Cinema's Need A Dose of Disruption

Disruption use to be a dirty word. It was bad to be disruptive and unconventional. Now, it's all the rage in corporate suites. The best examples are: Amazon stepping into the food market industry and now moving into the prescription drug business.  Uber being the largest taxi company in the world without owning one cab, Airbnb, now the globe's largest property renter without owning any real estate properties. Cinemas need to take a page out of the disruptor playbook and began to think and act in a manner which provides the next step in their evolution!

The term, Unique Selling Proposition, is used in Branding and Marketing to describe the one thing that sets your service or product apart from your competition and differentiate your business. Cinemas need to find their USP.  We witness this all of the time, and here are two recent examples:

Starbucks keeps evolving, improving, and (most importantly) engaging their customers. The latest USP from the java giant is the Reserve Store. The first Reserve recently opened at Starbuck's headquarters in Seattle - which is the precursor of 1,000 Reserve Stores that are planned throughout the U.S. and other countries.

On premises bakery

Starbucks Reserve Store is massive

The Store (called a store because of It is constructed as a large open market, similar to Eataly in NYC (if  you go to NYC a visit to Eataly is a must). A host of items will be served-up at the Reserve Stores, including: branded coffee, special drinks, on-premises full-blown bakery, all sorts of food items, and alcoholic drinks.

The point of all this is that Starbucks doesn't rest on it past success - in fact, the Reserve Store will be the fifth addition to their evolving customer-centric business model. An addition to its regular cafes, their Reserve Roasteries, Reserve Bars, and Express retail stores - Reserve Stores combine all five concepts into a single location - as all things Starbucks.

Another perfect example of disruption is witness by Ekoplaza, a food-store chain in Amsterdam, which is drastically reducing the use of plastic in food packaging (and starting, what I believe will be a major trend for all food stores in the very near future). Ekoplaza has started a plastic-free section of their stores which includes hundreds of products which are sold in recyclable glass, metal, and cardboard packaging. This will be a big winner for Ekoplaza as this concept is very consumer friendly and meets the wants of many shoppers for a plastic-free environment.

These are two examples of companies that are evolving and pushing the envelope in their respective markets. Cinemas need to do the same and institute a dose of disruption into their operations.

Just saying,

Jim Lavorato