How Does Rank Rank

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How Does Rank Rank?

• Reassessing Rank, by Jared Kozar,
• Darrell Timbs, and Tito Sierra.

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Background on E!

• The E! network is a 24 hour cable network which
  highlights the latest in fashion trends,
  celebrity news and gossip, lifestyle and
  entertainment news, and basically anything else
  having to do with Hollywood and related subjects.
• It is available through almost every major cable
  carrier.

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Background of Rank

• Billed as the Ultimate Entertainment Countdown,
  Rank has been seen as one of the most unique
  concept shows on the E! Network recently
• Concept is trendy, and has many of the same
  appealing attributes as do those shows seen on
  MTV and VH1 that cover similar topics

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Background Cont.

• Rank is hosted by the lovely and talented Brooke
  Burke

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Rank Contagain

• Rank usually airs at 7pm on Saturday evenings
• Rank covers a wide range of relevant topics going
  from the 25 Sexiest Women to Hollywoods Hottest
  Couples
• In theory, the show has many of the ingredients
  to be successful and competitive

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Focus Group

• For our focus group, we took a group of ten
  people that range in age from 18-22, male and
  female, and that we all knew in some form or
  fashion
• We showed them the Rank episode 25 Sexiest
  Women

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Focus Group Cont.

• While the group was viewing the episode, we asked
  them to keep a note of what they thought was good
  about the show and what they thought was horrible
  about it and should be changed
• One commonality seen in every member of the focus
  group was that they had heard something about the
  show before viewing our episode

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Focus Group Results

• Numerous pieces of data
• Overwhelming response by the males toward Brooke
  Burke as host of the show
• Strangely enough, the females in the group, while
  not as vocal about it, also saw her as an asset
  to the show
• All saw the content of the show as appealing and
  trendy

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Results Cont.

• However, most said they would not have made the
  conscious decision to watch the show as it is
  scheduled
• Thought sixty minutes of Rank was thirty five
  minutes too many for this type of show and for
  the content being discussed
• Found Dave Holmes to be an undesirable feature of
  the show

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The Dave Holmes Problem

• Here is what an actual Rank fan wrote via email
  to the E! Network
• Re Dave Holmes - Get a Life!by jenxgrl87
  February 16, 2003, 1001 AM
• i know. i just watched the rank and i remember
  him from previous ones too. he is suck an
  asshole. serioulsy. before he can even think
  about making fun of others, who dont even deserve
  it half the time, he needs to take a look at his
  fat ass. if hes on another rank, im just gonna
  stop watching. hes that annoying.

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Secondary Market Research

• We developed a survey with a few questions about
  Rank and distributed them at random
• We ended up with a total of seven males that took
  the survey, ranging from age 18-24, and three
  females ranging from age 19-22

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Secondary Market Research Results

• We found in our survey that while 90 of the
  participants had actually heard of Brooke Burke,
  only about half had ever heard about Rank
• The females surveyed felt that the content was
  very entertaining, while only two of the seven
  males surveyed thought that Rank covered
  worthwhile material

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Problems with Rank

• Poor time slot
• Need to have specific airing day as well
• Too long, time should be cut to half hour instead
  of full
• Who does the Ranking?, and what criteria do they
  base their decisions on?
• Topics skewed toward female gender

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Positives of Rank

• Brooke Burke!
• Relevant to popular culture
• Interesting topics and content
• Social icons being seen by their fans in a new
  light

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Solutions and Recommendations

• Move time slot to anytime Monday through Thursday
  at 7pm
• Incorporate guest hosts that are more relevant to
  the show content(I.e. for Sexiest Athletes
  perhaps Anna Kournikova)
• Run contests/giveaways for tuning into the show
• Start a separate website for Rank for online
  voting purposes and to choose topics to be ranked

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Solutions Continued

• Have show go on location when applicable, like
  Wild On!
• Build a lot on the strength of Brooke Burkes sex
  appeal
• More topics that appeal to men, or even change
  the target audience for males to a younger
  segment of the population to take better
  advantage of Brooke Burkes appeal
• More advertising within the Network(Anna Nicole
  Show, Revealed, etc) And more online and outdoor
  ads as well

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Conclusion

• In conclusion, we see a lot of potential in the
  premise and host of the show. However, the fact
  remains that the present range of topics is not
  as appealing to the male audience and that the
  time slot serioulsy impedes any type of viewer
  loyalty from developing because the target
  audience is not at home at that time.