I went to Target this morning to spend some gift card money and noticed a few things that might be of intrest.
First off, near the front of the movie section there's a display that my store uses as a Disney display. Over the top of it it today was a big sign promoting Pirates of the Caribbean, but copies of it were either not being displayed or were sold out. On the first couple of shelves of this desplay there was Freaky Friday (naturally), and the bottom shelf had plenty copies of Lion King on DVD, at least one gift set and one VHS.
But the most interesting thing about this desplay was it seemed to be functioning as a display for the titles that are going out of print in January. There were probably a dozen or so copies of Fantasia (60th Anniversary single-disc version), and five or six each of all of the disappearing cheapquels (Lady and the Tramp II, Jungle Book 2, and 101 Dalmatians II.) From the look of the shelf, a lot of copies of Fantasia had been removed and presumably bought, the cheapquels not so much. Fantasia 2000 and Sleeping Beauty weren't there and I'm assuming they sold out (!) And of course since Target is a retailer catering to the masses instead of the obsessive collectors, I was not suprised to find the Fantasia Antholegy missing too. Which is probably just as well since it would have been awful to see it there and touch it and not be able to have it. (It's too expensive for me right now, so I'm going back there to get one of those copies of the Fantasia single and will hopefully find a 2000 so I don't miss out on them like I did on the Toy Story discs. Then if I get the money to hunt down the box I will, but at least if I don't I've got the movies until they resurface on HD-DVD in 2007 or later.) But, it was really nice to see a bunch of cheapquels just sitting there unsold.
Another thing I noticed as I was browsing the DVD section was a seperate shelf full of copies of Finding Nemo on DVD -- but strangely none of them had the slipcover. I thought I was hallucinating but I actulally went and picked one up, and nope, no slipcover. (Not sure if The Lion King DVDs had the slips, but I'll check when I go back if I remember.) Not that the slipcovers matter too much -- the one for Nemo is a cardboard version of the cover image and so is The Lion King, only opening up to show an advertisement for the DVD's extras -- but they're cool, Nemo's especially since it kind of has an underwater-sque shiny effect. But my point here really is, don't you think it's odd of Disney to produce the slipcovers for some copies and let others go without them, especially for Lion King where the slipcover actulally serves as marketing for the DVD? Why they would do ths, or not do this, I really can't say. My best guess is that either the slipcovers are, per some general policy, for first-run copies only. Or, since Nemo sold suprisingly well, they wanted to get the stores stocked with reprints quickly and ditched the slipcover (which, in Nemo's case, isn't an ad of any kind) in order to speed up the process and get new copies in stores. But I'm really not sure. So the main lesson here is: When Disney releases other DVDs with slipcovers (Alice, other 2004 SEs, TLK1.5 and Aladdin seem likely canidates) if you want one, buy your copy of the DVD fast!
Your thoughts?
Disney DVD Observations at Target
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Jake Lipson
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Disney DVD Observations at Target
Last edited by Jake Lipson on Sat Dec 27, 2003 5:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jasmine-rules
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I have never seen a disney dvd that usually has a slip cover without one. In fact, I went to my target today and all their nemos had the slip covers on them. They didn't have a big display of disappearing dvds like yours, but they had their fair share of nemos. Maybe the store itself removed them or they fell off somehow during shipping and whoever unpacked them was too lazy to put them back on?? Your guess is as good as mine.
I never have to worry about that problem though because I always buy new dvds on the first day it comes out. You can bet that I'll be first in line on Oct. 5th!!!
I never have to worry about that problem though because I always buy new dvds on the first day it comes out. You can bet that I'll be first in line on Oct. 5th!!!
Aladdin is THE best disney cartoon!
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Jake Lipson
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Not if I can help it. I want you to have the DVD and all, but *I'll* be the first one in line on October 5, 2004.jasmine-rules wrote:You can bet that I'll be first in line on Oct. 5th!!!
