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JOHN AGUIRRE, AWARD-WINNING PRODUCER OF "MY FIRST DAY AT PRESCHOOL" PLANS ON VIDEO SERIES

John P. Aguirre – Accomplished Director, Producer and Visionary

Behind "My First Day at Preschool"

John Aguirre

 

John's Bio and Filmography

 

John Aguirre is the founder of My First Day Productions, a Los Angeles film creation and production boutique that specializes in producing feature films, television programs and pilots and children’s entertainment and educational (“edutainment”) films. 

John Aguirre is multi-award winning film producer and director who joined the Directors Guild Of America in 1987.  He has consistently worked in the feature film and network television programs as an Assistant Director, Director, Writer and Producer for over 20 years.

John has worked with some of the most accomplished producers and directors in the motion picture industry including, Oscar winner, Paul Haggis (“Million Dollar Baby”, “Crash”), Oscar Winner Tom Schulman, (“Dead Poets Society”, “8 Heads In A DuffleBag”), Ron Underwood (“City Slickers”, “Mighty Joe Young”), Mel Gibson (“Passion of The Christ”, “Braveheart”), Joss Whedon (“Buffy”, “Angel”), and Barry Sonnenfeld (“Men In Black”, “Wild Wild West”).

John’s film career began while attending Cal State University Fullerton as an intern at Bar Films, Pasadena, California under the stewardship of acclaimed director Ron Underwood (“Tremors”, “City Slickers”).  After graduating from college, John worked for Barbara Walters to work on a number of  Barbara Walters television specials.  He was later recruited by Carson Productions, as a production assistant and later promoted to multi-camera stage manager for Ed Weinberger, legendary sitcom creator and producer. 

John spent the next several years honing his film production skills as a stage manager and assistant director, working on a myriad of television series including, “Amen”, The Mickey Mouse Club”, “Hunter”, “Melrose Place”, “The John Larroquette Show”, “Nash Bridges” and “Family Law” plus feature films             “The Hot Chick”, “Campus Ladies” and “Men In Black”, to name a few.

John Aguirre has produced several widely distributed independent films including “You Did What?” (Mar Vista and Lionsgate), "The Utopian Society" (Warner Brothers) and "My First Day at Preschool” (Think Films) and he wrote, produced and directed "Women On Top", a television pilot which he is trying to get on the air.   

As a film director, John has directed three feature films including "Peppersteps", "Lucky Stroke" and "Marine Corps Warrior".   During the Spring 2009, John hopes to produce “Frail” for Gynormous Pictures starring Catalena Sandeno Moreno who starred in “Maria Full of Grace”, and is discussions with Collin Firth and Alan Arkin.

John's first feature film, “The Utopian Society” , distributed by Warner Home Video and Scanbox International, starring Malin Akerman of "Watchmen", was shot in an unprecedented 11 days.  It was selected in over 30 festivals nationwide and went on to garner a myriad of awards including “Best First Feature”, “Audience Choice Award” and won other accolades.

 

My First Day at Preschool

   

I was first introduced to John about five years ago when he approached me about producing a series of children’s educational films based on his award-winning “My First Day at Pre-School” video which targets preschool-aged children, and has won Parenting Magazine’s “Video of the Year Award” in 2003, Scholastic’s Parent and Child Magazine’s “Best Children’s Videos for 2004” and garnered a Telly Award in 2003 for original songs and musical score. 

The leading star in “My First Day at Preschool” is Buddy Bear a funny and adorable bear character, who is experiencing his first day at a preschool, hence the title.  Buddy Bear is now a well recognized and popular brand name and “My First Day at Preschool” has been distributed to preschools, day care centers, public libraries and schools, and sold through big box retailer’s Target, Circuit City, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Border’s and Barnes & Noble plus online retailer’s Amazon.com, Buy.com and DVD Empire, to name a few. 

 

BuddyBear

     

The My First Day Productions’ children’s entertainment and educational concept is embodied in My First Day Production’s Mission Statement:

“My First Day Productions is dedicated to the education of young children during their formative preschool years.  We combine education and entertainment, ‘edutainment’, if you will, by teaching children about the real world through a series of ‘first day’ or ‘first time’ life experiences.  We believe that learning should be a fun and interactive experience for children that combines unique characters, music, song and humor.  It is our goal to combine all these elements into our films, videos and branded products to illuminate and enhance a child’s learning experience”.  

