I thought Blockbuster Video was long-dead and gone.
Fun Fact: not quite. There’s apparently one left.
In fact, I recently listened to an interview with the store manager of the last existing Blockbuster video.
If you’re over age 25 (which is the vast majority of my readers) you remember going into Blockbuster Video back in the 90s and 2000s.
Susan and I were telling our kids about the “foreign concept” of Blockbuster.
Of course their entire world is on-demand. We want to watch an episode of Daniel Tiger, we pull it up on the TV and it magically plays.
They don’t know the trials and hardships we went through just to watch a movie!
About going to Blockbuster after school on Friday, walking up to the wall of new releases, and you HOPED one of them was protruding a little further from the wall than the others… because that meant there was a rentable video in the case behind it.
And even if there wasn’t, hope was not lost. A quick dash to the counter for the cashier to check the return box. Maybe someone dropped off that coveted VHS and it hadn’t been restocked on the shelf yet.
Blockbuster was the JAM back then. And at its peak in 2004, Blockbuster consisted of 9,094 stores and employed approximately 84,300 people: 58,500 in the United States and 25,800 in other countries. Not long ago, Blockbuster Video was valued at $5+ billion.
Which makes the interview with the LAST remaining blockbuster all the more entertaining.
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Another Fun Fact:Â When Netflix was on the come-up, Blockbuster has the chance to buy them for a measly $50 million.
(In contrast, Netflix is now worth $187 billion as of April, probably more now. They’ll invest $17 billion in producing original content ​this year alone​)
But in one of the biggest “missed opportunities” in modern business history, Blockbuster turned them down. Why?
Blockbuster’s research told them that people enjoyed the experience of going into a store to pick out a movie.
And yeah, that was fun. I’m sure people said they liked it.
But here’s the thing:
Convenience always wins.
It’s human nature. And Netflix is 100x more convenient than Blockbuster.
Blockbuster made the mistake of assuming that, even with newer, better, more convenient options, people would still wanna do it the old way.
And that meant they missed their Blockbuster moment. Not only did they miss the opportunity to acquire an amazing asset…
…but that asset grew up and quickly killed them.
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So here’s the lesson:
As you’re planning for 2021, don’t miss your Blockbuster moment.
What is the opportunity?
Well, we’ve been pushed into a new era where people are doing more transactions online than ever before.
(And they were doing a ton even before the pandemic. Just ask my Amazon delivery guy…)
But now more people than ever, people are comfortable with fitness memberships online…. buying groceries online… having business meetings online…
And yes, handling their healthcare online.
The idea of a “virtual consultation” is no longer weird or fringe or progressive. It has quickly become part of the New Normal. (I hate that dumb term but whatever)
2021 is going to be the year of the virtual consult.
The practices who get this figured out will have more opportunities than they know what to do with.
We were trending this way already, but COVID fast forwarded the progression.
“People still like doing it the old way.”
Blockbuster said the same thing. And they paid the price.
I’m encouraging my clients to go all-in with virtual consults for 2021. If you want help doing this, reply and let’s talk. There’s definitely a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it.
Whatever you do, don’t miss your Blockbuster Moment. Don’t let someone else be the “virtual consult” practice that you have to catch up with.
Or worse, the “virtual consult” practice that kills you.
Get out in front, lead the pack and prosper.
– Troy “Be Kind, Rewind” Cole