Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for December, 2011

I don’t have anything against the American legend Dick Clark. In fact I briefly met him at an event about ten years ago and found him to be a nice and friendly man. I don’t know about you, but watching Dick Clark on television is painful and I just don’t understand why he wants to continue. Sure it’s his show, and NBC has this year again allowed Mr. Clark to have ultimate control of ‘Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve’. This year will be the 40th year of the show and more than 18 million people watched it last year. I was not one of them.

A six hour show with a multitude of entertainers and talent, this year’s program will pay tribute to itself. http://wapo.st/w1k7n5. Several years ago Ryan Seacrest began to co-host the show with Mr. Clark so we can expect to see Mr. Seacrest for many years to come in his personal quest to become the next Merv Griffin (Merv actually introduced Ryan Seacrest to the world).

I also have no problem with Ryan Seacrest but the pairing with Dick Clark does nothing but make things even more awkward. Do you think Dick Clark watches the recorded proceedings of the DCNYRE afterward and thinks – ‘I still have it going on’? News flash for you Dick – you don’t have it going on and having an annual opportunity to watch you decline is hardly something that will send me charging forward into a new year.
Larry Klein who has been producing the show since 1977 had this to offer, “Dick is still Dick Clark,” he said. “His communication is a little bit more difficult, but he’s still involved in contemporary music. He listens to a lot; he knows a lot, he’s still involved in the production. This is very important to him. This is one of his children.”

Parents need to allow their children to leave the nest. After forty years don’t you think it’s about time Dick Clark allowed that to happen? His legacy is more than secure and I think by continuing to be on air Mr. Clark is practicing nothing more than self-indulgence. This bothers me more than anything else since I feel Dick Clark is one of the great American success stories and an institution unto himself.

My hope is the coming Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve 2012 version will be his final one on air and he can watch next year on television like so many others.

What do you think – should Dick Clark still be on the air?

As the holiday season scorecards begin to be revealed, Sears, showing its ‘softer side’ as sales were down 5.2% over the eight week holiday period, led by CEO Ed Lampert http://on.wsj.com/ttKCBi reported that it expected to close 100 to 120 underperforming stores. Already before Noon on Tuesday December 27th the stock price has sunk 20% (it finished 27% below the previous day’s close) and is down 45% over the past 12 months.

There was a Sears in the Long Island town in which I grew up. Even back then (1960’s and 1970’s) the impression I had of the store was that the stuff they had was a bit dated and that Sears was pretty good at appliances. In my opinion not much has changed and I have been in a Sears within the last year – although I cannot recall why.

With more than 2,200 stores (including Kmart and Sears full-line stores) Sears still has a substantial footprint in the United States. Yet I wonder if more often than not people end up at Sears instead of really wanting to go there. Aside from its aforementioned Kenmore home appliance offerings, what about Sears would attract a shopper? The clothes (do they still sell Haggar?)? The styles? The once proudly displayed Craftsman tools? Or maybe you will recall the union of the Sears brand with that of Lands End or Martha Stewart and KMart? It is an understatement to note that things did not turn out the way it was they were supposed to.

It’s a far cry from the now somewhat distant past where Sears was known for quality and service. While I suppose there are Sears stores that have better service than others that’s not what the brand says to me – nor does it scream quality either.

Sears was the largest retailer in the U.S. until the early 1980’s. Today the combined Sears has 2,201 full-line and 1,354 specialty retail stores in the United States operating through Kmart and Sears and 483 full-line and specialty retail stores in Canada operating through Sears Canada Inc. (Sears Canada), a 92%-owned subsidiary. So Sears ‘gets around’. During the fiscal year ended January 29, 2010 (fiscal 2010), it operated three segments: Kmart, Sears Domestic and Sears Canada. As of January 29, 2011, Holdings operated a total of 1,307 Kmart stores across 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands.

As I browsed through comments http://on.wsj.com/ucpEXX from people who had shopped at Sears the conversation varied from blaming Ed Lampert to poor service and odd pricing but there were a few positive comments regarding selection, service and quality. The thing that stood out to me was the inconsistency of delivering the Sears brand promise – whatever that is. I could not figure it out – can you?

When I went to see Avatar in 3D in 2009 I felt it was an interesting and worthwhile experience. What I did not realize is that the story and imagery were woven so well together that they transcended the fact that the movie was in 3D. I’ve since seen Avatar in un-3D (i.e. regular film) and enjoyed the movie very much. That movie experience was not downgraded for the lack of it being in 3D.

Over the Christmas holiday weekend my family and I went to see Tintin www.tintin.com . I’ve always been a fan of Tintin having read the comics when I was a kid and watching the cartoons when they came out 20 years ago in 1991. The Steven Spielberg treatment of the Tintin characters was true to the franchise. The characters and the story again put together so well. Yet the experience was not enhanced by the fact that we saw the movie in 3D. My daughter says this all the time and that she would rather NOT see a movie in 3D if it can be avoided.

