- •International business school – budapest
- •1. Introduction
- •1.1. Academic Background
- •1.2. Key Terms
- •1.2.1. Film Promotion
- •1.2.2. Promotion Strategies and Tools
- •1.3. Research Question and Objectives
- •If some of the release and post-release strategies - as practiced in the us - were adopted by the Russian film industry, filmmaking would be far more profitable.
- •2. Literature review
- •2.1. Promotion Strategies and Techniques
- •2.1.1. Promotion as Part of Marketing
- •2.1.2. Promotions Specific to the Film Industry
- •2.2. Comparison of us and Russian Film Promotion Tools
- •2.3. Main Differences in Promotion Strategies
- •3. Research Methodology
- •3.1. Research Design
- •3.1.1. Research Approach
- •3.1.2 Research Strategy
- •3.2. Data Collection
- •3.2.1. Interviews
- •3.2.2. Questionnaires
- •3.2.3. Secondary Sources
- •3.3. Methodology of Evaluation
- •3.4. Validity and Reliability
- •4. Data Analysis
- •4.1. The American Film Promotion
- •4.1.1. Secondary Research
- •4.1.2. Survey Results
- •4.1.3. Interview Results
- •4.2. The Russian Film Promotion
- •4.2.1. Secondary Research
- •4.2.2. Survey Results
- •4.2.3. Interview Results
- •5. Conclusions
- •1) To give an overview of promotional tools and strategies in general and in the film industry in particular
- •2) To analyse us film promotion through examples
- •3) To review the Russian film industry with a focus on the promotional aspect
- •4) To compare different ways of promotion in the two countries
- •5) To summarise a list of strategies that can benefit the Russian film industry
3.1.2 Research Strategy
It can be argued that the case study is one of the best ways to explore existing theories through questionnaires, observation, interviews and documentary analyses (Lewis et al., 2003). The survey strategy to collect data seems especially well suited to achieve the objectives of this dissertation. See explanations for reasons of choice under 3.2.
3.2. Data Collection
According to Lewis et al. (2009) primary data is collected by using questionnaires and interviews for getting as much relevant practical information as possible. The questionnaires will help to clarify the differences between American and Russian consumer choices and also help to highlight effective film promotion strategies between the two countries. The interview questions will be sent to two representatives of the American and Russian film industries respectively. The questionnaires will be interpreted by using logical and descriptive statistics based on age, gender and level of urbanisation of population which will be analysed quantitatively. As was mentioned in the Literature Review part of the dissertation, the Internet plays a huge role in film promotion and because of this questionnaires will be posted on the most popular websites used by moviegoers. These questionnaires will be available for all websites’ visitors without any limitations.
3.2.1. Interviews
Interviews will be conducted by e-mail and via Skype and they are based on standardised open-ended questions (Appendix 2). The reason for doing this is that film promotion strategies are different in both countries therefore open-ended questions provide more descriptive information about the main research objectives. Two interviewees have been selected, one American and one Russian. Due to their busy schedules interview questions will be sent by email or asked via Skype. Both interviewees have extensive experience in film promotion. The information received from them will describe the research question and the hypothesis of the dissertation from professional point of view. More attention will be paid to the comparative analysis of US and Russian release and post-release strategies according to the hypothesis. The two experts are Karina Mejia from the USA, who has been the head of 20th Century Fox Promotional Department for more than twenty years. The other expert is Sergei Shanovich, who has his own film promotion company in Russia called Shan Design, which main function is to distribute Russian films in Russia and abroad. The questions for the interviews will be standardised and open-ended in order to get a detailed picture of the two countries’ film promotion industry which is central for the hypothesis of this current work. They could provide valuable information not presently available in the secondary literature based on their own personal opinions and work experience. In addition it is an excellent opportunity for the author to talk with such extensive film industry experience.
3.2.2. Questionnaires
The quantitative part of the research, which is based on online questionnaires, will be available for one hundred regular moviegoers who, due to their interest in films and the film industry at large, will also be regular followers of film premiers and promotional activities (Appendix 3). The questionnaires will be posted on popular American and Russian websites which are IMDb.com and Kinopoisk.ru. All visitors of these sites will have an opportunity to answer the questionnaires. These will be available 24 hours a day, each of the respondents can answer once only and the results will be anonymous. The questionnaires will be withdrawn from the side once one hundred people submitted their responses. For getting responses the use of online questionnaires is preferred. Questions will be a mixture of open and closed types and will include some free choice and rating questions, which will show how respondents agree or disagree with the given statements. After the questionnaire respondents will be invited to express their views on the questions if they choose. The survey will be available for all Internet users in Russia and the USA. Analysis of the whole population could be difficult, ambiguous and costly therefore a quota sampling method will be chosen. Quota variables will be collected based on the Russian and the American population by gender, age and urbanisation level. Population will be divided into two main groups; American and Russian moviegoers. These moviegoers will be divided by gender, age, using the following categories 12 to 17, 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 54 and older than 54. Urbanisation level means the distinction between place of residence, for example cities, villages or hamlets and other localities. These variables are important because they demonstrate the differences in the perceptions of film promotion campaigns. Quota sampling is a non-random sampling method used for sampling large populations. The reason for choosing this method is that it is quick and economic and also has the same distribution of characteristics as the population (Lewis et al., 2009). It is important to take into account audience opinion when film promotion strategies are discussed. Consumers are the most powerful market forces who can determine success from failure therefore their opinions are paramount. The data received from moviegoers will be compared to and contrasted with the opinions of the professionals.