Stars Wars: The Force Awakens has been breaking all kinds of box office records; it has already crossed OVER 1.9 billion USD at the box office. With a production budget of 200 million . It looks like a fine profit margin!
Every EMPOWEREDpreneur that markets has something big to learn here.
It was a well written story, brilliantly cast with one of the best directors at the helm. However, that is not the only reason for the awesome success of this installment of the Star Wars franchise. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, who were the distributors for the movie, have done a synergistically epic job with the marketing and promotion.
How Disney applied Yoda’s wisdom for marketing.
Star Wars, by itself is a hugely popular brand, but Disney did not make the mistake of relying on the brand to sell itself, it did what any good business should do- it built one the most effective marketing campaigns as an indoctrination into its many sales.
A Compelling Marketing Strategy Is The Path To The Long-Term Profitable Light Side
Look at these NEXT 5 Points, memorize them, If I see you in a Noorish Cafe, You will be tested on them!
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Anticipatory Marketing
It was a well orchestrated build-up. The first thing they did was to make all six existing Star Wars films available on streaming services. (use your old products to launch your new ones) This reignited the Star Wars ‘fire’ in the hearts of the fans: Avengelists. They helped build the anticipation. People were eagerly waiting for the release of the movie by the time it came out! Presales hit around $50 Million dollars. Build up the hype, delay gratification, make their excitement intoxicating so they convert their social circle into customers! ( I like using this method with my clients as special event marketing, no matter if they only sell products, we create anticipatory events)
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Go All Out
The marketing campaign left no Jedi Mind-trick stone unturned. They advertised across all platforms- media networks, social media- and supported the advertising by selling ancillary merchandise like toys. Basically, all marketing channels were in sync with each other to harness the true power of focused promotional activities. Star Wars Released the merchandise as stand alone products before the movie came out. When consumers connected the dots: A great increase in merchandising sales. Make people desire products even before the launch? a chance to get acquainted with the products before the PRIMARY LAUNCH! They all aid in upsells! It’s an early bird tatic, it gives them the chance to harness evangelists & early adopters… These people do lots of the selling for you. They span out sales for longer periods of time, The force awakens was already a familiar brand before it launched… multiple contacts through multiple media venues hit the curiosity of potential viewers and turned many of them into definite viewers/ customers. Huge Conversions here! It came out like the Star Wars Sensation Craving The Nation! When you market an event, use all venues you know you can afford and leverage, don’t go with just one, all eggs in one marketing basket, crack [enventually]
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Use Nostalgia, Affect Reality, Merge with other brands—-> make their clients yours
While promoting the film Disney built on Star Wars brand’s original audience, they expanded their market with ABC New’s anchor’s [The network is owned by Disney] The Anchor’s dressed up as Star Wars characters and appeared on the network’s ‘Good Morning America’ show way before the movie was released. This had people reliving the past glory of the Star Wars movies. and started fueling the buzz! Here we see Star wars impacting other realities, like a virus the force is with us on apps, in Google, its made its way back into M&M’s, it’s in every department and convenience store. The Foce has certainly Awakened like a global merchandising Symphony! Star wars has borrowed the power of other brands to use their viewership for their launch. They used what we call: Joint Ventures. Get other people to endorse/promote you, if done right, new potential customers will take note of your message.
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Make an Emotional Connection
Star Wars, the brand, has an emotional connect with its fans. Disney did well to use the force of indirect marketing to further strengthen this bond by sharing pictures of the cast together; images of them sitting down for a reading and pictures of them sharing lighter moments on the sets.
This engaged the fans in a manner that direct advertising cannot. If you influence your customers empathy, you have a connection that will purchase on (usually) many different levels of sales. Die hard fans always watch the making of the movies, what if we showed other people snippets of behind the scenes in efforts to convert them into diehard fans. to give them a more authentic experience and convert them into greater fans. If they know how something was made, that gives them social currency they might want to share. PLUS: If we know how things work behind the scenes, we may become more connected with those things. FINALLY: When we become emotionally positive about something we are more likely to purchase or experience it.
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Social Media- Use The Force or suffer the pit of Jabba The Hut!
Disney created sufficient buzz on social media. They partnered with Google and Verizon to bombard the internet with news feeds. On twitter, #TheoryWars was trending as Verizon offered Twitter users a chance to win free movie tickets by using this hashtag. Similarly, Google apps campaign, #ChooseYourSide, gave fans a chance to customise their themes as ‘dark side’ or the ‘light side.’ The marketing was an interactive experience before you even bought anything. If you get people to download a free app, you increase the odds that they will purchase products from you.
CNBC reports that– “there were a total of 234 million Star Wars-related interactions across the brand’s official social media accounts from January through November 2015.” Creating events that engage your customers and connect them to your brand before a purchase is presented GREATLY increases purchase rates, We need to build a relationship up in the courting phase before we ask our date to pay for supper 😉
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney has taught marketers many important lessons on how promote a product. Employ these marketing strategies in your own business then the force is sure to be strong with you and you too can rule your marketplace!
