Blast Off, meet Big Brother

Blast Off Video store was a small I business I opened in 1997. With some cash, around 500 movies, and partner Sam McAbee, I opened the store in Chicago. Over time we grew the store to over 3,000 titles, we were featured in newspapers and on television, we were voted 'Best Video Store in Chicago' by the readers of New City Magazine, and we were turning a tidy profit.

In hindsight, our business strategy was PRODUCT FIRST. Our message to the public was WE CARRY THE STUFF YOU CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE. I say in hindsight because we were really flying by the seat of our pants. It's only with the benefit of time, experience, and education that I can start to see these patterns in how the business operated. Sam and I focused on getting the weirdest, rarest, most esoteric, best, most intriguing films we could find. We weren't customer-centric, for sure. Our collection was solely a reflection of our tastes. What this narrow focus did allow, though, was the formation of an identity. Customers knew we were the place to find random Japanese game-shows with no subtitles, a Turkish version of Star Wars, and the complete works of Fassbinder, all under one roof. We had the cool stuff and people who came into the store quickly found out.

Trouble started when another video store opened up.

Big Brother Video was started by serial-entrepreneur Jason Mojica. Before opening up Big Brother, Jason had established a coffee shop called Jinx in the hip Wicker Park neighborhood. Jinx wasn't anything special, but it was always packed with hipsters. Kids were always hanging out in the shop, out in front of the shop, in the apartment above the shop, working in the shop, and walking to and from the shop. Jinx had a great logo - a black cat with the word Jinx in a cool font. Visitors were greeted by cool music and decent coffee. I liked it. Jason was good at branding.

He certainly brought his branding skills to Big Brother Video. Influenced by our store (I know because Jason came in and asked questions on several occasions), Jason opened up a video rental store specializing in cool movies. He enlisted the help of Rob Lowe, a local musician and socialite (and a close friend of mine to this day). They got a cool logo for the store - a two-tone silk-screened version of the big head from the BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU poster. Before the grand opening day, the Big Brother crew papered the Wicker Park neighborhood with flyers offering free rentals. Soon after the store opened it became the hang out for hipsters.

I decided to close Blast Off about a year after Big Brother opened. We were doing fine financially, I was just ready to move on. Before we closed, though, Big Brother won a people's choice award for best video store in Chicago.

It was a hard lesson to learn. I don't think Big Brother ever had more than 1,000 titles, and it was mostly 80s teen-dramady films. But in the end, Big Brother had won the hearts and the minds of the people. The public perception became that Big Brother was the cool place to find cool movies. My hat is off to Mr. Mojica and to Mr. Lowe.

I feel pretty confident that Blast Off had a better collection of hard to find, rare, and esoteric film than just about anybody Chicago. I feel confident that we had a larger market share and revenues than our friends at Big Brother. But where Big Brother managed to make a serious dent, though, was in brand awareness and public perception. With all due respect to Big Brother and their owners, I feel Blast Off had the superior product but it didn't matter - their branding was just awesome.

This all speaks to the power of marketing and branding. As important as your product is, your branding is equally important. Every aspect of your product, operations, and message should be in sync, reinforcing one other. This is how the little guys compete with and possibly topple the big boys. It happened to me with Big Brother. It has allowed Apple to compete with Microsoft for all these years. Little Miss Sunshine, Toyota Scion, Pabst Blue Ribbon - all have scrapped their way to success in competitive markets through powerful and bold marketing.

Comments

[Dmitry Samarov]

As a customer of all three businesses mentioned I agree with much of what you've said. Always enjoyed Blast Off and was sorry when it closed...