Mr Ford: Marketing and Production Practices Essay

Successful media depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices

To what extent do you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?

In all media products around the world weather it’s a Film, Game, Magazine or CD there is some type of marketing for it such as poster, adverts or trailers depending on the product. I agree that successful media products do need marketing because it’s the main way companies promote their products to the world and audiences the product is aimed for. After marketing there are other sectors that also sectors as well, such as production practices which allow the company producing the product to get a good idea on the quality of the product, and what these big companies such as Paramount Pictures who produce films are selling to their valued customers and audiences. Over the next couple of paragraphs I will talk about how successful media depends on marketing and production as well as production practices and the reasons for and against them. Examples of a large film company would be Disney or Warner Brother. Disney’s marketing and distribution skills are incredibly good and they have a wide range of marketing skills as well, these marketing skills play a big role in the success of the company’s films. Disney has been a popular company ever since it was founded on October 16^th 1923 and since then the company has made and produced over 158 films. Many films created by Disney are massive household name films for the children audiences such as The Lion King and Robin Hood which most children of the 1990’s generation have seen and the new 2000’s generation are also seeing the films now due to their releases onto DVD and Blu-ray. These films were produced and translated into many languages this is a clear example of how Walt Disney’s distribution tactics are highly rated and stretched.

Disney also uses a wide range of vertical and horizontal marketing to widen the distribution of its productions and products. Disney own most of their own studios, TV channels and Clothing Brands meaning they again have a wider range to market meaning more audiences can be covered. An example of this would be Disney’s Alice in Wonderland which has had lots of products made around it so it can gain more money for its franchise. As well as bigger companies smaller companies such as Bedlam Productions use very different tactics in marketing and distribution. With the right distribution and marketing Bedlam Productions gain high profits of The Kings Speech. Bedlam used techniques to market the production for small audiences that the film would apply to such as patriots of the UK. As well as this Disney created fan groups for films which meant they could now attract an even wider audience and also can use these pages to spread awareness of the films they are producing and the upcoming films they are producing with advertising on these fan pages. In perspective to how Disney markets and distributes its films, Bedlam Productions use different tactics in marketing and distribution for different audiences. This was proved when they marked The Kings Speech a film they produced very well and ended up with it brining in a handsome profit. The film appeared to be a smaller produced film, having more of a selected audience which can be seen again as English patriots and American British lovers. This film was marketed through posters with main characters on and

Many audiences engage with distribution and marketing strategies for many reasons. A main reason is that it helps the audiences get a better insight into the product being produced weather it’s a film or a piece of clothing made to spin off from a film. A type of marketing would be Engagement marketing because it is a strategy that directly engages consumers to participate in the evolution of a brand. The audiences engage with the marketing by watching the trailers and reading the posters if they are attractive enough to grab the audience’s attention. I believe that it is equally important to have good marketing skills and a successful marketing scheme, as well as this not all films use really expensive marketing schemes and instead of having massive posters and trailers choose to use smaller techniques such as spreading the word or ‘word of mouth’ in which a film is marketed vocally and is passed on by others eventually reaching a wider market and audience meaning a healthy profit can be made from this scheme. Production on its on gives the film its basics and its structure but the marketing helps fill in the other gaps making the product a whole meaning you can’t have one without the other and expect the product or film to be a big blockbuster hit. Directors need to use a balance of the marketing schemes with production practices to get a good amount of attention for the product they have been producing.