Besides, my VHS copy of Aladdin is broken so I should get a new copy of it first.There's no sense in Target employees taking the time to remove 30-50+ slipcovers off Nemo, especially if the DVD is supposed to come with one, and since NONE of them had slips I doubt ALL of them fell off. I bet Disney wanted to ship those faster so they just eskewed the slipcovers.
Last edited by Jake Lipson on Sat Dec 27, 2003 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Your description of the Target displays is pretty similar to mine.
As for slipcovers, I think Disney is only putting those on the first waves of DVDs now. All month, I haven't seen a Sleeping Beauty, Lion King, or Finding Nemo DVD with the slipcovers they had when first released. Perhaps this is to cut back on costs?
As for slipcovers, I think Disney is only putting those on the first waves of DVDs now. All month, I haven't seen a Sleeping Beauty, Lion King, or Finding Nemo DVD with the slipcovers they had when first released. Perhaps this is to cut back on costs?
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Jake Lipson
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That would be my guess.
With the slipcovers - perticularly the ones that open up - it's a clever way to allow Disney one final attempt at marketing the DVD to the customer by glorifying the extra features in an attractive format. The back cover of the DVD case allows this as well but it's not nearly as big of a space, and the inside of the fold-out slipcovers allow for a much bigger, classier, more artsy ad with room to promote many more features. Add to this that the slipcover protects the keepcase from damage and that collectors like us think the slipcovers are "cool" and it doesn't make sense for Disney not to issue them with slips.
But it's really a marketing tool -- and marketing is only important within the first month or two of the DVD's release because that's when most people will be buying the DVD. If people want to buy it after the inital wave they probably wouldn't care enough about the slipcover anyway, and they probably don't need marketing to.
For example, let's say that Joe is a really big fan of The Lion King, but when the movie came out on DVD he didn't have a DVD player so he stuck with the 1995 VHS. But for the holidays that year, he gets a DVD player and runs out to buy The Lion King on DVD. As a huge fan of the movie already, he doesn't need convincing to upgrade it to DVD. Anyone who seeks the DVD out a long time after release these days is probably a big enough fan of it not to need the additional marketing shove to buy it that the slipcovers provide because if they're seeking it out and willing to pay more for it it's a favorite movie and they'll buy it regardless of bonus content.
But on the other hand, let's say Jane is present-shopping for her elementary schooler's birthday in mid-October, 2003, and she happens to see The Lion King DVD at the store. It jogs a memory. "The Lion King...he really loves that movie, and it's cheap. I'll get it for him. But...oh yeah, he has it on VHS." This person would then pick it up, toy with it, open up the slipcover, read about all of the extra features the DVD provides and decide "Yes, this has enough new content that it will be worth my buying and my son will really enjoy the bonuses." This kind of person will probably only make that kind of impulse buy when the movie is a low-priced new release, which is why the slipcovers come in handy. But Joe up in the previous paragraph, seeking it out months after its release date, will buy it purely because it's a favorite movie and doesn't need the extra push to buy. I think Disney realizes this and that's probably why they produce the slipcovers for inital runs and then stop, if that is indeed what they're doing with regards to the slips.
Just a guess, but it's logical, and there you go...
Also of note - Mom is going to be heading back to Target to pick me up a copy of Fantasia (:)), so I will have that one before it disappears. But I won't be able to confirm the presence or absense of the Lion King slipcovers on the discs in the display. Oh, well. My getting Fantasia is more important and if it's easier for Mom to go than to take me with her, so be it.
With the slipcovers - perticularly the ones that open up - it's a clever way to allow Disney one final attempt at marketing the DVD to the customer by glorifying the extra features in an attractive format. The back cover of the DVD case allows this as well but it's not nearly as big of a space, and the inside of the fold-out slipcovers allow for a much bigger, classier, more artsy ad with room to promote many more features. Add to this that the slipcover protects the keepcase from damage and that collectors like us think the slipcovers are "cool" and it doesn't make sense for Disney not to issue them with slips.
