Promoting Movie Distribution Business
Introduction
Movie business is one of the most lucrative yet highly competitive industries. There are a lot of people willing and able to buy movies in soft copy as well as hard copy. As a result of this over-the-roof kind of demand a lot of companies have mushroomed in this market fields. The current movie market is quite different from that of the 60s; today distribution of movies has to be made in a manner that fits-in, not only with the current trends and tastes but also with the right technological advancements. Based on this factor, E-Movie store has been able to gain a market segment that is beyond the reach of other movie stores. Customers prefer E-Movie because we specialize on movie sells and distribution online. Most of our competitors can’t manage to keep up with this trend.
There are several movie distribution stores, online as well as offline. The most common are Blockbuster, Netflix, Hulu, and Redbox. These businesses are doing well; some of them like Netflix are even using some of the latest technological devices. Such technologies include using such devices as those that enable a customer to stream videos online. In E-Movie members can stream from Blue-ray, DVR, home theater, mobile, PC, and multimedia players WD TV Plus, WD TV live Hub and 2Wire Media Point Set Box. And unlike Blockbuster Inc we offer streaming through video game consoles such as Wii and Xbox. They are missing a market of consumers that do not own DVR, Blue-ray or have PC’s hooked up to their T.V. As a company that targets young people more than any other market, we use social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
As noted above three major competitors of E-Movie Distribution are Blockbuster, Netflix and Hulu. Blockbuster is one of the leaders in the area of video as well as video disk rental. It has a market share of about 27% in Australia. The company was conceived in the mid 1980s, a time when the movie industry was dominated by small local operators. The company soon grew quickly and moved into entertainment turf that included music retailing. Blockbuster business model has a huge advantage over other single small competitors as it can provide a lot of copies as well as abroad selection movie titles; easily operate highly visible and conveniently located stores; it also offers superior and regular customer service. Blockbusters can also easily market their brand name and the customers’ can easily differentiate between them and other competitors.
Netflix is another company. Netflix is a company that is offering movies over the Internet via streaming and which also operates a film distribution by mail in the United States, Canada and Australia. The company was founded in 1997 and it is headquartered in Los Gatos California. In 2009 Netflix offered a collection of 100,000 titles to more than 10 million subscribers.
The Netflix DVD rentals by mail are offered as some kind of monthly service where a customer has to pay a monthly subscription and receive e-mail movies of his choice. There is no return period, but there is a limit to the number of movies that can lend out by one user at the same time.
Netflix also offers a service for movie streaming from Windows PCs and Mac OS and a number of compatible devices (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3). This service is for subscribers of the Netflix service standard not accessible.
Promotional Plan
This is the promotional plan that I intend to use to promote my business and attract customers to my business. In my promotional plan I will use advertising, sign writing and publicity. With regard to advertising I will print several brochures, T-shirts, clinics, TV and Radio ads, newspaper ads etc. We will do this advertising mostly on such social media as Facebook, Twitter, Web Blogs and other online avenues. Advertising through Facebook and Twitter is an amicable avenue to do some advertising as well as publicity, including my own video space.
We can create a Facebook fan page to advertise our latest movies; we can also have a situation whereby our customers can stream the video live on Facebook and Twitter live. People can follow us on Twitter and get to know some of the movies or videos that we have. We will also sales promotion on some of the major Cinemas in the country, this is especially on weekends when most people trickle to movie halls.
