TiVo is an anomaly. It has become the Hoover or Kleenex of the PVR category and is without question a consumers' darling. Not since the introduction of MTV, have consumers emphatically uttered, "I want my…" directly preceding the consumption of a brand of media. And while MTV changed elements of pop culture, TiVo seemingly changed everything. If you're a TiVo user, then you're be nodding your head right now at the assertion that once you went TiVo, there was no going back to the old way.
And yet, with all its passion and hyper-loyal consumer base, the most significant innovation in television history since the television has failed to make an incurable dent in the armor of the masses.
Why?
There are a number of reasons for this. I'll offer up the obvious ones and then introduce some less obvious observations.
For starters, some hold that the price point is still way too high to secure the hard-earned dollars of Joe Public. There are two components to TiVo's pricing -- the upfront chunk, which will no doubt continue to drop as Moore's Law wreaks its usual havoc with continued innovation, and the monthly fee, which is marginal and certainly comparable with a typical V.O.D. or premium movie rental cost.
Perhaps it's less the price itself and more the incremental cost that puts people off. Anyone checked their cable bill lately? Mine is close to $200 a month (it's all clean I assure you). Then there's the "box overload" rationale which factors in the insight that a typical media cabinet nowadays looks more like the screen of an amateur playing Tetris than a clichéd home entertainment center.
The remaining popular vote is that there's a pretty deep-seated inertia that the average (read: mass) consumer has to overcome. Suddenly the simple switch on, switch channel, switch off triad of the prototypical remote control explodes with a variety of perceived complicated choices. That's not something the tired patriarch of the house needs to concern himself with when his real concern should be what beer to order from the missus.
There's no doubt that the average TiVo customer is more likely to be a textbook innovator or early adopter, compared to the 34 percent early and 34 percent late majorities respectively. In other words, our confusion as to why TiVo has taken so long to take off is probably unfounded as we are not truly representative of the populace, but rather media anomalies in our own right.
The article could end right here. But I want to offer up one more reason for TiVo's relative lack of success (and I stress relative): the company's marketing sucks.
For starters, they originally pursued the most traditional routes of advertising -- using television! That's like placing an ad in the in-flight magazine of a prop plane with the message that there's a safer way to fly.
Secondly, the consumer insight (predicated on an agency team not understanding both the technology and resultant consumer proposition) was all wrong. Remember the one about the bachelor who pauses a football game at a critical point with only seconds remaining on the clock? He rushes out to his local church, prays, runs back, and unpauses to watch the field goal kick go through. He celebrates. Yawn.
What about the new parents with a baby crying upstairs? Did you forget about that?
Instead of TV, TiVo should have been investing in a mix of event marketing and CRM -- offering training, on-site installation, in-store workshops and other rather simple techniques aimed at overcoming consumer inertia, technophobia and confusion.
TiVo's schizophrenic identity crisis didn't help much either. This invariable wolf in sheep's clothing protested too much in order to convince agencies that they weren't the anti-TV, when in actual fact they always were. The problem, of course -- and in TiVo's defense -- was that there really weren't any un-deaf ears at the time to listen to the music, save those interactive guys working out of the janitor's closet. That's all changed now, where boutique creative agencies and media behemoths are intimately attentive to the TiVo song.
Perhaps the most egregious mistake has been that TiVo underestimated its audience, and in doing so, took advantage of their loyalty. Recognizing the fact that TiVo converts were deeply passionate, they tried to pull a fast one by offering dollars-off discounts for qualified referrals from their existing customer base -- we know how much you love your TiVo, now share the love by telling everyone about it. The problem was that they offered nothing in return. No monthly incentive. No discount off a second TiVo box. No trade in. Nothing.
How greedy.
This train of thought continued with "home media option," which proved to be an embarrassment second to none. TiVo's vain attempts at flogging this up-sell on its loyal customers continued until they'd dropped the price to free (don't worry, they made it up on volume).
As much as I love TiVo, I just cannot imagine that they will be around in the next 12 to 18 months (or sooner). Not in this exponentially consolidating media landscape with the cable MSOs starting to resemble Audrey II on a bad day.
And I do love TiVo. But this is tough love -- aimed at lighting a fire and getting this new marketing company to act like one.
Perhaps Marty will return my calls now.
