Entertainment is one of the essentials of basic needs for people all over the world. However, there are different types of entertainment with every person preferring their form of spending leisure time. While conducting an investigative excursion around the Rio Grande valley in Texas, I was attracted to some movie theatres in the region. As a lover of movies, I figured out how to apply some of my business skills by investing in this sector. This market plan presents an analysis of a movie theatre business in Rio Grande valley and highlights some of the principles that might result in a successful business. Drive-Thru Movie Theatre (DTMT) aims to provide residents and visitors moments full of fun while touring the region through the provision of high-quality movie screening services within and outside the region.
The product development was motivated by various factors. Technological advancement is one primary motivations towards starting DTMT. From a general perspective, the world is rapidly transforming due to innovations and advances in technology. The entertainment industry is among the sectors that are affected directly by the new technological innovations. Therefore, starting this business will help explore more ways to incorporate new technologies into the market and ensure customer satisfaction. Everyone likes entertainment. Therefore, this makes DTMT a viable business in the country. The entertainment industry is one of the least explored sectors in the region, and this offers large ground of expanding and developing this new market entrant (Braunerhjelm, and Carlsson 2003 p.2). DTMT will focus on providing entertainment to all members of the society through all legal ways in the region as well as across other areas.
Most of the Mexicans visiting RGV might find it interesting during their stay as they receive satisfactory movie entertainment services. Unlike other industries like food production, healthcare, and education, the entertainment industry is still under the initial stages of development in the region. Thus, it gives DTMT a fairground for the growth and development of a strong market base. Therefore, DTMT will find a conducive environment for business development with less competition and rivalry.
MISSION STATEMENT
DTMT’s mission is to offer customers an all-around entertainment experience by providing a comfortable space for enjoying movie scenes. Customers will relax and watch their favourite movies in ample space that relaxes their minds and delivers full swing entertainment. DTMT aims at providing a new movie entertainment service to all the members of the community. Customers will also receive snacks and beverages as accompaniments during their visit as part of our experience.
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
DTMT has well-formulated objectives that make this market plan relevant to the business. DTMT aims at providing its customers with comfortable entertainment services. The specific objectives are:
- To provide customers with comfortable sitting space while enjoying UHD movies.
- To improve customer service through the provision of after sale service tokens such as snacks and beverages.
- To promote the entertainment sector in the region, specifically in the movie theatres.
MARKET ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS
Introducing a new product into the market requires a thorough analysis of the market setting to gain more insight into managing, improving, and maintaining the business. Market environment analysis comprises of the Micro and Macro environmental factors. The microenvironment consists of the environment surrounding the specific company, such as the organization itself, market intermediaries, suppliers, competitors, and Customers. The macro-environment involves the general climate that impacts any business enterprise. The macro-environment forms the PESTLE factor in the business, which means analysis of the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting the market.
Micro-Environment Analysis
DTM evaluates the internal factors that might influence the success of its business. This section presents an analysis of the customers, suppliers, and competitors.
Customers
The customers for the business will be every member of the community as well as visitors from other regions. RGV has less development in the theatre and film industry. Therefore, DTMT will need to attract customers from the region and beyond. The business will need to implement quality services for their customers to enhance excellent customer service to its clients in all parts of the region. The theatre will welcome every customer by offering a range of movies covering all aspects of life and social settings. Customers will have a variety of products to choose from both local and international films on demand. DTMT has enough financial capability to connect with new customers through advertisements and promotions.
Suppliers
Currently, DTMT has no movie products at hand and will rely on suppliers. Rio Films will supply most of the movie products to our theatre under signed agreements. With a local supplier, the business seeks to expand its services through a mutual partnership with the supplier. However, our business will be working on ways to access international market suppliers as well. With the current technologies, we aim to reach out to movie producers and distributors over the internet, such as Netflix, to have a sufficient supply of movies for our customers. Therefore, DTMT will meet the increasing demand for movie titles including the latest movies on the market.
Competitors
As a new business, we aim at finding the right strategies to meet the competition in the industry. Currently, the region has no notable large theatre business in place, and those that exist suffer from various challenges due to poor organization. DTMT will take advantage of the broad market base to compete favourably in the market. One of our competitors is Rio Films who operate in the same industry (“Rio Entertainment Cinemas | Theater | Rio 10 Cinemas – Kerrville”). However, through our partnership for movie product supplies, we shall experience an excellent environment with less competition. Also, the business line focuses on theatre services, which will depend on the quality of service to win customers. Unlike film production companies, DTMT will not face competition from these companies since it is not directly associated with production.
Macro Environment Analysis – PESTEL Analysis
Like any other business enterprise, the business will be affected by political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental, and legal factors (Yüksel 2012 np).
Political Factors
The region depends on political stability that enhances the growth of enterprises for economic development. The selection of our business is strategic in terms of influence from political factors since the theatre will serve customers from the local families and has a lesser amount of dependence on politics. Therefore, this stability in politics will enhance the development and growth of DTMT to a greater extent. Unlike other media and entertainment sectors that influence the country’s political activities, movie theatres have no direct connections with political movements. This makes the business viable for the development and achievement of the objectives.
Economic Factors
Some of the economic factors that might influence our business in the region include taxes and income of the consumers of our service. DTMT should consider all relevant regulations of tax obligations during the operation process. DTMT will need to have a business permit that will ensure remittance of revenues to the government as one of the contributors to the economic development of the region as well as the country at large. The business segment favours all members of society, and the costs of watching a movie in a theatre are affordable to many people in the region. However, we must consider the possible economic risks while setting up the business, such as budgeting, profit margins, and maintenance costs. Failure to create a financial strategy for the company might cause it to fail.
