Star Wars Product Launch Success

As reported by the NYT1, the Walt Disney Company’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” earned roughly $517 million in worldwide ticket sales during its first weekend. This number is just the first record for a movie that promises to smash multiple box office records.

At a time in which most media companies are struggling to impress investors, Star Wars comes at the right time for Disney. The conglomerate is itself struggling in several sectors, most notably the ESPN business that continues its decline.

Given those considerations, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” demonstrates that great marketing can overcome very difficult market conditions. The movie business is suffering for some time now and ticket sales are soft. Piracy and competition from video games, television and other media are moving people away from the big screens.

First of all, Disney is building on the incredibly strong Star Wars brand. And we will see that this is a Hollywood trend for the next 10 years. Marvel, DC Comics, Jurassic Park and other strong brands will continue to launch sequels/prequels and spin-offs.

Secondly, Disney addressed beautifully the most basic principles of marketing, the 4P and STP (segmentation, targeting and positioning).

Product: The movie itself is very good. It has a good story and reviews across the globe have been mostly highly positive. And that's not by chance, there was a high investment on this movie which cost an estimated $350 million to make and market. It also tapped into a very experienced director, J. J. Abrams (Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Lost).

Price: Disney said that 47 percent of the gross receipts for “The Force Awakens” came from 3-D movies in which tickets sell for a premium. In areas around where I live is actually very difficult to find a time-slot that is not 3-D.

Place (Distribution): The movie has flooded every movie complex across the globe. More importantly, advanced ticket sales allowed the theaters to adjust their offering to the demand and where possible increased the number of rooms and time-slots to accommodate the demand.

Promotion: I don't think there's a single person within the target audience that did not know about the movie opening. And more importantly they were excited about it. The pre-launch promotion was early, intense and well executed. For example, Disney smartly used social media to turn consumer interest into a frenzy.

The importance of targeting: Females and Youngsters. Disney probably knew that it didn't have to target the old fans, traditionally males who are now grown men. But women roles in the past, especially in the original series were very limited. In order to correct that, The Force Awakens presented us with a brilliant and powerful new female main character, Rey. That is certainly helping the movie to gain ground with female audiences. We could also note many toys, Legos, even teddy bears with the new and old characters. Also BB-8 gives so much room to attract and entertain the young ones.

Given how well the marketing strategy for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has been planned and executed, it’s no surprise that, as reported this week, it has now sold $740.3 million in tickets at domestic theaters, according to NYT/Rentrak.

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/movies/star-wars-the-force-awakens-shatters-box-office-records.html?emc=eta1