"Hi.
I'm Bob and I'm hooked on Voom."
That's how those support groups start, right?
While waiting for some concrete news on today's meeting, I couldn't keep my wandering mind from reaching for the keyboard. And before you read it, theres nothing new here, just some musings that might start a thought process or two in a different diirection.
It’s hard to know where to start. I haven’t been posting, but have been following the festivities here pretty closely these past few weeks. Part of it is personal and part business. I’m a Voomer at home, but I’m also a product manager in a company that makes home theater products. Watching this saga to see what went right and went wrong is interesting for it’s lessons. I also have a hard time resisting getting my $0.02 in about what I think they should be doing, but aren’t.
A few ideas keep striking me as familiar elements from past experiences with various companies I’ve worked for, and projects I’ve worked on. Especially those instances when I’ve worked for companies that rejected an idea as flawed, only to find that a different company was extremely successful with the same idea. It’s happened more than once. The more I read of the Voom saga, the more it seems that there are a few common threads. It feels like Deja Voom (Sorry)
#1, IMHO, market analysts generally suck. They have no clue about things that they don’t have accurate past data on. That seems to be the case here. They don’t “get” HDTV. I’m guessing here, but I’d be surprised if 15% of them have ever seen it. They probably think that their digital cable is HD. I’ll bet they think that DVD at 480i is as good as it gets. So, these same people are the ones influencing the CVC board through shareholders because they don’t understand the fundamental change in the technology, or the long term benefit of staying on for the ride. they don't see that Voom has the opportunity to "own" HD in the consumers mind if they play the marketing game right. Their sense of time begins and ends each fiscal year, and they don’t have the patience for t"he payout at the end. That’s why the Chuck Dolans of the world only seem to be able to build their empires before the shareholders get too empowered. Once the brilliant entrepreneur gets the company started from his vision, everything else gets second-guessed and overridden by people with neither vision nor guts. Ideas get distilled into white bread. That is, unless the new idea offers immediate return and little risk. Delivering HD by satellite certainly doesn’t fit in that last category.
#2, Nobody has patience anymore. How long did it take D* and E* to turn the corner and make any money? I don’t know, but I’ll bet it wasn’t overnight. I haven’t done any price shopping lately, but I’m sure that sticking a few state of the art birds in the sky is not exactly cheap these days. Then, providing programming to fill the void. And acquiring customers. And providing equipment. And……
It’s going to take years to break even. Financial folks don’t seem to have the patience for this. This is despite the fact that most current HDTV owners are demographically desirable from a marketing perspective. How can they not see the potential?
#3. Voom screwed up. Early and often. Flawed SW, bad installations, equipment problems, OTA reception issues, no shows, and all the other issues reported in these forums. Maybe they launched 6 months too soon, but maybe it just mirrors some of the same issues that D* and E* had during their early days that we’ve all forgotten about. At any rate, so many Voomers de-installed that the financial folks may have misinterpreted it as “proof” that the content was not compelling and therefore not viable. They seem to have fixed many of the problems, and they can still fix the rest if they get the chance. Fortunately I did not have the installation issues that I read about. I already had a big Channel Master OTA system and RG6 everywhere the installer needed it so all he had to do was aim, and even he couldn’t screw that up before he left. It would seem that if Voom were smart, they should have a database by now of what antennas work in what regions. They shouldn’t have to have all those dish and antenna upgrade callbacks that appear to be at the root of many problems. They should start with the right package in each area and not require the basic package and a call-back when it doesn’t work. No wonder they’re bleeding money. And, please offer a self-installation package! I installed my own E* system, and Voom is a heck of a lot simpler with only one satellite to hit.
