Strategies involved in Movie Marketing and its impact on the box office sales in Bollywood

Abstract

Indian Bollywood cinema has seen many changes over past few years. The changes have been both in the content of the movie and also in the ways to market the movie. Due to high competition and changing user preference it is essential to create value proposition for the users and that's where marketing steps in. While some movie makers have craze for increasing promotions some still think that low key promotions for their film is good as it helps in building curiosity. The report mainly looks at the various strategies which have been a part of the Indian Bollywood. An analysis of the marketing strategies used for the movie Ra-One and 3 Idiots have also been included. Both of these movies were considered terrific in terms of their marketing strategies but differed at their box office collection and hence a brief analysis of their marketing activities has been included. To establish the need for movie marketing and to understand its impact on box office sales, a regression analysis was done on first week sales and later week sales with the amount of money spend on promotional activities, the star cast in the movie and the content of the movie. The results showed positive importance for promotional budget for first week sales.

To understand the perceived importance of various marketing activities, an online survey was floated to check the following hypotheses:

 Star cast is the major factors that influence the decision making process of an individual to watch a movie.  Item songs in a movie help in additional word of mouth and provides topic of discussion.  Celebrity appearances in daily soaps provide positive promotion.  Covert marketing helps in additional word of mouth.  Celebrity special appearances help in increasing the buzz about movie.

The survey analysis concluded with positive results for the above hypotheses at 95% significance level. The report concludes with recommendation emerging from the study.