Universal Studios' Brand Positioning and Marketing Strategies

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BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This study is about how the Universal studio had maintained it’s positioning throughout
the years and still maintaining. Universal have seen many ups but they are still in the
market. This study tells about the mission and vision of the company and strategies to
achieve them. Unilever studio has positioned itself as a fun loving company, where age
is no barrier. Every age group can watch their movies but they are more appealing to
the adventure loving people. The discussion also includes marketing mix of the
company as it helps in analyzing company performance and understanding the
strategies. Further the discussion is about the things which make Unilever Studio
different from the other and the way positioning is changed over the years.
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................. 2
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................4
Vision and Mission statements of Universal Studio......................................................6
Positioning.................................................................................................................... 7
Marketing...................................................................................................................... 8
Marketing mix............................................................................................................... 8
Things that make Universal Studio different...............................................................11
Changed positioning in recent years...........................................................................11
Universal Studio needs to do in the next 2-5 years in order to succeed.....................12
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Universal Studios is the oldest film studios which is still in use, it is an American film
studio which is owned by Comcast. It is a NBC subsidiary The Universal studio was
founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle. As Universal studio is the oldest film studio, it has
celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2012. The studio is situating in Los Angeles,
California (Compact and C., 2015). It is the first studio to offer tours to the film sets. It is
in the "Big six" studios of the Hollywood. Big Six studios are those which collectively
command over the 80 to 85% revenue of the box office in the US and Canada. The
official marketing headline of Universal Studio is "The Entertainment Capital of LA".
Universal has more than 9000 employees.
Universal Studio is the oldest American film studio, and till now it has maintained its
brand positioning. As the vision of the Universal studio is to be known as the world's no.
1 entertainment destination, so it has achieved it through its hard work and continually
mapping the success. It has done various things to maintain its positioning in the market
through the marketing, Universal studio also had its own amusement or theme park to
keep the interest of the consumer.
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Vision and Mission statements
Mission statement
To provide an atmosphere in which our team members are proud to serve, provide our
customers with memorable experiences and produce best economic results.
Vision statement
Acknowledged as the number one entertainment spot throughout the world!
Values
Universal studio focuses on the values like respect for each other, teamwork because it
builds a relation, frank environment, and recognition for the good work and most
importantly has fun in what you are doing.
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Positioning
Universal studios target audience is those who have a huge interest in movies and
adventures. As these targets audience can be in any age group so the segmentation
belongs to all age group. Universal Studio is words oldest and most famous studio so it
has its viewers from all the age groups and all over the world. The positioning is
Universal Studio is done as it is for the adventures and movie-loving people as the age
is no barrier and the one who have the desire to explore and curious to know the things,
in that and still focusing on the same concept. Universal Studio theme park gives the
visitor an unforgettable experience and the have also worked very well on the staff
training that is the uniqueness of it (Ebert and R.J., 2011).
As the mission of the Universal is to deliver an unforgettable experience to the
customers so they are giving that experience. Universal Studios is considered as more
edgy and adventurous (Fill et al., 2016). Universal converted its advertising efforts from
promoting what clients wanted to experience to testify to what the experience was
already providing.
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Marketing
As the marketing department plays a very important role in any organization, film
production companies marketing is also not so different from any organization
marketing, as it also needs recognition than only people would know about it. As
marketing plays a crucial role everywhere, it is responsible for making strategies,
maintaining the brand equity and meeting the organization objective as well as
maintaining the courtesy in the work (Huang et al., 2014). The main task of marketing is
to maintain the positioning of the brand in the market, positioning is defined as what
customer thinks when they hear the brand name or what image they have in their
minds. Marketing can revamp that image with the help of its strategies. Marketing
strategies can vary according to the situation or according to the competitor’s method,
as here we need to make the marketing plan in order to maintain the Universal Studio’s
positioning.
Marketing mix
Product
This part of the marketing mix describes what the product is, and how it is maintaining
its positioning in the market. Universal studio is one of the most famous film production
companies and it also has a theme park which is a global attraction for tourists. The
studio is distributed across the enormous region. Approximately 70 per cent of its region
is located on the county island known as Universal City. Other 30 % lies in LA,
California. Universal studio is thinking of expanding its theme parks around the world.
Some of the best movies by Universal studios are Jaws, E.T, The Mummy, Jurassic
Park, the wolf of Wall Street, Dracula, etc.
Price
Price involves the pricing strategy of the company or the price strategy followed for the
particular product. Universal studios follow the competitive pricing strategy. As the
competitors are Disney, Paramount, and other major studios. The pricing is finalized
according to the overall film budget and the place where it is broadcasting. The
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organization earns profits through broadcast services (Television), streaming services
(Netflix, Amazon Prime), selling DVDs etc.
Place
This includes how easily a customer can get a product and where the product is
available. The main Universal studio is located in La, California. It has its branches in
Singapore and Japan also. By 2022, the company is planning to make its brand
presence in Beijing and Moscow by opening their studio (Urde et al., 2014). Has its
presence online as well as offline, have many distribution networks as well as online
shops.