#4. Voom who? As mentioned in the Sears thread, there is no awareness. Even on Sears’ own sales floor Voom’s marketing efforts have not been as effective as we wish they had been. You don’t just sell in to a big chain of stores like Sears and wait for the sales. You have to sell through. You need ASR’s that reinforce the message, educate, and get the salespeople on the floor to believe. Either that or spiff the heck out of it. Besides, Sears and Brands Mart are not enough. There is no mass market or specialty electronics retailer in the country who should not be selling VOOM with every HDTV they sell. They should have Voon up and running in every single one of their stores delivering demonstration content to the store full of TV’s. Where else can you get so much HD in so many categories 24-7? Why aren’t they? Does Voom not have an effective program in place to get these retailers on board? They should! Do they have independent rep firms or factory salespeople selling their program in to the regional dealers? I wonder. They should offer every store free VaVaVoom service with a dealership agreement. They need to have an effective residual program for dealers to sell the service. And to back it up, they need to come up with a program for consumers that supports changing their existing service. The devil you know is better than the one you don’t, so people that are relatively happy with what they have are not jumping at the chance to switch. People still think of HD as something special for a few shows now and then. Us Voomers know differently. They need to devise a compelling plan to get people on board. Maybe take E* or D* equipment in on trade for 3 months service or 1 year VaVaVoom for example. Perhaps trade boxes on an even basis, use the existing coax and just swap LNB’s and re-aim. Work out a DSL bundle with a partner for those people who need cable for Internet access. Eliminate the objections and pump up that all important subscriber base. Give each of us a free month for every subscriber we bring in. Work a deal with a few of the TVmanufacturers and stuff boxes with brochures. I could go on and on. Look at how Netflix spread the word in the early days of DVD players.
#5 It’s not all about HD. They seem to be starting to get this from the latest headlines, but it is still not obvious to a new customer that Voom is a viable competitor for SD. In a house full of TV’s, most are probably not HD yet. Give us a cheaper, smaller, SD option that still tunes all the HD channels.
#6. Change the rules. Convince us, and a couple million of our closest friends, that its quality, not quantity that matters. Nobody watches 1500 channels, we do watch maybe 10 or 20. Remind us that we consumers apparently lie in focus groups and say want quality over quantity. Convince us that Voom has the channels 80% of us want and if we weren't lying we must want Voom. Forget about the other 20%.
#7. Get the DVR out already! However, if it’s really having problems, its better to get it right (See #3). Strip it to a basic feature set and add capability later if they have to. Just get to it! It’s a big objection from a new subscriber’s perspective. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that it's been ready, but held back because all the internal turmoil resulted in a lack of resources to roll it out. A classic Catch 22.
Let’s just all hope that Charlie gets his chance!
I'm Bob and I'm hooked on Voom."
That's how those support groups start, right?
While waiting for some concrete news on today's meeting, I couldn't keep my wandering mind from reaching for the keyboard. And before you read it, theres nothing new here, just some musings that might start a thought process or two in a different diirection.
It’s hard to know where to start. I haven’t been posting, but have been following the festivities here pretty closely these past few weeks. Part of it is personal and part business. I’m a Voomer at home, but I’m also a product manager in a company that makes home theater products. Watching this saga to see what went right and went wrong is interesting for it’s lessons. I also have a hard time resisting getting my $0.02 in about what I think they should be doing, but aren’t.
A few ideas keep striking me as familiar elements from past experiences with various companies I’ve worked for, and projects I’ve worked on. Especially those instances when I’ve worked for companies that rejected an idea as flawed, only to find that a different company was extremely successful with the same idea. It’s happened more than once. The more I read of the Voom saga, the more it seems that there are a few common threads. It feels like Deja Voom (Sorry)
#1, IMHO, market analysts generally suck. They have no clue about things that they don’t have accurate past data on. That seems to be the case here. They don’t “get” HDTV. I’m guessing here, but I’d be surprised if 15% of them have ever seen it. They probably think that their digital cable is HD. I’ll bet they think that DVD at 480i is as good as it gets. So, these same people are the ones influencing the CVC board through shareholders because they don’t understand the fundamental change in the technology, or the long term benefit of staying on for the ride. they don't see that Voom has the opportunity to "own" HD in the consumers mind if they play the marketing game right. Their sense of time begins and ends each fiscal year, and they don’t have the patience for t"he payout at the end. That’s why the Chuck Dolans of the world only seem to be able to build their empires before the shareholders get too empowered. Once the brilliant entrepreneur gets the company started from his vision, everything else gets second-guessed and overridden by people with neither vision nor guts. Ideas get distilled into white bread. That is, unless the new idea offers immediate return and little risk. Delivering HD by satellite certainly doesn’t fit in that last category.
