Introduction
This is a research essay on the marketing technique of Blu-Ray DVDs. Blue-Ray DVDs have grasped the attention of the recent recreational area. Thus, this essay would cover the marketing goals of Blu-Ray; along with the technique through they are successfully marketed in the marketplace, with the product reviews, website design, target markets, values, offers, and the website design taken into consideration for the right marketing of Blu-Ray DVDs with their SWOT analysis.
Blu-Ray DVDs
(About Blu-Ray, 2008) Often known as BD or Blu-ray Disc; Blu-ray is used for the purpose of storing large bulks of data and for recording, rewriting and playing high-definition video (HD). It is an optical disc storage medium which is just like a simply DVD or CD from the outside appearance. This type of storage disc is known as Blu-ray Disc because it is operate through blue laser and is capable of storing more quality and high definition data as compared to an ordinary DVD because this technology makes use of ultra-violet rays for the rationale to read and write the disc. The recorded shortest wavelength beam for Blu-ray Disc is calculated to be 405 nanometers. An ordinary double layered/two-layered Blu-ray Disc is capable of storing 50 gigabytes of high-definition video or data which is equivalent to 10 ½ times of a single layered DVD or six times of a two-layered/double-layered DVD at usual recording pace.
Blu-ray Disc, the next generation optical disc format was first developed in the year 2006 by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which is a well-known group for developing electronics goods, motion pictures, media manufacturers and computer related hardware. Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) group’s manufacturing circle involves many multinational world famous brands; such as, HP, JVC, Mitsubishi, LG, Hitachi, Dell, Apple, Philips, Sharp, Sony, Samsung, Pioneer, TDK, Panasonic, and Thomson. Since the time of establishment, Blu-ray is now being developed by almost 200 electronic companies around the globe, as the format of Blu-ray Disc has been approved and considered by the famous Hollywood studios and several other recording companies.
Blu-Ray Marketing and Target Market
Since now, the high-definition (HD) videos have seen tremendously welcoming gesture from all sides of the consumers and the sellers and the year 2008 is considered to be the year of Blu-ray technology. This includes all versions of video recording mediums, CDs, and DVDs. Blu-ray Disc is expected to beat all these records because it has the capacity to store large amount of data into single disc format. The marketing of Blu-ray Disc has been aggressively carried by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which proves that consumers prefer to adopt Blu-ray as their sole video entertainment and data storing in the near future. BDA has taken care that not only electronic goods manufacturing companies develop Blu-ray decoders, but now, many IT companies are also in this field who have developed successful Blu-ray enabled PCs and software so that it PCs could also make use of Blu-ray Discs’ storage capacity electronically. (Kefauver and Patschke 72)
The entire marketing techniques projected by the BDA are appreciable. It is due to their marketing processes and procedures that more than 180 of the world’s leading companies associated to consumer electronics, video games, recording media, personal computer and several other music related organizations are supporting the use of Blu-ray and also manufacturing it successfully over the globe.
One of the major reasons behind the success of Blu-ray marketing is that Blu-ray products are capable to be made backwards compatible with ordinary CDs or DVDs by the help of CD/DVD/BD compatible optical pickup unit. Apart from that, many of the movie studios in Hollywood have agreed and shown their interest in releasing their recent movies in Blu-ray Disc formats along with the DVD versions. This includes seven of the eight movie studios present in Hollywood that are considered to be most important for the entertainment sector around the globe. These famous movie studios are Paramount Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate Pictures, Sony, Warner Brothers, Disney Movies, DreamWorks Studios, HBO, New Line Cinema, Universal Studios, Weinstein Company and Fox Studios.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has used the marketing strategies of capturing the main giant and central acting force in the marketplace which includes consumer electronics manufacturers, video games companies, video recording companies, personal computer developers and the companies related to the music industry. This strategy helped in grasping the attention of all the consumers around the world within a very short time period. This proves that the marketing strategy adopted by the Blu-ray Disc Association is very strong which this product successful since the time of its establishment in the year 2006.
The only issue faced by the Blu-ray Disc Association was that normal consumers and individuals were not aware of the product name of “Blue-Ray Hi-def”, which gave rise to some misunderstandings in accepting the new technology introduced by the authority because it does not imply with the High-Definition. Previously, it was very confusing for the early technology adopters as compared to the HD-DVD which is always easy to understand by the simple individual. This is because everybody around knows what HD is and what DVD stands for, so HD-DVD was a perfect tag for the product to be introduced. However, the well marketing techniques of the company made it clear to the public that Blu-ray Disc is much higher than the usual DVD or CD device and the marketing goals set by the company ahead for Blu-ray have been achieved successfully.
Blu-Ray Technology & Product Reviews
The technology used in the Blu-ray Disc is very advanced and productive not only for the manufacturing company, but also for the consumers as well. It has the most advanced next-generation optical disc format which differentiates it from other recording and video devices. Blu-ray makes use of the lens with a larger Numerical Aperture (NA) and shorter wavelength of 405 nanometers through which the laser spot could be focused with greater intensity and capacity to store large amount of data on the same size of disc. This technology and advancement with the help ultra-violet rays enables the Blu-ray disc to store data ranging from 25 gigabytes to 50 gigabytes. Usually, 25 gigabytes are stored on the single layered Blu-ray and 50 gigabytes of data can easily be stored on the dual-layered disc. Apart from that, Blu-ray also uses the higher data transfer rate for the purpose of recording audio and video with the capacity of approximately 54Mbps. This technology has been introduced by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) so that video recording companies could save their videos using higher quality of audio and video quality. This would also enabled the electronic goods and personal computer manufacturing companies to store very large amount of data on a single disc, while the video games organizations would be encourage to release video games with higher quality of audio sounds and video graphics.
Many multinational electronic goods manufacturing companies have agreed to support and manufacture the Blu-ray Disc products and they are successfully developing these kinds of products for the consumers. The best part and advantage of a Blu-ray Disc is that it can be made backward compatible to the normal CD or DVD by using some kind of coder/decoder compatible software or product. This has encouraged the use of Blu-ray Discs and devices among the consumers because it is not only easier to be used, but also is compatible with the other high-definition mediums. However, when newly introduced, Blu-ray faced a hesitant response form its consumer side because the technology is somewhat advanced and the name of the product does not reflect that it is related to the high-definition video and data storage family.
The parameters for a normal Blu-ray Disc can be seen as under:
Table 1. Parameters of Blu-ray (Blu-ray FAQ).
Blu-ray SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is the strategic planned structure of any product to evaluate its different parameters and future developments. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats associated with the product. The SWOT Analysis for Blu-ray is presented in the following:
Table 2. SWOT Analysis.
Works Cited
- Blu-ray FAQ, Blu-ray.com, Web.
- About Blu-Ray, Blu-ray.com, Web.
- Alan P. Kefauver, David Patschke; Fundamentals of Digital Audio: Control And Interaction Beyond the Keyboard, Published by A-R Editions, Inc., p72.