Abstract
Consumers have to decide whether to spend money or time for an entertainment product without knowing whether it is of high (experience) quality. They have to determine the quality of an experience product in advance using search qualities or “pseudo-search” ones—signals that help consumers to infer whether they will enjoy a product or not. We explore the signals that consumers use to aid in their search for which entertainment products to buy. In this chapter, we explore technology as a major search quality of entertainment, followed by a discussion of several signals, namely the product’s genre or theme, any age restrictions and the critical content that underlies them, and the country of origin.
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Notes
- 1.
One other product element that constitutes a search attribute for some kinds of entertainment deserves a special mention here: the packaging. An entertainment product’s package can add value on its own, such as the utility and coolness of a special DVD box set (Plumb 2015 lists some impressive examples). Packaging may also be a hidden force that contributes to the current revival of vinyl albums—one of this book’s authors (guess who!) has a history of collecting vinyl soundtrack albums for his most beloved films. The topic of packaging in this section overlaps with our discussion of digital technology when we describe the value of the physical package for haptic qualities that digital versions lack. But the main commercial relevance of packaging in entertainment comes from its informative and communicative capabilities, which we discuss more thoroughly later in the context of communication.
- 2.
Please also see our discussion of the role of technological resources for entertainment firms in the market characteristics chapter.
- 3.
Some movie executives have also articulated interest in the use of VR as a means to enhance the movie-watching experience, such as by using VR headsets as “virtual movie theaters” (Busch 2017). In addition to enormous (and costly) technological requirements, the consumer value of such applications appears questionable at best, however.
- 4.
Previous historical periods in which 3D films bloomed were the early 1950s (with films including Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder from 1954) and the early 1980s (e.g., Jaws 3-D).
- 5.
This result needs to be treated with care though, as the authors do not report a formal moderation test.
- 6.
The $100,000-budget the authors used for producing the film was remarkable and indicates a high level of professionalism.
- 7.
For more on satiation in entertainment, please refer to our discussion in the chapter on entertainment product characteristics.
- 8.
These other determinants of movie success included genre, production budget, advertising spending, number of opening screens, participation of stars, and being a sequel. In essence, these other determinants of movie success helped us to rule out the possibility that the 3D movies in our data set differed systematically from their 2D movie “twins” with regard to any criterion that could cause a potential difference in success. Not controlling for the relevant determinants could have resulted in wrongly attributing a difference in success between our 3D and 2D movies to their 3D versus 2D nature. Let us add one methodological note: the twin identified by the approach we used here is not a “real” movie—instead, it is a “hybrid” movie that represents a weighted combination of all 1,082 2D movies in our database that were released in the same time frame as the 3D movies (from 2004 to 2011).
- 9.
We explain the general problem of such endogeneity in regression models in our introductory chapter. “Treatment biases” in entertainment are by far not limited to the use of 3D, but hamper our understanding of how several other product characteristics, such a product being a sequel, a remake, or featuring a star, influence product success. We will get back to this issue in the respective chapters and sections of our book.
- 10.
The estimates are the result of a polynomial weighted least squares (WLS) regression model in which we included the linear and squared interaction terms of the 3D variable and a film’s production year.
- 11.
Let us add that the “uncanny valley” theory might be of value beyond the understanding of higher frame rates and even beyond filmed entertainment. By building on the immersion-related argument above, the theory could help to better understand the impact that CGI elements in visual entertainment have on audiences. For example, Itzkoff (2016) discusses it in conjunction with audiences’ reactions to the digital revitalization of dead actors, such as Peter Cushing as evil Grand Moff Tarkin in the Star Wars film Rogue One. But given the huge commercial success of clearly imperfect animation tricks in commercial super hits such as the initial Star Wars movie (and also those recent entries which use digital revitalization), the link between realism and immersion/success is certainly not a trivial one and requires a thorough extension of Mori’s original thinking.
- 12.
For details, see the development of different music formats in Fig. 5.4 in our chapter on entertainment business models.
- 13.
