PVR adopts customer

segmentation strategy to boost

footfall
Strategies like PVR’s make sense for an audience dominated by
the youth that does not want to watch at least Hindi films in cinema
halls, say industry experts
While Wednesdays have exclusive shows for women on offer, a Monday would typically
be devoted to senior citizens and other days or locations for expats which showcase
Indian films with English subtitles. Photo: Reuters


New Delhi: Earlier this year, PVR Cinemas launched its online
platform, Vkaao.com that allows viewers to select a movie from the
exhibition chain’s library and organize a show at a date and time
convenient for them.
The social, crowd-based strategy, is however, one of the many offerings the
entertainment company has come up with in the past one-and-a-half years
that go beyond regular theatricals.

Apart from varied theatre-oriented experiences like Director’s Cut (a luxury

arm featuring 3D-enabled digital projection technology, surround sound,
and personalized food and seating facilities), Gold Class and ECX
(enhanced cinema experience), the latest initiative is to introduce the
audience to favourable deals as per specific needs. While Wednesdays have
exclusive shows for women on offer, a Monday would typically be devoted
to senior citizens and other days or locations for expats which showcase
Indian films with English subtitles.

“Different people have different needs and we’ve tried to feed those needs
while creating these sub-brands. The idea is to service audiences across
various stratas and segments of society,” said Kamal Gianchandani, chief
executive officer, PVR Pictures. “We have no editorial control, we basically
have to play the film the way it is supplied by the producer and distributor.
Given this limitation, whatever we could do is what we’ve tried to do.”

The strategies, Gianchandani said, stem from the company’s culture of

continuously innovating with the objective of becoming more relevant to its
audiences. For instance, women, in certain pockets of India that remain
conservative, feel that they need to watch only all-women shows. Or expats
in cities like Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru don’t understand the local
language but have a need for entertainment nevertheless that is fulfilled by
the fact that all Indian films-Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, are available with
English subtitles.

Further, there are no-intermission shows available in a country that swears

by breaks even for Hollywood films.

Usually, a Tuesday or Wednesday is a super-saver day when ticket prices

are dropped significantly for the benefit of students or large families from
lower income groups, thereby building on the ultimate aim of getting more
people into theatres.

“In spite of the fact that we’ve been doing well year on year, we have a lot of
unutilized capacity on weekdays which tends to lie between 35-40%,”
Gianchandani said.

“On an average that means unutilized capacity of 55-60%. Our objective is

to get more people into the theatres and at greater frequency, and that is
the genesis of all these strategies.”

To be sure, while Gianchandani emphasized that good-quality multiplexes

have been gaining ground in India, data for 2016 reveals serious crisis for
the exhibition business. On 12 January, 2017, Mint reported that box office
collections for 2016 dropped by 10-15% as compared to 2015. In a scenario
like that, strategies like PVR’s make even more sense for an audience
dominated by the youth that does not want to watch at least Hindi films in
cinema halls, say industry experts.
“Across the world in American or other mature markets, contribution of
theatricals (to overall movie earnings) is not more than 20-35%. India is the
only market where the figure lies between 60-70%,” said Utpal Acharya,
founder of film production, distribution and marketing company Indian
Film Studios. “India, however, is also moving towards those developed
markets thanks to new technologies and people’s dependence on hand-held
devices. The ultimate goal (of such strategies) is to increase footfalls and
revenue but with a different way of putting audiences inside cinemas.”

Acharya estimates such initiatives bring in less than 5% of PVR’s overall

revenue currently, restricted as they are to the metros though they are
bound to catch on with youngsters remaining glued to digital platforms.

“It’s difficult to point out the exact incremental occupancy because of each
initiative but we can say that one big factor contributing to us enjoying 4-7
% higher occupancy than our closest competitor is the content-related
strategy and segmentation,” Gianchandani said.
Questions

1. Identify the segmentation strategies of PVR.

2. Carry out PEST and SWOT analysis.
3. Provide recommendations.