The reading of today’s newspaper is a very interesting one, considering about the timeliness of the various posts that have talked about this clampdown in Singapore. I have uploaded the document up on the server, but due to the fair use agreement, I will be doing a review and trying to educate the public in analyzing the article as to provide a better understanding for those who are unclear with the situation. The newspaper article dated June 1st will also be available for a limited time at the bottom of the post, and will be immediately removed within 24 hours. All concerned parties that did not get to read the article can email T.H.A.T Anime Blog at thatblog@gmail.com to read it.
To start off, I will personally just describe my personal view on the situation, as well as what is the exact problem that might be contributing to the loss of revenue, and how it can be acted upon to alleviate the situation. I do apologize for any factual errors, as me being just a common soul, commits errors sometimes.
1. Best solution to ban all?
Maybe, if this is a normal product if not one that is strongly related toward the fan base. However, various costs definitely have to be considered, and scrutinized carefully before adopting a hard stance in which to capture those who download. I am fully agreeable with people willfully and downloading an insane amount of anime, particularly those that have already been licensed and released by the local anime community to be captured. That is perhaps the people that AVPAS is intending to capture.
Their actions is simply a free mentality, trying to take a risk with illegal downloads and reducing the livelihood of local anime licensing companies who requires a period of handling, buying licenses, as well as creating a dub/sub for the anime to be released in stores. In a way, the action is a necessary evil, but there are some situations that will cause an equally disturbing amount of harm back to the profit margin. That is perhaps reason enough, as they are in the higher spectrum of downloaders and uploaders who share and grab a whole chunk of anime downloads on the web.
However, the line gets finer when it comes to capturing those where the series are not even released into local stores any time soon. In that case, the lack of publicity by causing a total embargo of information will result in a total information blackout throughout the local community. Without people who are interested in promoting the latest anime that is released in the oriental east, the news and popularity of series will never be actually noted. If people do not get to even watch anything, how can they be interested in anything in the first place? That is one blow that will hurt the very people they seek to protect: the producers of the art form.
For a note for those who might be unclear, any copyrighted material including raws/fansubs are considered illegal to download as they have technically infringed on the rights of the animation production who has copyright to the works. To quote the Berne Convention (Singapore signed it), an agreement under the WTO (World Trade Organization) and all the participating countries is made where the responsibility of enforcement and persecution of anyone infringing on the copyright law is put on the companies themselves who own the rights to that perspective works.
Yet, when the fansub helps to promote the good, is this fine line of legitimacy a problem as well? That line before shows the limitations of using traditional copyright licensing to a more dynamic medium such as the Internet. In layman’s terms, a total different ball game.
More will be explained below of the nature of fanbase products.
2. Is it a price problem?
I am not one for nit picking, but there are some details that somewhat puts ODEX in a far better light than they have been doing. Some of the quotes below are displaced and will be discussed. The first one is perhaps the price issue, considering that Singaporeans care most about the price compared to anything. Money is everything, as they say.
Mr Sing added that on a per-DVD basis, prices here were the world’s lowest, and that even when Odex bundled three DVDs for a $9.90 trial offer, fans did not bite (Chua, 2007)
I believed that the bundling of three DVDs for a $9.90 trial price did not receive much biting because no one knew that there is in fact such a sale. In most forms of work, advertising of the bundling will have helped very significantly to whether anyone will actually buy the goods. Considering that some of the anime blogs will be more than willing to advertise for this since this is perhaps the prime target group (the highly interested fan base) that will have some spending power, a bit of effort in order to promote the sale will be the situation.
The price is definitely attractive by all measures, and I am sure that many will in fact buy it simply for the price. However, if no one gets the news, no one will even know that such a price exists during that trial period. I believe a simple quantitive content analysis of all the articles in the recent online sources (since anime communities tended to be more active online) will display that most, if not all the outlets in terms of blogs and websites are not approached by ODEX.
I am sure that none of the huge anime blogs, many of which have audiences up to 4000-5000 visitors everyday, quite a portion of which are Singaporeans who are interested in anime, are also never approached by ODEX to promote. In that case, I am also very sure that they can be influential somewhat to promote it, and it will be surprising how cheap it will be as a cost to actually get almost free positive advertising for once.
3. Is it the downloading causing profits to plummet?
Yes and no.
