Toshiba needs new marketing agency

toms89 · 02-04-2008, 12:23 AM

Toshiba needs new marketing and/or advertising agency! Sony is kicking butt in this department. Toshiba has the high definition players that are a far better value yet they may lose this format war! They have done everything right as far as the players are concerned but damn, you need to market them. Educate the consumers...fight back blu-ray. Negotiate more studio support /neutrality. Sales would have been out the roof if they had done this. The average consumer can enjoy HD-DVD movies at little more than the cost of a standard dvd player today! One thing hd-dvd has going for it is blu-ray is just too expensive for the average consumers and will likely remain that way for some time. Maybe the studios will wise up and realize they would be making much greater sales if the went neutral......mmm....doubtful. Must be well compensated for their endorsement!

Sorry about the rant......just feel like they are not putting much effort into marketing their product.

Bluto · 02-04-2008, 08:42 AM

I agree, I have felt that way all along. Heck I want a Blu Ray player when I see Sony ads.

fishacura · 02-04-2008, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluto

I agree, I have felt that way all along. Heck I want a Blu Ray player when I see Sony ads.

Better get one now. After Warner's announcement I cannot imagine HD-DVD is long for this world.

It's ashame really. Toshiba is a great company and I'll put their TV pictures against Sony's any day of the week but your're right....NO MARKET PENETRATION! I think they are simply satisfied with having so much of the asian market.

jay-jay · 02-04-2008, 10:42 AM

If that was their new marketing campaign, then HD-DVD is lost! The ad was old and not the best. Blu ray is everywheres, and the ads are good. This ad was viewed in selected cities, and was not earthshaking.

Super XP · 02-04-2008, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay-jay

If that was their new marketing campaign, then HD-DVD is lost! The ad was old and not the best. Blu ray is everywheres, and the ads are good. This ad was viewed in selected cities, and was not earthshaking.

That ad may have been old with a small revamp but it was a good ad nevertheless. It got to the point about HD DVD. If that didn't WOW people than only time will tell what will happen. Though I see something positive coming from this ad

ilovehddvd · 02-04-2008, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toms89

Toshiba needs new marketing and/or advertising agency! Sony is kicking butt in this department. Toshiba has the high definition players that are a far better value yet they may lose this format war! They have done everything right as far as the players are concerned but damn, you need to market them. Educate the consumers...fight back blu-ray. Negotiate more studio support /neutrality. Sales would have been out the roof if they had done this. The average consumer can enjoy HD-DVD movies at little more than the cost of a standard dvd player today! One thing hd-dvd has going for it is blu-ray is just too expensive for the average consumers and will likely remain that way for some time. Maybe the studios will wise up and realize they would be making much greater sales if the went neutral......mmm....doubtful. Must be well compensated for their endorsement!

Sorry about the rant......just feel like they are not putting much effort into marketing their product.

Agreed, however, studio support is irrelevant and Toshiba should market from that perspective. The vast majority of people are 1) not going to replace their entire DVD catalogs; and 2) the vast majority of people are not going to buy PS3s to watch movies. These are Blu-ray's main marketing points (replace your catalog and buy a PS3) HD DVD cannot win on those points without studio support and PS3 support.

Toshiba should market that thier players to the vast majority of people who *will* buy a new DVD player and *will* keep their DVD collection by selling the HD DVD player as a DVD player that will upconvert and also play HD DVD movies. Trojan Horse: get the public to think it s DVD player then release the fact that you can also play HD DVD titles.

easy peasy

hdridge · 02-04-2008, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovehddvd

Toshiba should market that thier players to the vast majority of people who *will* buy a new DVD player and *will* keep their DVD collection by selling the HD DVD player as a DVD player that will upconvert and also play HD DVD movies. Trojan Horse: get the public to think it s DVD player then release the fact that you can also play HD DVD titles.

easy peasy

They actually did, during the superbowl. Say that they had a HDDVD player for $149 that will make your current collect looks great. Pretty good commercial. see link, it was the third from the last.

http://youtube.com/adblitz

toms89 · 02-04-2008, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovehddvd

Agreed, however, studio support is irrelevant and Toshiba should market from that perspective. The vast majority of people are 1) not going to replace their entire DVD catalogs; and 2) the vast majority of people are not going to buy PS3s to watch movies. These are Blu-ray's main marketing points (replace your catalog and buy a PS3) HD DVD cannot win on those points without studio support and PS3 support.

