Just a day in the life of an employee at Video Ezy. I feel I say this all the time. I refer to popular movies to make my customers watch a non-popular movie. Classic selling technique, or so I thought.
The readings by Chris Anderson and Clay Shirky point out that success is no longer through popular demand but rather through specific niche markets. The "Arthouse" movies I would call it. But the majority of them are not Arthouse films they are either small-budget films, film festival movies or word of mouth films that slowly make their way up to the top of the food chain. For example, The Lost Thing, is in popular demand at Video Ezy because of the amount of awards and nominations it has.
My boss has had to change the way we market our DVDs because popular movies are not making us enough money, therefore he has opened up a market for the customers who want obscure titles and TV series that are difficult to get. His target is the niche market of movies that are continually in customer demand. Anderson calls these titles "misses".
"A hit and a miss are on equal economic footing, both just entries in a database called up on demand, both equally worthy of being carried. Suddenly, popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability." (Anderson, 2004)
So when Anderson disccusses the rise of these niche markets due to the Internet, he is also talking about my part time job, because I use these marketing strategies to create hype of good movies. I never thought a reading could hit close to home but this has topped it for me. The ever-changing market of these niche titles will only get bigger.
So if you liked this blog then you'll enjoy working at Video Ezy.
Wow Dimity, it's so funny that the Anderson & Shirky readings are so relevant to your job! I'd never thought about the 'long tail effect' before I read about it in the readings and discussed it in lecture/tute.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of film and most books, I am a mainly mainstream consumer (although I listen to a niche of mainly acoustic/chill music mostly). I never thought about how less-popular niche markets are suggestively pushed to eventually become as popular or even more so than mainstream content.
I like how you made the readings so relative to your own experiences, great post!
Nice way of explaining the long tail Dimity! Really enjoyed your analogy of niche markets and different genres at Video Ezy.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious on your thoughts about the availability of niche markets - it might just be me, but i feel that 'arthouse' films are becoming more available/widespread at places like Video Ezy? I was particularly surprised when in Vietnam recently, to find a pirate DVD store which stocked a number of Western 'arthouse' films. Are these films becoming more mainstream, or are they just becoming more available?
Are companies like Video Ezy realising that in order to stay competitive (unlike the book store Borders) they must stock a higher number of these 'arthouse' or more obscure foreign films?
I think it's a bit of both Tegan. As more people start to watch arthouse films and become more aware of the films that star in film festivals, then the more those films become in popular demand. I suppose it is just like the music business, where an artist can be independent one day and then mainstream the next. Think of Kings of Leon and at the moment Goyte. They weren't mainstream when they first came out.
ReplyDeleteDimity I think your analogy of Video Ezy is really helpful in explaining the long tail effect, however the mention of Kings of Leon and Gotye definitely made sense to me. Being a Triple J listener, it is really noticable the time lapse between something being popular on Triple J radio and then later in commercial broadcast radio. Obviously this isn't the case for all artists/genres, but the pattern is clearly seen. Think Dubstep genre for example, when it first emerged I think many listeners were confused and unsure about the sound, and now Dubstep and Dubstep remixes of popular songs are regularly played in clubs. Just another example of the long tail.
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on the long tail using Video Ezy as an example. I suppose what your doing is the same as, like you've mentioned, radio stations promoting independent or lesser known artists before the go mainstream.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of the analog version of Anderson's description of the niche market at "the shallow end of the bitstream"
I've always wondered how Video Ezy is staying alive. It's a very good way at understanding the long tail idea!
ReplyDeleteI guess the modern marketing technique is now 'mass customisation' to make everyone somehow believe that they are different to the other customers.
This idea of niche targeting is something that is becoming more and more apparent to me. For example, many of my friends are always trying to be the 'first' person to discover a movie, tv series or song, so that they can get the credit for introducing everyone to it. So therefore, they are constantly shopping in these niche markets.