Promotions
Promotions include overall ways to make awareness about the product, through
advertising or marketing or by using various techniques like offerings and coupons
(Wilson and J., 2014). As it is a film production company, it doesn’t need any type of
promotion because it is enough for that. Movies such as Jurassic Park, The Wolf of Wall
Street, Despicable Me have produced Universal Studios a respected brand and
household name. The thing which is very good about Universal studio is that it appeals
to age groups.
People
This includes the staff working in the company as every company needs people to run
the organization. Universal Studios has its employee from all over the world. There is no
discrimination factor among the employees.
Process
There is no. of process in a company which needs to be done flawlessly. How these
processes are done and followed comes under process. Universal Studio has no. of
processes working on different projects. Universal studios have to tie up with all the
streaming services to host a wide range of products.
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Physical evidence
Physical evidence includes the evidence for the product whether it is tangible or
intangible. The physical evidence for Universal studios can be ticketed for the movie or
for the amusement park, the physical evidence can also be in the form of DVDs or
found online, products could also be found in stores, supermarkets etc.
Positioning is very important in terms of making your brand vulnerable and different. It is
a strategic process to make the brands image differently in consumers mind or in the
target market. For example, when any consumers go for shopping or to purchase
grocery and they want to purchase detergent, the first name they are going to
remember is tide and it is the positioning of the tide (Ingenhoff et al., 2010). Now
marketing can also help in maintaining the brand positioning because in marketing the
main task is to promote the goods and services and when the goods and services are
promoted they automatically gets the brand name and that brand name hits in the
consumers' mind, which helps in creating and maintain the brand positioning.
As here the brand name is Universal Studios, the oldest and still working studio. It is
100 years old; the marketing team of Universal Studio helped it to maintain the brand
positioning. Universal Studio is the film producing company so the target customers are
movie lovers and the people who are adventures, the marketing strategy followed by the
Universal Studio is that they give real-life experience to the customers through 3-D or
through the amusement park and in this way the memories are stored in consumers
mind for a long time (Keller et al., 2011). And then the consumer waits for the new
innovation from the company.
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Things that make Universal Studio different
 The first and foremost thing that makes Universal studio different is they have done
an awesome work in their amusement part, there they have no. of characters
around. This gives a feeling of nostalgia and awe for visitors.
 The second thing which makes Universal studio different is that they are always
ready to help their customers whether it is in an amusement park or any other query.
 The Universal studio always tries to make the customer part of the experience. For
example movie King Kong 360 degree 3-D, they have given the 360° 3-D experience
in that so that the viewer can feel the real-life experience.
 The Universal studio also provides offering to the top customers.
 They are creating an experience with each appeal. For example, during Mummy
Revenge: The Ride, you are transferred to the Egyptian Pyramids full with ancient
Egyptian wall sculptures. As you walk through the line, the excitement for the
journey develops so much that you can scarcely standstill once you reach the front
of the line.
Changed positioning in recent years
Universal Studios ' objective in the early 1990s was much the same as when the
business was launched in 1912: to provide family entertainment that touches on all
parts of human lives. Since it has done after its foundation, Universal has attempted to
secure a huge margin of achievement for its movie image productions by contracting
the most skilled and popular actors (Kerrigan and F., 2017).
Nearly in the year 2000, Universal appeared to focus most on the film and music
production. The company's intention to expand its investment in the music business was
underlined when Seagram announced an agreement to purchase PolyGram. As all
know that the television industry is very unpredictable, the company has faced many
ups and downs. Like in the 1930s the company almost saved from the bankruptcy. In
1946 Universal merged with the International pictures and became Universal-
International. In the 20th century, Fox found a fresh market to re-release of Star Wars,
and Universal followed suit with a fully restored version of the 1958 thriller Vertigo by
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Alfred Hitchcock. In order to attract more customers pay per view was introduced which
allows the consumer to watch the movie whenever they want (Maarit et al., 2014).
Universal Studio needs to do in the next 2-5 years in order to succeed
Universal Studios already have a good brand name and positioning in the market. It
mainly focuses on movie lovers and adventure loving people as the age is no barrier in
that. It is world oldest studio and still working and to be succeeding in next 2-5 years it
just needs to take care of the quality of the movies which it is producing and
continuously checking out on the competitor's strategy. In terms of the theme park, it
always needs advancement due to the changing era. As of now, the main focus is on
adventurous but also needs to do some work for the kids also or the people who don't
like adventure and thrill much, by doing this Universal can add a point in order to
succeed because then the targeted customer would be from all ages. As of now also
there is no age barrier but by adding some additional feature would just give the
advantage for Universal Studios.
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CONCLUSION
By this study, the conclusion is that as Universal studio has very good positioning in the
market already, and quite famous among the people as it is 100 years old company and
still contributing in the Hollywood film industry as well as in the theme parks also it is
doing very well. All companies have some falls, Universal Studio has it too but it
overcame from these and maintained itself as a brand. To maintain the brand
positioning it just needs to do the necessary changes with the changing scenario. And
this could be done by regularly evaluating the brand performance and keeping an eye
on the changing trends.
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