I had an interesting e-mail conversation last week with the person who runs the business of one of quilting's public tv stars. We've been airing their series since QNNtv launched over two years ago. Since then they have taken advantage of the reach of the Internet by putting their shows on their site. Smart! Now visitors can watch a video and buy the products shown right there on their site.
In response to my inquiry as to whether she'd be interested in QNNtv airing her new series she declined. Huh? I was flummoxed. Why wouldn't she want to get her shows in front of as many quilters as possible? Sure the show has been on PBS for years so she has a following, but I've seen the carriage rates for quilting shows, and theirs doesn't knock one’s socks off.
I wrote back expressing my puzzlement as to why she wouldn't want greater--free--distribution to a passionate quilting crowd. She said they're very happy with the business they have generated by keeping their videos on their site.
Okay, I get it—she’s eliminating the competition by putting the show in a venue where only her shows are watched.
So she has a captive audience. But how large can that audience be, and how is she going to grow it? How are more viewers/customers going to find such a small target?
And moreover, why would being on a large quilting network not increase exposure and therefore sales? What does she have to lose?
The key to growing quilting is to create a big magnet on the Internet, a common ground, where we as an industry all have a presence. By using the accessibility of the Internet and its video distribution abilities, we educate an unprecedented number of quilters and take the mystery out of quilting for wanna-be quilters, (I can do that!) and thereby create a rising tide for all of us. It’s beginning to sound like a Web 2.0 form of a trade association. Our common goal is to educate quilters and grow our industry. By being a big magnet we promote all as we promote one: a quilting web within the Web.
Back to our loner friend. She’s out there by herself, advertising herself. She thinks she’s gaining because only her show is aired on her site, so she has no competition. But doesn’t the same course of events happen, no matter where her show is aired? The viewer watches the show and has to make that quilt from the book of have that tool. She clicks through to order. It doesn’t matter where the viewer sees the show, she’s either going to respond or not. Seems to me the trick is to get as much exposure as possible thereby increasing the potential for eyeballs to turn into click throughs. Free exposure with a much larger magnet—a no brainer!
Simple marketing strategy: proprietary vs open. Your story reads like the company wants viewers only to come to their site. Reality: Few proprietary systems service. Even Apple didn't survive without help from MS. There are many stories of proprietary products failing.
See you at SoCon08.
Hal
Posted by: Hal Schlenger | January 27, 2008 at 09:59 PM