#2, Nobody has patience anymore. How long did it take D* and E* to turn the corner and make any money? I don’t know, but I’ll bet it wasn’t overnight. I haven’t done any price shopping lately, but I’m sure that sticking a few state of the art birds in the sky is not exactly cheap these days. Then, providing programming to fill the void. And acquiring customers. And providing equipment. And……
It’s going to take years to break even. Financial folks don’t seem to have the patience for this. This is despite the fact that most current HDTV owners are demographically desirable from a marketing perspective. How can they not see the potential?
#3. Voom screwed up. Early and often. Flawed SW, bad installations, equipment problems, OTA reception issues, no shows, and all the other issues reported in these forums. Maybe they launched 6 months too soon, but maybe it just mirrors some of the same issues that D* and E* had during their early days that we’ve all forgotten about. At any rate, so many Voomers de-installed that the financial folks may have misinterpreted it as “proof” that the content was not compelling and therefore not viable. They seem to have fixed many of the problems, and they can still fix the rest if they get the chance. Fortunately I did not have the installation issues that I read about. I already had a big Channel Master OTA system and RG6 everywhere the installer needed it so all he had to do was aim, and even he couldn’t screw that up before he left. It would seem that if Voom were smart, they should have a database by now of what antennas work in what regions. They shouldn’t have to have all those dish and antenna upgrade callbacks that appear to be at the root of many problems. They should start with the right package in each area and not require the basic package and a call-back when it doesn’t work. No wonder they’re bleeding money. And, please offer a self-installation package! I installed my own E* system, and Voom is a heck of a lot simpler with only one satellite to hit.
#4. Voom who? As mentioned in the Sears thread, there is no awareness. Even on Sears’ own sales floor Voom’s marketing efforts have not been as effective as we wish they had been. You don’t just sell in to a big chain of stores like Sears and wait for the sales. You have to sell through. You need ASR’s that reinforce the message, educate, and get the salespeople on the floor to believe. Either that or spiff the heck out of it. Besides, Sears and Brands Mart are not enough. There is no mass market or specialty electronics retailer in the country who should not be selling VOOM with every HDTV they sell. They should have Voon up and running in every single one of their stores delivering demonstration content to the store full of TV’s. Where else can you get so much HD in so many categories 24-7? Why aren’t they? Does Voom not have an effective program in place to get these retailers on board? They should! Do they have independent rep firms or factory salespeople selling their program in to the regional dealers? I wonder. They should offer every store free VaVaVoom service with a dealership agreement. They need to have an effective residual program for dealers to sell the service. And to back it up, they need to come up with a program for consumers that supports changing their existing service. The devil you know is better than the one you don’t, so people that are relatively happy with what they have are not jumping at the chance to switch. People still think of HD as something special for a few shows now and then. Us Voomers know differently. They need to devise a compelling plan to get people on board. Maybe take E* or D* equipment in on trade for 3 months service or 1 year VaVaVoom for example. Perhaps trade boxes on an even basis, use the existing coax and just swap LNB’s and re-aim. Work out a DSL bundle with a partner for those people who need cable for Internet access. Eliminate the objections and pump up that all important subscriber base. Give each of us a free month for every subscriber we bring in. Work a deal with a few of the TVmanufacturers and stuff boxes with brochures. I could go on and on. Look at how Netflix spread the word in the early days of DVD players.
#5 It’s not all about HD. They seem to be starting to get this from the latest headlines, but it is still not obvious to a new customer that Voom is a viable competitor for SD. In a house full of TV’s, most are probably not HD yet. Give us a cheaper, smaller, SD option that still tunes all the HD channels.
#6. Change the rules. Convince us, and a couple million of our closest friends, that its quality, not quantity that matters. Nobody watches 1500 channels, we do watch maybe 10 or 20. Remind us that we consumers apparently lie in focus groups and say want quality over quantity. Convince us that Voom has the channels 80% of us want and if we weren't lying we must want Voom. Forget about the other 20%.
#7. Get the DVR out already! However, if it’s really having problems, its better to get it right (See #3). Strip it to a basic feature set and add capability later if they have to. Just get to it! It’s a big objection from a new subscriber’s perspective. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that it's been ready, but held back because all the internal turmoil resulted in a lack of resources to roll it out. A classic Catch 22.
Let’s just all hope that Charlie gets his chance!
