Conference 7.286::digital

    
    Re: .0
    
    We tried retail stores in the middle 80's and they bombed.  There
    may have been many reasons for that which we could fix and make them
    successful and, then again, we may have no idea why they bombed and
    repeat all the mistakes.
    
    fwiw,
    Steve
    

    Is this anything like Tandys (???) Incredible Universe?
    
    Bob

    One of the reasons that the stores of the 80's bombed is that we had no
    products to sell  through them.  The only successful product of that
    time was the WPS 278 series.  The Professional Series and the Rainbow
    were utter failures in the Marketplace. Now that we have industry
    standard products to sell, things may be different.

    Ths belongs in MARKETING,  not DIGITAL, but so long as you asked,
    
    Yes, we probably should open one or two.  Tokyo and Osaka and Yokohama. 
    And if it catches on, maybe into the other prefectures.
    
    But it is almost certain to fail in the States.  Japanese retailing is
    noted for service, not for price competitiveness.  They don't have the
    cutthroat price competition we do.  The typical American buyer will go
    to a high-price full service store to play with things, then select,
    and buy it from the low-price vendor (local or mail order).
    
    Since Digital lacks the low-price distribution options, our product
    sales will never close.  Since buyers in America are allergic to paying
    retail (well, many of us are!), we won't buy much from the museums.

    Wow.  My take on .0 was entirely different.  I thought the Digital
    analog here was the "ACT" or "Application Center for Technology" not
    the retail stores.
    
    ACTS: A place where products, solutions, and experts were co-located
    and a customer could touch and feel them.
    
    Whatever happenned to the ACT's?  Well, once the central funding was
    cut and local sales managers had discretion to fund them or not, the
    scenario fell apart.  There is a US Demo Center program that replaced
    the ACT's about which I know little.
    
    The lack of good demo centers (products, solutions, and experts)
    creates the pressure to do DECWORLD so that people can get their
    hands-on the technology.

    The funny thing about "megastores" is that they WORK in the States.
    They shouldn't, but they do because they address a definite need.
    
    I apologize if I should have posted this in MARKETING and not here.  
    Somehow, I felt it was appropriate here because of the discussions 
    that have been had here about our products, company directions,
    compensation, training and so forth. But, I could start a similar note 
    in MARKETING if y'all feel it would be better there.
    
    I agree with the assertions that maybe now is the time and with respect 
    to the lessons we learned with Rainbow.  
    
    There may be a difference between a megastore and an ACT.  That is, a 
    megastore is stocked with "consultants" rather than salespersons.  The 
    difference is that consultants are salaried rather than on commission.  
    (Though, I suppose during the time of the ACT the salespersons were on
    salary and not commission.  Correct me if I'm wrong.)  And, consultants
    are carefully trained about all the products so that they can answer just 
    about any question a customer might have.  Culturally, that might not be 
    so difficult to do for Digital.  The problem with going for commissions 
    is that a commission program can lead to pushy salespersons that are less 
    concerned about informing the customer about all products and solving the 
    customer's problems.  Instead, they tend to become informed mostly
    about the things that will get higher commissions and not necessarily
    as informed about the things of general interest to a customer.  Sony 
    and Nike are proving that this is a value for which customers are 
    willing to pay full price.
    
    As a tangent, Saturn is discovering that sales go well for cars if they
    can get customers into a relaxed environment without pushy
    salespersons.  I suppose Sony and Nike are taking advantage of this
    concept as well.
    
    Steve

    
>    There may be a difference between a megastore and an ACT.  That is, a 
>    megastore is stocked with "consultants" rather than salespersons.  The 
>    difference is that consultants are salaried rather than on commission.  
>    (Though, I suppose during the time of the ACT the salespersons were on
>    salary and not commission.  Correct me if I'm wrong.)  And, consultants
>    are carefully trained about all the products so that they can answer just 
>    about any question a customer might have.  Culturally, that might not be 
>    so difficult to do for Digital.  
    
    ACTs _were_ stocked with consultants ... on salary. Sales people would
    accompany their customers to the ACT and were also on salary. I suspect
    what differs between a megastore and an ACT would be the nature of the
    consulting. Megastores would undoubtedly be highly focused on selling
    the individual products of the firm that employs them.
    
    ACT Consultants did quite a bit of product consulting, but played a
    larger role in helping customers rationalize entire solutions to larger
    business issues. These consultants needed to have both product and
    industry expertise to help sales teams come up with overall
    recommendations which would require a lot of third party pieces,
    up-front consulting and, in some cases, delivery assistance. As a
    specific example, we got involved in shop floor control and MRP
    projects all the time which required lots of product stuff that Digital
    didn't sell. 
    