But it's really a marketing tool -- and marketing is only important within the first month or two of the DVD's release because that's when most people will be buying the DVD. If people want to buy it after the inital wave they probably wouldn't care enough about the slipcover anyway, and they probably don't need marketing to.
For example, let's say that Joe is a really big fan of The Lion King, but when the movie came out on DVD he didn't have a DVD player so he stuck with the 1995 VHS. But for the holidays that year, he gets a DVD player and runs out to buy The Lion King on DVD. As a huge fan of the movie already, he doesn't need convincing to upgrade it to DVD. Anyone who seeks the DVD out a long time after release these days is probably a big enough fan of it not to need the additional marketing shove to buy it that the slipcovers provide because if they're seeking it out and willing to pay more for it it's a favorite movie and they'll buy it regardless of bonus content.
But on the other hand, let's say Jane is present-shopping for her elementary schooler's birthday in mid-October, 2003, and she happens to see The Lion King DVD at the store. It jogs a memory. "The Lion King...he really loves that movie, and it's cheap. I'll get it for him. But...oh yeah, he has it on VHS." This person would then pick it up, toy with it, open up the slipcover, read about all of the extra features the DVD provides and decide "Yes, this has enough new content that it will be worth my buying and my son will really enjoy the bonuses." This kind of person will probably only make that kind of impulse buy when the movie is a low-priced new release, which is why the slipcovers come in handy. But Joe up in the previous paragraph, seeking it out months after its release date, will buy it purely because it's a favorite movie and doesn't need the extra push to buy. I think Disney realizes this and that's probably why they produce the slipcovers for inital runs and then stop, if that is indeed what they're doing with regards to the slips.
Just a guess, but it's logical, and there you go...
Also of note - Mom is going to be heading back to Target to pick me up a copy of Fantasia (:)), so I will have that one before it disappears. But I won't be able to confirm the presence or absense of the Lion King slipcovers on the discs in the display. Oh, well. My getting Fantasia is more important and if it's easier for Mom to go than to take me with her, so be it.
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Jake Lipson
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I remembered something else so I thought I'd chime in here again.
Although the display did focus a lot on the quote-quote "disappearing classics" (with the exception of Freaky Friday and Lion King) it didn't make a big deal about the fact that they were disappearing. They were there, they were on display, but it never said DISAPPEARING JANUARY 31, 2004, or something to that effect. So only the Disney geeks like most of us here would even know that there's a sense of urgency to picking these up. Everyone else, Average Joe, say, they'd just assume it was on display for holiday shoppers or something and the fact that it's urgent to pick these up if you want them will probably never even dawn on most of these people, which I think is a mistake.
For Disney, the whole point in taking something like an animated classic out of print is presumably so they can make a big fuss about it. Get people to buy them before they go away, raises sales as people rush to get them at the last minute. And then when they ARE reissued, the people who missed them the last time will pick them up ASAP to avoid making the same mistake twice, and because they've lived without it for so many years, thus driving up the rerelease salees to numbers that are a bit stronger than normal. But if nobody knows it's going out of print, these effects are kind of lost. Even though the sense of urgency is there Average Joe won't feel it which won't translate into high last-minute-rush sales, and when it comes up for reissue they'll never know it was out of print to begin with. They'll just assume that it's been out there, available for them to get whenever they have the money or whenever they feel like buying it, thus killing the larger numbers upon the reissue. (This is an exception of course for movies that aren't on DVD at all yet like Aladdin, Bambi and Cinderella, but for movies like Fantasia, F2000 and Sleeping Beauty, Average Joe needs to be keenly aware that the item is out of print or going out of print in order for Disney's desired effect to occur.)
See what I'm saying?
