Public voices look at the new domestic commercial film entertainment marketing model

In the early summer of 2010, the war in China's film market was raging."Battle of the Gods" and "Alice in Wonderland" continued to play the trump card of technological advancement in European and American blockbusters."Ip Man 2" relied on the reputation of the first film to become popular before it was released."The Thief of the Years" entered the mainland market with the high profile of an Academy Award hit. All major films wanted to get a piece of cake at the mainland box office. In the raging mainland film market,"Du Lala's Promotion"(hereinafter referred to as "Du Lala") has sprung up suddenly. With an investment of only 20 million yuan, it has achieved a box office return of over 100 million yuan in just 13 days. Xu Jinglei has also become the third female director in China to have a box office of over 100 million yuan. The success of "Du Lala" is inseparable from the marketing strategy behind it. So, what marketing strategies and marketing models can we learn from Du Lala?

1. Innovative financing methods and production models

In a sense, the quality of a movie will depend on the amount of financing. Only with capital can you have the opportunity to make a good quality movie. So, how to attract investors to invest becomes the key. Director Xu Jinglei has only directed a few literary and artistic films before, and the urban white-collar theme of "Du Lala" is not a highlight in the China film market. How to increase the value of "Du Lala" has become the key to the smooth release of the film. In order to raise funds, Xu Jinglei and Zhang Yibai began to find investors for Du Lala like startups. First, Xu Jinglei and Zhang Yibai invited 13 human resources directors and executives from Fortune 500 companies to serve as honorary editors of "Du Lala's Promotion", which attracted the corporate circle to pay attention to this movie. After that, Xu Jinglei invited Patricia, the stylist of "The Devil Wears Prada". Field joined "Du Lala's Promotion" and conducted another round of marketing in the fashion circle. After two rounds of marketing,"Du Lala" caught a big fish, China Film Group. As one of the investors of "Du Lala", China Film Group's participation made "Du Lala" successful financing. Xu Jinglei cleverly endowed "Du Lala" with the two symbols of the top 500 and the devil woman wearing Prada, which is the innovation of "Du Lala"'s financing method.

Once people consume, it is by no means an isolated act (this isolation is just the consumer's illusion, which is carefully maintained by all ideological discourse about consumption), and people enter a comprehensive system of coded value production and exchange. There, all consumers are involuntarily implicated. rdquo;[1] In Baudrilla's view, consumption in modern capitalist society is actually a communication system between different symbols. When we consume something, we can share the same code and share the same symbols that make you different from another group. rdquo;[1] Therefore, the two symbols of the Top 500 and the Devil in Prada immediately brought "Du Lala" into the two classes of elite and fashion."Du Lala" sought to gain a voice between elite and fashion. Right, financing is certainly not a problem.

The production cost of "Du Lala" is less than 20 million yuan. As a director, Xu Jinglei only gets a certain percentage of the production fee and eventually shares it with investors through box office revenue, similar to a guaranteed dividend. Reducing production costs also reduces the investment risk of the film. At the same time, allowing the director to participate in box office dividends can ensure the quality of the film's subsequent production. Xu Jinglei said in an interview: From the perspective of the company's operation, the operation of the film is unreasonable. The company wants a person to continue doing it well and continuously and gives him options. The movie does not do this, and as a result, no one has to be particularly responsible. rdquo; Making films by using the same method as a business brings commercial operation methods into the film industry and ensures the quality of films.

2. Integrated marketing solutions centered on audience and market

As a mixture of art, commodities and media tools, how to grasp and position its value has always been controversial. To study films from the perspective of industrial development and marketing, films should be regarded as a commodity that can generate profits. While commercial films have both artistic nature and media tool nature, the most important value is their role as a cultural commodity. Economic value. In other words, making profits is the primary purpose of commercial films. So, how can we make movies profitable?

From the perspective of corporate value, the value chain of films is relatively simple, mainly involving production, distribution, screening, and post-product development. Traditional marketing planning based on the industrial value chain can easily separate the operation of each link. At the same time, as a non-physical commodity, movies are mixed with many personal emotional factors, making the film production process full of instability. Separate production steps from production, distribution, and screening also make it difficult for marketers to integrate resources and develop the full value of a film. If you want to successfully market movies, you must abandon traditional film-making methods and switch to a marketing strategy centered on audience awareness and market awareness, that is, integrated marketing. In the 1990s, experts represented by Schultz, a professor at Northwestern University in the United States, proposed integrated marketing theory (Integrated Marketing Services)[2], this theory emphasizes that in order to avoid consumers being overwhelmed by too much information, we must start with analyzing consumers, reorganize corporate and market behaviors with consumers as the core, and comprehensively and coordinate various communication methods, disseminate unified product information and service information with a unified goal and image, and establish a good two-way communication relationship with consumers.

"Du Lala" grasps the following links on this point:

The combination of actors maximizes market coverage. Although "Du Lala" was a movie filmed in the mainland, Huang Lixing and Wu Peici were invited to ensure the box office in the Taiwan market, and Karen Mok was invited to be the second female lead to ensure the box office in the Hong Kong market. The cast brings together popular actors from the three places across the Taiwan Strait to make the movie popular before it can be performed.

Adapted from the best-selling novel to ensure the audience base of the movie. As a best-selling novel,"Du Lala" was not only compiled into a movie, but also adapted into a TV series and a drama. However, the movie version of "Du Lala" is unanimously regarded as the most loyal work to the original. Movies are products that continue to be sold, and word of mouth is crucial to the box office of movies and can affect the consumption of other consumers. According to the theory of perceived service quality, consumers 'perceived quality does not only depend on the quality of the movie itself, but also includes the gap between the quality expected by customers and the perceived quality experienced. When readers have an established framework and expectations for the novel, being loyal to the original is the safest choice.

