So Who Are We? – Stanford Media Group

Stanford Media Group has years of experience and know-how

We know how to sell
We know how to market
We know how to save you money and deliver higher profits

SMG has over 25 years of experience with selling products directly to consumers — mostly branded media products, including a wide assortment of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs ranging from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Beverly Hills Cop, from NFL Films to Leslie Neilson’s Bad Golf Made Easy. Initially the company’s marketing efforts focused on making a big splash in the mainstream media, with full-page ads in USA Today and other mass-circulation newspapers as well as TV spots and infomercials. But with the advent of the internet SMG jumped head-first into e-commerce and through careful study as well as trial and error developed its current business model, which Gilula says has been tested for 18 months “with amazing results.”

Since SMG focuses on exclusive products, the company – and the seller – don’t have to worry about the product being compromised through sudden and unexpected things such as price drops or a surge in supply. And unlike proprietary seller programs, there is no risk of inventory shortages because the seller, working closely with SMG, knows exactly what’s in stock at any given time, is provided with real-time sales reports, and can thus track and react to advance orders.

“The whole point of what we do,” Gilula says, “is exclusivity and maintaining control of the product. And what we were able to ascertain, through our 18-month trial, was that when we were the only seller with a given product at a given time, we were able to sell the product at up to a 75% higher price, and we sold as much as 200% more units. It was also interesting to see that the other sellers’ out-of-stock time ranged from four days to 10 days, while we had absolutely no down time at all.”

Gilula is a veteran of the home entertainment business. He ran several home video companies at the height of the VHS era and then oversaw the transition to DVD and the shift in consumer habits from renting cassettes to buying and collecting discs. He staffed, trained and mentored the sales and marketing organization for a startup, which generated $20 million in incremental sales for the parent corporation, and held a series of progressively more responsible positions at such major organizations as the World Wrestling Federation and Capital Cities/ABC (now part of The Walt Disney Co.).

“The direct-to-consumer business has really grown over the years, and we’ve grown with it the entire time,” Gilula says. “There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of home businesses engaged in e-commerce, but most of them still think the only way to go is through a third-party such as Amazon, either by wholesaling to them or by letting them run your online business.

“The best option, by far, is to do it yourself, and that’s where we come in – we help you set up and run your own online business while you maintain control over everything as you generate significantly higher sales – and profits.”