Now they may land in the soup because a crackdown has been launched, and they are the targets for downloading these English-subtitled cartoons through file-sharing networks (Chua, 2007).
I do not think that the approach provided by ODEX is the most intelligent, yet it is somewhat understandable. In the first time, piracy is definitely one of the chief culprits when it comes to profit dwindling, especially when the company does not do any product innovation to improve itself. If the fan can get something for free for the same quality, why does it even make sense for them to actually buy the DVDs on the shelves.
I believe that the DVDs provided by ODEX are of decent quality, but I have no immediate checks on the exact quality since most of the DVDS i bought are imported and they often provide rather delicious incentives for us to buy. If anything, look no further to Geneon USA (Hellsing Ultimate), as well as Bandai USA (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) for how to reverse the trend from a deficit to a profit. For those who have not read Henry Jenkin’s entry on fandom, here are a few stark facts to show the situation of how fandom can be used to drive profits.
Bandai’s idea behind the ASOS Brigade is to reach out to everyone who has already become fans of the series through watching the fansubs. They have created their own amateur-style home movies and are posting them on the internet. They have also created a Myspace page and encourage fans.
Many people feel that Haruhi will never sell well in the US because most of the fans have already seen the show through illegal methods. This campaign is an attempt to target the fansub community into actually supporting the series financially when the opportunity is available to them. The movie ends with special thanks to “All fansubs lovers who buy the official DVDs and who help support more creative works,” and specifically gives no thanks to “downloaders/bootlegers who never buy the official DVDs.” This is a very bold statement, but I completely understand where they are coming from (Jenkins, 2007)
If anything, I believe that the fan these days is a harder fan to please, what with the many influences that are affecting it. What is wrong is that the companies are not coping well with the changing market and they are too slow to adapt to the new environment. The case above for Bandai will show that profits are definitely there for the earnings, if you engage the fanbase. As much as you can whine, you will be surprised how cheap it is to engage the major influences of the regional proximity, merely a short email and some small tidbits (the dvd set for review) can create a greater buzz in the whole environment within the wired world.
4. Factual errors/fallacies in the article?
One of the huge factual errors is that the 9.90 price is seemingly assumed to be on all available stores when it is in fact existent during a very limited period when they put it up on roadshows. Secondly, ODEX never brought any DVDs from Japan, merely the licensing rights. In addition, the comparison of fansubs and the real DVDs is a very weak point, considering that a bought product should be better than what can be found illegally. To state that the DVD is as good as the fansub, is as good as admitting that the product has no differentiation. There must be a huge distinctive difference in my opinion.
5. What can be changed?
For one, publicity for ODEX should be orientated toward the online community, as there is in fact a good amount of investment required to capture the fanbase that will actually buy your products offline. With little news on most sites, it is hardly surprising that most of the news regarding ODEX is bad, even if the situation in reality is not as bad as it seems. Most anime fans, especially those with purchasing power, definitely wants more than merely the DVDs.
I am sure that even a limited edition poster, with some small little trinkets packaged into each DVD, will seriously encourage those to buy. A very cost effective method to create buzz is allowing some of the bloggers/sites with high exposure to Singaporeans to review on them and help publicize the products. Only by advertisements can news coverage create some form of buzz. It’s perhaps a good chance to adopt some of the pro-active measures from overseas to see if it will aid in raising sales.
To end off, I have provided a download link for those who has no access to Straits Times and it will be taken down in 24 hours as I do not want to deal with anything that is related toward fair use, and this in itself is stretching it since I only have a fair case of using it. Nevertheless, the news article does shed some light into what has gone through the mind of AVPAS when they carried it out. Measured or not, the effect will be apparent in a few months.
Download link: anime-fansub-piracy.doc
Reference note:
Chua, H. H (2007, June 1st). Getting anime illegally online? Beware; Japanese animated cartoons distributor
- sending letters to culprits warning of legal action. Straits Times, p.3
Jenkins, H. (2007). When Piracy becomes promotion. Retrieved May 31th, 2007 from
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/02/when_piracy_becomes_promotion.html
34 Comments
Good ol’ APA style.
Anyway, the article was shittily written. I mean the ST article.
The key problem with ODEX is that they have not recognised the power of the Internet in terms of publicity, especially in reaching out to certain demographics.
Selling anime on VCD format, breaking 26 episodes into 2 boxsets, which I think is just plain silly and simply a way of milking customers. Who would ever buy VCD these days.
