With more than 86 million people of the population, demands for forms of art as well as entertainments which include cinema going are huge. More than a decade ago, cinema was a strange concept to people even with the citizens. It was not because of there was no cinema in the region, it was due to poor movie, unclear space and limited funds. However, in recent years when cinemas innovated, people come more regularly, the government also invests a lot of money to improve and upgrade sound and image system as well as the quality of services in many stated-owned cinemas; together with the appearance of Megastar Cineplex in 2004 the habit of cinema going has been changed a lot and become a new form of entertainment in the modern life. This fact has inspired Transformer team to embark on doing an academic research about the habit of cinema going of Vietnamese students. This document is a final report of the team after a process of doing surveys, interviews as well as collecting information from secondary resources. The report contains sections like introduction about the topic, objectives the team want to achieve after doing the research, methodology, implementation, data results and recommendation at the end.
The research has proven that, price is no longer the first thing to consider in customers’ mind when they decide to choose a service. It is obviously that Megastar Cineplex is the most expensive place and it seems not to suitable with students. However, hundreds of people students include still come there everyday. So what is the reason? Why does Megastar attract many people like that? Has it changed the habit of cinema going of people since it appeared in the movie industry? The data results show that Megastar is the most favorite cinema in Hanoi at the moment. Having the most modern facility with high class of sound and image system, high trained staff and hot movies every week, Megastar has made people become more interested in watching a movie because they can have perfect service conveniences. Those are also the crucial elements for a cinema in order to survive and develop. Furthermore, those are the factors that changed people way of thinking which corroded for a long time (i.e. prefer the cheap thing). Now, people are not shilly-shally to pay for an expensive movie ticket because they know there will be a good service accompanied. Additionally, action movies, romantic movie, horror movies and cartoon movies become the customers’ first choice. However, not many cinemas can catch up with this trend and be able to provide hot and excellent movies except Megastar. They always has the latest and hottest movie at the soonest time. Therefore, Megastar has contribute a big part in changing the path of cinema going and the economic situation seems not to be strong enough to prevent people coming to Megastar, buy a ticket with popcorn and enjoy a movie. Since it was found, Megastar has raised an innovative race between other cinemas in Hanoi in order to compete with Megastar and be able to adapt with new demands of the customers. Together with the participation from foreign investors, the race has become more and more harsh. However, according to Mr. Brian (2009) customers will have more benefits as they have the wider range of choices. From there, Transformer Team recommends not only the cinema must upgrade itself but also the government need to support more.
Contents
EXCUTIVE SUMMARY 2
Introduction 4
Objective 5
Methodology 5
Implementation 6
Data result 9
Perception & opinion 9
Favorite cinema and movie 11
Economic effects 15
RECOMMENDATION 16
Reference: 17
Appendix 18
Survey Question 18
Survey Result 24
Interview result 49
Introduction
The modern life has caused quite much pressure and stress for everybody therefore demands for entertaining has become indispensability. Few years ago, the simultaneous rise of cinemas and the race between them to customers had got attention from many newspapers and magazines. Transformer team is not an exception; we decided to do an academic research about cinema going habit of Vietnamese students to get a better understanding about the way that the youngsters choose to relax despite of looking at negative aspects of them. The final report will contain the whole process that transformer undertook to complete assignment through sections such as: Objective, methodology, implementation, data result and recommendation. Among that, the most important part is Data result which interprets Team’s findings by doing researches, surveys and interviews. Base on that, Transformer team hope to be able to draw any possible suggestion for cinema managers.
Objective
Cinema has become more and more popular in the world and it is developing quickly in Vietnam in recent years. It attracts all levels in society from upper classes to middle or working classes. But in this report, our team just concentrates on the young generation specifically on Vietnamese students. Firstly, we want to research about their perceptions and their opinions to identify the different perceptions of Vietnamese students about cinemas in Vietnam or in the region they live. Besides that, based on results which will have been collected and analyzed, we can find out which cinema they want to go most and what kind of movies they like to see. Thirdly, we are able to know whether economic situation affects on their habit and their choices and finally, we hope that we can point out some possible solutions for problems of cinemas in Vietnam from the feedbacks in our surveys.
Methodology
The final report was completed through the secondary and primary information. To collect the primary data, our team decided to choose 2 methods: Surveys and interviews. We decided to do surveys because we can get response and feedback from many people quickly. Besides that, with 12 questions in survey, includes multiple-choice questions, ranking question and open questions, we can arrange, analyze information clearly and exactly. Additionally, interviews helped us get more detail information we need and it also made our data become more convincing as it collected from cinema staff and managers. Furthermore, we also did some research on the internet in order to develop and enrich information in our final report.
