The Hobbit: The Desolation of the Smaug - Essay Example

Commercial Awareness: Marketing Strategy The Hobbit: The Desolation of the Smaug of Institute Commercial Awareness: Marketing Strategy Introduction This essay is written to outline the marketing strategies to be used in order to ensure that the movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of the Smaug gets a high sale in the market. This essay will explain on the various processes involved in marketing a particular product with the main focus being in marketing a movie. The essay will start in stating all the objectives of the marketing strategy. This will ensure while planning, the expected result is already known. The essay will then shift its focus to the context or background of the marketing strategy. The essay will also elaborate on the target audience of the marketing strategy. This is a very essential part of the marketing strategy as it is well known that different people have different taste in movies hence different marketing strategies apply to different groups of people. The essay will also indicate the timeframes that will be focused. That is before and after the release of the movie. The Hobbit: The Desolation of the Smaug The Hobbit, The Desolation of the Smaug is a film directed by Peter Jackson. It is produced by Carolyne Cunningham together with Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh. The storyline originates from the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The movie stars Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt and Orlando Bloom. The movie’s release date is on the 2nd of December 2013 in the USA, 12th December 2013 in New Zealand. The Hobbit is A 225 million dollar movies which mean the expectations will also be high considering the budget. This movie follows on Gandalf the Grey who tries to investigate the evil happenings at Dol Gudur as Bilbo Baggins has to complete his quest with the thirteen dwarves. Their main quest is to recover the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. The film is a continuation of the first movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This movie will have a sequel The Hobbit: There and Back, which will be released in 2014. The movie takes place around 60 years before the happenings of the trilogy The Lord of The Rings written by the same author. Target and Vision The target audience for the movie is grownups above 30 years basing on the performance of the first franchise. The fans aged less than 18 years were less than 20 % therefore; there will be less concentration on their part. The marketing strategy will involve very many different mediums to ensure the mass is fully aware of the presence of the movie. The vision of the marketing strategy is to ensure that all the people get to interact with the movie adverts every single day and convince them that it is a must watch movie for everyone no matter the age. Through this people will develop an interest to watch a movie, or at least review it. Background The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is expected to gross more than 1 billion dollars with a target of more than 1.3 billion dollars considering the first movie did hit the 1 billion dollars mark. This expectation is attributed to the fact that there will be a very Strong marketing to try and expand the fan base of the Hobbit franchise. There will be an improved concentration of marketing focused on the children aged below 18 years which forms a very partial part of the fan base. The movie will also be greatly helped by the fact that it is the second installation as the people will be aware of the movie, therefore, will be patiently waiting for the continuation. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is also greatly helped by the fact that it precedes the story line of The Lord of the ring, meaning that all the LOTR fans will surely by absorbed into the franchise. However, it is pertinent to note that this year has featured many big releases, therefore, one has to be vigilant to ensure that the release dates do not clash with other big releases. Movies like iron man 3, Riddick. Fast 6 and The Dark Knight are known to gross a lot. This means that the fans will be spoilt of choice; therefore, there will be a division on the fan base. Target audience The target audience will mostly be the Americans and the Germans as they are the two main buyers of the first franchise. The target audience will also be the kids under 20 years and women considering they comprise the lowest number of people who went to watch or purchased the movie. With much focus on the kids and woman, there will a good improvement on the sales. Marketing Strategy The marketing strategy will involve an online promotion of the movie. This will involve a viral promotion of the movie on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This will mainly target the grownups. There will also be numerous TV advertisements with appearances by the actors on various shows to promote the movies. Another method to be applied is the use of billboard and trucks painted with the main characters. There will also be t-shirts imprinted with the characters’ images that will be on sale. To target young children, dummies of the characters will be made and either given to them for free or sold to them at a cheap price. All this will be happen one year before the release of the movie that will ensure the people are fully aware of the presence of the movie. A week just before the release of the film all marketing will be halted to prepare for a much more intense marketing one day before the release of the movie. After the release of the movie, the marketing will be shifted to Africa and all places that are known to gross very little. This strategy will be less strenuous and less intense as it will only be for two months. Conclusion Marketing is an integral part of any enterprise and without it the business will suffer. Marketing is what links the product with the customers. The customer would not be able to know the existence of a product without it being marketed. A good product will only be able to reach its intended customers if good marketing is done, and for one to achieve that there should be a good and workable marketing strategy. This is Just like any other product; all good movies require good marketing, and The Hobbit: The desolation of Smaug is one good movie. By identifying the target audience, promoting it and giving it good publicity, this movie will achieve the desired target sales once it is released. References Block, A. B., & Wilson, L. A. (2010). George Lucass blockbusting: a decade-by-decade survey of timeless movies, including untold secrets of their financial and cultural success. New York: itBooks. Marich, R. (2005). Marketing to moviegoers: a handbook of strategies used by major studios and independents. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Focal Press. The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Has Second Highest December Opening Ever. (n.d.). Celebrender. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from: http://celebrender.com/trend/%E2%80%98The-Hobbit%3A-The-Desolation-Of-Smaug%E2%80%99-Has-Second-Highest-December-Opening-Ever Squire, J. E. (2004). The movie business book (3rd ed.). New York: Fireside. Read More