Professional Development for Marketers - Essay Example

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR MARKETERS al Affiliation) PART Introduction and Objectives In this paper, I will describe the marketing strategy I intend to employ in order to promote the sequel to Hunger Games, which will be released on 22nd November. The sequel will be known as ‘The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire’, and is expected to be a much bigger hit compared to the first installment. Consequently, the marketing and promotional strategy is to be tailored in such a way that it boosts the success of the movie in terms of DVD sales (Wilson 2002, pg. 33). As a result, I expect to present, in this paper, a marketing strategy/plan that will go a long way towards ensuring that the movie is in every way a success when it comes to DVD sales. I am very positive that this will be possible, and my target is not only to exceed the previous DVD sales for the first installment of Hunger Games, but to grab the top spot as the best selling DVD franchise in 2013. My vision is to excite my target market and audience with plans that will push them to go out and buy the movie. This target market, I must say, will include those who have watched it at the theatres as well as those who have not (Giles 2010, pg. 61). My target market will be similar to that of the first movie, only a little broader. I will focus on people aged between eighteen and forty, and the primary core will be those aged between twenty-one-to-forty age group, appealing slightly more to men. I expect that people aged between eighteen and twenty-four will view the film as ‘a compelling look at the perils of games in general.’ If you care to know, eighteen to twenty-four year olds tend to engage in video game activity compared to other age groups (Stair & Stair 2001, pg. 83). This movie, if looked at critically, is just a real version of the different types of video games available nowadays (Beckman, Davidson & Maynard 2007, pg. 12). The concepts of surviving, tricking opponents and being smart form the basis of a majority of video games; Hunger Games employed these concepts. Thirty-five to forty age groups may view the movie as ‘childish’, but it is still possible to tap into this ever-so-elusive market. Context / Background The first movie was one of the biggest U.S box-office hits of 2012, and we all know why (Pride & Ferrell 2008, pg. 19). Good marketing and promotion coupled with even better presentation allowed Hunger Games to share the stage with massive hits like Hobbit, Ice Age 4, etc. I will not go into the specific details regarding the commercial performance of the first movie, but I am confident enough to say that with the marketing strategy I will create, I expect at least a 30% increase in sales of tickets in the opening night, box-office weekend, first week, etc. This means that I must also strive to achieve 30% more sales in DVDs, and consequently put more effort than what was done in the first movie. It is important to note that the hype surrounding the sequel is, and will be, considerably higher than that associated with the first installment; this will also help the DVD sales. What I have to do is be smart, keen and calculative in my approach (Kotler 2006, pg. 29). Tweaking, patching and adjusting a few things here and there will lead me to my objectives; I do not see the sense in carrying out a massive overhaul of anything. I intend to build a bigger, more efficient and responsive campaign machine compared to that employed in the promotion of the first movie. This will facilitate my goal of reaching out to everyone in my intended target market, regardless what medium of communication they use, their lifestyle or their age group. As I have mentioned earlier, the core target market is the eighteen to twenty-four age group (meaning they will be targeted more), but other age groups must also be sought out in order to guarantee success. Competition is a key factor that cannot be ignored when developing this marketing strategy (Kotler, Hayes & Bloom 2002, pg. 47). Failure to recognize competition may spring a lot of surprises after months of careful planning and execution: we do not want that. Based on my research, I anticipate that there will be at least six other DVDs coming out before, around, or after our planned date of release (Zikmund & Amico 2009, pg. 57). Two of those DVDs are expected to come out before we release ours; three are expected to come out around the time of our own release, while one is expected to be released after we have launched ours. Of the two that will most likely precede ours, one is a version of a movie that did not do as well as Hunger Games both at the box-office and in terms of DVD sales, while one is a DVD version of a Japanese movie that I consider to be totally unrelated to our genre, and therefore not a direct threat in terms competition. Of the three that will be released around the time of our own release, two are direct competitors since they fall within the same genre as Hunger Games and have been successes at the box-office and in terms of DVD sales. The remaining one was a flop, so no worries there. The last DVD movie that will be released after our own launch was a huge success at the movies, but from my research the marketing and promotion has been poor, and has been bogged by inadequate funding and plenty of well-documented publicity flops. In essence, we are facing serious competition from two well-funded and very organized camps. In the next section I will explain how we will handle this competition to our advantage (Berkowitz 2002, pg. 19). a) Target Audience As I mentioned in the introduction, the target market will include those who have watched it at the theatres as well as those who have not. My target market will be similar to that of the first movie, only a little broader. I will focus on people aged between eighteen and forty, and the primary core will be those aged between twenty-one-to-forty age group, appealing slightly more to men. I expect that people aged between eighteen and twenty-four will view the film as ‘a compelling look at the perils of games in general.’ If you care to know, eighteen to twenty-four year olds tend to engage in video game activity compared to other age groups (Paley 2005, pg. 39). This movie, if looked at critically, is just a real version of the different types of video games available nowadays. Based on this target market, I will employ and exploit ALL forms of media available with particular emphasis on broadcast media (television and radio) and the internet. These will be complemented with travelling caravans and advertising posters which will be strategically placed for the target audience to notice (Evans & Berman 2002, pg. 58). b) Marketing Plan I have opted for a marketing plan that makes use of almost all available forms of advertising; this marketing plan will also involve an active participation of all stakeholders so as to increase our chances of success. From my research and based on industry figures, I have established that the first DVD sold 7,222,018 DVDs (Seymour 2008, pg.44). Since we intend to outsell it by 30%, we are looking at a sales figure of 9,388,623 units. This figure will be arrived at through an aggressive marketing campaign covering all types of media as well as caravans and posters. My research has shown me that the two serious competitors mentioned previously have spent heavily on broadcast media and not so much on online advertising, print media, posters and travelling caravans. In light of this, we intend to conduct thorough campaigns in broadcast media and also beat them in online advertising, print media, posters and travelling caravans. This will give us a competitive edge when you consider that we want to eventually outsell them. In summary, our marketing campaign will be based on very strong broadcast, online, print, and other forms of advertising like posters and promotional tours. We intend to edge out our competitors in broadcast media advertising, but comprehensively beat them in print, online, and other forms of advertising (McDaniel 2002, pg. 74). c) Timeframe The movie will be released in theatres on November 22nd, so basically we have a 3 month period till March in order to do our pre-launch and launch campaigns. The post-launch period can last as much as possible, but the pre-launch and launch periods (December to March) are crucial. This is when the core target market and the secondary target market will be reached and tapped into, and then the post-launch period can be spent consolidating and increasing our gains. Our promotion will therefore start in December, run through to March when we do the official release and then pick up immediately after the launch depending on how the figures are. During holidays like Memorial Day and Independence Day, we will have better offers than those of our competitors that will exploit the public’s tendency to shop, and therefore increase our sales figures. PART 2: See excel file PART 3 All the skills I have learned have been relevant to my Marketing degree and professional development towards my future employment. Actually, this was my expectation, and so far my attitude has been that so long as I possess these skills I can achieve anything I want to. In fact, it does not matter whether I stick to the Marketing field, these skills allow me to advance and grow beyond marketing because they come in handy wherever I go. I consider them to be more of life skills than just educational skills (Young 2005, pg. 23). References Beckman, T. N., Davidson, W. R., & Maynard, H. H. 2007, Marketing (8th Ed.), New York: N.Y.: Ronald Press Company, New York. Berkowitz, E. N. 2002, Marketing (3rd Ed.), Irwin, Homewood, IL. Evans, J. R., & Berman, B. 2002, Marketing, Macmillan, New York. Giles, G. B. 2010, Marketing (5th Ed.), Pitman, London. Kotler, P. 2006, Principles of marketing (3rd Ed.), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Kotler, P., Hayes, T. J., & Bloom, P. N. 2002, Marketing professional services: forward- thinking strategies for boosting your business, your image, and your profits (2nd ed.), Prentice-Hall, Paramus, NJ. McDaniel, C. D. 2002, Marketing (2nd ed.), Harper & Row, New York. Paley, N. 2005, The managers guide to competitive marketing strategies (3rd ed.), Thorogood, London. Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. 2008, Marketing (14th ed.), Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Sandhusen, R. 2000, Marketing (3rd ed.), Barron’s, Hauppauge, N.Y. Seymour, D. 2008, Marketing research: qualitative methods for the marketing professional, Probus Publication Company, Chicago, Ill. Stair, L. B., & Stair, L. 2001, Careers in marketing (3rd ed.), VGM Career Books, Chicago. Wilson, A. 2002, The marketing of professional services, McGraw-Hill, London. Young, L. 2005, Marketing the professional services firm: applying the principles and the science of marketing to the professions, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, West Sussex, England. Zikmund, W. G., & Amico, M. 2009, Marketing: (3rd ed.), Wiley, New York. Read More