Disney did a really great job of mass marketing the point that the Toy Story DVDs were leaving back in May -- I remember seeing and hearing inserts in other Disney titles and even TV spots and radio spots announcing the withdrawl -- and if you look at the sales charts on DVDFile, you'll see that both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 shot back up into the top 20 around April. (Plus, getting Pixar back on people's minds through the Toy Story disc withdrawl was a great way to add to the hype for the then-upcoming U.S. theatrical release of Finding Nemo.) I've seen no sort of comparable ad campign for the withdrawl this time, save for on Disney's website (and amazon.com), and while that is a smart place to start it won't be very effective if it's confined to just there. Heck, BVHE even put Toy Story Disappearing Campign promotional material on their retailers website to make sure the stores knew last time. Why aren't they doing that now?
Well, I would assume my Target knows, otherwise why would those perticular titles all be on sale and on display at the same time? But my Target and Disney are both doing a really lousy job of passing that tidbit of information onto average customers. And you'd think that Average Joe would like to know too, since the Fantasia films and Sleeping Beauty both rank among Disney's most popular library titles ever, and most people would probably love to have them. They just don't know that they need to do the buying quickly, and if they don't, they'll loose out on their movies and Disney will loose out on the money those people will gladly hand over to own these movies on DVD.
Remember for example in 1991 when Fantasia was released on VHS, heavily promoted (and truly) the ONLY TIME it would ever be available on VHS, people knew it was limited and the tape sold like hotcakes. (Holding true to their marketing campign, Fantasia never was re-released on VHS. Even when it was released on DVD with Fantasia 2000 it was a DVD-only title and people who wanted it on VHS either rented, were out of luck, or had to get Fantasia 2000 on VHS instead. On a side note, Disney said the same thing for Snow White in 1994 which was obviously broken when it was reissued on VHS as the first Platinum, but they did the VHS reissue a month after the DVD so it was true for some time, and at least they kept to their marketing sleeziness on one out of two.)
But, anyway, it's time I was getting back to my main point with the VHS recollections. Point is, I remember Roy E. Disney saying that the one-time-only Fantasia VHS sold something like 20-odd-million copies in 1991, which was and still is a lot. The success of that VHS release helped a lot in getting Fantasia 2000 greenlit and made. I'n sure the same kind of frienzied demand would occur this time around. Of course, they can't say ONLY TIME ON DVD because it will be released again in HD-DVD as a Platinum, but, still, they could play up that it will be 4-7+ years until we see it again and there would be demand for copies and huge sales.
On second thought, maybe the campign is coming and just hasn't started quite yet? I hope this is the case and Disney starts to promote this withdrawl for all 3 disappearing animated classics in the coming weeks leading up to January 31, the day they are vaulted, but they're cutting it awfully close if they want to have a campign for this, don't you think? I suppose we'll just have to sit back and see what happens, huh?
Your thoughts?
Although the display did focus a lot on the quote-quote "disappearing classics" (with the exception of Freaky Friday and Lion King) it didn't make a big deal about the fact that they were disappearing. They were there, they were on display, but it never said DISAPPEARING JANUARY 31, 2004, or something to that effect. So only the Disney geeks like most of us here would even know that there's a sense of urgency to picking these up. Everyone else, Average Joe, say, they'd just assume it was on display for holiday shoppers or something and the fact that it's urgent to pick these up if you want them will probably never even dawn on most of these people, which I think is a mistake.
For Disney, the whole point in taking something like an animated classic out of print is presumably so they can make a big fuss about it. Get people to buy them before they go away, raises sales as people rush to get them at the last minute. And then when they ARE reissued, the people who missed them the last time will pick them up ASAP to avoid making the same mistake twice, and because they've lived without it for so many years, thus driving up the rerelease salees to numbers that are a bit stronger than normal. But if nobody knows it's going out of print, these effects are kind of lost. Even though the sense of urgency is there Average Joe won't feel it which won't translate into high last-minute-rush sales, and when it comes up for reissue they'll never know it was out of print to begin with. They'll just assume that it's been out there, available for them to get whenever they have the money or whenever they feel like buying it, thus killing the larger numbers upon the reissue. (This is an exception of course for movies that aren't on DVD at all yet like Aladdin, Bambi and Cinderella, but for movies like Fantasia, F2000 and Sleeping Beauty, Average Joe needs to be keenly aware that the item is out of print or going out of print in order for Disney's desired effect to occur.)