We’ll also be using a company named Vernon who specializes in promoting your brand and business
| Who | When | How | Where | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | K.R. | First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Month | "TV ads, Radio, Newspaper/magazines, Facebook/Twitter/Websites" | No particular place |
| Signwriting | J.K. | All the months | Through our websites, and in our offices | Websistes, Magazines/Newpapers |
| Publicity | M.L. | First, Second and third Month | "Social responsibility Exhibitions and Displays Newspapers, billboards Video Space" | "Around the cities of (name the cities), TV, Internet, etc etc" |
| Sale promotion | G.D. | Fourth and Fifth | "Setting up clinics, In movie stores sell movies at a half price" | Around the cities of (name the cities or streets) |
A Budget
| Month Marketing |
First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | $100000 | $100000 | $75000 | $75000 | $50000 |
| Sales promotion | $100000 | $75000 | |||
| Business Cards | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 |
| Publicity | $100000 | $100000 | $1000 |
We will look at the sales that we will have made at the end of the month. If at all there are increases in the number of movies sold in this span of time we will then be sure that our marketing plan has been working. Another mode of assessment will be through interviews. We will interview people and try to find out whether they know of our company, its services and whether they have once or twice used our services; any indication that a lot of people know of the our existence is prove enough that our marketing plan has been effective. Questionnaires will also be given to customers that visit our stores; or those that visit our website.
There are things that E-Movie would not like to put in our promotional strategies, as much as they may be important. Because of our digital mode, we would not like to concentrate a lot on Yellow Pages and Directories, unless they are online version. We would like to make a niche as an online movie store. We also would not wish to include in our publicity policies or occasions such personalities as politicians or public figures. At some point we will have to use the services of a Hollywood star. This is proper as a Hollywood star is in line with the services that we offer as a company. A Hollywood star will especially come handy at a time when the very movie he or she is featured is on the high-end of the market.
Whether we employ YouTube or Video or both, this is a massive and effective process to have our viewers come head to head with movie magic producers. We will cast and/or team do blogs related to production, the plot, the time of day etc. The normal awareness period of an online watcher is not more than 2 minutes. People do not read more than 500-word editorials as well as any captures longer than 90 seconds. In order to make my audience view anything longer than 90 seconds, I will make sure that what they watch is meaningful.
Steps to Draw Up the Movie Marketing Plan
Step 1
The first step is to choose a special time during which this plan is going to work. In other words, it is the time frame. If you cannot define timerestrictions for your plan, it will be an additional opportunity to fail. When you set the deadline for your plan, this allows to make a breakthrough in the future. Thus, the chosen time span is ten weeks - from November 4 to January 6, 2014.
Step 2
The next step is to choose the target audience for the movie. The target audience comprises the people who are actually going to watch what you have made. It is also important to determine the age of the customers. Since the heroes of the American Pie are young, it is a waste of time to suppose that older generation will watch it (Pietsch, 2010).
Since American Pie is the teen comedy, the determined target audience is teens and the youth of the age from 15 till 25.
Step 3
The next step is to Determine Marketing Strategy. Since people constantly use the Internet, it would be a mistake not to promote the movie in such social media as Facebook, Twitter, Live Journal, Google+ and others.
Step 4
Further, marketing goals should be set. Along with setting the deadline the basic goal is also to be set. These targets will be statements that reveal the result of your whole work on the project. The basic targets will be set in order to guarantee the future growth (Pietsch, 2010). Thus, the goals to be accomplished by January 6, 2014 are:
- Creating special accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+.
- Creating the movie’s website apart from social media.
- Building of its followers over 100.
- Participation in Yahoo Groups with further promotion of the film.
- Creating certain previews for the next release of the full movie and watching the reaction of people.
- Working with PR companies.
- Printed advertising.
Step 5
Fifth step is to create the budget plan that will organize the costs. It will be the plan in 3 fields of promotion like public relations, advertising, and web marketing. All the sums in the tables are symbolical.
