Exam Question.

Discuss marketing strategies used by your selected industry. Refer to your three main texts.

Marketing is a significant part of the process when it comes to making films. Films will be marketed differently as there are factors that can influence the success of the marketing, for example a target market. Each individual film has its own target market and therefore use different strategies within marketing. Marketing however does not just occur during the run up of the films released but does so after.

One way of marketing a film is through merchandise. Merchandise is a way of creating awareness of the film to a possible viewer or existing fans of the film. What is important about merchandise is that it creates a reputation behind the film already for possible viewers as they can assume that the film is clearly successful and existing fans of the film are able be more involved. Merchandise is mainly used to create interest and intrigue in order to persuade the viewer to watch/buy the product but also to add more money into a film. An example of a film that does this is the James Bond film 'Skyfall' directed by Sam Mendes in 2012. The Bond franchise has a massive audience backing and because of the success of the film there are many forms of merchandise linked with the films. This includes, replica model cars, T-shirts and its own 007 perfume line. The sheer mass of merchandise available show how significant merchandise is to the films marketing. The merchandise allows the Bond name to reach different audiences and attract more potential viewers. The use of merchandise is one way in which the Bond films try and promote their films and ultimately make money.

Another marketing strategy is film festivals as films tend to get more recognition on a larger scale when they are nominated or win awards from events. The festivals offer the film another platform in which to promote or market their film, as having awards and nominations under their belts give them another selling point. A film that this marketing strategy applies to is 'Weekend' directed by Andrew Haigh in 2011. This film is very different from the Bond film (Skyfall being a tentpole film and Weekend a Independent film), so like mentioned earlier it has to find a different way to market and advertise the film. Weekend has won 20 awards at many different festivals but the most noted ones include Most promising New Comer (Tom Cullen) in 2011 at the British Independent Film awards and Emerging Vision (Andrew Haigh) at SXSW Film Festival also in 2011. From winning awards from well known and respectful festivals means that it is another way for the Weekend to market their film to a different or larger audience. The awards give the film a reputation and also opens up the film to people who may not watch the type of film before. Awards are important within the film industry because it gets more publicity which is the main idea behind marketing and it is another point in which the film can be sold on.

In conclusion, marketing strategies vary depending on who the film is trying to reach in regards to it's target audience. What works for a tentpole film wont't necessarily work for an independent film and because of this there are many marketing strategies that could be used. The ones mentioned above are probably the most obvious and commonly used marketing techniques used within the film industry.