In case you want to test your own ability in distinguishing between different compression formats, we recommend the little test that NPR has put together at https://goo.gl/wXJmHg: for six songs from different genres, it asks us to judge three versions that differ only in compression levels. [At least one of this book’s authors didn’t recognize any differences with his Sennheiser PC headset.]
- 14.
For a detailed discussion of the blockbuster concept as the dominant integrated marketing strategy for entertainment products, see our chapter on integrated entertainment marketing.
- 15.
Some scholars have tried to use empirical data and statistical techniques for developing music genre typologies by investigating common elements between music pieces. Schäfer and Sedlmeier (2009) use consumers’ preferences toward 25 popular music genres and condense them via factor analysis to six musical genres (i.e., sophisticated, electronic, rock, rap, pop, and beat, folk, and country music). Silver et al. (2016) employ a network analysis approach to discover patterns in how 3 million musicians presented themselves and their work on the social media site MySpace.com in 2007. They find three musical genre “complexes”—a Rock complex (encompassing what the authors refer to as “Countercultural,” “Mainstream,” and “Punk Offshoots” subgenres), a Hip-Hop complex (dominated by Rap, Hip-Hop, and R&B), and a Niche complex (which covers several less popular musical styles, such as Electronic, “Dark/Extreme” Metal, and World Music). Whereas these attempts can be applauded, the biggest problem with the empirical determination of music genres is about selling: gaining industry and consumer acceptance for such typologies is tough, but indispensable for having a “real-world” impact.
- 16.
For more information about the data set, please see our earlier Fig. 5.10 in our entertainment consumption chapter.
- 17.
Specifically, we control in the analyses for whether a movie was distributed by a major studio, the advertising budget, the production budget, whether a film featured a star (based on the annual “Quigley” star ranking—see footnote 232 on p. 417), was a sequel, a remake, or a version of a previous movie, was based on a novel, book, or bestseller, was produced in the U.S., and ratings of the film’s quality by critics and IMDb users.
- 18.
Our data set is limited to those films that made at least $1 million in North American theaters—whereas this barrier will hardly matter for films of other genres, it might contribute to the high ROI of documentaries which are often produced for a small budget. Separately, researchers have pointed to the role of distribution as a mediator of the effect of genres on success. According to such logic, genres not only impact consumers directly, but also via an influence on movie theater owners and their screen-allocation decisions for a movie (e.g., Clement et al. 2014).
- 19.
The other factors included in the analysis are: the platforms on which a game was released, price, number of previous versions, published by a major studio, advertising budget of the game and its competitors, consumer and expert evaluations of its quality, hardware variables (the installed based and console age), and existence of a multiplayer feature. For details, see Marchand (2016).
- 20.
Specifically, they also include measures for the stardom of the author, whether the book is a sequel, publisher status, and the books’ price (which is set for each book by the publisher in Germany and must be respected by all retailers).
- 21.
Let us mention one statistical caveat: the authors do not include the genres themselves in the equations. The same limitation applies for Hsu’s (2006) study we discuss below.
- 22.
Regarding the specific values of a culture, please also note our discussion of country-of-origin signals later in this chapter.
- 23.
For action and drama films, Akdeniz and Talay also find negative effects for South Korea, which conflicts with these genres’ higher-than-average market shares as reported by Follows—something that points at the existence of “hidden” factors for these genres that are not accounted for in mean comparisons. Separately, please keep in mind that their results only reflect a culture’s reception of American genre films. So, whereas the underperformance of comedies in Germany seems to confirm the country’s reputation of being “not funny” (Evans 2011), such an interpretation would ignore the enormous successes of native comedies such as Der Schuh des Manitu (12 million attendants), Otto—Der Film (9 million) and the Fack Ju Göhte trilogy (which attracted more than 20 million moviegoers in total).
- 24.
In case you’re interested in the studios’ handling of ratings, we also highly recommend the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated. Prepare yourself for some radical content, though.
- 25.
Marchand (2016), who uses basically the same data set for the same console generation as Cox, finds no effect of a continuous measure of rating restrictiveness. When we reanalyze the same data and substitute this measure with a binary one (“mature” rating or not), we find the same sales-enhancing effect that Cox reports.
