Introduction
The product I have chosen is Star Wars. The product is well known and has expanded into several platforms. The movie franchise was first made by Lucasfilm, a studio founded by George Lucas, the franchise’s creator, in 1971. It was later sold to Disney in 2012. The franchise was originally just three films, but in 1999 it was rebooted with three new films, and the same happened again with Disney in 2013 when the Force Awakens was announced. Lucasfilm started out as a relatively small company when it made the first films, but earned it back in revenue with the popularity with the films. Disney gave the franchise a larger budget for the film production, as it was a larger company.
Target Audience
The franchise was made for everybody. It wasn’t specifically made with a target audience in mind, in terms of age, gender or lifestyle. In the 1970’s sci-fi was not a mainstream genre as it is today, so not a lot of people who were not interested in sci-fi would have gone to see it.
Today however, the franchise has made a home in almost every western home, loved by several generations. The target audience is still for everybody with the movies being a 12A BBFC rating. The movies does not feature a lot of violence, or gore, but simply being sci-fi for all the family. It is franchise that they can get lost the in, and the diverse and well made world draws you in to see all the new planets and creatures featured in the movies.
Codes & Conventions
The franchise’s genre is clearly sci-fi as seen with the setting being in space and with a lot of future technology being used in the movies.
The codes and conventions often related with sci-fi are; space, technology, the future, aliens, dystopian, alternate universe, special effects, etc. Many of these are associated with the Star Wars franchise as it is set in the future in space.
The franchise has used a lot of special effects in the movies, to create their alien characters, planets, and spaceships.
The franchise feature a lot of the classical good vs. evil theme. The first movie released was about a light side of the force rising up against the reigning dark side.
Platforms
The franchise has been expanded across several platforms. In games, tv, film, print, and audio. The franchise has also generated a lot of toys, for adults and children alike.
They started releasing media in 1976, with Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, released a year before the first film’s release. After the film’s release they kept creating media in terms of books and comics. All of the books are tie ins to the franchise, giving a more detailed background to some of the character’s backstories as well as the history of the world.
After Star Wars: The Force Awakens many of these books were not accurate to the current story of the Star Wars world, which means they have had to write new books and comics, that tie in with the new plot of the franchise. This does not mean that the old comics and books have gone out of sale, but rather that people want to collect the old version of the world instead.
In 1982 the first video game was released, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, as a tie in with the second movie in the franchise. It was a very simple game and was very hard to win.
The TV series (Star Wars: Droids, Star Wars: Ewoks, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Forces of Destiny), have mainly been aimed for kids and the newer series have been created using animation and have been aired on children’s channels.
When a new movie is released they design a new batch of merchandise and toys and start to advertise and sell them long before the movie is released. This helps them get people excited about the movie and parents will hear their kids talk about how much they want the new Star Wars toys. It is a good advertisement strategy that the movies are being released near Christmas, since many of the kids will be putting Star Wars toys on their wishlist.
There have also been merchandise released for adults, like R2-D2 themed high heels, or clothing with star wars motifs. These items have sold in big amounts, with adults thinking how cool it is to have something star wars themed in their home. This has created a lot of advertisement and money for the franchise, as they often release something new for the upcoming movie, like the case a few years ago with the Star Wars themed make up, a lot of people has seen the make up and thought how cool it would be to have Star Wars make up. It gained a lot of attention and a lot of people on YouTube were seen testing the make up
Promotions
The movies have been promoted in several different ways, and recently has seen a surge in social media advertisement. They have made collaborations with other companies to make ads and products that have been advertised on all social media. All the trailers have been promoted on YouTube and Facebook quite often, gaining a lot of views as soon as they drop. On these they link ways to pre-book cinema tickets, or pre-order the DVDs so that a lot of people see they are available for pre-purchase. Some of the movies have also been uploaded on streaming networks, like Netflix, so that a lot of people can see the movies wherever they are. The cast members have also been seen promoting the new movies on social media through interviews or YouTube videos made by online websites, or online magazines. These videos have gained a lot of views, giving the new movies a lot of promotion.
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Image Credit Google
iMedia Year 2 