The Backlash Against So-called "Special Edition" DVDs Continues

We discussed consumer weariness over "double-dipping" last week, and it looks like the repackaging jig will soon be up. Tom Maurstad of the Dallas Morning News notes how the 'Jaws' 30th Anniversary Edition is really just the same old pig with new lipstick:

And then there's the anniversary package that takes a great movie and turns it into an exercise in mediocre repackaging. Which brings us to the 30th anniversary edition of Jaws. It comes with a handsome commemorative photo journal and a second-disc of special features. The only trouble is that it was just five short years ago that the 25th anniversary edition of Jaws was released, with nearly all the material included in this "new" package.

As a marketing gambit, it's a success. It got the lead-review treatment in USA Today and Entertainment Weekly and video clips on all the cable-news channels' entertainment segments. But as a consumer product, it's just a flashy but pointless package. If you don't own Jaws, then this is the cutting-edge edition for you. But there's nothing here worth buying that wasn't there five years ago.

Maurstad also lambastes the laughably-titled 'Father of the Bride: 15th Anniversary Edition' as a pointless exercise. Guess its time for Hollywood movie marketers to relearn how to create customer value:

1. Discover and quantify the customer's needs.

2. Make a commitment to impact your customers.

3. Create meaningful and understandable customer value.

4. Assess how you did.

5. Improve your value package.

One only has to look at the music industry to see what happens when you ignore customers who are clamoring for value in the name of short-term profitability -- they create their own value, with or without you.

[Via kvue.com (registration required)]