- 26.
As Lang and Switzer’s analysis controls for the ratings categories (as well as critics’ judgement and distribution intensity/screens), with the coefficients of the ratings variables indicating how ratings themselves influence movie success, separate from the content they signal (the “restriction effect”); the coefficients for the radicalness dimensions reflect the dimensions’ average “consumer appeal.”
- 27.
In another study, using a data set of 2,000 films from 1992 to 2012, Barranco et al. (2015) code radicalness based on reasons given by the MPAA and arrive at similar insights regarding the appeal of average content. In an OLS regression across all age ratings (for which they do not control in the analysis, though), they replicate the success-enhancing effect of violence. They also obtain a negative sign for profane language, but it does not reach significance.
- 28.
The strength of this restriction effect assigns meaning to the processes through which such ratings are determined. Leenders and Eliashberg (2011) conduct an empirical investigation into the determinants of ratings for movies across nine countries, finding that not only the movies’ ingredients are impactful (e.g., violence etc.), but also are the characteristics of the rating board (e.g., membership structure, size, and a country’s culture). Related, Waguespack and Sorenson (2011) investigate potential biases in the assignment process of ratings. Analyzing 2,408 films that have been released in North American theaters between 1992 and 2006 and using content classifications by both kids-in-mind.com and IMDb, they show through linear models that distribution via an MPAA member firm reduces the chances of receiving an R-rating, as does the previous experience of the distributor. In addition, they find that it helps to have directors and producers that are well-connected within the film industry. In contrast, using a director who has a reputation for R-rated films reduces the chance of being rated less restrictive than R.
- 29.
See our chapter on entertainment branding for a more detailed discussion of the revenue streams of entertainment brands and franchises.
- 30.
We have mentioned the Cannon Group’s approach to making movies earlier in this book and will return to it in more detail in our discussion of entertainment innovation. At this point it is informative that most of the firm’s works have been labeled “exploitation” films, as they almost always featured “cheap attractions”—high levels of exploitative (i.e., dramatically unmotivated) violence, sex, and profanity. Despite this fact, or, following our argument here, because of it, they have developed a devoted fan base which still celebrates Cannon’s creations some 25 years after the firm went out of business, on Facebook (e.g., “Cannon Films Appreciation Society”) and elsewhere.
- 31.
See in particular our discussion of “great” storylines in the chapter on entertainment product quality.
- 32.
Or, as an Internet user suggested humorously, there’s always a boy, a girl, and a tree in Bollywood movies—the boy falls for the girl, the girl, after some hindrances are overcome, falls for the boy, then they (and others) sing and dance around the tree in various locations (Valan 2010).
- 33.
For example. German singer Nena released an English-language version of her 1983 song 99 Luftballons under the title 99 Red Balloons . Whereas the German version climbed up to #2 in the U.S., the English-language version indeed became #1 in the UK, Ireland, and Canada (but interestingly had no success in the U.S.). In the pre-globalized world of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, recording songs in other languages was done by many international stars, such as The Beatles (She Loves You —Sie liebt dich in German), and The Beach Boys (In My Room—Ganz allein , also in German). As late as in the 1980s, some stars still recorded versions of their songs in other languages, such as Michael Jackson did with a Spanish version of I Just Can’t Stop Loving You in 1988.
- 34.
But the challenges that exist for every remake of an existing entertainment product also apply here.
- 35.
Park (2015) reports similar findings for both supply and demand of 222 movies in Australia. Her findings have to be taken with some care, though, as she conducts the analysis on the movie level, not country level, and does not account for the hierarchical nature of the data.
- 36.
See our chapter on “earned” communication for a discussion of the role of word of mouth in entertainment.
- 37.
We discuss the matter of spurious correlations and warn you, our readers, about them in this book’s inaugural chapter.
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Hennig-Thurau, T., Houston, M.B. (2019). Entertainment Product Decisions, Episode 2: Search Qualities and Unbranded Signals. In: Entertainment Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89292-4_8
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