Product and Price in Film
As a current marketing manager at a film studio, it is imperative to understand the marketing mix when devising a marketing campaign for an upcoming release. To better illustrate how the four P’s of marketing coincide with a movie’s release, I’ll use the movie The Batman as an example. With the four P’s of marketing being product, price, place, and promotion, I’ll run through how each part of the mix is integral to the marketing of The Batman.
Beginning with the product of the movie, it is the movie itself! It’s the work the actors put in to adapt the script, the score that was composed or put together by the music supervisors and/or the director of the film. The format consumers choose to see the film also falls into the product category, formats such as; 3-D, IMAX, and more. In the case of The Batman, this includes the film itself, and the formats it was released in, which included IMAX.
The price of the movie is simply the cost the consumers must endure to see the movie. Ticket prices can vary due to the choice of movie theater chain, format of the screening, time and day of the movie, and more. In other cases, after a film’s theatrical window is finished, consumers can rent/purchase the movie via DVD, Blu-Ray, or purchase a streaming subscription to watch the movie on the respective platform. The Batman had many different options, so pricing varied greatly. From IMAX, 3-D, and Dolby screenings, consumers had a plethora of options to choose from.
Place and Promotion in Film
The place is very simple. When marketing a movie, it’s important to note where you want the movie to be watched by consumers. Most big studios will go for a theatrical release, especially if it’s a big budget production. Other than theatrical releases, some films get limited releases in select theaters, go straight to streaming, or in rare cases, straight to digital and DVD. The Batman was widely released to movie theaters around the world. After a lengthy theatrical window, it was then released digitally for purchase, and then finally released on HBO Max for subscribers to stream from the comfort of their homes.
Finally, the promotion of the film. This encompasses all of the teasers, trailers, interviews, press tours, social media posts, and so much more. This is my personal favorite, as it allows marketers to be truly creative. When it comes to The Batman, the film had a notoriously well-marketed campaign. To summarize, the movie’s main antagonist was The Riddler, a serial killer who was famous for using ciphers and puzzles that Batman had to solve. The marketing team and the studio had the genius idea to create a real life cipher, during the release window of the movie, that people from around the world were challenged to solve. Upon solving the cipher, people were sent to an unlisted youtube video of a deleted scene involving a character that wasn’t even shown in the film, the Joker.
The stroke of genius that was the promotion of The Batman along with the 3 other P’s of the marketing mix, is what led to a massive contribution to the success of the film. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about the marketing world of the entertainment industry. This is just one example from a list of thousands and thousands of films with great marketing strategies!
The topic for this article is the Marketing Mix.
