Movies.
Would you compare a movies to a can of Coke, or would you compare it to beverages in general? I would argue that “beverages” would be a better match. Just like the word “beverage” refers to coke, water, wine, coffee, milk, and many more, the word “movies” refers to a whole host of genres; two of which are included in the title “for your convenience and delight” – Prof Gateman. Why have all these various types of movies come to be? Why not just make one type of movie that appeals to everyone? Ask yourself this: would you like to drink only one type of beverage for the rest of your life? Even if you did (and if you did I hope your choice was either water or milk), do you think everyone else would enjoy the same life-long choice as you?
Likely not.
Movie studios know that people like a variety of movies, but how do they choose which ones to make? Perhaps they use a positioning map to find gaps in current or upcoming blockbusters. Moving past this stage and assuming that studios know what movie to produce, how will they market it to the public? First, in assuming the studio knows what sort of film to make, the assumption is also made that they have already targeted a specific segment – audience in this case –for their film, be it men, women or children, action lovers or romance junkies. Now all that remains is to market the movie, but how do they do this? Well, to market movies they obviously use movie-ads. What do you call movie-ads?
Trailers.
Trailers are short clips about movies, much like commercials about products, designed both to give the viewer enough information about the movie, and to try and influence the viewer to go see it. In most cases, trailers are targeted specifically at certain segments, and are often strategically placed in time-slots when the target segment will likely see them; again, very similar to commercials.
Ads, no matter how brief, convey a lot of important information about the product they are advertising. Not paying attention to ads can have consequences…