If I were to purchase all anime DVDs I’ve ever d/l, from any source (amazon jp) but odex, does the legality issue still holds since I practically own the media that I’ve d/l.
I wonder…
I wonder is this a poor case so called “marketing”
Hey dude. Just link it to a blog that has the entire article in reproduction lah. Technorati search for ODEX has brought up 3 blogs with the entire copy of the article.
Actually, I kind of agree with the points within your article commentary. I myself do not mind actually forking out money to rent or purchase VCDS or DVDS of anime. However, as you mentioned, the potential of the internet and adding more goodies to the goods are not fully exploited. Besides using anime bloggers and adding stuff like merchandise, Odex could announce if any of its retailers are offering offers on the anime sets, thus making consumers aware of it. I believe that if ODEX does improve, then it could be embraced by fans with open arms. Changing itself to be more engaging is not tough, as seen with the haruhi example and EA.com. Now why, EA.com? Isn’t it the company that is most well known for the Sims series? Yes,that’s right but they know how the fans think. It offers competitions that pick fan creations and include them in new game expansion packs. Now, isn’t that showing their love for fans?
If they actually provide a kissing booth and every time you buy DVD and you get to kiss a good looking chick in Cute Cosplay for free. I think customers wouldn’t mind buying those DVDs!!!
Be more innovative….be more creative…~!! ROFL~~~!!
The journalistic standards of the attached Straits Times article is quite low. I doubt I’ll ever see something like that in The Australian or The Age. Having said that, it’s quite suitable for one of the tabloids here in Australia.
The article felt like somebody read some of the anime blogs, and decided to report about the ‘news’
Lack of publicity?? Send free samples and news releases to animebloggers (cough like me) and let them spread the word!
I’ve gave up reading newspaper for ages. The quality and content simply equals that of tabloid material, if you can read beyond the pretty formatting.
I suppose OD*X management are all 50+ old folks who still believe that high hand control is the only way to a profitable business, will little sense of marketing in this internet age.
Mgt #1: “There are N number of anime downloads in Singapore.”
Mgt #2: “Oh No, we are losing N * X dollar of potential profit. Better start clamping down the activity before we losing more money.”
Mgt #3: “We better sue those who ’steal’ from us, this should have the shock effect.”
A very typical my-glass-is-half-empty old school mindset. Dear management, sun-tze art of war doesnt quite apply in the 21st century sad to tell you. How about looking at it this way,
Mgt #1: “There are N number of anime downloads in Singapore.”
Mgt #2: “Oh wow! There are that much potential profit of N * X dollar. How can we tap into this market?”
Mgt #3: “How about digital download? Everyone has broadband these days. We can even save on the production cost and increase the margin at the same time.”
C’mon, ppl. Learn, evolve, adapt, improvise!! Do I have to teach you every thing?
@Tj Han: In my opinion, the quotes given in the article is not strong enough and the quotation of anime fans seems somewhat biased, putting all anime fans who actually download stuff to be apparently freeloaders, refusing to buy anything if they can. I am pretty sure that most of us can be great spenders if we have the right things.
@Jetable: I am not going to comment on the VCD format issue, but I feel that the problem with ODEX is not a price issue, but the additional benefits and gifts that they can provide.
As typical Singaporeans, the way fans work is knowing what they want. Fans do not really care too much about a price difference of 5-10 dollars (lower cost of course is better) but what they can receive that is original. This one is the key. The legality issue still holds no matter whether you own the original or not. The thing is that as long as you have an unauthorized copy of the series, it’s illegal once you spread it. Of course, your “crime” of downloading it is also…well clear.
@Kippei: I will think so and I think I explained it decently.
@Daff: I know I can do that but i prefer to stay in the fair use argument, considering that I am trying to make a proper stand on the issue, rather than “Oh odex sux, dvd quality like crap, DOWNLOAD LA!” form of flaming. Hence, I prefer to state it in a logical format that can stand in law, compared to a normal blog entry.
@Juice: I believe the example of the Haruhi case is one that is surprising. Many of us might have dissed it but the nice productive indie value of the advertising, including the use of myspace, is an excellent piece of advertising considering the main medium outlet of advertising for a non-mainstream type of medium such as anime is usually the internet.
