Duplication Centre

What future for packaged media in an online world?

May 23rd, 2011

Over the past six years, the music sector has undergone a huge transformation – 94.8% of all singles are sold digitally, though 85% of albums are still sold in a packaged physical format.

But, specialist record shops are disappearing fast, and the large distributors such as Amazon are offering more and more titles as downloads only.

It’s obvious that many minority-appeal CDs will only be available as discs for as long as already pressed batches last.

Impulse buys

But, downloads are generally the result of a conscious online search for a specific title, and offering downloads only would kill the very significant Impulse-Buy market.

A survey in the UK in September 2010 found DVDs to be women’s second-favourite impulse buy, after shoes. The demise of UK home entertainment chains Woolworths and Zavvi at the beginning of 2009 was acutely felt by the video industry, and it has struggled to regain those missing impulse buyers who made up a significant proportion of the £30 million of lost video sales that year.

Other attractions of packaged media

Packaged media are so much more than the core-product which is being sold – the packaging itself is a desireable item. The artwork and accompanying booklets are still very important to customers, and it would be unwise to underestimate the “hold-in-your-hand” factor which is so important in impulse buying. If people can see a large display of different titles, pick them up and handle them, they are far more likely to buy than if looking to download something from an online distributor. Similarly, giving films / games / music as a gift can only be done with a packaged product.

Until the price of downloads becomes significantly cheaper than buying the physical product, the demand for packaged media will remain strong and reliable, as customers are happy to pay extra for the convenience of being able to pick up a product which they can use instantly, and swap or share as they wish.

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Consuming Impulses

April 5th, 2011

According to a professional study, an average item which entices the impulse buying must be low-cost and purchased frequently with little cognitive effort required from the customer. DVD perfectly fits all the criteria. A professional survey conducted by the UK online research company showed that DVDs have been the top impulse items bought within last year by the majority of respondents. DVDs outnumbered even shoes which for the long time had been considered as women’s favourite impulse choice. Entertainment has this unquestionable advantage over other branches – to create and enhace the spontaneous urgence to consume more and more…

Impulse-based selling: a daily routine for packaged media and a challenge for online retailers?

But once diagnosed, the spontaneous gap in consumers’ rational behaviour, the scientifically proven state of psychological disequilibrium can’t be left unmanaged. It’s all not about answering consumer needs instantly, but rather anticipating them. Here is the review of some popular tricks used by sellers to transform a sudden and spontaneous desire of buying into a solid part of volume sales.

The peak season for impulse-buying for packaged media is of course November and December which generate 40% of annual sales. In the holiday periods, the standard amount of shoppers increases and so does the likelihood of following the consumer choices made by others. Supermarkets are the crucial facilitators in driving these kinds of impulses through catalogue promotions, special events, sales and POS (Points of Sale) installed in the checkout space.

No doubts it is far easier to allure those customers who can touch the item before definitely parting with their money. Online retailers have a more though clientele to allure since those who buy online seem to do so in a more structured and responsible way. Besides, there are still no sufficient tools developed to boost the emerging phenomenon called ‘online impulse buying’. Recommendation engines, previous order history, reviews etc. are not enough. Online selling is 100% different from the high- street retail where you can reach consumers directly. And even the widely blessed advantage like offering a countless amount of products is limited by…the size of consumer’s computer screen! Since it turned out to be a fallacy that impulse – buying is driven entirely by price, maybe creating a fully bespoke online stores could tap all the impulses effectively? Price is important for those who are sensitive to it and therefore shop at supermarkets, but there are many other factors at each stage of the consumer segmentation. For example, those who pay attention to product’s quality are the most demanding and picky.

If you have ever found yourself trapped by any of those selling strategies you can be sure that your buying choices had been planned far in advance and there is hardly anything spontaneous when comes to marketing and sales.

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Scanning archiving options…Who is the winner?

March 2nd, 2011

Digital media like Blu-ray are ideal for long - term archiving and retrieval

Data storage and its security is not a new problem. It is as old as the human race.Nowadays the speed with wich information is generated and processed is overwhelming. Second factor is its variety, including text documents, office documents, images, video, sound,databases etc.Many organizations and companies face the challenge to keep their digital history safe and easily accessed and identified for longer than five, twenty or even fifty years.

What is important while adopting storage solution? To clarify current and future needs, to consider the long – term disadvantages and maintainance costs, but most of all – to not be locked into one particular solution only. It must be able to daily evolve with our business.