| Public Relations | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR Firms | 1000 $ | 1000 $ | 1000 $ | 3000 $ |
| Press Release Development | 500 $ | 500 $ | 500 $ | 1500 $ |
| Review Program | 900 $ | 900 $ | 900 $ | 2700 $ |
| Analyst reports | 400 $ | 400 $ | 400 $ | 1200 $ |
| Press tours | 300 $ | 300 $ | 300 $ | 900 $ |
| TOTAL |
| Web Marketing | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online advertising creative | 1000 $ | 1000 $ | 1000 $ | 3000 $ |
| Google AdWords program | 500 $ | 500 $ | 500 $ | 1500 $ |
| Yahoo ad program | 900 $ | 900 $ | 900 $ | 2700 $ |
| Microsoft ad program | 400 $ | 400 $ | 400 $ | 1200 $ |
| Search Engine Optimization | 300 $ | 300 $ | 300 $ | 900 $ |
| TOTAL |
| Advertising | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creative development | 1000 $ | 1000 $ | 1000 $ | 3000 $ |
| Print advertising placements | 500 $ | 500 $ | 500 $ | 1500 $ |
| Channel advertising | 900 $ | 900 $ | 900 $ | 2700 $ |
| Radio advertising | 400 $ | 400 $ | 400 $ | 1200 $ |
| Television advertising | 300 $ | 300 $ | 300 $ | 900 $ |
| TOTAL |
Step 6
At this stage the goals are to be broken down into strategic tasks. In this case I propose limiting the initial efforts on just three or four media services. I will establish certain tasks to accomplish set goals and outline certain time for each task: 3-4 hours a day for web marketing, 3 hours a day for advertising, several hours to control public relations sector (Pietsch, 2010).
Marketing Policies
E-Movie will focus its marketing policies on 3 different types of strategies, the first being mass marketing; we are going to broadcast to the majority of society in an effort to obtain a small percentage of the people we are broadcasting to, which will be a huge attraction for the customers.
The second focus will be on niche marketing, targeting specific demographics depending on genre. This will be effective in attracting all demographics in that we will be focusing all our products/genre in different marketing campaigns.
The third policy will be guerrilla marketing; we will be approaching people in unexpected places, street coupon giveaways and PR stunts in an attempt to create buzz and make E-Movies products go viral.
Customer Service Policies
E-Movie is committed to giving you nothing but the best of the twenty first century movies and videos. To this end we have made sure that our employees are well-trained, and our products well-made. We offer you some of the most affordable prices for the best qualities. We also reward customers that are fervent and committed to our movies. Pay us a visit and enjoy nothing but the best. You can visit any of our stores which are conveniently located in some of the easily accessible places. Above all we are committed to the most current technological trends. Just visit our website, www.e-movie.com, and a watch a movie of your choice at a small face. You can alternatively download the movie and go watch it at the comfort of your home. E-Movie Your Home of the best Movies.
Evaluation of the Plan
Business owners often make mistakes when evaluating the effectiveness of their marketing plans. It can be especially problematic if you mix activities and tools for promoting your product. Thus, to evaluate the effectiveness of my plan, I will look at my sales or fees first of all. In any case, they should grow. To get an accurate picture of the profit generated, I must measure discounts, leads being generated and sales (Ayling, 2012).
- Plagiarism and QA report
- Professionally-qualified writing experts
- Top-quality, at a great price - guaranteed
- Commitment to deliver papers by deadline
- No limit of revisions a customer can request
It is also impotant to find out if the customers heard of me and my production. Valuable insights will help to select a service provider. Advertising and promotion activity should produce direct responses of customers. If the customers are not certain about the response or comments about our product, I have some work to do. Thus, response rates are about to grow up. One must be sure that he chose the right media, right audience. I can also use headlines that ask questions and require solution-oriented answers. Next, networking activities must create additional opportunities for the producer. One of the major rules of networking is to ‘give’ rather than ‘sell’. I must realize what my average customer thinks of the product, what mistakes were done, how I will deal with the problems. All this is possible, and social media offers this opportunity (Ayling, 2012).
Marketing strategy I have selected will make the selling of the product easier. In any case, material we produce will be relevant, the movie we make will be easy to understand and be in the format the customers will like. In such a way we will focus on our clients (Ayling, 2012). Another important point is a positive return on investment; every effort and costs spent must bring feedback and positive effects. In other words, cost effectiveness will be evaluated when comparing the initial marketing budget and my real income. Additionally, every special marketing activity will be evaluated separately. In this case, if the return on investments has given good results, in future we can make them better (Ayling, 2012).
