Sirius XM Radio Inc. will be launching a free "Best of Both" promotion starting on Black Friday and will join together its advertising efforts under a single unified strategy, according to TWICE.
The company will give customers three free months of "Best of Both" service with the purchase of any Sirius or XM aftermarket product.
The promotion sounds amazingly similar to a Sirius XM rebate offered back in October which offered a $50 discount, plus free 3-months of "Best of" service. It is unclear when the new promotion will end, but it said to begin on Black Friday.
Sirius XM will also drop the separate ads for XM and Sirius, and will shift its ad dollars heavily to radio advertising this season, said operations and sales president Jim Meyer in an interview with TWICE.
"If you go to a Best Buy or Circuit City beginning this week, Friday, for the holiday period, you'll see a common display with both brands displayed and a common merchandise strategy," said Meyer. "We think that goes a long way toward the elimination of confusion. A single pointed display and single pointed ads. Also, within the retail brochures, one promotion for both brands."
Meyer notes that this year will include more radio advertising and less television.
"We think changing it up was a good idea," said Meyer. "We're excited about [radio] because we think it is an efficient vehicle to get new listeners."
[TWICE]
Thanks MUSCLE!
>> Meyer notes that this year will include more radio advertising and less television.
Translation: "We're broke. We can't afford TV advertising, and radio advertising to existing customers is cheap so we'll do that instead."
Sounds like a great plan.
Post-merger satellite radio is one huge turkey.
As long as there is a "Best of BOTH", it is not unified. Until the channel numbers are the same, until the company stops this unwieldy kludge of programming, and until they get their branding CLEAR, this is just a polished turd.
If a consumer has to make a decision between XM and Sirius STILL, the clear winner is still the iPod. End of story.
Honestly? Since all of the music stuff is merged, and most of the talk stations are merged, they need to drop the best of packages and just have the same service under SiriusXM...Don't tell customers if they're using the Sirius or the XM satellites, just let it happen.
I still feel there's going to be confusion and it's just going to make people feel angry when they realize they bought the wrong radio and now have to pay extra to hear stern or oanda.
just my 2cents.
-Matt
If they had any marketing expertise, they would give all current subs a preview week or two.
haha...Black Friday? Sirius XM wishes they had a black friday....this friday will be another RED friday :) ROFL!!!!
This company is going bankrupt! ZOMG! You're all screwed!
they are trying to milk the howard premium as much as possible.
I say throw Best of the other into the service and make it all the same for everyone, and split the difference in the price between $12.95 for a base package and $16.95 for best of, and make it $14.90/month for everyone.
Of course, the problem with that is some of the Sirius receivers aren't able to pick up the "Best of" channels as it is....so in a sense, those people's radios would be obsolete, which they promised wouldn't be the case during the merger process. Another problem is they agreed to a price-freeze for 3 years.
If that picture above is any indication , there won't be much to sell at the retailers . Has anybody been to Circuit City or Best Buy lately ? How is the supply of satellite radio merchandise ?
Truth is SIRIUS doesn't have the bandwidth XM has, and it would be impossible to get the same channels on both platforms right now. Why do you think SIRIUS advertises "over 130 channels" and XM advertises "over 170 channels". They've been suffering with their awful CODEC since day 1, and now they are stuck because of it.
Damn...Should've waited a couple days to buy that XMP3 receiver.
is it just my imagination, or am I missing something in the box? There doesn't appear to be a 'wearable" antenna like the MyFi had, or a belt clip/stand for portable use, but it's still portable. Haven't had a chance to play with the unit much, but I'm hoping to spend some time with it this weekend, and I hope to write up a review on how user-friendly it is from a sightless/blind perspective. I like the remote (size of buttons) better than the MyFi already, but the on-board controls on the unit itself look like they're going to be a bit complex. :)
But yeah, I think they should just ditch this "best of" thing and just give all of us everything. Especially those of who have been subscribers for quite some time as many of us have...We shouldn't have to pay extra, and for those of us with multiple radios, if you're going to charge for best of, how about only charging it on our primary radio.