An ideal archiving technology should also be an open standard, have a good existing base of machines that can read the data format,be fully storable in a normal office space and easy to duplicate. That is why CDs and DVDs are more frequently chosen as storage solution than RAID systems (Redundant Array of Independent Disks ) which are very energy – consuming and require permanent monitoring to prevent data loss. On top of this, it will face the problem of spare discs availability in 20 years.

But even optical disc media leave the problem of capacity.What evolved from CD/DVD and thus is backward compatible is Blu-Ray. This plus the huge installed base makes it a viable technology for future storage. To give the full picture, a 50GB Blu-ray discs holds: 76.9 CDs of 650MB capacity,10.6 DVDs of 4.7GB capacity,4.33 hours of video at 25 mbps,3.33 hours of video at 32 mbps,2.16 hours of video at 50 mbps,1.23 hours of video at 90 mbps,1.11 hours of video at 100 mbps HD and 4.16 minutes of uncompressed HD at 1600 mbps.Up to100 GB of information (scheduled for 2011) can be written on a single- sided disk, its super-tough coating prevents corrosion and the medium estimated archive life is 50 + year. Data can be written in UDF (universal data format) and any machine with Blu- Ray drive can read the format. Comparing to tiered archiving solutions like RAID, optical storage is also the most economic.

No matter which archive solution you choose, bear in mind that the quality of media is more important than the device. So you must always use only branded media to ensure the sustainability for a long term.

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Physical media: between human nature and futurology

February 14th, 2011

CD and punched card - the speed with which one technology is supplanted by another is determined by many factors

It’s hard to answer prediction questions concerning physical media, letting alone assigning the exact date of their expiration. We might be laughed at by the future generations. Since the total disappearance of existing technologies is a sociological matter rather than technological, it’s always safer to predict the order of changes than to give exact rates.

It sounds trivial, but implementing a new technology into the market is always up to people. Those who live in big metropolies of the developed world may have an impression that certain technology (like Blue Ray) is so common that everyone and their dog is using it.Obviously, this is not the full picture.What about billions of people living in rural areas and in other places of the world?

Secondly, the speed with which the old technology can be supplanted by the newest one depends also on how well it fits the existing infrastructure. And the level of country’s existing infrastructure depends strongly on the level of its economic development, but also on the local business, politics, culture, even climat. Various technologies can be targeted at different groups of people and sectors of market, like cell versus land line phones. An intresting phenomena is observed in some developing countries of Africa with no previous landline infrastructure – they shifted directly to developing cell phone business.

And lastly, the human factor mentioned in the title. Basically, people vary as far as adopting new technologies is concerned. Not everyone is novelty-seeking, many wait to let the market verify the real value and suitability of the newest shiny gadget. Some simply attach sentimental value to items they possess and physical access is very important to them.There will always be traditionalists, sentimental collectors and fans of vintage. And this also stimulates the producers’ creativity. The more niches in the market, the better.

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Piracy – Hydra – headed monster of entertainment industry

February 14th, 2011

Solutions developed to battle piracy become obsolete quickly

Illegal downloading and counterfeit CDs and DVDs manufacturing, are threatening the entertainment industry which is extremely technology-oriented. On the other hand, piracy is also testing the industry’s creativity and ability to response rapidly.

It is estimated that one in three CDs sold worldwide is a counterfeit and 23.76% of worldwide internet traffic is generated by unauthorised content. In the USA, the commercial value of unlicensed software reached $51.4 billion, which was a 41% increase compared to previous years. But an exact loss figure is hard to calculate as there are many other factors, difficult to determine like whether someone would have purchased the content if it was impossible to obtain it illegally.

The UK, which is one of the leading digital music markets, with 67 legal services, also has to face the problem of illegal downloading. The first answer is education, which means making Internet users aware how physical and digital format piracy affects artists, songwriters and record producers.

But an informative and persuasive campaign is not enough to make users migrate to legal services. When there are no more carrots available, it’s high time to use the stick. Thus the UK, together with France, South Korea and Taiwan introduced legislation based on a gradual response. It was proved that 90% of P2P users would change their behaviour upon receipt of a second warning from their ISP, combined with a deterrent sanction if they continued their illegal activity.

Adopted in November 2009, the Anti Piracy Unit obliges the Internet service providers (ISP) to notify subscribers alleged to be infringing on copyright and produces a list of repeat infringers.

Piracy is like a multi-headed monster which continuosly transforms and forces people who deal with it to come up with one effective solution after another, as they become obsolete quickly. The next challenge is ‘cyberlocker’ sites with fast spreading illegal links, and no users to identify.