Toshiba should market that thier players to the vast majority of people who *will* buy a new DVD player and *will* keep their DVD collection by selling the HD DVD player as a DVD player that will upconvert and also play HD DVD movies. Trojan Horse: get the public to think it s DVD player then release the fact that you can also play HD DVD titles.

easy peasy

I respectfully disagree that studio support is irrelevant. To me its the only thing other than marketing thats holding HD-DVD back right now. I think everyone would agree on your other points. As far as marketing it as a better upconverting dvd player, Im ok with that but it seems to be down playing its true capabilities.

Check out the top 10 sellers in dvd players on Amazon right now. Customers that you say should be targeted are buying other upscaling dvd players. It's hard to believe they would purchase a basic upscaling dvd player when they can get a HD-DVD player + free movies for a few bucks more. Afraid to buy an HD-dvd player because of its uncertain future but then buy a standard upconverting dvd player?!?!? HD-DVD players do play dvd's!! ........... hmmm....O.k. I see your point

Some of the best advertising I have seen for HD-Dvd are on HD-DVD movies?!? Paramounts intro comes to mind.

Love That TV · 02-04-2008, 09:17 PM

I believe from the get go Toshiba messed up with its marketing. I traded in my HD-DVD player right after the WB announcement for a Blu-ray player. I must say that the HD-DVD player was far superior! but the inevitable is about to happen with a Sony victory. people just don't know about HD-DVD. today is a great example, my boss asked me today why his HD-DVD movies aren't working in his DVD player. he didn't know that a HD-DVD player existed. to people like us who visit these forums everyday, that sounds funny. but everyday JOE doesn't know.

it has the letters, D-V-D in it. HOW CAN YOU NOT MARKET THAT!

ilovehddvd · 02-04-2008, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toms89

Check out the top 10 sellers in dvd players on Amazon right now. Customers that you say should be targeted are buying other upscaling dvd players. It's hard to believe they would purchase a basic upscaling dvd player when they can get a HD-DVD player + free movies for a few bucks more. Afraid to buy an HD-dvd player because of its uncertain future but then buy a standard upconverting dvd player?!?!? HD-DVD players do play dvd's!! ........... hmmm....O.k. I see your point

That's my point, Tosh needs to ramp up the marketing efforts so that upconverting DVD players fall to lower ont he list.

BTW - ont he top 100 list for electronics are 2 HD DVD players and not Blu-ray players (and both the 30G and 80G Zune).

eiger · 02-04-2008, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toms89

Check out the top 10 sellers in dvd players on Amazon right now. Customers that you say should be targeted are buying other upscaling dvd players. .

I am guessing most of the people buying those upconverting players probably don't have HDTV's.

Bravestime · 02-05-2008, 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Love That TV

I believe from the get go Toshiba messed up with its marketing. I traded in my HD-DVD player right after the WB announcement for a Blu-ray player. I must say that the HD-DVD player was far superior! but the inevitable is about to happen with a Sony victory. people just don't know about HD-DVD. today is a great example, my boss asked me today why his HD-DVD movies aren't working in his DVD player. he didn't know that a HD-DVD player existed. to people like us who visit these forums everyday, that sounds funny. but everyday JOE doesn't know.

it has the letters, D-V-D in it. HOW CAN YOU NOT MARKET THAT!

I agree.

I believe Sony has done a much better job to educate the public on their blu-ray player than Toshiba has done for HD-DVD. When I first started in HDM back in mid 2007, I only knew of the blu-ray players. After alittle research I found out about the HD-DVD and format war. I went to Best Buy and was blown away by the end cap of blu-ray/Sony. It was very impressive! Circuit City had a similiar end cap for blu-ray/Sony. This was one of the reasons I bought a Sony XBR2. IMO, I think it is too late for a HD-DVD comeback. WB annoucement will be a next to impossible hurdle to overcome for HD-DVD.

jay-jay · 02-05-2008, 04:02 AM

Toshiba also needs to get the word out that all of the promised features worked from day 1. The blu ray people are still having trouble getting new features to work right. Disney bought these promises lock stock and barrel, but to date the specs are not finalized, and are not working right in some of the new machines.