Hence, to engage the local anime community, particularly those who make a voice out there is perhaps the smartest (and cheapest way) to do it. I mean, the fanbase, despite being one of the most critical, is also the easily appeased when you throw carrots on them. We eat the bait, not the huge torture.
I hate to admit it but anime bloggers are darn cheapos and will write a nice review in exchange of some cheap goodie bag. Yes, that’s how much of a free labor we are. Tj and tsubaki might differ on that though. They demand love and girls. (*correction*: Tsubaki and Tj already have tons of goodies from others. Bastards.)
Squall: Well, nice idea but that can only work once. There are also no pretty girls in Singapore, just kidding. I know too many pretty girls around. You never know, you might just get a call soon from the Feminist society for that but who knows, it’s an idea.
@Hectic: I cannot deny that but I believe that he is perhaps not a journalist, probably an intern or something that is asked to write it. The attribution is really bad though.
@Tedfox: hahaha! Sure, we will spread it (cough me too).
@jetable: You will be surprised but I believe that ODEX is purely a small company that cares about benefits. If anything, I am very sure that they are more keen on engaging the fan base, rather than doing this. I do not think that the clamping of downloads, particularly those who download 200gb – 300 gb per month is anything wrong, since the high download of anime clearly shows that they will be uninterested to buy anime dvds no matter what. Hence, for the current add, I will take an unpopular stand and says that what ODEX has done has some merit, but more things has to come from them as well.
However, someone has to get to them and I believe that despite the dumbing down effect of how anime bloggers/viewers have been perceived, a good voice and a couple more can hear a bell in the news. With that, I believe that ODEX will listen. Some of the ways to change is stated above. To the big anime bloggers that are promoting and spreading the love in their writing, let them continue and allow love to enter to the anime fan.
The arguments put fourth by both sides sound just as stupid.
I have a horrible job that doesn’t let me buy many things overall (though I will quit in less than two weeks). This is a big reason I haven’t bought an anime in a while. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the last DVD I bought was like three years ago.) There’s that and the library, in which I can borrow DVDs (“Holmes” being the title I’ve borrowed now). You’d figure that I download a lot of series, but the truth is that I don’t get as many series as I did three or four years ago.
Also, you have to remember that fans have different expectations. If I had to name a series that has a close to a perfect released set, it would be “Cardcaptor Sakura” and I’m not going to bother talking about its evil clone. The reason is because unlike any series brought over into English, “Cardcaptor Sakura” does not include an English language voice option and anyone who has known me for a while will understand why I like this format. (On a side note, if you were to have both language options in general, it would be more expsenive.) The only thing that stops it from being a perfect set, outside of the fact that the movies have that English language option, is that it doesn’t show suffixes in the subtitles (as far as I remember). Karaoke characters seem nice, but you can get the characters on Animelyrics, assuming that your computer can display kanji and kana.
Oh and as for the booth thing, uh, no. Sounds fun, but no. I can’t find it happening. XD
Good article,and it’s probably true everywhere.
It’s good to see a balanced post on the question.Most of the time it’s LegalvsIllegal, badvsGood.
*gulp* *yikes* you’re under arrest? no way…
@Bata: perhaps true, and the purchasing power is somewhat reduced. However, I believe that AVPAS is undergoing a moral battle in terms of people who wilfully downloads series that are already in stalls/shops in a whole sale manner. I find that appalling and that is not exactly the smartest way and shows a total disrespect toward the product.
@Zeus: haha, thanks. I believe that a balanced post on the question is generally useful to many to note what is wrong or right in the various aspects, rather than merely blaming the entity.
@Rollchan: ermm, no? I am still happy and alive. It’s just the newspaper report?
A picture speaks a thousand words:
http://img469.imageshack.us/my.php?image=animepricelesskn0.jpg
I don’t think I have ever seen Odex or any other anime company in Singapore put out any press releases or announce at fan events about licences and special offers. Maybe I’m just used to the licencing announcement methods here in the US. (Witness the flurry of activity in guessing who was the licensor when the ASOS Brigade first appeared.)
Personally, I hate Odex products because while they may be cheap, that’s because they are certainly cheap. No extras. Horrible image and sound transfer. Terrible subtitling. In some cases, even the DVD menus are messed up. It’s as though nobody competent managed to get promoted to be in charge of the technical division.