 

Commentary   

 

I have known and consulted for John Aguirre for nearly five years on a number of different projects and John is in the process of re-releasing “My First Day at Preschool” and currently talking with investor’s about producing a series of children’s edutainment videos based on the “My First Day at Preschool” children’s edutainment concept.  

 

We believe that the My First Day edutainment series has the potential to become a blockbuster in the fast growing children’s video or KIDVID sector and Buddy Bear, the star of the My First Day series, could become as recognizable and popular as Winnie The Pooh, Dora The Explorer, Baby Einstein, Teletubbies and Barney the purple dinosaur, with the potential to become a bankable global brand with licensed merchandise from books-to-games-to-apparel.

 

CLICK THE LINK to view John Aguirre's film trailers  

 

My First Day Productions seeks capital to produce six children's edutainment videos based on the highly acclaimed and award-winning “My First Day at Preschool”, winner of Parenting Magazine's children's "Video of the Year" award for 2003.  Term sheet pending to pay for production, but we need additional funding for marketing and distribution.  Huge upside for potential investors in the exploding market for children's videos.  Offering revenue participation with an ROI of 30%.  Interested investor’s are urged to contact Tommy Toy, PBT Consulting for further information.   Serious inquiries only.      

PAID INTERNET TV WOULD CUT NEARLY 8 MILLIOIN VIEWERS, SAYS RESEARCHER INTERPRET

 

"TV Everywhere" efforts won't be TV for everyone -- as 7.7 million viewers could be out of the loop. That is, those who won't pay a fee to watch TV programs online -- shows they are currently seeing for free.

The 7.7 million is the number that Los Angeles-based media researcher Interpret says could be left in the lurch if the cable industry gets its way. It means some 11% of all U.S. active streamers of video, which number around 71 million.

With "TV Everywhere" initiatives, it is cable operators' intention to ensure that those who watch free TV on the Internet are also cable customers. The companies don't want Internet-only viewing coming at cable's expense.

For those who are not cable subscribers, the goal would be to get nearly 8 million streaming video users to pay some sort of fee to access premium TV shows online.

The largest group affected will be lower average-income viewers -- especially younger adults 18-34. Many of these viewers stream video on the Internet rather than pay the much higher expense of a monthly cable or satellite service.

Interpret says that 12% of males 18-24, 14% of males 25-34, 11% of females 18-24, and 15% of females 25-34 only stream TV shows online. The average income of all age groups that only stream video online is $42,314 versus the average income of $60,054 who both stream and subscribe to cable or satellite.

The good news for the cable industry is that 89% of those who stream video online have either cable or satellite service, which comes to 63.3 million viewers. That amounts to 33% of all cable/satellite customers.

The study says 67% of cable and satellite subscribers, or 126.6 million viewers, only view shows via traditional TV services.

One major potential stumbling block for "TV Everywhere" efforts, says the study, will be the higher commercial loads expected for premium TV shows. Right now, premium TV sites such as Hulu.com offer just one 20-second ad break. Others, like ABC.com, run three or four 30-second commercials per hour-long drama or half-hour comedy.

But it's still far less than the 18 minutes per hour of non-program time that traditional TV runs.

However, it is the intention of "TV Everywhere" to increase current commercials online -- to run online TV programs with the same 18 minutes per hour of commercial and TV promos as traditional TV. Interpret believes this could force some viewers back to traditional TV usage, where their DVRs will allow them to fast-forward through commercials.

The study believes that "TV Everywhere" should add value for users, supplying shows they can't get elsewhere. It says, for example, that 45% of online streamers regularly watch programs that are no longer available on traditional TV.

In addition, to supplement traditional DVR usage, the study says that "TV Everywhere" should offer current seasons of full-length programs as soon as possible. Nearly three-fourths of those who regularly stream video do so to catch up on recent episodes they missed on TV.

COMMENTARY:  I am a proponent of the paid content business model and strong believer, that at least for online social communities, it is very difficult to generate a profit solely from ad-supported user-generated content. Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and others are great examples.  Twitter is moving towards ad-supported content.