Implementation
From the beginning, there were three kinds of researching for our final project to choose which were business research, marketing research and academic research and we had to list out all possible related topics. After discussing together, Transformer team decided to choose the academic research with the topic which is “Cinema going habit of Vietnamese students”. It seems to be easy for us to find the information because we have the crowded student force especially in Ha Noi which has many cinemas, theatres and almost main universities are there. Besides that, going cinemas is the common habits of students and there are many cinemas in Ha Noi for them to choose. Thus, we can take a lot of information that we concern about. Therefore, tasks were assigned equally between team members. For instance, Thai and Trang did the survey, Ha and Quynh Anh did the interview questions. However, the researching process was not easy as we expected, we had to face with some difficulty to do our secondary research. At first we thought secondary research would be the easiest and fastest way as all of surveys would be collected quickly. Then we recognized that the secondary research was not effective, for example when we posted the survey questions on the website that took quite a long time to take back the data and people not really care about it. Ultimately, we decided to delivery directly the survey to as many students as we can. The survey questions were changed too much from the first time. Before delivering the survey question we had to show it to other groups in class and received opinions from them to improve our survey. And we found out that there were some mistakes in order of the question, so we had to rearrange them logically.
Another problem is our team includes four people so we have to do more work than the others which will need to deliver 400 surveys and we have to go to many places such as cinemas, universities around Ha Noi hence it take a lot of time. However, with the help from our friends who study from different universities in Ha Noi the survey were delivered to their friends. By doing this way, we were able to save time and do other works, instead. In contrast, after collecting all the survey, analyzing was another difficult step because combining data from 400 surveys became a mess. Too much surveys and numbers to work and too much time was wasted. The first time we tried to get the answer of each question but it made us so confused because of the long list number of age, money and each student has his own idea making a long list of different opinions. However, our team leader had a good idea which helped us to save time and did things easier by using excel special function to analyze and compare the results.
The project was finished in week 13 which was late because we could not take any advices from lecture as the exam was coming and we need to prepare for other subjects. However, we are quite confident with our final project.
Data result
Perception & opinion
Looking at the graph we can claim that the demand of students for entertainment specifically movie is very high as the percentage of answer for “frequently” plus “sometime” is outweigh the percentage of “hardly” and “never” by 66% in male and 65% in female. If people only go to cinema for weekend before it totally change now. Megastar has discount half price on Monday as well as discount for student in early of the week. The National Cinema as well as August cinema provides bundle ticket in mid of the day with very cheap price. All of these promotional tools have changed the habit of going to cinema of students. Now we are all free to choose not only the place but also the time we want to go to see a movie.
The next graph tells us who students will want to go to the cinema with. As is shown in the graph, 41% male want to go with their girlfriend while the same figure in female like going with their friends. However, the major number of respondents chooses friends or partner to go with and family stands at the third choice by 14% in male and 15% in female.
Price is one of the most noticeable factors that considered firstly in one’s mind. To the students, the most suitable price for a movie ticket fluctuates from 25.000 to 40.000 dong. Besides, there are approximately 1/3 people ready to pay for a ticket price from 40.000 to 80.000 dong. It is a good sign because customers now do not demur to pay a big a mount of money to just watch a movie but they have high expectation about the quality and services.
When was asked about the quality of all cinema in Hanoi, we have almost the same respond from both sides. There are 45% male and 43% female assumed that the quality of cinema in general is good. Meanwhile, the number of people disagree with this statement occupies approximately a half of the opposite idea by 22% in male and 27% in female. However, there is a noticeable sign that there is quite a huge percentage for no comment options by 33% in male and 30% in female. First when we collected the data, it made us confused but then we flicked it out because of the error in doing survey. It is undeniable that people will evaluate the service and quality of any cinema they come especially in this current economic situation. The winner is the one who can bring full satisfaction to its customers with suitable charge. However, while we delivery survey too many students were lazy to think about their opinions or just ticked the answer as a habit. Therefore, we have a major empty answer here.
Favorite cinema and movie
In terms of favorite cinema, it is easy to say that Megastar is the most favorite cinema currently. It is so true. Base on the data result that we collect through 400 surveys as well as on the internet Megastar Cineplex is now standing on top of all cinemas in Vietnam. Looking at the graph, we can easily see that almost a half of our respondents choose to go to Megastar with 46% answers from male and 48% from female. Regarding to question 6, almost all respondents who choose Megastar are all agree that it has the best quality sound and image system, besides service is also evaluated very high. From the interview result, we also found out that Megastar is also a play ground for the youngsters. People come around there not just for the purpose to watch a movie but also for seeing friends or posing pictures. Beside, according to Mr. Anh Megastar provides free wifi network that encourage many customers to come. The reason is, sometime on the vacation or in special occasions buying ticket is very difficult. Therefore, they must come early before the movie starts to buy ticket, and spare time will be no longer a century because they can access to the internet easily, listen to music, play games or read news while they waiting for the movie. Services in Megastars have brought many conveniences to its customers; contribute quite a big effect that creates profit for Megastar every year. According to tintuc.xalo.vn website, Megastar’s income in 2008 reached to 7 millions US dollars.