See what I'm saying?
Disney did a really great job of mass marketing the point that the Toy Story DVDs were leaving back in May -- I remember seeing and hearing inserts in other Disney titles and even TV spots and radio spots announcing the withdrawl -- and if you look at the sales charts on DVDFile, you'll see that both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 shot back up into the top 20 around April. (Plus, getting Pixar back on people's minds through the Toy Story disc withdrawl was a great way to add to the hype for the then-upcoming U.S. theatrical release of Finding Nemo.) I've seen no sort of comparable ad campign for the withdrawl this time, save for on Disney's website (and amazon.com), and while that is a smart place to start it won't be very effective if it's confined to just there. Heck, BVHE even put Toy Story Disappearing Campign promotional material on their retailers website to make sure the stores knew last time. Why aren't they doing that now?
Well, I would assume my Target knows, otherwise why would those perticular titles all be on sale and on display at the same time? But my Target and Disney are both doing a really lousy job of passing that tidbit of information onto average customers. And you'd think that Average Joe would like to know too, since the Fantasia films and Sleeping Beauty both rank among Disney's most popular library titles ever, and most people would probably love to have them. They just don't know that they need to do the buying quickly, and if they don't, they'll loose out on their movies and Disney will loose out on the money those people will gladly hand over to own these movies on DVD.
Remember for example in 1991 when Fantasia was released on VHS, heavily promoted (and truly) the ONLY TIME it would ever be available on VHS, people knew it was limited and the tape sold like hotcakes. (Holding true to their marketing campign, Fantasia never was re-released on VHS. Even when it was released on DVD with Fantasia 2000 it was a DVD-only title and people who wanted it on VHS either rented, were out of luck, or had to get Fantasia 2000 on VHS instead. On a side note, Disney said the same thing for Snow White in 1994 which was obviously broken when it was reissued on VHS as the first Platinum, but they did the VHS reissue a month after the DVD so it was true for some time, and at least they kept to their marketing sleeziness on one out of two.)
But, anyway, it's time I was getting back to my main point with the VHS recollections. Point is, I remember Roy E. Disney saying that the one-time-only Fantasia VHS sold something like 20-odd-million copies in 1991, which was and still is a lot. The success of that VHS release helped a lot in getting Fantasia 2000 greenlit and made. I'n sure the same kind of frienzied demand would occur this time around. Of course, they can't say ONLY TIME ON DVD because it will be released again in HD-DVD as a Platinum, but, still, they could play up that it will be 4-7+ years until we see it again and there would be demand for copies and huge sales.
On second thought, maybe the campign is coming and just hasn't started quite yet? I hope this is the case and Disney starts to promote this withdrawl for all 3 disappearing animated classics in the coming weeks leading up to January 31, the day they are vaulted, but they're cutting it awfully close if they want to have a campign for this, don't you think? I suppose we'll just have to sit back and see what happens, huh?
Your thoughts?
Last edited by Jake Lipson on Sat Dec 27, 2003 7:47 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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jasmine-rules
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True true true... ok disney's just being cheap by no longer producing themJake Lipson wrote: But it's really a marketing tool -- and marketing is only important within the first month or two of the DVD's release because that's when most people will be buying the DVD. If people want to buy it after the inital wave they probably wouldn't care enough about the slipcover anyway, and they probably don't need marketing to.
Aladdin is THE best disney cartoon!