An interesting innovation was developed by Fortium. It’s a File Based Pin Play solution that secures the content at the moment of receipt. A special wrapper is attached to the file and the receiver has to enter a separately provided pin in order to open the content. It is aimed at protecting DVD’s from unauthorized duplication.

It seems that battling piracy can be effective if the efforts of all the parties involved: industry suppliers, assosiations and goverments, work together. But as always, there is also another side of the coin: what threatens the economic stability of a developed industry, boosts the rapidly growing markets like Brazil, India and China.

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From 2D to 3D – a short course on brain deceiving

January 6th, 2011

The best is either to deliver high quality 3D or not to deliver it at all

The arrival of 3D has definitely thrilled the market and lifted consumers’ expectations. 3D broadcast channels, TVs with built in ‘on the fly’ conversion ability and 3D cinemas pop up like mushrooms. Not a long time ago just four 3D movies generated 33% of total revenue of the box office.

At first glance, it may seem that auto conversion can save a lot of money and manual work, but it has to be remembered that the quality of auto-conversion is strongly linked with the source material. It is far easier to convert a movie that was made with 3D in mind than some old movies which used to be fully devoted to 2D. Auto – convertors do not like abrupt cuts and vertical motion since the convertors’ depth detectors prefer horizontal plane. However the idea of turning old movies into 3D reminds many of the colorisation era in the 80’s and leaves them similarly disappointed. And as the latest damaging reviews for The Clash of the Titans showed, the idea of turning into 3D the movie with no previous intention for extra dimension brings literally nothing to the watching experience. We may also wonder if it will ever be possible to create a computer algorythm that can achieve the 3D perception equal to that of human brain, but so far the real quality conversion can only be done by skilled engineers.

The basic way to convert 2D to 3D is by ‘vertical location’. The image is cut into horizontal zones and the zones at the bottom of the screen seem to be closer than the others. Yet, many aren’t satisfied with the results. The more advanced method is to simply clone the movie. By doing so, you get two identical picture sequences. One – for the left eye – remain untouched and the other is transformed in the search for a deeper dimension. Individual objects are isolated with a use of two techniques: rotoscoping and matting. The former traces the contour of an object in every single frame of the movie and the latter constructs a mask (using color, motion or brightness) that follows it around. Finally, the relative depths are measured using parallax.

There is also a physical phenomenon called the Pulfrich effect, where a visual lag between the left and right eye creates depth from 2D. A variation on this theme, combined with objects moving at different speeds in successive fields can bring interesting results as well.

Anyway, only the luckiest half of humanity will be able to fully appreciate the result of quality conversion. Let’s hope you are among them!

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The 3 threads to 3D

December 2nd, 2010

Adding realism to the viewing experience is good. Football is the best example.

3D, a new feature of Blu Ray format will certainly be a revolution in home entertainment. It has already revolutionised the movie industry. Avatar proved it is no longer a gadget, but an integral part of story–telling and the movie texture. It gave a real boost to 3D. It is estimated that by 2015 almost 40% of TV sets will be 3D. 70% of Europeans are interested in having 3D at home. Similarly, as it was the case with the movie industry, the 3D impact will be holistic and will transform all forms and channels of content delivery – 3D cinema, home 3D, PC-based 3D gaming and 3D mobile phones. More exciting opportunities to exercise your right to entertainment!

However, there are some threads which may limit the scope of 3D and keep it still as something designed ‘for an occasion’. The first is that there might not be expected content to draw people’s attention. Consumers most frequently view wildlife footage and sport events in 3D, but are strongly attached to 2D when it comes to their favorite TV shows. So will it be mainly for hardcore game enthusiasts?

With growing consumer awareness, more information and education provided by retailers is needed. Especially concerning the necessary equipment and background in 3D experience, its impact on the keen young gamers’ eyesight etc. The 3D format is safe for children over 4 years of age, according to doctors, and it’s definitely better for human eye accommodation than traditional 2D.

Last but not least, there is the question of time-consuming conversion from 2D to 3D done by skilled engineers. This issue needs to be balanced as now many new TVs and BD players have built in circuitry that permits an auto- conversion by simply one press of a button. It’s also estimated that 55% of the population is unable to see 3D properly, so is there a point in dedicating time and effort for raising already sophisticated standards of good conversion if more than a half of all viewers are not able to spot the difference?

