An investigation into factors affecting customers' buying decision in cinema context

Abstract

Cinema industry in Vienam has been growing strongly over the years with the quick expanding of movie theatres all over the country. Understanding customer behavior in choosing movies and the influential factors will not only help cinema operators in choosing the profitable movies to invest but also aid the marketing campaigns in attracting audience towards the latest movies effectively. Thus the research was conducted to study the factors and their effect on customers‟ movie choice as well as the audience‟s preferences in movies for Vietnam market. The applied theoretical framework was the combination of Thurau (2001)‟s model and Bassi (2010)‟s work, which included four factors: movie traits, structure qualities, communication and situational factors. The research was executed by both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The surveys were distributed to collect statistical data; while interviews were conducted to gain insights into the reasons why and how those factors influence customers‟ decision. Research study has found that in Vietnam market, communication such as trailers, posters and situational factors affect more significantly to customers‟ movie choice than the movie traits and structure qualities. It also showed the great preference Vietnamese has for movies from the US and specific movie genres such as action, comedy, fantasy, etc. Findings also provided foundations for cinema operators to develop strategies in using movie trailers, SMS marketing, brand-building strategies and social network-interacting to communicate and influence audience more efficiently. Despite the inevitable limitations, the research findings provided useful information in understanding the motivation to customers‟ movie choice and their preferences; which are useful sources of information for cinema operators to build their strategies.