Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising

AC/DC made its name as one of the pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, but the band’s latest gig has a decidedly corporate ring to it: the band’s new album, Black Ice, will be available exclusively (subscription required) at Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT)

It’s the band’s first album of new material in eight years, and will be debut on October 20th at the “everyday low price” of $11.88. AC/DC’s music has never been available on iTunes.

Classic rock bands including The Eagles and Journey have made albums to be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and, while it doesn’t exactly have iTunes quaking it in its boots, it is one gimmick that’s keeping CD’s relevant for at least a little while longer.

Artistically, it’s more than a little bit pathetic to see bands that used to be so cutting-edge hocking their wares through an exclusive arrangement with the world’s largest retailer.

It’s a good thing The Beatles broke up so its rabid fans wouldn’t have to last stuff like this.

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Filed under: Rants and raves, Marketing and advertising, Circuit City Stores (CC)

While vultures continue to circle around the body of consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC), the company is at least trying to look alive although much of the world has left it for dead. Circuit City’s latest travail is offering “back to school tips” to concerned parents, who, after reading Circuit City’s tips-as-a-marketing-press-release, must think the retailer is on its last leg.

Apparently, many retailers believe the majority of the American public are seasonal procrastinators. The “rush to back to school” isn’t really a rush more than a shopping highlight for many retailers from apparel to personal to shoes to notebooks (the paper kind).

Circuit City’s latest effort states some statistics as a lead-in for customers to come into their local Circuit City and shop for Computers and all the related garb that goes with them. As in, printers and ink and thumb drives … oh my.

Circuit City’s parting shot in its “back to school” montage was the mentioning of a gift card. In fact, you can email a gift card from your Computer to your college student! Wow, how 2001-ish! I’m just confused on why Circuit City even participated in a “duh” survey like this to drum up a rather lackluster press release from a company that couldn’t manage itself out of a shoebox.

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Filed under: General Electric (GE), Marketing and advertising, Business of sports

The New York Times reports that General Electric Company’s (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal invested $894 million to secure the broadcast rights for the Beijing Olympics and it expects to earn a $100 million profit. The Times also quotes CEO Jeff Immelt as saying that the benefits to GE are even greater — including “$700 million worth of services it is providing for the Games and its long-term relationship with China, where it does more than $4 billion worth of business.”

How did GE make a profit on its Olympics investment? The Times reports that it was lucky that no big protests or press censorship marred the games. And it negotiated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to schedule popular competitions — such as swimming and gymnastics — to coincide with prime time slots and to including much more Internet and on mobile device events streaming.

The Games have attracted enormous audiences. According to the Times, “the Games have drawn an average audience of about 30 million a night on NBC itself, millions more on NBC’s cable channels, 30 million unique visitors to NBC’s Olympics Web site, 6.3 million shared videos from the coverage streamed on the site.”

Unfortunately, the ideal of the Olympics is behind NBC. The Times reports that Michael Phelps’s eighth gold medal win “was its most-viewed Saturday program in 18 years. From 11 to 11:30 p.m., when the Americans swam in their medal-winning medley relay, 39.9 million viewers were watching.” And that anticipated $100 million profit is 0.5% of the $20 billion in what I estimate GE will earn in net profit in 2008.

It remains to be seen whether the good news for the Olympics will make more people watch NBC’s fall lineup. But it’s still nice to write about some good GE news.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns GE shares.

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