(def) "the Card"..............
As defined by "dixie"
Original Post Date: Sunday, Aug 9, 1998 By Dixie7777
Edited and updated by ztect Date: Friday, Jan 28, 2000
"..there are a number of issues regarding TSIG that need to be clarified.
It's also important to note that there will always be a lower price in the Internet CD business. That's why it's so important to get the customer outside the Internet arena. That's why The Card is such a killer concept. Tsig's MMC will own their customers before they log on, and basically preclude most net shopping. Just look at Shopping.com and you'll see the absolutely, positively, without a doubt lowest CD prices available. Well,at least, for the top 100 CD's . Not all CD's. Next month someone else will be lower. Meanwhile, our customers will be coming to their computers with The Card in their hands to do immediate business. No we won't get 'em all, but for those that will have a card and shop somewhere else we'll already have made the profit without having to ship a CD. (By the way, shopping.com is a full 20% lower with books than Amazon. Betchya Amazon continues to grow rapidly, and shopping.com has difficulty making a buck!)
Especially with so many comparisons to CDnow and Amazon, two points about tsig.com have to be remembered;
ú TSIG, is not in the Internet CD sales business.
ú Furthermore, and probably to the surprise of many, tsig
is also not in the Internet CD sales business.
TSIG's former core business was the teleservices business.
Whaddaya mean tsig.com is not in the Internet sales business? The hell it isn't; you say! Well folks I've got news for us all. The hell we are!!!
Now then, the next question should be, "if not cd's, then what business is tsig.com in?"
TSIG is in The Card business. Yes, and to be more precise, and to begin with the MyMusicCard business.
OK, now let's try to figure out just what this means. (I don't believe any of us have the full picture of what surprises are in store for TSIG, and us little 'ol shareholder's, on the upside that is.) All along we've been figuring that tsig would buy CD's at one price and sell them for another, a higher price mostly. Yes, yes, tsig will be doing that but they'll be doing just a bit more. Quite a bit more, to be precise.
Now, let's take a look at the dynamics of The Card. More importantly, the economic dynamics of The Card.
There are several types of "Cards": promocards, charity cards w. different number of units. (Now please keep in mind that a profit will be earned selling CD's at $10.99 all day long without The Card when you realize that you don't have to load up your costs with the traditional high marketing expenses. The Card is not only the marketing plan, but actually generates immense revenues to boot).
10 Marketing scenarios for The Card. IMAGINE...
General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, etc wants to sell more 10 disk CD players for their '99 new car fleet. The profit margin on each CD unit sold is easily more than $180. Someone from TSIG, goes to each of the car companies and for, say $1 or maybe $2 per, TSIG will provide a promo Card, but get this, embossed & personalized with the Chrysler's/Mercedes logo and given to each purchaser of the ten disk CD player as a gift, or what would be called a premium. Now think about this for a minute. How many new customers would this produce with little effort or expense by tsig? Even if tsig gave the bloody card away, tsig would have new customers come to their web sites and potentailly reload their cards with minimal advertising expense.
Panasonic wants to induce more people to buy their CD players at the retail level. So, guess what would make a nice inducement to a potential customer to buy a Panasonic rather than the other brand. All your CD's from now on will only cost $10.99. Someone from tsig calls on Panasonic and, imagine., and with the Panasonic Logo on The Card.
You're going to a Yankee game. Blue Jays, Braves, etc. You're going through the gate and guess what? Yankee Stadium, all stadiums, as is their habit from time to time, has a special day. Instead of ball, or bat, or cap day, it's a MusicCard day.. Reaching? No way, it's more than possible.
Sam Adams beer is promoting it's brew in a new market, or in an established market for a soft season. A six/twelve/full case, whatever pack, gets you a 3 unit promo MusicCard. Costs Sam Adams a buck or two, and voila, in just one month of promotion, 100,000 new customers. Budweiser, Coors, how many can you think of?
American Airlines wants to run an advertising/marketing program promoting their Nashville Tennessee destination. The Grand 'Ol Opery is a great draw. Guess what they do at the Opery. Music. So. American advertises a MusicCard will be given on board every trip to every passenger so that American's passengers can buy all the Country Western, or Bluegrass that they want at $10.99 each. Costs American a couple a bucks per for every airline ticket that they sell for more than a hundred or two, depending on point of origination. Cheap hit to get new passengers. Just think people, be creative and you can begin to see what's going to happen. Imagine.. Do the numbers.
Every campus bookstore has a checkout counter. A small POP, (Point of Purchase,) counter display is designed, and sold into the campus bookstore, with a program where The Card, costs the bookstore $5, and the margin at $10 is a clear 100% profit to the bookstore. A no-brainer for any bookstore. Boy would I love to handle that market. And each MusicCard sold on campus, has the school colors and school logo. Easy sale, no? Yes!!! Count the campus's, count the student's. Do the numbers.
Gateway Computers is always looking for another premium, computer related, so that they can "appear" to give away something to their new customers upon receipt of their new system. Wouldn't it be a natural for Gateway, Dell, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, etc to provide to all new customers a.. MusicCard?
Virgin Air wants to cross promote Virgin Records and run a special with The Card. And so on and so on and .
OK. last one. For me that is. (I'll bet you can come up with another dozen in a heartbeat. Just IMAGINE what interested distributors will come up with.) World Com/MCI wants to attract new subscribers. So they begin a coordinated mail and advertising campaign, (oh, by the way, do you all now know what the meaning of a guerilla marketing campaign is?, It's when someone else pays you to advertise your product,) at any rate, in order to attract new subscribers, WorldCom will provide, free of charge with every new sign-up, a MusicCard that will get you 10 or 20 or whatever number they buy into, new CD's when you come aboard. They can target it to households with teenagers and who need a second line. The telco can actually target the teen by mailing directly to the teen. After all, AT&T has been sending out $25 checks, $100 credits etc. for incentives. How about a classy, with an WorldCom/MCI, AT&T, Sprint logo, $5 cost, $10 value, buy all the CD's for $10.99 each MusiCard.
Now I really could go on, and on, and on VISA, Master Card, American Express, Shell Oil, Mobile, Kellogg's, Spaulding, Nike, Coke, Pepsi, Hard Rock Cafes, Rock Concerts, Rolling Stone/High End Audio/Audiophile subscriptions, etc. etc. etc.
Now some/all of this may be eye opening to many of you, but guess what? None of this is the best news. The best news is when you fully understand one thing. There's nothing better to sell than something that no one else has. Except one other thing; this is a CONSUMABLE and re-orders will be directly from TSIG at the now higher price of $10 each ..
.
By the way, does anyone now not know the meaning of Guerilla Marketing?
Anyone interested further in this subject should go to amazon.com. and get a copy. Great book! Was at a seminar one of these guys did out in Scottsdale in '87 and it was dynamite...."
by Dixie (edited by ztect) |