I’m willing to shell out the cash per DVD if they had any actual quality, rather than looking like VCD rips. (The amount of macro blocking I saw was horrendous.) If I buy a DVD, I want DVD quality.
This, mind you, is from the viewpoint of one who would rather buy a US-released DVD rather than download. If I am perfectly free to import all the (non-hentai) R1 DVDs I want from the US (reliant on my wallet holding out), with all their extras and dub tracks and special offers, then most of my complaints against Odex evaporate.
i hope odex realizes the consequences of doing so. ARGH
Haha, my net connection starts working again and I’m once again faced with even more big news. Hopefully this entire ordeal is clarified further. In the meantime, best wishes and godspeed to everyone being affected.
I really agree with point #3, I was so impressed with Bandai’s marketing that I went ahead and pre-ordered the haruhi DVD Vol 01 and 02 from amazon. Speaking of which they should be arriving soon ^_^
Thanks for the link to the ST article; as expected I was quite disgusted at how biased and completely skewed towards Odex’s favour that article was. Typical of ST’s article standards though. (I’m getting more and more disappointed with the quality of the writing in local newspapers)
It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out – the way it’s going, it seems that perhaps in the short run, Odex might be able to increase its profits since those casual anime watchers will no longer be download anime for free and will have to buy their releases, but in the long run it’s going to be a VERY bad move, since Odex has succeeded in pissing off the hardcore anime fanbase who are the potential big money spenders on anime products and who will probably boycott their products from now on and purchase the overseas releases instead. I feel kind of sad about that since I’m a stronger believer in supporting the Singapore industry, but when the releases are of such subpar quality (I know since I own some Odex releases myself), you can’t really blame consumers for turning to alternative sources.
OMG I’ve only been away for 22 days, and this happens?
This has been an issue since before I started watching anime, but I suppose they have never been so hard-headed before. Impz made a lot of good points. The fact is that their sales are not working. They prefer to think that it’s because there are pirates all over Singapore, and the solution is to cut off these pirates and hope that the rest of the population would take this as a warning and buy their products like good boys and girls.
Traditionally Singaporean, don’t you think?
The fact is, there ARE a lot of pirates in Singapore. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that they aren’t buying ODEX products. The question ODEX should tackle is WHY.
They talk so much about DVDs. But most of the animes I see in stores are VCDs, and the DVDs costed the earth and heaven for not much of a reason. And seriously, the VCDs? They cost an average of S$25 per boxset, which contains around 13 episodes, which means that it costs S$2 to walk one 20 minutes episode, with NO EXTRAS or anything except for the plain old episode. Quality wise, I’ve only ever bought one set of VCD, which was pretty dismal and comparable to versions I can find online.
So why should I buy the VCDs again?
I didn’t know about the S$9.90 for 3 DVDs offer either. Shows how much their advertising works, huh? I would buy that S$9.90 DVDs. Providing, of course, they aren’t some crazy no-one-has-ever-heard-of-them “cartoons” from the early last century. Which is often what those offers are about.
As for the Straits Time article, I do have to defend it to say that it wasn’t that bad. The writer could do with some basic research (like the simple and newbie error of calling animes “cartoons”), but for an article of that size most journalists wouldn’t be able to expend so much time on it. The fact was, this article conveyed the issue from the ODEX point of view. And it’s interesting to read it from our oppositing POV; otherwise how are we supposed to know how they think? Whether ODEX has a legal case on us, I wouldn’t know. But based on that article, it hasn’t made much of a convicting stand or presentation on the basis of morality or “rightness”.
IMO, in the long run, ODEX is shooting its own foot off.
@Dkellis: I am not too sure but for me, the few ODEX goods that i have bought in the past are of decent quality and have fulfilled my expectations. However, it is extremely easy for me to be satsified by even low quality graphics, so I am perhaps the low end user.
I am sure that quality as well as extras are what fans truly want, and ODEX should look into a bit of product differentiation to see how it can deal with the negative PR surrounding it currently.
@Harusame: Ya, I think they know the consequences of doing what they did, but I hope that they are working on remeding their image. A negative PR campaign held online toward them will not help.
