Entry_14 20500687

Indie Filmmakers Hit Their Target
Taking cues from musicians’ Internet business models, filmmakers are transforming the movie biz by handling marketing, distribution, and DVD sales

Summary
The reason why I chose this article is that it implies several important marketing strategies at one place. Indie filmmakers hit their target audience without any paid advertising or reviews. How can it happen? Consumers are usually attracted by fancy advertising delivered on TV or at least Internet reviews scored high and positive opinions. The documentary “What’s Your Point, Honey?” sold out this 160-seat theater in Manhattan is successful without any paid advertising. The audience of this movie are part of the transformation of the film industry. They are targeted by the filmmakers who produce the documentaries with certain intention of targeting certain group of people such as young women interested in politics.

Opting out of the festival circuit
In reality, few people get rich making documantaries. According to Peter Broderick, a Santa Monica consultant to independent filmmakers, filmmakers who take control of their marketing and distribution can expand their audience and increase their chances of turning a profit. They should be as creative about their distribution as they are about their production.

Closer to the CORE audience
What independent filmmakers do as part of their marketing strategies is targeting the core audience that they are looking for based on the topic or interest about their movie. They build an e-mail list of people who care about the topic. Then, they send an e-mail with the information of their movie to invite the core audience.

Generating more buzz and profits
Since independent filmmakers do not go through many distribution channels, it generates more profits in terms of saving money for the distributors. Besides, it can create the effect of buzz marketing easily due to the core audience compared to the one using distributors.

Opinion
Reading the article, I got a reminder of the P&G case that we discussed during the class. Like the startup company Dr. John's SpinBrush which they don't have any paid advertising but still very successful, indie filmmakers also use this reverse marketing strategy. Just like Dr. John's SpinBrush captured the new segment of customers where the word of mouth effect has created among the users, indie filmmakers target the core audience of their movies who are interested in their topic. I think this is very convenient while very strategic to generate more profits saving the money for the movie distributors. Advertising is a good way of marketing to capture the customer's attention and to deliver information easily. However, targeting certain group of people like many indie filmmakers do thesedays is as important as capturing the whole audience. In addition, this strategy might be a part of customization which companies should understand people's interests fully before giving out random advertisement.

Annotation
John Tozzi, Indie Filmmakers Hit Their Target, BusinessWeek Journal, June 5, 2008
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2008/sb2008065_226261.htm