Media overload is starting to hit the online sector just like television.  There are just too many online display ads.  Clickthroughs are pathetic.  It is too easy to ignore online display ads.  The entire online experience has been negatively impacted by too many display ads and slow downloading speeds. 

In order to make it with paid content you must have high-quality original content, content you cannot get anywhere else, a large viewing market for that content, a large enough market niche to make the venture financially viable, flexible revenue models (one-time views, multiple views, unlimited views pricing packages) and offer high perceived value. 

NetFlix has demonstrated that subscribers are willing to pay for online movies. Hulu is making a move towards the paid content model.  The porn industry has benefited tremendously from the internet.  Live events are turning to the Internet to reach their target market.  The evidence is there if you can meet all or most of the above requirements.

I am not so sure that 8 millin viewers will drop out as a result of having to pay for online content. 

Courtesy of an article dated October 29, 2009 appearing in MediaPost Publications' Media Daily News 

STATUSNET, OPEN-SOURCE MICROBLOGGER SNAGS $875,000 IN SEED CAPITAL

Watch out, Twitter. Open-source microblogging startup StatusNet has raised $875,000 in a seed round of funding from Montreal Start Up, iNovia Capital, and European angel investor Oleg Tscheltzoff.

Founded in 2008, the Canadian startup's platform is used by organizations to set up their own Twitter-like sites, which they can choose to make public or private. It develops software that it says runs hundreds of microblogging sites across the Web, including the Identi.ca community.

The funds will go to flesh out the company's sales department, along with support and marketing, according to Evan Prodromou, CEO of StatusNet. "We plan to use this capital to build the sales, support and marketing power needed to take our software and services to the marketplace," he said.

The StatusNet engine allows companies and communities to set up their own Twitter-like Web site, so that employees, customers or friends can share quick status updates, links, and files. The engine includes APIs and tools to receive and send updates through IM and SMS as well as through Twitter and Facebook.

"StatusNet is ready to take its place in the market as the WordPress of microblogging," said John Stokes, lead partner at Montreal Start Up. "The growth of the Twitter platform has proven the importance of this medium, and we believe that StatusNet can play an important role in bringing this capability to broader audiences."

The company has commercialized the Open Source offering with support, customization services, and a hosting platform at status.net. The hosted service, currently in private beta, is scheduled to launch publicly before the year-end. Customers can choose between private sites, similar to yammer.com, and public sites for publishing or community engagement.

COMMENTARY:  Seems that everybody is getting in on the microblogging craze. Both Facebook and Google recently signed deals to feed Tweets to their websites. 

I had a look at StatusNet, and it appears to be a wiki or "aggregator" of microblogger content. Sort of a networking community for microbloggers.   

It's business statement states, "This is a wiki for user documentation for identi.ca and other microblogging sites that run the StatusNet software. Please help us out by editing!"   

It requires that you install StatusNet's open-source wiki software. I haven't gone over to "the other side" just yet, nor will I abandon Twitter anytime soon.

It is quite possible that Twitter is now a microblogging lovemark, and any competitors thinking about getting into the microblogging market don't stand a chance, like those getting into the mainstream search engine market. 

Facebook decided not to expand its Facebook Lite and instead opted to accept Twitter feeds.  Case in point, I now have all my Tweets appear on my Facebook profile page.

Just where StatusNet is headed with this remains to be seen.  In the world of venture capital, $875,000 is not a lot of capital, maybe six to nine months worth, a year if nobody draws salaries.  Good luck to StatusNet.

Courtesy of an article dated October 30, 2009 appearing in MediaPost Publications' Online Media Daily 

ASK.COM FOR SALE RUMORS HEIGHTEN

 

 

 

 

 

Speculation is mounting about who will buy Ask.com when the "for sale" sign starts dangling from the struggling search engine's marquee.

IAC chairman and chief executive officer Barry Diller's description of the competitive search landscape has stirred speculation that the engine may soon be up for sale. He used words like "challenging" and "speculative" to describe the business during a recent earnings call with Wall Street analysts.