    ACT Consultants strove to understand quite a bit about the customer's
    current process for doing something and used their own
    experience/expertise in that area to make recommendations on how to
    improve the process. The recommendation might include hardware,
    and software, but not always ... sometimes it was a recommendation for
    a consulting service.
    
    I suspect such consulting is not what a Megastore is all about.
    
    /se
    Former ACT Manager

The following is a memo that is posted here by permission of the author.
I felt it would add value to the discussion.

Steve

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

Folder:    OUTBOX                       Date:     17-May-1993 12:04pm EDT
Doc No.:   041736                       From:     Paul Brock
Printed:   17-May-1993 12:15pm                    BROCK.PAUL
                                        Dept:     CPG/SCS Field Development
                                        Tel No:   264-5306

TO:  Remote Addressee                     ( _ecadsr::sherman )


Subject: Megastores

One could argue that Digital opens a megastore about once every year 
or two, staffs it with salaried personnel, and keeps it open for about 
3-4 weeks. Potential customers can come see just about every piece of 
hardware and all of the important applications. It's called DECWorld.

I do not believe that a Digital megastore built after the Sony model 
would work because the class of product, and kind of purchase, is very 
different. A vcr is a vcr. A TV is a TV. Etc. The megastore model is 
aimed at a purchaser who wants to see all of a vendors offerings under 
one roof. And, because the offerings are relatively straightforward, 
there is not a need for lots of staff to explain the products. 
Computers and related stuff are very different. While there is a class 
of purchaser who is buying 'iron' and would like to compare a high end 
PC to a low end workstation, to a greater degree our customers need to 
see applications on these systems. And there are almost as many 
applications as there are CSO's. To meet what the customers would want 
would almost literally require keeping a DECWorld like event open year 
round, staffed by large numbers of people very knowledgeable in all of 
the applications. While a permanent DW HAS been proposed, I believe it 
is beyond our budget.

    
    Re: .7
    
    From my understanding the ACTs were the closest equivalent Digital
    has had to the megastore idea.
    
    Re: .8
    
    > a vcr is a vcr etc.
    
    When was the last time you shopped for a home entertainment item like
    a vcr?  My wife and I bought a set of components for a stereo system
    this past winter.  The choices were mind boggling.  It used to be 
    true that you bought a stereo and that was the end of it and then you
    ensured that you didn't underbuy and end up with next month's obsolete
    model.  Now you need advice so that you don't underbuy OR overbuy.  
    
    fwiw,
    Steve
    

    This topic again points up the the need for Digital to wake up to
    marketing and consciousness-raising "Imagine the possibilities"?  We
    have taken on "branding" but if we are going to create an identity,
    we'd better start "flying by the seat of the pants", getting a gut
    feel, on a mass basis - at least in the Marketing departments, or we're
    "relieving ourselves windward"

    I think that there is some confusion here that can be cleared up by
    remembering that Digital has more than one strategy.  That is, we sell
    commodity systems (PCs, workstations, storgae devices, etc.) and we
    also sell integrated systems.  It seems that the Megastores are
    oriented to commodity items, whereas the ACTs were/are oriented toward
    integrated systems in a specific industry.  People walk off the street
    to examine commodity items, but not to examine, for example, a retail
    banking system.
    
    By the way, I think our ACTs failed, in general, because they never
    bridged the gap between the concept of what our systems could do and
    the hard work reality of what it takes to deliver on a concept.  There
    was little synergy between the highly paid industry consultants and the
    field level delivery consultants and engineers.  You could see this
    from day one, but, with few exceptions, it never changed.

    We had a compuadd store in a very popular (and quite packed) strip
    mall down the street from our house that lasted about 6 months, and
    bombed completely.  There is too much competitiion and the store was
    deserted most of the time.  I can't see DEC having "superstores" if
    compuadd bombed with their superstores.
    
    

    I thought I read that all Compuadd stores where closing and they were
    going to do mail order only.  Also the few Compuadd stores that I have
    seen where not like the CompUSA and Computer city superstores that are
    doing well.  These superstores are the size of the average strip mall.

    While I'm not sure that a Digital superstore would do well, I think
    getting Digital products into retail stores would help. Lechmere is
    now selling many of the Digital printers.

    -Bruce

    Are you perhaps confusing CompUSA (computer megastore) with Compuadd
    (mail order)?

I think people are confusing computer superstores that sell lots of brands
with the base note's megastores that showcase one brand of merchandise.
I doubt that the typical home-computer buyer has enough brand-name
awareness to want to go to a store that sells only Digital computers
and peripherals.