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Jake Lipson
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Speak of the devil. Today's Target ad here has a little snippet on the DVD page called DISNEY DISAPPEARING CLASSICS - all the disappearing DVDs, classic and cheapquel, are pictured, except for Fantasia Antholegy, $19.99 each. It doesn't get any more specific than that.
It should have said DISNEY DISAPPEARING CLASSICS - UNAVAILABLE AFTER JANUARY 31, 2004! or something. I mean, will Average Joe even pick up on what they mean by Disappearing Classics? I doubt it.
No other ad circulars that I saw featured them at all though.
It should have said DISNEY DISAPPEARING CLASSICS - UNAVAILABLE AFTER JANUARY 31, 2004! or something. I mean, will Average Joe even pick up on what they mean by Disappearing Classics? I doubt it.
No other ad circulars that I saw featured them at all though.
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Jake Lipson
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Being incredibly generous, Mom went and got me BOTH Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, so I've got them. I owe her $20 for F2000 and $10 for something else I bought a while back but at least I have them now and won't miss the chance to own them. It's not as cool as the Antholegy box would've been, but at least I have them both on DVD before they disappear. I've decided that if I ever get the money I'll hunt for the antholegy box on ebay later and sell off the sealed copies of the movies that come in it, since they'll be the same as I have right now, and keep the box and third disc. But in case I never get that chance, the movies are mine at least and they do have some nice extras (unlike the barebones Toy Story discs, which I still need to find, too.)
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I really enjoy the slipcovers myself. I have seen many titles at KMart and even the Disney Store, without them. I always pre-order my DisneyDVD's from disneystore.com (Well the ones with a litho, etc.) Speaking of covers, many stores here butcher them with stickers that don't peel off nicely. The stickers that are already on the slipcover peel off easily. However my local Disney Store puts on an additional decal for the price, and it ruined my cover. Kmart, Virgin, FYE also add more stickers which are a task to peel off.
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jasmine-rules
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I usually get my dvds from walmart, and they don't have any stickers on the covers really. I haven't had a ruined cover yetNedakh wrote:I really enjoy the slipcovers myself. I have seen many titles at KMart and even the Disney Store, without them. I always pre-order my DisneyDVD's from disneystore.com (Well the ones with a litho, etc.) Speaking of covers, many stores here butcher them with stickers that don't peel off nicely. The stickers that are already on the slipcover peel off easily. However my local Disney Store puts on an additional decal for the price, and it ruined my cover. Kmart, Virgin, FYE also add more stickers which are a task to peel off.
Aladdin is THE best disney cartoon!
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jasmine-rules
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My target finally has a display for the disappearing classing.... actually, not really a display, more like a couple shelves
Anyways, I did notice that some of the sleeping beauty, and not disappearing, but still noticed, lion kings and nemos were shrink wrapped rather than having their slip-covers!
Makes me glad that I bought all of these the first day they came out. I guess word to the wise, if it has a slip-cover to start out with, then buy it ASAP!
Anyways, I did notice that some of the sleeping beauty, and not disappearing, but still noticed, lion kings and nemos were shrink wrapped rather than having their slip-covers!
Makes me glad that I bought all of these the first day they came out. I guess word to the wise, if it has a slip-cover to start out with, then buy it ASAP! Aladdin is THE best disney cartoon!
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Jake Lipson
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I was watching 7th Heaven repeats on ABC Family tonight and, as if in answer to my critisisms of Disney not marketing the disappearances earlier in this thread, one of the ads I saw was promoting that "There's no time to loose! It's your last chance to own Disney's ultimate fairy tale Sleeping Beauty as well as the musical classics Fantasia and Fantasia 2000! On January 31 Disney will stop producing these titles! Hurry, get them before they're gone!" or something to that effect. VERY glad to see a push for this so that people will get these before it's too late, and also very glad to see no mention of the disappearing cheapquels, because the less copies of those sold the better as far as I'm concerned.
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