Selling lots of players is fabulous. It gets more people buying discs, which is what the studios care about. They make no money off of player sales! If HD-DVD had BOGO disc sales equal to the previous BOGO disc sales, with newer blockbuster movies, instead of Warners old catalog stuff, then we would see an increase in disc sales too. I looked at the films in all those reduced price, BOGO blu ray sales and have to admit that the selection was a lot better than anything HD-DVD sales was offering.

Toshiba has an excellent opportunity to get players out there and thereby increase disc sales for studios, but they have to ramp up their ads and the punch to grab attention with them. At this point we can try to downplay the PS3 as players, but there ARE millions of them out there and they do play HD discs beautifully. Toshiba would have to sell many, many more players to overcome this lead. How about giving away drives with the X-Box for free?

eapleitez · 02-05-2008, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Love That TV

I believe from the get go Toshiba messed up with its marketing. I traded in my HD-DVD player right after the WB announcement for a Blu-ray player. I must say that the HD-DVD player was far superior! but the inevitable is about to happen with a Sony victory. people just don't know about HD-DVD. today is a great example, my boss asked me today why his HD-DVD movies aren't working in his DVD player. he didn't know that a HD-DVD player existed. to people like us who visit these forums everyday, that sounds funny. but everyday JOE doesn't know.

it has the letters, D-V-D in it. HOW CAN YOU NOT MARKET THAT!

Why settle for an inferior player then?! You should have kept your player and discs, because you'll be able to enjoy them for years.

Vortex3D · 02-05-2008, 01:24 PM

A few weeks ago, my neighbor wanted to borrow a HD DVD movie from me. He has a nice HDTV. When I went over to verify if his HD DVD player firmware is up to date enough to play the HD DVD movie, I couldn't find his HD DVD player. When I asked him where is his HD DVD player, he pointed to his upscaling DVD player. When I told him his upscaling DVD player cannot play HD DVD movie, he refused to believe me. He said his DVD player is connected to his HDTV using HDMI cable which means that is "HD DVD" capable. As I tried to explain to him upscaling DVD player is not the same as HD DVD player, he still refused to believe me. He insisted that I put in the HD DVD movie into his DVD player because in his mind, it has to work. When the HD DVD movie wouldn't play in his DVD player, he was very confused and I can see on his face that he doesn't want to believe it. I don't know how much he spent on his upscaling DVD thinking he got a good deal or something.

This also happened to my parents. After explaining to them that HD DVD movies cannot play on DVD players, the next thing they did is put a HD DVD movie into the DVD player and wondering why it wouldn't play. They said the HD DVD movie label said "DVD" on it.

I can see why people are so confused with HD DVD. To some, "DVD" in HD DVD label means playing the lower quality version of the movie. To some, HD DVD means upscaling DVD to "HD".

What this means is HD DVD needs to stop trying to promote HD DVD players can also be used to upscaling DVD movies to look near "HD". I know Blu-ray players can do the same, but I think because "Blu-ray" name doesn't sound anything like DVD, so more people are less "confused". Also at the same time, I have friends who have PS3 playing DVD movies who don't know about the upscaling DVD capability.

So, which is better way to promote the players as upscaling DVD? Market the HD DVD this caused people to get confused that HD DVD is nothing more than upscaling DVD, or people doesn't Blu-ray can upscale DVD. Plus, I don't think making DVD/HD DVD combo helps to clear this confusion. We need to remember that most of us who already own HD DVD are more technical. For the rest of the consumers, they can't handle all those techno teams. When they hear HD DVD combo movies, they probably don't see it as two formats on the same disc. I really like to see how many of the combo HD DVD movies sold to the "confused" DVD owners playing the DVD side of the disc and never knew why the other HD DVD side doesn't play on their upscaling DVD player. The reason I say this is the disc looks like double sided DVD disc. For a non-technical person, combo HD DVD disc looks just like double sided DVD disc.

I read a lot of posting on hidef forums. I think the problem from most posting I read is those of us who talked or argued between HD DVD and Blu-ray have already bought into either HD DVD, Blu-ray or both technology and we already know what they are.

