This study takes the viewpoint that a movie is a commodity. This viewpoint comes from the idea that a movie has three aspects to it being art, communication and business. The objective of this study is to analyze the moviegoer's choice being made abou...
This study takes the viewpoint that a movie is a commodity. This viewpoint comes from the idea that a movie has three aspects to it being art, communication and business. The objective of this study is to analyze the moviegoer's choice being made about which movie to see just as we analyze the consumer's purchasing practice for other products.
The study focuses on the moviegoer's values, a individual factor; and situational motivations, a situational factor. Noting the fact that a movie is a commodity that urettv much reflects the consumer's individual values via feedback such as their paying for it, I assume the values of an audience was a major variable, and have researched how their values affect a moviegoer's choice being made.
The result of the research suggests that a combination of the values of the audience and their situational motivations makes a difference in the way they consume the film.
Firstly, as a result of an analysis, each individual wants to see different values in a movie, and each value shows a close relation with the genre of the movie they select. The audience that wants to see some of 'insights in living' prefers a drama according to their value system about 'what a movie should be like'; the one that wants an 'entertainment' an action movie, the one that wants an 'individual happiness' a romantic movie, lastly, the one wants an 'intellectual game' a thriller or mystery movie.
Secondly, the individual preference based on one's value system, if there isn't any of situational factors involved, directly leads to making a choice of a movie they want. In other words, when there isn't any influence from other people either directly or indirectly, and when there isn't any situational variable motivating them, people make their own choice according to their original preference.
Thirdly, when there is any of situational motivation involved, people selects a film different from their preference. The most important motivation that leads to picking what they prefer to watch is 'for enjoyment of the movie itself,'; other motivations such as 'for a date,' 'for intimacy' and 'for a change' lead to selecting what is different from their preferences.
Fourthly, in the overall analysis of situational motivations, each motivation leads to different genre selected. For a change or killing time, most people selected action movies or thrillers; for enjoyment of a movie itself, most people picked the genre of their preference; for a date or intimacy with somebody, people liked all kinds of movies regardless of the genre; and in case of drama, there isn't much of involvement of other motivations than enjoyment of the movie itself. Therefore, the audience's consuming practice leads to preference to movies of different genres depending on the situational motivations.
Thus, I suggest that we understand the consumer's value system and situational motivations for watching a movie are critical factors for making a choice of what movie to see; and the industry uses different marketing strategies for the movies of different genres.