@Alafista: yep, that one is so cool. I think i might buy it, but i need more spending cash first T_T
@Modorenai: ST generally does have an objective viewpoint for most cases and has a decent quality of writing that is generally shoved across with the occasional bad writing which is this. I am actually impressed with the quality of ST, and a closer look of the various articles should give you a better idea of this. That said, I got to support my own classmates, juniors and seniors who are working there, ahaha~
That said, ODEX’s reputation is on the low as stated above but I believe that there is still a remedy. If you ask me, anime fans can be the harshest critics around, but are also the most forgiving toward companies if they do know repeatedly that they have changed for the better. We will not talk about the people who will never change, since there are always people who judges quick.
Nevertheless, I am hoping that it is apparent that it is not the price, but quality and extras are to me, paramount to whether a company is seen favorably or not.
@Briar: yes, many things happened, even though it’s perhaps true that there are in fact a lot of pirates and the question is perhaps the product placement or product branding. If anything, it is only the movie and everyone can get movies anywhere easily, and this is something that they have to somehow solve.
I felt that the article is a little too weak to consider both sides of the statement, and the anime fan makes it sound like “PEOPLE LOVE TO PIRATE and they could care less about buying ODEX” because that is an extremely inaccurate portrayal. It’s almost slamming all anime fans all at one go.
Sad.
ST generally does have an objective viewpoint for most cases and has a decent quality of writing that is generally shoved across with the occasional bad writing which is this.
I don’t know, maybe I just have high standards, but personally I find that whilst ST is probably one of the best local newspapers around, that doesn’t actually account for much, considering how few publications we have. I suppose I’m just disillusioned since I often come across articles that are often of the “brainwashing” type (price increase not at all due to gst increase, anyone?), simply have bad writing, or evidence of some shoddy editing. (Such as paragraphs which are repeated) I do recognise that most of the time it’s often not the fault of individual journalists, since they have to conform to the newspaper’s standards and often the newspapers themselves have to answer to the government, but it still disappoints me when I compare the quality of writing in ST to some of the newspapers I read in the UK. But I digress, this is probably not the best place to talk about this since this is an anime blog. :p
Anyway, after reading your entry and a few others on the subject, I agree that it’s not entirely fair to completely place all the blame on Odex, since they ARE experiencing financial difficulties and as a company it’s simply natural for them to attack what they see as the root of the problem quickly and efficiently. From what I see, though, what upsets most anime fans is the fact that Odex’s business model is sadly lacking – subpar quality products, bad marketing tactics and refusal to take into account constructive criticism from the targeted consumer is always a no-no for ANY company. That and the fact that the attitude of some of the people in Odex is a indicative that they don’t have a clear grasp on their targeted consumers’ mindsets – whilst I do think it’s true that a lot of Singaporeans are only willing to buy things if they’re cheap (sadly, it’s just part of the Singaporean culture that’s firmly impressed upon most, if not all, of us), I think it’s common sense to realise that if your products are of good quality, people will be more willing to buy them. The fact that the Odex spokesman keeps harping on the issue of price shows that they’ve a lopsided view of the situation.
That said though, I agree with you that if Odex gets their act together, the fans will probably be willing to forgive them since after all the ARE the main producer of locally released anime and it would be in our best interests to ensure that they survive. Hopefully after this entire fiasco they would at least be more willing to take the fans’ feedback into account when trying to “reinvent” themselves.
I am familiar with some of the UK newspapers, and I must say that the quality of reading is mostly fine even though there is sometimes a partisan approach toward the government, and I guess in a way it does show the independence of the writing style. Yet, that to me isn’t really talking about the quality of the writing, but the relationship of the press. However, you are right to note that it is perhaps not the best place to discuss about newspaper journalistic values and writing.
I believe that the core problem with ODEX is the clear impression toward others that their goods are low par. A sweeping “perception problem” is not going to do it, nor acknowledging it being a good tactic. What is important is to nail it right at the community and somewhat prove them wrong, especially on the quality part.
Now, I find what Odex did was pretty stupid. Did they even read the Marketing texts of Kotler or even studied Strategic Management? Just look at how the US anime companies did in response to the same situation that is now facing Singapore. In my opinion, they fare way better. They tap on opportunities and minimizes on threats quite effectively. In fact, they have turned what is a potentially major threat into an opprotunity where they can tap on to imcrease their profits. Odex needs to go back to school to learn marketing and strategic management.
To differentiate your product is not that difficult. All you need is to bundle some attractive anime freebies with your DVDs and you will start seeing money rolling in. This is just a very simple illustration, of course. You see, there ARE people who would buy the DVDs JUST for the freebies. I know of such people around me, so who says this approach will not work, sceptics at Odex? These freebies could inclue posters, figurines, keychains, etc…Is it that hard to do that?