The second and the third cinemas that are appreciated highly in Hanoi are the National and August Cinema respectively. However, the different in proportion between male and female vote for these cinemas is only a slight change in number. As is shown in the graph, 26% male choose National cinema and 15% choose August cinema while 27% female choose National cinema and 11% go for August cinema. The penetration of a private company like Megastar has result a fierce competition among cinemas. Thanks to a very quick adaption strategy, both National and August cinema are able to keep and remain a stable number of customers annually. Moreover, improving quality and services is a path way to help them get more clients. According to Thu Giang, After 4 months combining the model of cinema together with shopping and game area, the National Cinema attracts 150% of customers in regular days and 200% in every occasion. Besides, finding in question 6 interprets that the reason that many people still come to these cinemas because of cheaper ticket comparing to Megastar.
The expansion of large cinemas has lead to deserted situation in other cinemas such as Dang Dung, Ngoc Khanh due to poor facility and services. It is also represented in the graph as those cinemas only take from 5% to 7 % both from male and female.
The favorite cinema is always megastar so far. So what is the favorite movie kind? The graph above illustrates the evaluation about favorite movie kind of male and female. The figure is measured in order from 1 to 10 which mean from the most to the less. It is easy to see that almost male and female have similar taste in movie, 28% of both sides like to see action movies. That is the reason why over the previous time action movies such as: Wolverine Origin, Transformers 2, The Terminator, J.I Joe, Public enemies, etc were all sold out. In the male view of point, Kungfu is their second favorite movie with 15% while it is romantic to female by 16%. The come back of romantic movies must thanks to the success of the Twilight Saga, P.S I love you, I love you man, The Proposal, etc. Standing at the third place is horror movie. Not only interest in spectacular actions or romantic scenes on the screen, the youngster now also like to see horror movie to challenge their brave. Being able to catch the new trend of customer, many of horror movie were issued this year not only from Hollywood but Vietnam also attended with the movie Ten which was appreciated quite high. Additionally, both female and male fourth favorite movie is comedy but it is 14% in female and the percentage in male is 4% lower.
Economic effects
Looking at the graph, it can be claim that the major respondents belong to rich group which have pocket money from 600 to more than 1.200 per month. In 18 people have lower than 300 monthly there are 39% hardly go to cinema while 27% claim that they sometime go. However, 44% choose to go to cinema and only 11% want to go to National Center. It proves that, Megastar has been successfully attracts many kinds of customer, even the poor want to go there. In richer groups, the proportions of people answer that they frequently or sometime are much higher by 59% in group 2, 69% in group 4 and 71% in group 5. However, in group 3, the percent of students who frequently go to cinema is equal to those who hardly go to cinema by 27%. No matter what poor or rich, Megastar is always has the highest percentage of choice in all groups, the richer it gets the higher the percentage. We also see the same trend in the answer for National Center, however the percents are trivial. To sum up, we can claim that money is not the largest effect on the habit of going to cinema of student. The most important thing for them now is quality of services, facility and whether the movie is hot or not. If they do not have much money, they rather choose to less frequent go to cinema rather than paying for a cheap ticket and get cheap services as well as cheap movies.
However, the result seems to be up-side-down in question 10. There are 29% male agree to pay more money to have better service while the major number refuse to spend any more money by 71%. In female the figure is almost the same. The reason is explainable because at the moment the major numbers of students are choosing to go to Megastar and pay a high price for a ticket. Therefore, most of them are refused to spend any more money. Nonetheless, among the yes number most of respondents (both male and female) assume that paying more money around 5 to 15.000 is acceptable. That is the reason explain why even though ticket for weekend in Megastar is very high, many people still come there.
RECOMMENDATION
Base on the finding and comparing the different opinions between male and female, it is easy to see that the model Megastar Cineplex is becoming success and it also changes the habit of cinema going for many people. However, developing a model like Megastar is not easy as it requires a lot of capital, human resources as well as supporting from the government. Meanwhile, according to Anninhthudo.com website, many investors in the region are interested in building the multifunction cinema complex. However, they have to face with many troubles such as: unstable movie resources, ineffective location or being restricted from local administration. Additionally, cinemas such as: Dang Dung, Bach Mai, Ly Nam De, etc are always deserting because of small space and located in sensitive area. From that point, Transformer team comes up with some recommendations. Beside the upgrading process, service is one of the most important things that need to enhance. At Dan Chu, August and even National Center cinema people selling black market ticket is very common. It makes customers fell uncomfortable and less believable. Therefore, managers should control strictly selling ticket at the cinema as well as having strong measures with illegal actions. Additionally, finding stable movie resources as well as new, hot, and different movies will keep the cinema attracts more customers and remains its loyalty clients. The supports from governmental institutions are also helpful. For example, to assist in providing business premises for investors to enlarge the cinema’s area, create good conditions in administrative formalities, etc.
Reference:
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