9-494-015
REV: OCTOBER 15, 2004
JOHN J. GABARRO
Aston-Blair, Inc.
Bringing Aston-Blair 's June 12 executive committee meeting to a close Wynn Aston, III, chief executive officer and chairman of the board, asked Peter Casey, vice president of marketing, and Chris Trott, vice president of corporate planning, to seriously reexamine the company 's procedures for forecasting sales. Aston hoped that improved product demand projections would lead to better inventory control, financial planning, and production scheduling. Aston-Blair had suffered significant losses in the first quarter of 2004 and expected even greater losses in the second quarter (the first losses the company had experienced since 1975). Aston felt that poor forecasting
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The success of Aston-Blair’s other films often depended upon the timing and popularity of major new releases by its rivals, making accurate forecasting difficult. Moreover, as the firm has tried to increase sales growth, it has introduced more completely new titles and relied less on sequels to past hits. The increasing emphasis on new titles has further complicated forecasting efforts. The combination of declining demand and Aston’s Blair’s overly optimistic sales forecasts for the first two quarters of 2004 had resulted in excessive inventories and sizable losses. Aston-Blair 's current problems stood in dramatic contrast with the company 's recent record of outstanding growth and profitability. Aston 's great grandfather founded the company in 1910 as a producer of children’s books, and as the company evolved into multimedia, it had always enjoyed a reputation for being a premiere supplier. During Aston 's 10-year stewardship as chief executive officer, the firm had quadrupled in size and had become the most profitable firm in the industry. Aston attributed this recent success to the company 's aggressive marketing efforts and to its ability to identify potential multimedia users and to work with them in developing products tailored to their requirements. Under Aston 's and Pack 's direction, the company was the first firm in the industry to develop a marketing organization where market
Given our analysis of the motion picture industry, we recommend that Arundel carefully select the major film studios from which they intend to purchase sequel rights. The net present value of hypothetical sequels taken from the available previous years shows not only that the industry is highly volatile, but also that certain production studios are more volatile than others in terms of their recent performance. In addition, some studios are consistently less profitable than others. (See "NPV for Each Production Company" chart in appendix) Since the success of film studios are relatively stable in the short term (see "Rental Shares of Major Film Distributors" table and graph) Because of this stability, it is possible for Arundel to approach more profitable studios with their offer to purchase sequel rights. Out of all the major film studios, only MCA-Universal, Warner Bros., and The Walt Disney Company generate a positive net present value on a per-film basis. However, according to casual inquiries, it is unlikely that any movie studio would enter negotiations with Arundel on a per film price that is less than 1 million. Instead, the film studios seem to
With the purchase of sequel rights, what Arundel is achieving is to have a call option on the revenue that each movie brings. This helps to remove the uncertainty and risks associated with producing a movie, especially with regard to moviegoers’ taste. With the sequel right, Arundel will only exercise this option to produce a sequel if the first movie proved to be popular and the sequel is hence predicted to bring in profits. This provides downside protection, as huge losses (due to high production costs) associated with a failed movie will be avoided.
The problem in this case is concerned with Eastman Kodak losing its market share in film products to lower-priced economy brands. Over the last five years, in addition to being brand-aware, customers have also become price-conscious. This has resulted in the fast paced growth of lower priced segments in which Kodak has no presence.
This essay explores the popularity of Australian film, both locally and internationally and asks the question: Is there a crisis in the Australian Film Industry? This essay will go through the current issues the Australian Film Industry and will demonstrate examples of those problems.
2. Pirogi, Jeanine. (2013). Titled: The Rise & Fall of Blockbuster: The very Long & Rewinding Road" (The Street). N.p., 23 Sept. 2010. Wide-Web. 11-Dec.