And one thing to note, why still VCDs? That’s so pirated…VCDs gives the impression of piracy which gives a bad image of Odex. Secondly, everybody has DVD players by now, this I can say for certain. So who needs that crappy VCD? The reason why VCDs prevail in Asia years back was because no one is ready to buy a DVD player just to watch a few movie titles; DVD players are too expensive back then, and so are the DVD titles. However, in today’s context, the cost of producing DVDs are comparable to that of VCDs, if not lower, and with higher quality than VCDs. And show me are they any stores who only sell VCD players? In fact, sole VCD players no longer exist in the market. So tell me, Odex, what’s your strategic move about sticking to VCDs?
Complaining that the $9.99 bundle being not well-received is not good enough; sounds more like a whine to me than anything else. As with all kind of offers and product launches, there can be many considerations as to why it fails. Let me just name a few:
(1) Maybe you don’t know how to advertise your products better? Look, your website hasn’t even been updated for ages, so which sane idiot will keep checking your website when for months, nothing changed? Why not follow the footsteps of your counterpart in USA? They do it mostly free through the fans! That’s free WOM (Word-of-mouth) advertisements for you! And better still, from the mouths of fans, now that gives you more credibility than anything else. Odex, you really need to go to school.
(2) Perhaps, your already bad public image about the historical quality of your releases has affected your sales? Now, you better not dismiss this. Customers are paying for your products, and you better have a good reason for them to buy. Don’t expect to produce releases that are far worse than fansubs and expect anyone to pay for them. Fansubs are produced by fans on their free time and if they can do a better job than all your “experts” (if you can really call them that), I suggest you hire them…
(3) Is your company concerned about your customers? I highly doubt so. You do not participate in any anime discussions or even attempt to build rapport among fans, so how do you expect to have the fans on your side and supporting your company financially. In this regard, look at how the US companies respond to the same situation you (Odex) is facing. Just look at anime review sites, they gladly help to advertise for the US anime companies. Why? Because they feel that the companies are actually in sync with the fans. They feel that the companies ARE anime fans themselves. On the Singaporean side, we feel that Odex simply wants the money but does not want anything else to do with anime. We feel that you are not anime lovers yourself; there’s simply no connection between us fans and your company. Now that’s a very dangerous perception that is painted in the minds of consumers; Odex is like the bad guy here now. And with the recent pursuit to hunt down downloaders, it just serves to erode your already very bad image. If you learn in school, companies such as this will NOT survive for long in a free capitalist market. It’s been proven…
Conclusion:
company and you have just served to fuel the camp fire into a forest fire; it’s gping to get out of control. Now the fans hate you, so what are you gonna do? Continue what you are doing and you are doomed for failure. The times has changed and if you ever been to school, strategic management will tell you that change is inevitable and that you should anticipate and embrace them rather than resist. Resisting changes is going to be very painful, if not fatal. Go and do your PEST and internal assessments again before you choose an appropriate strategy. Your current one is a very bad move…
Odex, what you need to do is to change the image that the public has of you. Follow what the US companies are doing. And btw, if you continue your current course of actions, you are digging your own grave to hell. Singaporean fans sees you as a fcuked-up (fcuk means french connection united kingdom; it’s a product brand not a vulgarity…
1)maybe they should jus folo the [MOBTV]“MediaCorp Online Broadband Television” style since the fact is that almost every home in Singapore have a BB internet connection. for example they can impose a fee for 10 episodes, give the fans an option to view a debut anime episode to see whether they would like to continue it or not…
2)another example is to make an anime channel dedicated to giving free episodes but this time they sell the figurines and merchandises.
*LAST THING
if they like making the vid quality so poor, i rather them not continuing
as all these would not work out if the quality is not there[this is a quality not quantity world =D]…
try to sync wif the fans Odex or else ur business will go bust…..
well thats frm me[my pt of view] sounds stupid lolz
I do understand this thing is getting out of hand … they are sending letters to people who downloads in April instead … which is 1 mth b4 they started to “warn” us about the illegality of downloading…
i would have to disagree with you on some points.