"We've been asked a lot whether we're open to consolidating transactions in the area of search. The answer is yes," Diller says, according to Search Engine Land. "And it is unlikely that we would be the consolidator."

"Microsoft would be very interested in purchasing Ask.com to give them even more market share against Google once Bing teams up with Yahoo," says Suzy Sandberg, president of PM Digital, NY. "This is by far the most plausible buyer. It makes sense for Barry Diller to sell Ask. With Ask being a distant No. 4, following Google, Yahoo, and Bing, it will seem even more distant after the Bing/Yahoo pairing."

The search market has grown extremely competitive. Formerly AskJeeves.com, IAC bought the search engine in March 2005 for $1.85 billion, but has failed to adequately compete with search engines supported by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Aaron Goldman, managing partner at Connectual, believes Microsoft could become a suitor to take more market share. "Since launching Bing, Microsoft's market share has gone up less than one-and-a-half points," he says. "Meanwhile, Yahoo is down one-and-a-half. So it's a wash. With Ask, Microsoft could add 4 share points in one fell swoop."

Ask.com came in No. 4 with 3.9% market share in September -- unchanged sequentially, according to a recent comScore report. Google remained No.1 with 65% market share, followed by Yahoo and Bing with 18.8% and 9.4%, respectively.

COMMENTARY:  I like Ask.com, use it often when I am doing research, but I will say this one more time for those of you who have missed by posts about search engines:

DO NOT COMPETE IN THE MAINSTREAM SEARCH ENGINE MARKET

You will get killed.  The big three search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing are lovemarks and dominate the search engine market.

Other search engine companies should focus on a marketing their search engine to a specific, but large enough market niche to make the venture financialy feasible. 

Courtesy of an article dated October 30,2009 appearing in MediaPost Publications' Online Media Daily

TEN WAYS TO ATTRACT ANGEL FUNDING

A vast majority of young companies never make it past the initial screening process. Here's how to beat the odds.

The papers are filled with scary statistics. Here are a few more for entrepreneurs on the hunt for capital from angel investors--those loosely banded groups of deep-pocketed individuals looking for the handsome returns that only risky, early stage investing can (sometimes) bring.

According to the latest data from AngelSoft, which pairs entrepreneurs with angel groups in a particular city or ZIP code, only about one out of 100 companies that make a formal request for angel funding manage to secure the capital. Among the axed, three-quarters never make it past the initial screening process; of those that do, more than half are eliminated during live presentations and discussions, and another 10% during the following due-diligence process.

It's a brutal gauntlet.

While there are no guaranteed strategies for success, you can boost your chances of survival. Over the past decade, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the start-up side, and more recently from the angel perspective (as a member of the selection committee for the Arizona Angels Investment Network, in Phoenix).

Here is my list of the top 10 action items for those looking to land angel funding. If some of these are familiar, ask yourself: Are you actually doing something about them?

• Incorporate your business now.
• Lineup an experienced management team.
• Launch a website.
• Defend your intellectual property.
• Build a prototype product.
• Hit the high notes with a brief, but compelling executive summary or Powerpoint presentation.
• Prepare an investor-ready business plan.
• Crunch the numbers with a comprehensive set of financial projections.
• Prove the concept and provide proof of a sustainable business model by closing at least one customer.
• Have some skin-in-the-game by investing in in your own company.
• Tap friends and relatives as your primary source of capital.
• Network as much as possible to reach as many angels and gatekeepers.

I hope the takeaway is clear: Angels can be saviors, but not without plenty of careful preparation. Don't expect anyone to swoop down, gather you up and whisk you to financial freedom. For more on raising angel funding, read "Wooing And Choosing The Right Backer."

Martin Zwilling is the founder and chief executive officer of Startup Professionals, a company that provides products and services to start-up founders and small business owners. He can be reached at [email protected].

COMMENTARY:  I have been hammering away at this topic for some time now.  Don't expect the angel to take on all the risk.  You should have skin-in-the-game by investing money into your own business. 