Once again the $15/ticket price for the four of us was eyebrow-raising. It shows me that it will not be too long before a family of four could pay $100 to go to see a movie in the theater. I still feel the movie theater experience is a very worthwhile and unique one that cannot be recreated in 99.9% of home theaters.

But shelling out $60 for four 3D tickets due to the supposed enhancement of the movie-going experience is most times just a bad value. 3D techniques do not seem to have advanced all that much and the ‘cool’ factor having something float by you in a 3D movie is highly overrated. I look at the 3D technology having not advanced much – sort of like modern day toasters.

Apparently there’s hope on the way for a vastly improved 3D experience. An improved experience would I hope include the need of having to even wear 3D glasses. I don’t know anyone that actually likes having to wear 3D glasses to watch a movie.

So save your money folks – I think my daughter is right.

What do you think?

Stuart Elliot of The New York Times writes the advertising column and periodically has 20 questions about advertising. I decided to come up with a few of my own.

1) Why are there ads in the subway with QR codes displayed when there is no internet service on the subway itself?

2) Would you turn your house into a billboard? http://www.aol.it/rpy8Na

3) How long will it be before urinals in public restrooms carry advertising?

4) Do you watch the screen when riding in the back of taxi?

5) Would you be willing to receive a steady stream of ads on your smart phone if the monthly fees were paid for by the carrier?

6) Which company do you think will last longer – Groupon or Foursquare?

7) If you’ve used a Groupon or Living Social coupon to dine in a restaurant you’ve never before visited – have you ever gone back a second time?

I don’t watch ads when I DVR a television program preferring to fast forward through them as I believe is the case with most people. What percentage of DVR watchers do you think should be counted as having actually watched an ad during the program?

9) Will people continue to patronize online companies that don’t offer a free shipping option?

10) In 2012 will you use Ebay’s Redlaser.com bar scanner or Amazon.com’s bar code scanner to check pricing on in-store items?

I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Joyous Kwanzaa. Oh and a healthy and Happy 2012 too!

Over the past week and a half I have become aware of two separate stories that I believe are closely related. Last week there were reports circulating on comedian Louis C.K. (who I have only seen in passing on cable at some point along the way) and his novel approach to marketing his latest made for television performance. David Carr in his regularly excellent column in the New York Times highlighted the effort in Monday’s paper – http://nyti.ms/vMq0O7 .

The story on Louis C.K. is that he decided to “go direct with his fans: no cable special, no middleman, just a simple download for $5 on his Web site to see his comedy show “Louis C. K.: Live at the Beacon Theater.” A true DIY (do-it-yourselfer) Louis C.K. writes, directs, produces and acts in his own series “Louie” and now he is a bona fide distributor. What impressed me more is that shortly after he went out with this novel offer – 200,000 people paid $ 5.00 each for two streams and three downloads of the special. It cost him $ 250,000 to create the show and he will bring in roughly $1 million. To say that’s not bad would be an understatement.

Unrelated I saw another story yesterday on a website unboundbooks.co.uk – a site live in the UK and soon to be in the U.S. as well. The idea of Unbound is best first read straight from their website –

“BRINGING AUTHORS AND READERS TOGETHER

We think authors and readers should decide which books get published. On the Unbound site, (unfortunately the U.S. site www.unbound.com or unboundbooks.com is not yet up but the British site www.unbound.co.uk is up and running), authors pitch their ideas directly to you. If you like what you read, you can pledge your support to help make the book happen. Everyone who supports an author before they reach 100% of the funding target gets their name printed in every edition of that book. All levels include a digital version and immediate access to the author’s shed while they write the book, and supporters of projects that don’t reach their target receive a full refund.”

You can read more from an article straight from The Guardian – http://bit.ly/rxELnz

In short the idea is that a big problem for the publishing industry is that many book advances to authors are non-returnable and do not earn out their advances. What Unbound proposes to do is to have potential readers pay in advance for the book that has yet to be written. It reads better than it first sounds –
“The site, launched last May, acts as a forum for authors to pitch books directly to readers, who, if they like the sound of a project, commit money right away, before the book has even been written. Each book has a target number of pledges it must receive to be viable (generally between 500 and 1,000). When you click on a book on the site, you are shown how many pledges it needs in total, and the percentage it has so far received. You can then pledge your support at a number of levels: from buying the eBook (generally £10), through purchasing the hardback (usually £20) or a signed copy (£50), all the way up to being invited to the launch party (typically £150) or, sometimes, going on an excursion with the author.
Justin Pollard, one of the founders, points out that although pledging involves handing over actual money, supporters aren’t taking a risk, because if the book doesn’t receive the required number of pledges, the project is scrapped and everyone gets their money back. Meanwhile, the publisher avoids exposing itself to upfront advances.

Crowdsourcing has become a bit of a buzzword but to see it in action in both the case of Louis C.K. and Unbound impresses me greatly.

How about your take on these new models?