Cheering on sales figures

Morrus · Jan 10, 2016

I've seen this phenomenon recently, where fans are converted into active (unpaid) marketing employees for a brand. I'm sure it always existed, but the internet makes it more obvious.The most recent example is the new Star Wars movie. Don't get me wrong - I love it. Best movie experience for me in the last decade. Wonderful. But I see people online willing it to exceed Avatar in box office figures, and I can't figure out why. I can understand why those with percentages in the movie want that. I don't understand why we customers want that (beyond the "it's successful enough to get more of what we like" level).

Any thoughts on this?

Anyone who answers with "it's tribalism" loses on account of that much being obvious; we're not going for the easy answer here - but why does it manifest in this particular way in this particular sub-arena? Why do we form tribes around massive multinational corporations? Apple, Android, Disney, Marvel, DC. None of these are local businesses, or even national ones. Why is it important that that Apple has the most sales or that Android does? Why do we post sales figure of each to prove that our avowed corporate brand is more successful? We do it with WotC and Paizo; we do it with Apple and Android; we do it with DC and Marvel.

What's the marketing psyche going on here? it's very clever - hell, it's the Holy Grail; it's genius - it turns customers into fervent active evangelists. But how does it work?

Cor Azer · Jan 10, 2016

At the risk of losing, I'm pretty sure it is just tribalism - everyone* wants their own likes validated, and to be shown that they picked a winner.

Happens in commercial products. Happens in sports. Happens in entertainment.

To some degree, it also creates a shared experience (which reinforces the tribalism). Fans of the same sports club team can be nostalgic about 'the big game'; gamers have 'that one module'; smartphone users remember that killer app; etc...

So yeah... Shared experiences and validation, basically. IE: tribalism.

*ok, most.

Morrus · Jan 10, 2016

So you'd say there's a Star Wars tribe and an Avatar Tribe, who want JJ Abrams or James Cameron to have more money than the other on their behalf?

Ryujin · Jan 10, 2016

Lamprey effect; wanting to tie yourself to something/someone successful, in order to think of ones self as also being successful? Not quite tribalism, but a similar concept. I see it as the flipside of what makes people walk out of a big budget blockbuster and not not want to admit how truly bad it really was, if it actually was.

Then again you also have the hipster concept, in which the person wants to be associated with the group that despises something, specifically because it is popular.

dd.stevenson · Jan 10, 2016

I'm no psychologist, but this seems a pretty clear case of people's self identities being tied up in certain brands.

Other than buying a brand, how do you get in the business of selling people's identities back to them? Dunno, really: all the really good examples I've seen arose from serendipity and perhaps a very robust creative process.

Hand of Evil · Jan 10, 2016

Think it is like a sports team, people just get behind it and want to see it do well, that or mob mentality. Just wonder if humans release a biological agent that effects a group to the same experience making a social bond.

Umbran · Jan 10, 2016

How about a couple of articles on the psychology. I expect it is much the same as sports fans...

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/11/s...ame-clues-to-avid-rooting.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/the-science-of-being-a-sports-fan-9227430/?no-ist

MarkB · Jan 10, 2016

Partly it's tribalism, but there may also be an element of hoping to exert commercial influence too. If someone liked the sort of entertainment that Star Wars provided, and disliked what Avatar had to offer, then they may hope to see Star Wars outperform Avatar because it will influence the studios to produce more Star Wars sequels and rip-offs, and fewer Avatar sequels and rip-offs.

MechaPilot · Jan 10, 2016

Morrus said:
I've seen this phenomenon recently, where fans are converted into active (unpaid) marketing employees for a brand. I'm sure it always existed, but the internet makes it more obvious.The most recent example is the new Star Wars movie. Don't get me wrong - I love it. Best movie experience for me in the last decade. Wonderful. But I see people online willing it to exceed Avatar in box office figures, and I can't figure out why. I can understand why those with percentages in the movie want that. I don't understand why we customers want that (beyond the "it's successful enough to get more of what we like" level).

Any thoughts on this?

They're falsely equating revenues with quality, or lower revenues with a lack thereof. They're probably doing it to validate their own preferences, but I often see it used in more of a "rubbing it in someone else's face" context.

For example, Man of Steel. I thought it was a great Superman film. However, it did have a mixed reception (and it, like every other film in history, wasn't perfect), and I've seen people claim that the revenues for the film prove that it's not very good compared to other films. One of the common comparisons is that MoS didn't earn as much as DKR, which was by most accounts the weakest entry in the Nolan Batman trilogy. Therefore some people cite the revenues and claim that MoS is worse than DKR. They completely fail to take into account that the final movie of a trilogy tends to get a larger viewing audience than the origin story film does, especially when the second film did as well as Dark Knight (and MoS actually beat Batman Begins in revenues, which is a more honest comparison but really doesn't prove much of anything.).

Now please don't take this as my attempting to start a MoS argument. I'm not. I'm simply pointing out the most common context in which I see the revenues of films used by fans online: instead of using it to validate their own preferences, they use it to cut down the preferences of others. As a note, fans in real life have never mentioned film revenues to me.

Bedrockgames · Jan 10, 2016

Morrus said:
I've seen this phenomenon recently, where fans are converted into active (unpaid) marketing employees for a brand. I'm sure it always existed, but the internet makes it more obvious.The most recent example is the new Star Wars movie. Don't get me wrong - I love it. Best movie experience for me in the last decade. Wonderful. But I see people online willing it to exceed Avatar in box office figures, and I can't figure out why. I can understand why those with percentages in the movie want that. I don't understand why we customers want that (beyond the "it's successful enough to get more of what we like" level).

Any thoughts on this?

Anyone who answers with "it's tribalism" loses on account of that much being obvious; we're not going for the easy answer here - but why does it manifest in this particular way in this particular sub-arena? Why do we form tribes around massive multinational corporations? Apple, Android, Disney, Marvel, DC. None of these are local businesses, or even national ones. Why is it important that that Apple has the most sales or that Android does? Why do we post sales figure of each to prove that our avowed corporate brand is more successful? We do it with WotC and Paizo; we do it with Apple and Android; we do it with DC and Marvel.

What's the marketing psyche going on here? it's very clever - hell, it's the Holy Grail; it's genius - it turns customers into fervent active evangelists. But how does it work?

I think it really boils down to people understand if the movie does well financially and breaks records that means we get more movies in the franchise with big budgets and more movies like it in general. If it is the kind of film you enjoy watching then you might cheer that news on.

I am not sure this is all that new though. We've been talking about box office records since I can remember, and I've heard people cheering it on all my life. I think what is new is the internet and you see those conversations playing out on social media rather than in private conversations.