Socio-cultural Factors
Socio-cultural factors might affect the business in terms of customers’ availability and attitude towards the entertainment industry. DTMT will consider all the possible concerns of the society regarding the film industry and entertainment in general. While conducting business, we have put all reasonable measures that will ensure that our business does not affect the community’s social status adversely. Among such actions include regulations on age limit for viewers depending on the movie rating and classification. We are setting up our business based on high moral standards, and we consider all possible factors that might affect the moral uprightness of the community through entertainment. Most of the population comprises of families and young adults who might form our core market segment.
Environmental Factors
So far, RGV has not reported any environmental catastrophe that might affect the operations of our business. Safety is one of our major concerns while setting up our movie theatre. The theatre shall be located at the central business district and must guarantee the safety of customers while on the business premises. The movie theatre will implement mechanisms that will prevent environmental pollution like noise and dumping of waste. We have put all the environmental considerations that will ensure the conservation of the environment while in the line of business.
Legislation
As it stands, Texas supports the entertainment industry but puts regulations on the delivery of content and the distribution of related material to the society. Our business will ensure is adheres to the laws governing the movie industry, which include antipiracy and copyright violations. Every country has its regulations on these elements. We are working smart to make sure that we acquire original and authentic movies for our customers without violating any rights.
SWOT Analysis
Strength
Theatre business is still under development in the region, putting DTMT on better ground to operate the business. The product has less competition, and through the improvement of modern technological innovations, we shall enhance our business growth.
Weaknesses
As a start-up company, we have less potential to meet the massive demand from customers. Also, meeting all customer needs is difficult since different people prefer different genres of movies. We stand to lose some customers during the sessions since one might need to watch only during leisure time.
Opportunities
A large customer base including families living all over the region is an opportunity to expand and grow the business to other branches. There is less competition in the entertainment industry in the area, which allows our business to make profits and grow.
Threats
Government legislation on copyright and piracy might affect our operation as inspections might take longer than expected. As a new business in the market, changing customer behaviour and preferences might take time, affecting our movie theatre’s growth.
Competitive Strategy
Since we are operating within a market segment that is not yet fully explored, it is essential to develop a long term plan of action that will help us gain a competitive advantage over any existing or upcoming enterprises. By examining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as well as all environmental factors, we developed a strategy towards competing with other businesses. DTMT will use Porter’s generic competitive strategy, differentiation, to remain an industry leader. Differentiation involves the development of competitive advantage through marketing a unique service or product (Wook Yoo et al. 2006, p. 354). Several movie theatres do around RGV, but our uniqueness puts us in a better position to achieve our objectives. We are setting up a movie theatre that offers customers entertainment with comfort. We shall use various branding strategies to make our idea unique by developing a modern movie theatre that involves the use of modern technology in ticketing and bookings through online portals.
Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Strategies
We shall build our market segment by targeting two groups of customers; families and youth. Families and teenagers form a more significant percentage of the population and, therefore, boost our movie theatre. We shall target residents from the urban and suburban areas to meet a large number of customers. Our business is also well-positioned in the central business district and will attract many customers from the large population of people going to the metropolis for entertainment purposes. To be more specific, we have leased a premise near the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley campus. This location is close to the large population of students who form a significant segment of our target market for movies and entertainment. Therefore, our business is complete with the right customers and with the right target market to generate profits and traffic to our business.
Marketing Mix Strategies
Our marketing mix strategies include developing a portfolio of different movie packages that will help us cover every aspect of entertainment requirements for the youth and adults. We shall be showing movies from various halls and screens where our customers will to select from a range of categories. To attract more customers, our business will incorporate other products related to entertainment such as drinks and snacks. Through vending fast foods and snacks, we shall have access to more customers through visibility during the purchase of other products.
Conclusion
Establishing a new product on the market requires a critical evaluation of various factors and selecting the right strategies. DTMT will penetrate the entertainment sector in movie theatre due to the stability in the market for the product and less competition in the movie theatre business. DTMT has evaluated all factors, including the internal and external factors that might affect the industry and meet the precise requirements for running this type of business. Differentiation competitive strategies will help DTMT to develop a competitive advantage. The position of the company is direct to the target market, thus making the business viable.
Works Cited
“Rio Entertainment Cinemas | Theater | Rio 10 Cinemas – Kerrville”. Rioentertainment.Com, 2020, https://www.rioentertainment.com/location/9965/Rio-10-Cinemas-Kerrville-Showtimes.
Braunerhjelm, Pontus, and Bo Carlsson. “Introduction: Regional Growth, Clusters, And Institutions.” Industry & Innovation, vol 10, no. 1, 2003, pp. 1-3. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/1366271032000068069.
Wook Yoo, Jae et al. “Principles Of Management And Competitive Strategies: Using Fayol To Implement Porter.” Journal Of Management History, vol 12, no. 4, 2006, pp. 352-368. Emerald, doi:10.1108/17511340610692734.
Yüksel, Ihsan. “Developing A Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model For PESTEL Analysis.” International Journal Of Business And Management, vol 7, no. 24, 2012. Canadian Center Of Science And Education, doi:10.5539/ijbm.v7n24p52.