Instead of passively catering to consumers, we consciously guide consumers and stimulate consumption. Kotler's "Marketing Management" analysis of consumers 'purchasing power proposes that the model of cognitive stimulus response should be followed, and stimulating consumer psychology and arousing purchase desire becomes the key to marketing success. From "Du Lala", the godmother of fashion sent Tricia? Field invited us to see the director's ambition. The commercial films she creates do not simply cater to the audience for products and brands, but use the lifestyle conveyed by the film to convey brand culture to consumers. "Du Lala" has created a fashion black hole that attracts consumers to follow and imitate. When consumers accept the brand and then experience the consumer experience due to the film, the film and brand appreciate.

3. Target agglomeration strategy

"Du Lala" is a film with the theme of urban white-collar workers. This theme is not eye-catching in today's China film industry, and its specific professional background also limits the popularity of the audience. As a result, the competitive strategy of "Du Lala" moved towards the path of goal gathering strategy.

The target agglomeration strategy is a strategy that focuses on a specific customer group, a segment of a product series, or a certain regional market. [3]The advantage of the agglomeration strategy is that it can be well served around a specific goal to maximize the benefits within the goal. "Du Lala" is targeted at Chick movie, which means romance comedy or romantic art film. It is not difficult to imagine the source of the word chick: on a weekend night, accompanied by her boyfriend, the girl holding popcorn watched movies with handsome men and beautiful women, beautiful scenery and happy ending in front of the screen. These three conditions, coupled with female audiences, can easily define chick movie. In short, movies are mainly made for girls. After the target group is determined, the analysis and research of the target group is very important. Girls love to read fairy tales and also love beauty. The story of Cinderella, the story of dreams coming true, the story of the ugly duckling turning into a swan, Du Lala's triple jump in the workplace won the admiration of the sales director. Du Lala's innocence and ingenuity satisfied the female audience's fantasy about career and love. In the book "Competitive Strategy", Porter believes that there are three basic competitive strategies: total cost leadership strategy, standard differentiation strategy, and goal aggregation strategy. Focus on goals means that the company lives in a low-cost position or has a high ambiguity advantage over its strategic objects, he said. rdquo;[3] and "Du Lala" is a combination of the two. It combines all the elements of Chick movie and is a visual meal for a given target group. Its targeted production reduces the cost of the movie, thereby reducing the ticket price of the movie. Compared with blockbusters, it has a certain price advantage.

4. Integrated entertainment marketing: placement of advertisements in the drama

Film product placement advertising means that advertisers strategically, cleverly and creatively integrate the product or brand and its representative visual symbols and even service content into the movie. Through the reproduction of the scene, the audience can leave a sense of the product and the brand impression, and then achieve marketing purposes. In the film "Du Lala", every advertisement appears, you can find the match between the advertisement and what the protagonist does. Doing so can achieve a win-win situation for both the manufacturer and the film.

Judging from the film, the advertisements accompanying the script will not make the audience feel stiff. The Mazda that Wang Wei drives when driving to work in the film is a product placement advertisement. It is natural for white-collar workers to drive to work, so this product placement will not seem blunt. The clothing of white-collar workers in the film is almost sponsored by major brands. Combined with the identity of white-collar workers, the placement of these advertisements actually makes the film appear more authentic and credible. White-collar workers and famous brands are naturally linked. From a manufacturer's perspective, embedding advertisements into the script arrangement can be tailored to the manufacturer's products. The person in charge of DMG Entertainment Media, one of the producers of "Du Lala", said: We will understand the advertiser's demands in advance, then make a detailed advertising placement plan based on the plot of the movie, and then provide each advertiser according to the scene and storyline of the movie. Tailor-made the appearance of the placement ads, so that they can better play the role of advertising in the film and meet the advertiser's demands. For example, the advertising placement of Lipton Black Tea in the film satisfies the advertiser's caring and warm demands. rdquo; This high-end customization model has also made "Du Lala" favored by more advertisers.

5. Diversified publicity and post-product development

In order not to collide with other movies,"Du Lala" avoided major holidays and was released in early April. Although this choice is conducive to avoiding blockbuster hits, it is also full of risks, and the quality of publicity will directly affect box office revenue. The publicity of "Du Lala" focuses on Internet and TV media, relying on traditional print media such as newspapers and magazines. In cooperation with TV media,"Du Lala" not only reached a strategic cooperation agreement with cctv6, but also jointly created premieres with local satellite TV such as Beijing Satellite TV, Shanghai Oriental TV, and Shenzhen Satellite TV. Local satellite TV and CCTV channels work together to ensure the film's promotional coverage. The combination of online media and offline activities has expanded publicity channels, and the use of resource exchange to cooperate with TV stations is also conducive to saving film publicity costs. At the same time, in terms of print media promotion, in addition to adhering to film magazines as the focus of publicity, the film's protagonist has also appeared on the covers of magazines in life, fashion, and comprehensive magazines 12 consecutive times, with magazine interviews and special reports totaling more than 30 articles. Effectively expand the influence of "Du Lala's Promotion" from the entertainment section of print media to the coverage of fashion and comprehensive media, making Du Lala successfully rise from entertainment and movie topics to hot topics of fashion and life.

The success of "Du Lala" is not only an artistic success, but also a commercial success. The director's self-marketing ability is superb. Its success reflects the important role of scientific and advanced marketing solutions in the film industry."Du Lala" will also leave a strong mark on the road of film industrialization in China.