Courtesy of an article dated October 27, 2009 appearing in Forbes

I have reduced the above into what I call the BIG FIVE investment criteria, namely:

• Fill a real need or solve a problem in the marketplace.
• Large potential market with high barriers to entry.
• Experienced management team in the chosen industry.
• Proof of a successful business model (sales, customers, contracts).
• Compelling value proposition (patents, trademarks, secret formula's, no competition, disruptive or breakthrough technology, access to scarce resources, way ahead of the learning curve, very low costs, high profit margins). Your venture should as many of these attributes as possible. 

JAMBA JUICE RETRENCHES, REFRANCHISES HUGE NUMBER OF COMPANY-OWNED STORES

EMERYVILLE, Calif. (Oct. 29, 2009) Jamba Juice’s ongoing refranchising plan has tapped into the smoothie chain’s roots with the announcement Thursday that one of the brand's original partners has acquired eight units in California.

Linda Olds, one of the four co-founders of Jamba Juice, has agreed to acquire the eight locations with her husband, Jeff Olds, and a minority partner, Brett Thomas, a former district manager of the company.

Terms were not disclosed. Following completion of the deal, Olds’ franchise operation Four Life Foods LLC, based in Arroyo Grande, Calif., will operate nine Jamba Juice units — including the original location in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Jamba Juice began in 1990 as Juice Club, a smoothie operation created by co-founder Kirk Perron along with Olds — who went on to become vice president of marketing — as well as Joe Vergara and Kevin Peters.

In 1995, the partners changed the concept’s name to Jamba Juice. The company went public in 2006, following a reverse merger with public shell company Services Acquisition Corp. valued at $265 million.

Linda and Jeff Olds, meanwhile, owned 10 stores as a franchisee with Four Life Foods along with Vergara and his wife. Vergara later left the franchise operation, and they sold all of the units to Jamba Inc. in 2007.

The Oldses bought another location in Santa Maria, Calif., last year, and most recently added the eight in California, including four stores in Bakersfield, two in San Luis Obispo, one in Arroyo Grande and one in Paso Robles.

“We cannot express the excitement and pride we feel to be involved with our community where the Jamba journey began twenty years ago,” Linda Olds said. “Jeff and I have always had a passion for the brand, and we feel it is the perfect time to further our investment with the company.”

So far this year, parent company Jamba Inc., based in Emeryville, Calif., has sold 19 units to existing franchisees in Arizona and Oregon.

The 742-unit chain now includes 488 corporate and 254 franchised locations.

The refranchising plan is part of an overall turnaround effort by Jamba, which has pledged to eliminate $25 million in store-level costs this year.

Battling against slowing sales and the weakened economic environment, the chain earlier this year launched a new food lineup, which it has been rolling out to various markets over the course of the year. Items include grab-and-go wrap sandwiches, flatbreads and salads.

The company is also expanding brand licensing opportunities with the planned launch of new novelty ice cream products under the Jamba Juice brand, as well as ready-to-drink beverages and a home smoothie kit.

Earlier this year, the company sold $35 million in convertible preferred stock, which helped reduce debt. Investors included the family that owns the Ontario, Canada-based Yogen Fruz frozen yogurt and smoothie chain, as well as New York-based private-equity firm Mistral Equity Partners.

COMMENTARY:  Like Starbucks, Jamba Juice has had to retrench by refranshising or spinning off some of its non-performing stores as franchised stores.

I had posted an article about this (which I had the link) where I became aware of this through a contact of mine in the franchising sector.  I spoke with the CEO of the agency responsible for spinning off approximately 100 company-owned Jamba Juice stores, but was unable to obtain any details regarding the store locations. 

The reasons: Overzealous expansion, the recession, demand for high-priced vitamin fortified juice smoothies is down and competition from the fast food industry (McDonalds, Starbucks and others) companies who offer smoothies.

Courtesy of an article dated October 29, 2009 appearing in Nation's Restaurant News

 

STRONGMAIL RELEASES EMAIL BREAKTHROUGH REPORT FOR THIRD QTR 2009

Learn the latest email marketing trends, cutting-edge strategy and best practices in the third installment of the Email Breakthrough Report. After reviewing hundreds of campaigns, a distinguished panel of email experts has selected and provided a detailed analysis of five exemplary Q309 emails from the Retail, High Tech, Financial Services, Entertainment and Travel & Hospitality verticals.

