The story of a man stranded on Mars, surviving for 2.5 years using his knowledge of science sounds boring on paper. You may think that this is a story for sci-fi fans, or geeks.
And yet Matt Damon starring, "The Martian" became a box office hit. It closed on $500 Mn globally, before it even released in Asia. A lot of credit for the success of this film lies with the marketers who 'sold' the movie and it's plot, way before it was released.
Prologue videos were released on YouTube, familiarising people with the story, actors and the cool sets. The cast and crew attended various events all over the world to promote the film. Competitions were held online and offline. A popular soundtrack and The Martian Official Game with the goal of saving Damon’s Mark Watney, and Microsoft’s Hack Mars contest, also upped the profile. Social media hashtags like #themartian, #journeytomars, #yearinspace, #potatochallenge and #bringhimhome drew comments from all over the world. Fox marketers even held a cooking competition in Japan to promote the film.
The marketers ensured that the science shown in the film was understood, appreciated and promoted through their marketing campaign. They also ensured that different mediums were used to market the film. This enabled different audiences to be aware of the film. This practise of creating a seamless experience to promote a brand or product, across different channels at the same time, is called Integrated Marketing Communication. The video below explains the concept of IMC and how it can be implemented.
After all, the ads we see today are efforts by marketers to use the marketing mix to communicate their messages. In this video find out the various elements of the marketing mix.
Key Takeaways From The Video Above:
- IMC is the actual channel used to share the message created by marketers.
- Advertising is the most common marketing channel.
- Marketers use sales promotion as a B2B and B2C channel to market products.
- Events and experiences are channels used by marketers as well.
- PR is another channel marketers use to build rapport with consumers.
- Mobile marketing is a popular channel today since most of the world's population owns a cell phone.
- Direct and database marketing is used to get in touch with the end consumers with e- mails, telephone calls, etc.
- Personal or face to face selling is used to market and sell offerings.
- The message needs to be consistent across channels in order to impress consumers.
- Deciding on what channel to use involves evaluation of 3 basic factors- cost involved, ROI and target consumer.
- If you cannot communicate the message strongly to the right consumer at the right moment in the right way, it will not translate into sales.
Parts of this post are excerpts from the "
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