My point is HD DVD needs to market the product to be more understood by non-technical consumers, not just technical consumers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Love That TV

I believe from the get go Toshiba messed up with its marketing. I traded in my HD-DVD player right after the WB announcement for a Blu-ray player. I must say that the HD-DVD player was far superior! but the inevitable is about to happen with a Sony victory. people just don't know about HD-DVD. today is a great example, my boss asked me today why his HD-DVD movies aren't working in his DVD player. he didn't know that a HD-DVD player existed. to people like us who visit these forums everyday, that sounds funny. but everyday JOE doesn't know.

it has the letters, D-V-D in it. HOW CAN YOU NOT MARKET THAT!

02-04-2008, 12:23 AM	#1
toms89 High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Maryland Age: 43 Posts: 52	Toshiba needs new marketing agency Toshiba needs new marketing and/or advertising agency! Sony is kicking butt in this department. Toshiba has the high definition players that are a far better value yet they may lose this format war! They have done everything right as far as the players are concerned but damn, you need to market them. Educate the consumers...fight back blu-ray. Negotiate more studio support /neutrality. Sales would have been out the roof if they had done this. The average consumer can enjoy HD-DVD movies at little more than the cost of a standard dvd player today! One thing hd-dvd has going for it is blu-ray is just too expensive for the average consumers and will likely remain that way for some time. Maybe the studios will wise up and realize they would be making much greater sales if the went neutral......mmm....doubtful. Must be well compensated for their endorsement! Sorry about the rant......just feel like they are not putting much effort into marketing their product. __________________ Mitsubishi WD-57732 Toshiba HD-A2 Toshiba HD-A30 Sony STR-DE845 DirectV H20 Boston Acoustics VR2 mains Boston Acoustics VRC center Optimus XTS 9 surrounds SVS PC-ULTRA Will purchase blu-ray when they have a reliable 2.0 profile player at what I feel is a reasonable cost.

02-04-2008, 08:42 AM	#2
Bluto My belly button smells Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: New York Posts: 136	I agree, I have felt that way all along. Heck I want a Blu Ray player when I see Sony ads. __________________ Still waiting for Smell-o-Visontm

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02-04-2008, 10:42 AM	#4
jay-jay How can anyone watch standard def? Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 16	If that was their new marketing campaign, then HD-DVD is lost! The ad was old and not the best. Blu ray is everywheres, and the ads are good. This ad was viewed in selected cities, and was not earthshaking.

02-04-2008, 09:17 PM	#9
Love That TV High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Bay Area, California Posts: 70	I believe from the get go Toshiba messed up with its marketing. I traded in my HD-DVD player right after the WB announcement for a Blu-ray player. I must say that the HD-DVD player was far superior! but the inevitable is about to happen with a Sony victory. people just don't know about HD-DVD. today is a great example, my boss asked me today why his HD-DVD movies aren't working in his DVD player. he didn't know that a HD-DVD player existed. to people like us who visit these forums everyday, that sounds funny. but everyday JOE doesn't know. it has the letters, D-V-D in it. HOW CAN YOU NOT MARKET THAT!

02-05-2008, 04:02 AM	#13
jay-jay How can anyone watch standard def? Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 16	Toshiba also needs to get the word out that all of the promised features worked from day 1. The blu ray people are still having trouble getting new features to work right. Disney bought these promises lock stock and barrel, but to date the specs are not finalized, and are not working right in some of the new machines. Selling lots of players is fabulous. It gets more people buying discs, which is what the studios care about. They make no money off of player sales! If HD-DVD had BOGO disc sales equal to the previous BOGO disc sales, with newer blockbuster movies, instead of Warners old catalog stuff, then we would see an increase in disc sales too. I looked at the films in all those reduced price, BOGO blu ray sales and have to admit that the selection was a lot better than anything HD-DVD sales was offering. Toshiba has an excellent opportunity to get players out there and thereby increase disc sales for studios, but they have to ramp up their ads and the punch to grab attention with them. At this point we can try to downplay the PS3 as players, but there ARE millions of them out there and they do play HD discs beautifully. Toshiba would have to sell many, many more players to overcome this lead. How about giving away drives with the X-Box for free?