Why pay more for "the best of"? Why is the music not fully merged? The best of doesn't include baseball on Sirius. My Sirius radio doesn't even get all the Sirius channels. How can we really call it a merger?
I know the merger is still very fresh, and admittedly there are some BIG pressing issues out there requiring much attention, but that said, I am terribly disappointed at the lack of direction and branding that this company has. Both companies have separate products in the marketplace, auto manufacturers on TV are advertising each respective service with their cars as opposed to one unified brand and I feel that Sirius XM Radio is a terrible name for starters. How in the hell do you build a brand this way? Hell, in the Fox interview about the shareholder lawsuit with Hartleib recently the girl on Fox kept saying Sirium radio. What were all of these executives and the employees doing the whole time up until the merger? Now this lame ass Black Friday promo, I'm pissed! Another holiday selling season I'm sure will go down the tubes!
This alleged merger is all smoke and mirrors. They just refuse to stop with the BULLSHIT. They are promoting crap like the Jonas Brothers, an act that appeals exclusively to mentally chalenged prepubescent girls, and they are so stupid that they overly complicate things that have simple solutions. Want more subs? Rule number one: don't piss off the ones you already have! They fucked that one up. Rule number two: make the price plans really simple, not this bewildering clusterfuck of assorted prices and packages that gives you a migrain just looking at it. For instance - EVERYTHING FOR $12.95. No other options. None of this "Best of nonsense. I'm a moron, and even I can think of something like that. Why can't these overpaid executives? Because common sense is just too obvious for these intellectuals! So there you are - they fucked that one up too.
Rule number three: nobody seems to mention this, but this is huge as far as I'm concerned - BETTER ANTENNAS. The ones that come with the radios are so flimsy and fragile that sooner or later they either break or they work on an intermittent basis, and that is annoying and also a rip off. People are paying to hear sound come out of the radio, and too often it doesn't due to cheap antennas and the micro thin wire that is attached to it. I have gone through several antennas, despite handling them with great care. They just aren't heavy duty enough to hold up to the rigors of being outside - or even inside for that matter. The antenna, and it's ability to get a decent signal, should be more than a mere afterthought in the grand scheme of things. They have fucked this up too.
If they really cared about the subscribers, which they don't, they would try to incorporate some of these ideas into their business philosophy. The other comments above are all great also; too bad this company doesn't respect the opinions and the advice of the subscribers. What a collection of arrogant jerkoffs !!!
"Best of Both"?
More like "Give someone you hate a SiriusXM crutch this holiday season"
Paying for radio is for suckers and newbs
http://www.siriuslyscrewed.com
I've said it before and I'll say it again. What about the current subscribers? How about doing a deal for us? We are already loyal subscribers. How about giving us the free three months as well.
Jeff,
They didn't even have the decency or consideration to notify the existing subs about the channel changes. They have the nerve to charge extra for channels from the "other" service, even though they merged; there shouldn't be an OTHER service if, in fact, they truely have merged.
I love satellite radio, and I listen to it as much now as I did when I first got it almost 3 years ago, but I have never felt that this company appreciates my loyalty or my support. I'm just one of the little guys - why would Sirius/XM waste their time worrying about little old me?
When the cancellations start to outnumber the new subscriptions, then and only then will you and I, and everybody else become worthy of their attention. It will be Sirius/XM's loss for waiting so long to STOP NEGLECTING US !
How about this as an idea... let the SUBSCRIBER pick what channels they want. Give me 50 channels - my choice, for $10/month. Do subscribers really care that they can get get CNN in spanish? I want to switch from sirius back to XM simply because XM is built into my truck so I can get rid of my aftermarket sirius unit. Problem is that the ONLY reason I got sirius in the first place is because I listen to Stern. In order to switch from sirius to xm - it'll cost me $60 more per year. Why not offer a-la-carte... 12 channels for $1 per month... 30 for $5, 50 for $10, etc.