Taking the movies of the Twilight Saga as the main product of focus, it can be stated that the product cycle of the saga is in its saturation and decline stage. With the last installment of the series being released four months ago, while the coming up movie is still approximately a year to be released, the identification of the product cycle can be seen as the maturity stage. The latter can be seen true for the last installment of the series, i.e. Twilight Saga: Eclipse, released in June as well as for the overall series, including the one yet to be released.
The classification of a maturity stage can be explained through the sales of the product. The sales pattern in the maturity stages can be identified when “a product’s sales will slow down” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Comparing the theatrical performance of the last two films in the series, i.e. New Moon and Eclipse, it can be stated that the sales slightly went down, $702,623,634 against $690,934,878 (The Numbers, 2010b). It is not in the stage of decline yet, although the growth of the product slowed down.
Another characteristic indicating the maturity stage can be seen through the occurrence of several competitors entering the market. Products such as Vampire Diaries and True Blood, although not direct competitors, being series rather than films shown at the same time with the Eclipse Saga, are indicators that the product reached the maturity stage, creating an overcapacity (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). In this case, the overcapacity can be seen through vampire themed movies and shows directed toward teenagers.
Finally, the last characteristic of the maturity stage can be seen through the extension of the product range. The franchise of Twilight Saga was expanded to include games for iPhone and iPod touch as well as the release of the DVD which is planned for December 2010 (MTV, 2010). The latter can be seen as a marketing element as well as a prolongation of the cycle, where maturity is the longest cycle for the product (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010).
The advertisement selected for the present question is a teaser of Twilight: Eclipse trailer, released on March 10, 2010. Accordingly, the following answers are based on this teaser.
- The teaser is represented through a 10 seconds clip, featuring footage of two scenes from the film. The teaser does not present any captions, titles, or names. The dialogue in those ten seconds is merely two sentences pronounced by two of the movie’ main protagonists.
- The main objective of the advertisement is awareness. Accordingly, relying on the successes of the previous installments of the series, the awareness is not directed toward the product or organization (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p. 433). The latter can be understood through that neither the name of the film appears in the teaser nor the name of its producers/directors. The goal can be seen in creating curiosity on what the product will be about, preparing the audience for the rest of the marketing campaign.
- The message of the advertisement can be seen through two distinct aspects. The first one is an indication of the date on which the full trailer will be released, such indication was released simultaneously with the teaser, while the full trailer was released a day after. The other message related an element of the plot. Both messages stir up the audience emotionally (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010), through such aspects as curiosity and impatience.
- The execution style of the ads is more resembling fantasy, as it does not deliver or show any particular information, rather than creating “a fantasy around the product or its use” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Additionally, it can be stated that the execution style also has a personality symbol, where the three main characters in the saga were portrayed in the teaser and they are the ones who represent the product.
The company distributing the product is Summit Entertainment LLC, a distribution studio in the United States (Bloomberg, 2010). Despite the fact that the company is American, it can be considered as a global firm. A global firm can be defined as “firm that, by operating in more than one country, gains R & D, production, marketing and financial advantages in its costs and reputation that are not available to purely domestic competitors” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p. 571). The main reason for considering Summit a global firm is the view of the world as one market. The latter can be seen through the way revenues are reported in general in the film industry, indicating the revenues in the country of origin and the revenues in the whole world. Another reason for the company to be considered a global firm is that the international gross of the product is one of the main indicators of profitability. For example, the last two installments of the saga garnered worldwide almost 33 percent higher than in the country of origin (The Numbers, 2010a, 2010b). Finally, the reason which is general for the industry in general is that the success or the failure of a product is measured through its global performance, rather than only domestic. In that regard, the film industry can be seen as a global industry, i.e. “one in which the strategic positions of competitors in given geographic or national markets are affected by their overall global positions” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p. 579).
References
Bloomberg. (2010). Summit Entertainment, LLC. Bloomberg Business Week. Web.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
MTV. (2010). ‘Eclipse’ DVD Gets Official Release Date! MTV Networks. Web.
The Numbers. (2010a). The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Nash Information Services. Web.
The Numbers. (2010b). The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Nash Information Services.