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BD –Live: a bridge to Digital

December 2nd, 2010

BD - Live's ability to connect with social networks is essential to its success

Blu Ray disc format is opening doors for a wide range of advanced applications and can be a powerful marketing tool. Whilst the BD player was designed for watching movies, BD – Live can enhance this experience and at the same time integrate its fans communities online.

It’s also a perfect tool for collecting marketing data and who could want more? In order to make an optical disc BD – Live enabled you have to put some software on it. This process is called boot – strapping and later allows you to connect with the server, searching for any software updates.

With this, the path to promote market relevant content becomes widely open. Extra information about cast, crews, various aspects of the movie production and film trailers can be brought to the screen. If you want to extend, if not exceed the experience, you can immerse into an online communication with other viewers. The access to extra movie content can be via electronic sell – though ( EST ) or by video – on – demand ( VOD ) transactions. Attractive, frequently updated and well managed content is the key to keep the fans interested as well as bring in new ones and to integrate them around films or brands through social networks.

From the mass merchandisers perspective, BD – Live looks like a fulfilled dream. It makes the consumers’ response fully measurable and accessible, so it can be aimed at a precisely selected group of clients, providing a cost effective campaign with a high response rate. Every prefernce can be tracked: what is being watched / purchased, for how long and at what frequency. This makes the e – commerce opportunites indefinately rich, especially in branches like entertainment, automotive, software, travel and leisure.

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Why do consumers, especially gamers, love physical media?

November 8th, 2010

Will physical media be soon supplanted by digital?

Although digital delivery has been gaining more and more recognition and is estimated to generate nearly £6.5 billion of new revenue by 2013, it is still complementing, not displacing, physical media. And at least for the nearest decade media companies are to expect a period of synergy between physical and digital rather than ‘cannibalisation’. Why? Because basically people like to have what they own and be independent from the way publishers are ruling a game.

According to survey conducted by NPD, 75 % of game buyers prefer to have a boxed, retail copy of their game. Is it for collector’s sake? Out of nostalgia? Well, not only. 65% declare they would download the game if the title was 10% cheaper to download than buy at retail. There is also a ‘novelty factor’ which digital media seem to be taking for granted. While the price of a physical copy is more likely to drop down, the drive disc version may stay at the same price indefinitely, especially when there is no storage problem.

Another explanation for a preference to physical media is its independence from the publisher and licensing restrictions. Digital games do not belong fully to the user, they are only under license to use, so the publisher has complete control. There is also a trivial aspect, basically physical media are less harder to lose. There are no concerns about the servers going down or possible free or reduced price re-download. Many have pointed out that the trade off digital media should be of much lower price than the price of physical media, until that happens streaming and such is not all that viable.

Not only consumers share this view. Many retailers also perceive digital media as ‘ high investment low return business model’, as there are many problems in stock: mobile internet access and reliance on the speed of downloading, supply chain customization, lack of standards in the whole sector. Searching for effective content protection policies is one of the biggest challenge as pirated websites are more and more sophisticated. Ironically, in many regions of Europe and Asia it is still easier to find pirated movies than the legal DVDs.

In the era of cloud computing digital distribution is a natural part of the process and cannot be avoided. It is only the question of adopting infrastructure in order to provide a simplified and coherent method of data distribution.

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What is the future of green packaging?

November 4th, 2010

There is more interest in recyclability than in developing alternative materials

No packaging company can afford to be labelled as ‘environmentally unfriendly’. Consequentially, green awareness is seen as a powerful asset to boost sales. Unfortunately – as there still are no clear rules for naming a particular product ‘green’ – this often leads to overstated claims and the overall devaluation of the term.
One such example would be claiming that discs with only slightly reduced emission of CO2 are ‘green’; whereas this obviously is not a straight forward case.
Clearly there is a need for special regulation on this issue so that the consumers are fully informed about what they buy. Similar regulation is already to be put in place by the EU with regard to orange juice.

On the other hand, event the noblest of concerns – such as the environmental ones – have to be reconciled with customers’ needs. These however often tend to contradict each other; like the demand for reduced costs and increased sustainability. It seems that many will applaud minimizing environmental impact, but only few are willing to carry the weight of the costs involved. Especially that – since the packaging is a part of the product rather than an instant throwaway – there is more interest in recyclability than in developing alternative materials; no matter how sophisticated.

Again, it is necessary to carefully estimate the costs: is putting extra financial effort in producing yet thinner discs – which are recyclable to the same extent as the currently produced thin discs – economically viable?
The current data seems to suggest that the customers are more concerned about sustainability and less willing to experiment with new technologies.

Tags: The environment
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