The influences of marketing mix in attracting audiences to view Chinese fiction films: A case study of the Sino Film “Dying to Survive” (2018)

Abstract

This survey research was chiefly aimed at examining the relationships between the influences of marketing mix factors on the surveyed Chinese viewers’ overall satisfactions with the film “Dying to Survive” and these audiences’ gratifications obtained from the movie. The study also examined the four main marketing factors, including product (film), price, place, and promotion of the film. In addition, the study examined the gratifications obtained in respect to general information seeking, decision utility, entertainment, interpersonal utility, and para-social interaction. Two hundred and eight Chinese young and middle-aged grown Chinese movie viewers who had watched the film in cinema at least once in the year of 2018 and resided in the three largest Chinese metropolis including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou at ordinary times have participated in the survey after watching the motion picture “Dying to Survive”. The means and standard deviations were being tabulated and analyzed by One-Way ANOVA and Multiple Regression with the significance level of 0.05. The findings uncovered the below results: 1) The finding showed that the influences of marketing mix (4Ps) of the film can explain their gratifications obtained at the rate of 67.3 (R²=.673, p< .05). The findings revealed that impacts of product had the highest influences on their gratifications obtained from watching the film (Beta=.347**, p<.05), followed by influences of promotions (Beta=.104, p>.05), influences of places (Beta=.050, p>.05), and influences of prices (Beta=.018, p>.05), respectively. 2) When examining the influence of marketing factors on each dimension of gratification obtained, the finding revealed that (1) the influences of marketing mix (4Ps) of the film can explain their gratifications obtained in respect to general information seeking at the rate of 55.00(R²=.550, p<.05). The influences of all marketing mix factors can significantly influence Chinese respondents’ gratifications obtained in respect to general information seeking from watching the film “Dying to Survive” (F(4,203)=62.025, p<0.05). When examining influences of each factor in the Coefficient table, the findings revealed that impacts of products had the highest influences on Chinese respondents’ general information seeking from watching the film (Beta=.303**, p<.05), followed by influences of promotions (Beta=.072, p>.05), influences of prices (Beta=.069, p>.05), and influences of places (Beta=.050, p>.05), respectively. (2) The findings revealed that impacts of products had the highest influences on their decision utility from watching the film (Beta=.315**, p<.05), followed by influences of promotions (Beta=.181**, p<.05), influences of places (Beta=-.032, p>.05), and influences of prices (Beta=.018, p>.05), respectively. (3) The findings revealed that impacts of products are a significant predictor of entertainment from watching the film (Beta=.384**, p<.05), however, followed by influences of promotions (Beta=.079, p>.05), influences of places (Beta=.084, p>.05), and influences of prices (Beta=-.018, p>.05), respectively. (4) The findings revealed that impacts of products are a significant predictor of interpersonal utility from watching the film (Beta=.332**, p<.05), however, followed by influences of promotions (Beta=.135, p>.05), influences of places (Beta=.057, p>.05), and influences of prices (Beta=-.029, p>.05), respectively. Lastly, the findings revealed that impacts of products (Beta=.330**, p<.05) and impacts of promotions (Beta=.157**, p<.05) are significant predictors of para-social interaction from watching the film (Beta=330**, p<.05), however, influences of prices (Beta=.084, p>.05) and influences of places (Beta=-.022, p>.05) are not significant predictors.