Sirius XM Should Stop Blaming The Media
From March 12-26, Sirius XM is offering a free preview of its service on all of its radios nationwide. By my estimation there are at least 15 million deactivated Sirius and XM radios. This is a great opportunity for the company to regain lost subscribers that may have canceled or failed to renew at a time when the company faced an uncertain future. Unfortunately, the company seems to feel that this information is on a “need to know” basis. The company has apparently sent out e-mails to many of its former customers, most of which ended up in SPAM folders as some of our readers have pointed out.
In the conference call held just days ago, the company blamed a drop off in retail and OEM subscribers partially on the media’s talk of doom. That is certainly a likely reason which was only accentuated by a poor economic climate. This hypothesis begs the question; What has Sirius XM done to counter the negative perspective that had been created by the NAB controlled media? The answer is: NOT ONE SINGLE THING! In fact, Sirius XM did nothing to promote its exclusive NFL coverage last fall. Sirius XM literally has billions of dollars worth of talent and yet it does absolutely nothing to promote any of it including Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, Opie & Anthony, not to mention its sports packages in which I include Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. Like a secret society, only current subscribers are allowed to know that Sirius XM will broadcast the entire NCAA tournament in a matter of days.
There has been talk of Sirius XM attempting to renegotiate its current contract with MLB, which any investor certainly welcomes. As a Sirius Everything subscriber myself, I would probably upgrade my service to gain access to MLB games. That was of course, until last week. Amid absolutely no fanfare, and hidden deep within a conference call that analysts and investors were privy to, Sirius XM quietly announced the availability of the worlds first INTEROPERABLE Radio; The Sirius XM Mirge! That’s right folks, the very same radio that caused a 6 month delay in the merger process and the single most anticipated satellite radio product in the history of the world is now available. The one radio that makes it possible to get ALL the programming that Satellite Radio offers and yet somehow, someway, Sirius XM’s marketing department has failed to put together so much as a small classified ad in a local newspaper to announce this monumental occasion!
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The same should be asked of Sirius XM’s marketing department.
Position: Long Sirius XM
EXECUTE!!!
Brandon – just caught this article as I scanned my weekend news on SIRI – I am glad to see you’ve pointed this out. Many of us have been touching on this subject in the bulletin boards – but overall I’m not convinced the management at SIRIUS XM will begin to understand how terrible their marketing is until they can’t avoid seeing it in print. In my humble opinion – S-XM’s Marketing is about as horrible as a company’s marketing can be – given the actual value the SP SHOULD be at and the fact they are essentially in monopoly land now.
I for one would like to see more written to expose the failures of SIRI’s marketing department – hopefully to a degree that will shake them out of their drug induced coma…
Brandon
just checked my wifes car. Has xm radio. not activated. she only listens to 1 fm station, nothing else. Free 2 weeks is very limited. Only about 7 or 8 channels total. What a waste of time.
My bad
10 or 11 channels this week, and a different 10 or 11 next week. Why not make them all available for 2 weeks?
I cancelled my subscription on March 12th in protest of the new extra charges for listening on-line. I told them the reason I was cancelling, and customer retention made 1 (really weak) attempt to offer a one time $30 credit. I really miss the service, but I decided to vote with my wallet. Look out cable company, you’re next.
dread,
I’m just trying not to embarrass myself, brother dread. Without your inspiration, I am nothing. You are the man…. man!
Look, they almost went bankrupt. I do not work there, or know anyone who does. I would assume that it sucked to work there the last two years, both companys. Someone has a brain there, they have made it to this juncture by pure salesmanship, it will now take a few weekends of fun, for a change, and let the imagination begin, and then the marketing team will be informed on what to finally do to ISod( Interobable Satelite orbiting device), Hey there is a start, forward to Howard..
BUY BYE BUY.
They did make an announcement on this a couple a months ago and it was on the yahoo financial page. I distinctly remember seeing it and reading it there.
Bill thank you … thank you… Amen .. Amen…
there are a bunch of cry baby faggots on this “highly critical of SIRIXM management” board who think that they could do better… Not less than 750 hours ago we all almost lost all of our money.
I would guess that none of the people who are most critical on this site are entreprenuers or operate their own business…
Fact 1. I own several businesses.
Fact 2. I could do better.
Fact 3. No one in the marketing department was working the Liberty Deal.
Fact 4. You are an #%^^%