Today we saw an industry leader fall prey to new comers (who were still wet behind the ears). Blockbuster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (CNN news story).
What does Chapter 11 mean? Basically, it’s a way to decrease your debt and restructure the business quickly. They will now owe the people who lent them money a lot less. Does that mean Blockbuster will go the way of the dinosaur? No, they could make a strong recovery (depending on their leadership).
What happened? Blockbuster was the titan of movie rental after all. No one else came close (Hollywood Video, Shmollywood Video). They got too comfortable, they felt indestructible. Competition saw an opportunity (two opportunities actually) to give customers added value that they didn't even know they needed. They saw something that Blockbuster could have easily seen, but neglected and overlooked.
Lately, I have read a number of blog posts by Seth Godin (an amazing and insightful writer). Upon hearing the news this morning, one in particular blog post stuck out. The post is titled Learning from Singer. To sum it up: "The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does."
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment