Marketing in the news: REGAL

For my blog post I chose to write about Regal Cinemas which is the movie theatre I used to work at before it was shut down due to the pandemic. Ive done a couple of promotional campaigns for them when I worked there as a floor staff such as promoting fliers, upsetting, and getting customers a great movie theatre experience and I wanted to dive deeper into their marketing.

I analyzed an article by the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/19/cinemark-pandemic-reopening-future/

which discussed some of the precautions the chain is making as new locations are opening up around the country. One takeaway from the article is that I did not know that many Americans go to the movies. During the pandemic when theatre opened for the short amount of time they did around 54% of Americans didn't go and according to the article that number is usually below 25% which makes sense why they closed. I also learned that "cinemark" the chain that owns regal has much less open screens that AMC which resulted in them losing a lot less money due to the pandemic. Another way they are saving money is cinemark doesn't capitalize as heavily on the luxury movie experience as AMC does. they focus more on having less locations with a likable experience but not luxury saving them a lot of money.

Regals Value proposition is the best place to watch a movie. They try to keep it so every time a customer comes in they are treated excellently and the movie experience is always satisfying sound quality and video wise. The marketing relevance explored in the article is that there main competitor AMC is spending a lot more money due to the pandemic and is looking at a rough start up come their re open. Regal on the other hand may have fewer locations and not as many high end theaters but because of this they are much better off to reopen come the end of the pandemic. This includes higher end safety measures for when theaters open but Covid-19 is still around.

The main challenge here Regal is facing that all theaters are facing is getting people to come back to the movies. As stated before when they opened in the middle of the pandemic attendance was down roughly 25%. Marketing is gonna be a huge issue on making people feel safe and make sure they have a great experience when they do return. If I was the brand manager I would sell it as something that people miss. Even for people who weren't movie goers before if Regal can offer a safe option for customers I think there is a large demographic of people itching to get out of their home and do something fun. After they get them their its just about providing an experience worthy of the best place to watch a movie. I learned in doing this assignment that not only Regal but many theaters are struggling to follow Covid guidelines and that marketing to make people feel safe when they go outside is going to be very difficult in the future.

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