Dave Morin

So, most bloggers tirelessly tear down marketing tactics, usablity and customer experience with rants of all kinds. I think that’s a lot of what the whole blogging thing is about. But, since I love talking about marketing on my blog, lets take a positive look at how Blockbuster could improve their customer experience at a baseline level, then translate that into an effective online media campaign.

1) Get Clean. Most Blockbuster stores that I’ve experienced over the last couple of years are dirty. The floor isn’t vacuumed, the walls tend to be dirty, and the one thing I notice most is the air. Its stale and grimy. All of this, to me, translates into a vastly diminished customer experience thus translating into similar depreciation in brand quality. Now, I realize that some Blockbuster stores are owned at the corporate level, and some are franchised. But, a decent capital investment in air purifying systems, different paint coloring on the walls, and a cleanliness policy on the level of Baja Fresh (a mexican food chain with amazingly clean stores), would significantly increase brand perception in market.

2) Decrease Check-Out Anxiety. I can’t count the number of times I have been in another city, headed to a Blockbuster to friends, and had the question pop up of: “Dude, will our Blockbuster accounts work here?” Generally, Blockbuster employees at any given store can’t look-up your account in a centralized system. Why should I have to sign up for a new Blockbuster accounts in every city I’m in? This can’t be any good for your direct marketing people. And, it’s actually quite easy to fix. Consulting people get all kinds of passionate for this kind of problem.

Promise me that I will never have to create a new account again. Watch what I rent, and make a profile about me. Tell me when cool new movies come out, via email, and remind me where the closest store to my crib is. Then, help me make recommendations to my friends about what I thought about that movie and why they should see it too. Make it easy, fun, and reliable.

3) Get Classy. Lets be real here, Blockbuster my old friend, Netflix has you beat in the subscription department. They’ve got a superior distribution logistics system, and a bunch of people that love them and will never go back. But, guess what, most of my friends and I still love just heading down to your stores and seeing what’s out there to watch. Give us an experience that’s vastly superior to having to plan our movie nights. You’re an old friend, the one we grew up with. We’ve always loved you, you’ve just been concentrating on the wrong things. Get classy, clean up your stores, evolve your brand a bit…make it insanely easy for us to see everything available in the store…then make it even easier to check out. Give us an envelope to mail it back to you in so we don’t even have to cross town to get it back to the store. Stop worrying about out-pricing NetFlix. Concentrate on the pieces of our everyday lives, and how it relates to getting those movies back to the mothership.

Do these things. Make the in-person customer experience so awesome, that we all start talking about you…our old friend…to all of our friends. Your bottom line will be back in no time. Remember, you’re a huge part of date-nights everywhere. Make your experience as awesome as that restaurant we just came from, and we’ll come back more often.

We promise.

Then, translate all of these changes to an insanely cool online marketing campaign that features as classy, clean look as your stores. No more repetition of the same statement, in three seperate pieces of copy (including a star). Remind me that you’re going to tell me when cool movies come out that I might like, and that my experience in the store is going to be as cool as I could ever experience in a theatre. Remind me that you care that you are part of my date with my wife/girlfriend/new friend. And, that you love it when the family comes down to find a movie for “movie night.”

Remind me of all of these things, and that you care to be part of that experience with me.

Ok. Time for a field day. Cruising around the intarweb tonight, I run across this banner. Can anyone tell me what’s wrong with this banner? And, how a company as large as Blockbuster (who happens to be in heated online competition with the likes of NetFlix) gets away with creative this poor?

Reminds me of this.

Written from North Beach - San Francisco, CA

“Everyone should work at a place where they can wear sandals to work.”
- Dave Morin

Flickr’d by davemorin.

So, I’m back in the “Cupe” after quite the end of the week travel. Enjoyed the beautiful Penn State campus, some meetings for work, then was promptly rejected my return to San Francisco on Saturday night by United Airlines. Luckily, they are my favorite. Otherwise, the unfavorable attitude I received would have been more extensively blogged about. But, hey, shit happens when you fly the friendly skies every week.

As a testament to Apple technology superiroity, I signed onto iChat at about midnight on Saturday night; setting my status message to “stuck in DC.” My Uncle Jim, a pediatrician from Jackson Hole, was in town for some meetings and signed on directly after. He saw my message, and said “hey, I’m in DC too!”

So, we linked up in the morning, I pushed my flights back, and enjoyed Washington DC. I’d never seen the city before.

And, what a cool place. All in the space of 3 hours, I participated in a rally for Darfur, learned more about Native American history than I have learned in my entire life, and saw some of the most famous art in the world (Cezanne). Not to mention seeing our amazing Capitol Building and various other monuments.

All in all, I think the Native American museaum hit me the hardest. The building sends a strong message about the history before the history that most of us know from school. I strongly suggest you visit if you are in town.

Check out my flickr stream for some shots of the goings on in DC.

Happy Monday.