VIDEO RENTALS RATED GOOD VALUE: EXECUTIVE

DAN ALAIMO

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- Most consumers believe that entertainment is a good value for the money, especially video rentals, said Ira Mayer, president of EPM Communications, New York.

He was speaking at the Entertainment Marketing Conference here, held Nov. 10 through 12, which was attended by 450 people in the entertainment and media businesses, packaged goods, and other branded products and services.

"They will rent a video for $2 and if it doesn't deliver, they will stop it after a couple of minutes and still not feel totally gypped," Mayer said. On the other hand, if consumers spend time going somewhere and attending something that does not meet their expectations, they will be much more upset.

The most important value consumers look for in an entertainment product is how well it delivers emotional content for the time they have to invest in it, he said. Because of this, entertainment products and services don't always fit the image most people have of a brand name, Mayer said.

"When it comes to entertainment, value is not a matter of dollars and cents," said Mayer, who produced the conference.

"In the entertainment business, the most important value is time. The consumer does not want you to waste their time," he said. "Time is the currency of the '90s," said Mayer.

Value is only one component of what makes for a successful entertainment brand, he said. Other components are how well a product delivers on what it promises and its uniformity or consistency, he said.

Attempts to brand entertainment products or entities fall short in the area of uniformity, he said, because "every entertainment property is different. There is no consistency to it, and certainly not in the consumer's mind."

Branding of entertainment products may be more useful in marketing to the trade rather than to consumers, he said. "You want that image of consistency in delivering value and good products with retail buyers. You want them to think of you when there are two marginal products vying for their attention and for the better shelf space," said Mayer.

In other news at the conference, Twentieth Century Fox, Beverly Hills, Calif., was named EPM Entertainment Marketer of the Year by EPM's Entertainment Marketing Letter for its handling of "Independence Day."