“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices.” To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the film area.
Within the film industry the importance of marketing and distribution paired with good production practices are vastly recognised and appreciated. Production and distribution can influence a film's success majorly, and this link between which is more important can sometimes vary from one film to another. So all three, Production, distribution and marketing are extremely important factors for companies to take into account when trying to create a popular film.
An example of a large well known film company is Disney. Disney's marketing and distribution skills are known to be vast and play the key role in contributing to the success of their films. This large company was actually founded in 1923 and since this founding has happened, they have created over 158 feature films. Once the first animated classic films Lion King and Robin Hood, Disney grew into a popular household name. Many of the animated classic films became timeless, whilst this was timeless, the target audience was young and the stories shown were suitable for children all across the world. The film Robin Hood is a clear example on how wide Disney's distribution tactics have stretched, with the film being translated into over sixteen different languages.
The large company also used a wide variety of horizontal (A market diversified so that the products created are able to meet the needs of more than one industry.) and vertical (A group of companies which serve each other's specialised needs, but yet do not serve a broader market. The vertical market is tightly focused on meeting the needs of one specific industry.) marketing, to ensure that the distribution was wide with it's productions. With Disney owning their own studios, record labels, shops, clothing brands, radio stations and TV channel, Disney have a wide scope to advertise with, as they own these companies they are ale to distribute through them with ease. The well known example for this is the High School Musical. High School Musical was premiered on the Disney channel and also had it's own sound track released.
Disney also use a variety of Viral Marketing (A marketing technique used by companies which involves the information about a company's goods or services is passed electronically from one internet user to another.) to appeal their audiences with an online presence. By using an online presence, the company are able to keep the young audience targeted up to date with new releases and teasers, while also keeping the company up to date with the development of technology and trends. With the Viral Marketing being at the grips of the company's hands, the company began releasing it's own fan pages on the social networking sites e.g. Facebook. An example of this was the page for 'Loyal followers of the Red Queen.'. By creating fan groups for all the films Disney creates, the company allows for an even wider audience and are able to use these pages for spreading awareness and introducing people to the films, it creates.
In juxtaposition to how Disney markets and distributes its films, the Bedlam productions use very different tactics in marketing and distribution. As the Bedlam productions are a small independent film company founded in 2009, they manage to blow the targeted audience away with their own drama film 'The King's Speech'. Unlike many Disney films, this film only appeals to a smaller and more select target audience. This involved Bedlam taking this into account by using marketing techniques that would reach people in their target audience range. The film was advertised on posters and newspapers more so than the films directed at younger target audiences. The fact that 'The King's Speech' was shot in the same year as the Bedlam Productions was founded, while considering the succcess of the films itself and the fact that the it was not from a well known company, it leads me to wonder whether it is in fact the production practises and not the distribution that makes a film successful. Bedlam productions teamed up with another independent film company, See-Saw Films, and distributed 'The King's Speech' through Momentum Pictures.
When regarding Disney as a whole we see that it has received over two hundred Oscar nominations, but has only won just over fifty of them, when comparing this to the 'The King's Speech' alone whilst taking into account how many films Disney has made in comparison to Bedlam Productions it becomes clear that even with a vast array of marketing and distribution chains at your disposal you cannot guarantee the response to the film. Indeed marketing and distribution are highly important in getting people to want to see the film, but if the film lacks in quality then the success will be short-lived. Quality films such as 'The King's Speech' are films that become timeless through their appeal. Films such as these are living proof that although marketing and distribution is important, it can lose all of its worth once the film has left cinemas as nobody will want to see the film again or buy the DVD to a film they dislike. I therefore conclude that good production practices hold more wealth over distribution and marketing techniques as they guarantee a lasting success for a film as opposed to a short-lived one.
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