Download this extensive report and discover actionable tips for maximizing the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. See how your campaigns stack up against these best-in-class examples across several key areas, including content and creative execution and the adoption of the latest trends and email technologies.

• Key components of a successful email campaign
• Top five email marketing trends to watch
• Real-world applications of email best practices
• Outstanding content and creative execution
• New ideas for program strategy and design

COMMENTARY: I am not generating any commercial benefit from plugging Strongmail, but their research reports on email marketing is fantastic.

Click HERE to down load Strongmail's Breakthrough Report For Third Quarter 2009

DMA SAYS EMAIL MARKETING PAYS OFF WITH HIGH ROI'S

According to the DMA's newly released Power of Direct Report, commercial email now returns $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. Granted that's down $1.31 from last year, but it's still double the ROI of search advertising, which is the next most effective channel with an ROI of $21.85 for every dollar spent.

The fact remains that email remains a powerful direct marketing channel that generates real results. Despite the Wall Street Journal's infamous proclamation of email's demise, consumers continue to embrace it to communicate with friends and businesses.  In fact, when it comes to sharing marketing offers and overall communications with businesses, consumers overwhelming choose email over social media.  A recent MarketingSherpa study showed that 78% of consumers share online information via email, versus 22% who prefer social media, and a Harris Interactive poll found that an even higher percentage of consumers choose email to communicate with marketers over social media.

These statistics point to the health of email, but they don't mean that social media isn't experiencing tremendous growth in adoption and utility.  Instead of choosing one channel over the other, marketers should look at ways to use them together. There are already natural connections between the two.  A recent Nielsen study found that the more people use social media, the more time they also spend with email.  That's not too surprising when you consider that social networks rely on sending their members email to keep them updated of new content updates and other changes.

When it comes to social media marketing, StrongMail has also seen a big impact from integrating social media into existing referral campaigns. By making it easy for consumers to share referral rewards with their networks and then track the results of their efforts, these integrated campaigns have generated significantly higher results than relying on email alone.  Using this approach, CSN Stores generated a 3X lift in performance over its previous email campaign.

The bottom line is that email remains an extremely prevalent and useful communication tool that is well suited for direct marketing; however, marketers would be remiss not to see how social media can help augment their existing email marketing campaigns.  Remember, when it comes to choosing an effective direct marketing strategy, it doesn't have to be an either/or scenario.  Leverage email and social media for both their intrinsic and combined strengths, and your bottom line will thank you.

COMMERCIAL:  I have been reporting on the effectiveness of commercial email to reach and engage customers.  Remember the email rules:

• A Great Offer.  Filling a Real Need or Solving a Problem in the Marketplace.
• Targeting The Right Market - The Shot Gun Approach Doesn't Work Anymore
• Keep The Marketing Message Brief - The Subject Line Must Be Very Compelling
• Offer A Call-To-Action Feature - Offer A Link or Button For Email Responses
• Rely On Opted-In Email Lists - Use a Reliable Email List Broker or Tap Your Own In-House Email List.
• Stay SPAM Act Compliant - Offer The Recipient The Option to Opt-Out and Use the Right Language

Unfortunately spam emails now dominate the commercial emai market, representing nearly 90% of the email you and I receive.  Thank God for spam filters.

Avoid email address phishers by never disclosing your email address online if possible.  We all make this mistake. Only provide your email address to reliable vendors and individuals that will guarantee your privacy and not use your email address for other purposes.

Courtesy of an article by Strongmail Report Titled: "New Research Shows Email Marketing Still Delivers Impressive ROI"

 

ANGEL INVESTOR MARKET CONTRACTION SLOWS DOWN IN 2ND QTR 2009

I have posted the findings of the Center for Venture Research, University of New Hampshire, which tracks the US angel investor market. For those who missed my previous post, click here to download a copy of the CVR's The Angel Investor Market in Q1-Q2 2009, A Halt In The Market Contraction. 

Courtesy of the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research

BURGER KING'S $1.00 BURGER WORKING, MAY BOOST PROFITS

Alexis Parrish treated herself to two $1 double cheeseburgers for lunch Thursday at a Miami Burger King.

But Parrish, a 20-year-old art student, didn't buy any soda or fries because she was looking to conserve both cash and calories.