President Obama tasked the committee to form the 21st Task Force. The 21st Task Force is related to the NCJA committee because they both represent the U.S. population that comprised leaders from law enforcement, police unions, academia and civil rights organization to include the community members. Both the NCJA and the 21st Task Force can create and influence the future of policing and to represent different agendas in order to provide better and clear direction on how to build trust within the community (U.S. Department of Justice,
Motion pictures are a key driver of the market for entertainment products, one of the largest export markets in US. Motion picture industry consists of three stages: studio production, distribution, and exhibition. The studios produce the lifeblood of the industry, the films that are its content. The biggest players at this level are the majors, big studios which integrate production and distribution, as do the slightly smaller mini-majors. The next stage is distribution. Distributors are the intermediaries between the studios and exhibitors. Distribution entails all steps following a film’s artistic completion including marketing, logistics, and administration. Distributors coordinate the manufacture and distribution of
The problem in this case is Kodak's steadily eroding market share and shareholder value in the film rolls market. This is especially undesirable given the fact that the market has been growing at a tepid 2% annual rate and the steadily increasing threat from competition. Kodak needs to come up with a strategy for corrective action so as to arrest this decline, regain market share and increase share holder value. Kodak's strategy is to reposition itself by targeting a new segment of price sensitive customers and re-segmenting the super premium customers’ space by including a wider segment of special occasion customers.
Based on our valuation of the investment, as outlined below in the Analysis portion of the report, we have determined a per-movie-value of $8.9 million when considering purchasing the rights to the entire portfolio of 99 movies analyzed in the sample data. Based on production of 10 sequels, the per-movie-value of the portfolio would be $52.25 million. Our calculations based on the hypothetical portfolio is that Arundel Partners should make this investment as long as the present value of the expected cash flows from the sequel revenues exceeds the cost of production plus the cost of the investment. Depending on what value a studio will accept as payment per sequel, there appears to be significant profitability in the investment.
The film industry has always been somewhat of a dichotomy. Grounded firmly in both the worlds of art and business the balance of artistic expression and commercialization has been an issue throughout the history of filmmaking. The distinction of these two differing goals and the fact that neither has truly won out over the other in the span of the industry's existence, demonstrates a lot of information about the nature of capitalism.
A market analysis was first taken out on Reading Courtenay; one cinema under the Reading brand name situated in Wellington. From this analysis, it became apparent that the Internet was one of the company’s largest competitors. Upon further research, the problem revealed to be at such a large level, one single cinema would not be able to control it alone. The view for the marketing plan had to be changed and instead would now support a company-wide view.
When Kodak began making changes to its organizational architecture in 1984, its current architecture did not fit the business environment for the industry. The largest factor that motivated Kodak to make this change was increased competition and decreased market share. Until the early 1980’s, Kodak owned the film production market with very little competition. This suddenly changed when Fuji Corporation and many other generic store brands began producing high quality film as well (Brickley, 2009, p. 358). Another factor in this change was technology advancements. As technology rapidly expanded in the 1980’s, other
One the one hand, the fertility of the industry opened the doors to corporations that sighted substantial growth potential. New entrants with big pockets such as Walmart could pose a certain threat to Netflix, by exploiting a playing card based on cost reduction. On the other hand, barriers to entry became relatively significant as established video rental retailers such as Netflix have the experience and the knowhow to market movies to people. In this industry, firms that do not have a technological advantage can’t compete. The best example is Netflix’s CineMatch program that offered personalized film recommendations based on customer’s rental patterns. This way, Netflix was able to better serve its subscribers. From a cost perspective, the movie rental industry requires high capital expenditures, and the major expenses are highly related to acquisitions of DVD library and investments in technology (exhibit 2 continued). Thus, we may say that entry is difficult in this industry as the competing firms have reputation, experience and recognizable brand names.
The Eastman Kodak Company was established in the 1880’s as a film business, set on establishing its brand name in the marketplace through customer-focused advertising and growth through research and development and low cost mass production. The founder, George Eastman, described Kodak’s competitive philosophy by commenting that “nothing is more important than the value of our name and the quality it stands for. We must make quality our fighting argument” (Gavetti, Henderson & Giorgi, 2005).
External environment is very important for managers to make decision about the company’s direction and strategy. In order to gain a deep understanding of Blockbuster’s industry and competitive environment, the following seven questions need to be answered. Q1: What are the industry’s dominant economic features?