Firstly, Odex had never truly publicised their releases very prominantly. They Presume by putting it up in stores, people would buy. But if the anime community does not know that the anime is released, how can we buy? Odex’s website has been “under construction” for over 2 years. We have no way of checking what animes have been liscened or in stores
Secondly, Odex is mainly fining people for downloads that have not been officially released yet in Singapore. Many anime fans [including me] have agreed that if Odex had officially gained the lisencing rights, they would stop downloading and purchase the DVDs. However, as explained earlier, no one actually knows what animes have been released or even acquired for liscening rights. Also, we feel that Odex is being extreme. In many other coutries, animes that have been not liscenced are allowed to be fansubbed, until a publisher has liscenced it. However, Odex is being quite extreme and clearly abusing their market power.
Thirdly, the range of titles that are out in the Singaporean market are very few and limited, and many a times they are not the titles that the locals fanbase want.
Fourthly, Odex still insists on producing their animes on VCD format, and not DVD formats. Not many people actually REALISE that Odex HAS DVD formats. Even so, the quality of both the VCDs and DVDs are very poor compared to those in the USA or Japan. One popular anime fan has also proven that pirated copies from Malaysia has better quality than compared to the titles from Odex. If Odex still insists that they sell their products at such a subpar quality, then unfortunately for them, the anime fanbase in Singapore would not be satisfied
Small question to any who can answer.
Would watching streamed anime videos online be considered as “breaking” the law? How does one define the term downloading these days? I mean, if I watched anime on YouTube or any other websites like that would it mean that I am downloading the videos? Its not like I’m distributing these files or pirating it.
Many thanks to those who can answer.
Main problem, did ODEX bring any good anime in? A lot of good anime just hang up there and some even need to have chinese cast, and the subtitle they provide is SUCK, truly SUCK, esp compare to what we download.
Booties Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I will only support other companies like INNOFORM who brought in KARAS and G.H.O.S.T IN A SHELL & not ODEX. What I can’t understand is their(ODEX’S) lack of acknowledging Singaporean Fan Base of anime. I’m willing to pay for DVD and good subs. But they obviously take too long and I can’t imagine why after 1 year of waiting (for bleach), They are still not releasing anything after episode 51 and it’s in mandarin and chinese subs. Do they need almost a year to load it in a DVD(or VCD) and sub? Anime like G.H.O.S.T in a shell (stand alone complex) was in DVD and it’s fantasic and cost me about S$80. I shelled the money out right after reading that it was DVD and had english subs. What’s the point of buying VCD and watch the lousier quality when the artist put in so much effort to get it in DVD grade? I will pay willingly, if they set up a wesite and release single episodes say 5-10 days after it’s aired from Japan and I pay with credit card. MY CONCLUSION : Make It a Legal Download. Or make it in VCD/DVD fast. Like 13 episode lag time only. Currently ( For Bleach ) Japan is airing episode 136 soon and Stores in Singapore are at episode 51 and in Chinese. And if you think Singaporeans ( 1 of the fast walking people in the world) are going to wait anything from months to years for anything like dvd movies or anime, you GOTTA be kidding. Finally, I feel that Odex is not trying to make sales better they’re just making sales from now on worse. Heard from my Hardcore anime friends that they’ll just pool money and buy from amazon.com. Looks Like I’ll Join In too. And from now onwards, will not buy anything from Odex.
@Zaikenkou
Streaming is also illegal as odex claim
For those who care, tune in to 938Live’s Talkback programme from 8.15am to 8.45am 24 Aug (friday) for a debate on this issue. Call 6691 1938 to share your thoughts. Abstract from Today papers:
Is Odex stretching the law in its actions against illegal anime downloaders? Considering the age of some culprits, would a warning letter be enough? What trail has Odex blazed for other Intellectual Property owners? These were questions raised by TODAY commentator Thomas Koshy and other readers in the past week.
Here’s another update:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Courts%2Band%2BCrime/STIStory_151108.html
Gather up funds and sue ODEX. Learn from piratebay when they got sued by MPAA, server confiscated and shutdown their business. After the odeal was over, they countersue MPAA for monopoly the business and distribution technique.
ODEX is stupid. Don’t buy their animes and they won’t last and they die out of funds.
If anyone cares to try, Spoof your IP address and download animes. see how will ODEX will trace all the way to South America.
Just a question since I am not a singaporean, Is ODEX part of the Goverment? or just another company?
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