``This is a good promotion,'' said Parrish, a Lauderhill resident, who just started a retail job after more than six months out of work. ``I used to pay over $2 for the same thing.''

Burger King is pulling out all the stops with an aggressive $1 double cheeseburger promotion launched earlier this month as a way to help combat falling sales.

Burger King on Thursday blamed high unemployment for its disappointing first-quarter performance, which didn't meet analysts expectations. The company earnings dropped 6 percent to $46.6 million or 34 cents per share, compared to $49.8 million or 36 cents per share during the same period last year.

For the quarter, Burger King's revenue also sank 5 percent to $636.9 million. Sales at stores open more than a year, considered the best measure of a retailer's health, declined 2.9 percent worldwide and 4.6 percent in North America.

Chief Executive John Chidsey told analysts he is encouraged by the early results of the double cheeseburger promotion regarding its ability to boost sales and traffic.

``I remain cautiously optimistic, but I also remain realistic,'' Chidsey said. ``This is the worst consumer environment we have seen. Unemployment continues to worsen and competitive pressures remain fierce, so it could be some time before we see meaningful sustainable improvements.''

While Chidsey declined to provide any specifics of the promotion's performance since the Oct. 19 national launch, executives said results were in line with the test. During the 18-month test, Burger King claims the $1 double cheeseburger represented between 5 percent and 10 percent of restaurant sales.

Although the sales had a negative impact on gross profit margin, Burger King says restaurants saw an increased gross profit dollars because consumers added on high profit items like sodas and french fries.

``The key for us is to outrun the impact on margins with traffic increases, which is what we have done in the test,'' said Mike Kappitt, senior vice president of business intelligence for Burger King. ``We're also benefiting in that most consumers when they come in are not just buying the $1 double cheeseburger.''

Eric Godlewski was another Miami Burger King customer who didn't fit the bill. He purchased one double cheeseburger Thursday for lunch and nothing else. ``I could eat two or three of these, but this should do it,'' said Godlewski of Miami. ``I normally don't come here that often.''

Burger King franchisees argue that Burger King is using the promotion to boost sales to satisfy Wall Street investors at the expense of franchisees' profits. Franchisees twice this summer voted down the launch of the $1 double cheeseburger, but then Burger King went ahead with it anyhow.

The move by Burger King comes after McDonald's, at the end of last year, stopped selling the double cheeseburger for $1 because of profit margin concerns. McDonald's replaced it with a new value-engineered product, the McDouble, with one less slice of cheese and a smaller hamburger patty.

Based on numbers Burger King provided to franchisees, the company projects that the double cheeseburger will lead to a 5-percent increase in restaurant sales. That will translate into an increased bottom line profit of $365 per restaurant based on $105,000 in sales, according to the analysis.

But financial models run by one Illinois franchisee and circulated among franchisees across the country suggest that those numbers are too optimistic and won't drive enough sales to offset the margin pressure. The franchisee models suggest that the bottom line impact for restaurants would be a loss of between $489 and $930 depending on the percentage of total sales generated by the value menu.

Stifel Nicolaus restaurant analyst Steve West agrees with franchisees that it's a dangerous move for Burger King.

``They're going to pressure margins and lower their average check,'' said West, who last month downgraded Burger King's stock to a ``hold'' rating. ``If you don't get enough sales, you're shooting yourself in the foot. History has shown that this doesn't work.''

Other analysts say that promotions have become the cost of doing business in an economic climate that has seen consumers cut back on eating out.

``I think the benefits outweigh the costs right now,'' said Tom Forte, restaurant analyst with Telsey Advisory Grouop. ``What's the alternative? Not discounting and losing traffic to the competition.''

COMMENTARY:  I love Burger King's charbroiled burgers, especially the Whopper.  I tried the $1.00 Deluxe Burger over the weekend and have to confess that I gulped down two of them plus a small order of fries. $3.29 was my tab. A regular Whopper and fries is like over $5.00. 

I don't want to create a stampede to Burger Kings, but those $1.00 burgers are just great.  I like their "Smiling King" commercials.  What happened to those commercials?  I want to see more.

Courtesy of an article dated October 29, 2009 appearing in The Miami Herald