Quote:
Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs  So much for 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. |
It could be broken from their perspective though.
The physical media market is shrinking and niche companies are finding that they are increasingly fighting over a shrinking customer base. This has led to a lot of 'trial and error' approaches to marketing product from store exclusives, collectors packaging/booklets, limited print runs etc. to either encourage customers to pay higher prices to combat the rise in package quality (due to increasing costs / lower print runs and/or more in house restorations and less off the shelf masters) in order to get a decent return for their investment. Arrow fielding this survey out to the fans is just a bit of market research and based on responses they will tweak their business model accordingly and in a way where they can still create a viable profit margin but maintain the overall quality of their releases.
It is a little flawed though as arguably the only section of their customer base who will see it (what with it being an online poll) will be the hardcore label aware collectors who use forums and social media. Therefore the answers will be heavily tilted towards a collector mentality (no digital and the want of all extras and special perks to remain). The casual fan on the high-street who may be responsible for as many (if not more) sales than the online collector and who may not be bothered about booklets, packaging and extras will probably not even be aware of the survey's existence.