores Disposing Of Disposable DVDs
from the gee,-that-was-a-tough-one-to-call dept
When Disney first announced plans back in May to sell disposable DVDs, we were a bit surprised. Many companies have tried and failed (usually miserably) at offering disposable DVDs. There are plenty of lessons to be learned from the space - and "don't bother" seems to be a big one. Disney went ahead with the plans anyway, and in October, the report was that they weren't selling. At all. Beyond the general problems with the idea, someone who no longer deserves a job in marketing, decided to price the discs at $7. Note that the competition here is a rental movie - which gives the user more control and rights at about half the price. I wonder why people weren't buying... Now comes the completely unsurprising news that stores are beginning to throw away the unopened disposable DVDs themselves and offering up the lucrative shelf-space to someone who has a product shoppers might actually want to buy.
Reader Comments
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renal movies
This sounds like rather painful competition.
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Re: renal movies
It certainly does... which is why it's been changed. Thanks!
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Two audiences
I see two potential audiences for these types of movies.
#1) People who have more money then they know what to do with - People who are willing to spend $7 for what is essentially a time-limited movie rental. These people also have to have children who only want to watch a Disney movie once or twice and never again. My guesstimate is that there are approximately 41 people in the USA that fit this target demographic.
#2) People who have DVD(+/-)R(W) drives and/or a DVD Recorder who will buy the movie, take it home and immediately copy it (using DVD-Shrink on their PC or a Macrovision blocker on their DVD Recorder), throw away the time-limited disc and put their almost perfect duplicate in the DVD case that came with the time-limited disc. Although a larger potential target than #1, a majority of these people would just as soon save themselves $3-4 and RENT the movie and copy it and make their own box.
For those interested in #2, Target has been selling 10 packs of TDK brand DVD cases for $7, and you can easily find the DVD liners for a zillion movies at http://www.cdcovers.cc
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Re: Two audiences
Actually, those aren't defined markets. Truly, the only market I could see these working in. Is while on a plane or train or somewhere secluded. Think RV camping park. Forcing scarcity is the only way you could sell something this stupid for that much money. However, this would mean you would have to keep a big inventory or at least some major new releases.
Still those are very niche markets and would be silly to go into a physical distribution business at this point. With wireless technology revolutionizing everything right now and all.
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Price?
Instead of throwing them out, I wish they would reduce the price to see if that is the reason why they are not selling.
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Re: Price?
Instead of throwing them out, I wish they would reduce the price to see if that is the reason why they are not selling.
This sounds so obvious that one has to wonder whether the stores had to agree not to sell them for less than a certain price.
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disposable media?
From a larger perspective, i don't really understand the point of "disposable" media. I mean, isn't the point of owning a DVD the fact that you want to KEEP the thing?
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