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Posted by Rich on 01/26/06 00:00
http://www.physorg.com/printnews.php?newsid=10177
As my favorite artist, Prince, used to say, he doesn't like the term
"fan" because it's short for "fanatic." Nowhere is this more true than
the avid DVD collector. I'm not talking about the person who has 100
DVDs on their shelves; no, I'm talking about folks who scour sales ads
every week, check out DVD sites like DVDtalk.com to carefully research
their purchases and run out to Best Buy or Circuit City or Wal-mart to
get the $15 sale prices. These people own 400 or 500 or more DVDs and
carefully catalogue their collections in fancy Excel spreadsheets or
other database programs.
Kevin Bonds, a telecommunications manager with ICMA-RC in Washington,
is one of these "fans." He owns more than 700 DVDs on multiple
bookshelves and loves to show them off to family and friends. "I have
an addictive personality and I just like the thought of amassing a
collection larger than anyone else's. ... Plus, I love movies. ...
Also, I'm a big MTV Cribs fan, so I enjoy showing it off when I give
visitors to my home a tour of my 120-inch-screen movie theater."
He continued, " I track everything in an Excel spreadsheet, denoting
the title, year released, MPAA rating and genre. ... I hope to go back
and update the entries with primary stars and any awards won like
Oscars, Golden Globes, etc."
While there haven't been any real studies done on this group of
people, the folks at the market-research firm NPD Group (www.npd.com)
have conducted some studies on purchasing habits and estimate that
25.4 percent of heavy buyers -- classified as folks who purchase more
than seven DVDs in three months, are 25-34. One would think that a
large majority of these "fans" would be male, but that's not
necessarily true. I posted a message on the D.C. Web Women's
(www.dcwebwomen.org) list serve and was surprised by the heavy
response from women collectors.
"I prefer spending quiet time at home with my boyfriend on the
evenings so that is my main motivation to build my collection. We
watch anywhere from two-to-three movies a night so it always helps to
have a great collection on hand so we never get bored," said Elly
Shariat a Creative Talent Recruiter for Boss Staffing.
According to Russ Crupnick, senior VP industry analyst for NPD
Entertainment, he's not surprised that I received a lot of responses
to my inquiry. He thinks that women are still the primary shoppers in
the family and that they make purchases for their kids and family
members, and quite simply, "There's a lot of TV product that is very
appealing to women -- Sex & the City is a great example."
A lot of these "fans" will make impulse buys, but they also do
extensive research on their upcoming purchases. They comparison shop
on sites like Amazon.com, or they'll check out reviews on popular
DVD-centric Web sites like DVD Talk (www.dvdtalk.com).
When asked what motivates these people, Geoffrey Kleinman, editor, DVD
Talk (www.dvdtalk.com), said, "Packaged media has been around since
The Bible, so it's no wonder that it still thrives so much today. I
think many people are collectors of some sort by nature. DVDs enable
you to take the feelings you have about your favorite films and
express them by buying them and proudly displaying them on your DVD
shelf. Also the cost of being a DVD collector isn't huge ... although
it can add up."
You would think that all of these DVD buyers and extreme collectors
would have a negative impact on the home video-rental business, but
Steve Swasey, director of corporate communications for Netflix
(www.netflix.com) thinks the company's site is all part of the
research tool.
"It's very complimentary, Netflix finds that many of our customers
enjoy renting movies, but many of them enjoy buying them as well. If
you see a great movie, they will rent the film first and if they
really like it they'll buy it. Collectors really know what they want
to purchase. We have movies for sell on our site that we sell for a
reasonable price," said Swasey.
Studios are doing their best to encourage people to purchase DVDs by
releasing special editions, throwing more special features on the
disks and more. "You see it most profoundly when they offer separate
'super' special editions of DVDs. Select releases really get the royal
treatment, like Sin City-Recut," said Kleinman. "There's no way that
release would exist were it not for the super DVD fan. Unfortunately
as much as they cater to them they often take advantage of their
enthusiasm. I mean how many versions of Evil Dead 2 have been
released?"
Our two sample fanatics had totally different opinions on whether
extra features are the main reason for their purchases. Bonds said
that special features and packaging doesn't influence him that much,
while Shariat said, "Packaging is important. I always make sure to get
the collectors or special edition versions and those have the prettier
packaging as well as all the extra features such as different endings,
scenes that have been cut out, etc. I tend to watch this first, before
ever even watching the movie."
The upcoming HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war has the potential to freeze buying
habits for consumers, but according to our fanatics, they not only
expect format wars, but accept the inevitability of it. "I will always
have to do upgrades, be it PC's, TV's and audio gear. ... Eventually
My DVD playback platform will join the mix. It's just part of the
technology cycle," said Bonds.
Hollywood studios are hedging their bets and are trying to be platform
neutral. Swasey said that Netflix is very excited about the upcoming
change and that, "while format wars aren't good for consumers," they
will support both formats. Kleinman thinks the studios aren't doing
enough to get information to consumers. "There's a huge difference
between the DVD launch eight years ago and the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray launch.
Back then the Internet was emerging as a tool for DVD consumers to get
their information; now it's the most important influencer in making
their buying decisions."
He added, "Many studios have seriously misstepped in dealing with the
Internet and so far with HD-DVD & Blu-Ray they're showing little signs
of ensuring that the online DVD sites are informed and involved. I
just don't think they can afford not to embrace the online DVD world
to assist in making a case for the next generation of DVD."
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
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