Movies and Consumer Decisions

Everyone loves a good movie, but how do we choose which movie to see each time we go? Do we just spin a roulette wheel or pick a name out of a hat? No, we pick a movie based on different decision processes.

These decisions can fall under three categories, cognitive decisions which are the "ideal" decision making process, habitual decisions which are when there is little or no conscious effort made, and affective decisions are driven by emotional responses.

There are five steps to the cognitive decision making process. These steps are listed in the photo below. Now, when you think let's pick a movie to watch, you will most likely not think through these five steps. If you do go through these five steps...it must take you a while to pick a movie! Although you may not go through this process every time you want to watch a movie you'd be surprised how many of these steps you sometimes go through!

Sometimes you''ll realize your bored and need a form of entertainment (#1). Then who can go and watch a movie without reading a review?! (#2). There are always so many options when considering a movie (#3). I know I'm not the only who gives the movie a review in my head after I've seen it (#5).

After reading the definition of habitual decision making you're probably thinking,"when have I ever done that with movies?" Well, if you're anything like me, you have a thousand cable channels and nothing is on. You flip through the channels and you see a movie is on. Then, you switch the channel over without a second thought about the title or what it was about. This doesn't happen too often to me, but it definitely has and I'm sure you can relate.

I think that applying affective decisions to movie selection is very interesting. When you watch previews I believe that the consumer must feel something in order to want to watch the movie. For example, as they recently released the Beauty and the Beast trailer (see below), it evokes this sense of nostalgia and wonder. You know you've heard that music before and you're drawn in. It only take a few seconds for someone to want to see it. If you're a Disney fanatic like me, you are more likely to just choose a Disney movie because of the emotional attachment. 

Overall I think that consumers don't often think about why they choose a movie, other than, "it looks good", but there's more to it than that!