Star City Analysis
Star City is a newly built complex which is a business which provides more then entertainment. Star City has a 30-screen cinema complex and seats up to 5823 people. That is only the cinema complex. It can also accompany for all of the shops and the other types of entertainment that it offers. Its main business is selling tickets to fill up their cinema complex, the biggest in the United Kingdom. It also has family entertainment, and youth entertainment. There are clubs and bars were many youths go to enjoy a good night out. After including all of the restaurants and the nightclubs, and the cinema complex, and the fitness gym and the overall family bowling and entertainment complex, I think that it would be correct to assume that these are the main incomes of the Star City complex. The individual shops, which rent land on the complex, also have to pay the people who own the Star City Complex to use the land. This is also another income, which is received, even though it isn't as obvious.
Unlike many of the other cinemas, there is a wide range of people who visit the complex. Youths and adults and teenagers visit the complex. The reason for this is because, there is a lot to do for all of the different age ranges. People can do as they please, and use the services available. There is more then a cinema, so, people also visit the complex for other reasons, besides to watch films. I would have thought that there are more teenagers and youths under the age 0f 25 who go and visit the complex, rather then the over 40's. Star City also shows Asian films, this means that there is also a mixed race at Star City, unlike other cinemas that do not offer this service.
The Business first started to promote it self via T.V and Radio, and the word of mouth. These days, the people who own Star City no longer have to promote their business as much, because many people who use Star City already know about it, and those who don't soon hear about via word of mouth. This is a very good thing for the owners of Star City that is because, they do not have to invest as much money into promoting their business. They must promote the latest films and things like that, but they do not need to tell the public that there is a "Star City". Star City advertises itself in the local newspaper. The local newspaper has a page full of the three main cinemas in the area. From the paper, we can see that Star City clearly has more films then any of its competitors, and it also has the latest in Asian movies. We can also see that there is more cinema times whom various films (Mainly the latest releases), which is more convenient for some people. They can show more showings of the film, because they have thirty screens, this is much more then any of its competitors. Each of the above has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of having multiple amounts of showing times for various films is that, more people who can't see a certain film at a certain time now can, because Star City shows them more frequently. This will attract more viewers to the cinema, and to the complex. I don't think that it is possible to say that there is a disadvantage to the above situation.
The people who are responsible for the advertisements is most likely a team/group of professionals who are good at advertising such a big business like Star City. They are most likely to be a very good team who have had great success in the past, and have shown to be effective, i.e. boost sales and profits. That is the main reason why advertisements, are used, to attract the members of the public, who will spend money at your shop which inevitably will increase profits. A lot of thought goes into what should be advertised, it is important that the correct information is showed to the public. There would be no point for Star City to spend millions of pounds on an advertisement if it fails to attract people to the complex. That is the reason why a lot of thought is gone into advertisement, and that is also why professional people are needed to make the advertisements.
Another way in which the business can be advertised is via websites. I believe that Star City currently have their own website at: http://www.warnervillage.co.uk. This is an excellent site that is very helpful not only to those people who are using the Star City complex but other cinemas around the country. You can easily and quickly access film information and timings for films. If you require the service to book online then you can, it is a really good service, which is protected as well to insure Internet security. I believe that even though Star City has loads ...
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Another way in which the business can be advertised is via websites. I believe that Star City currently have their own website at: http://www.warnervillage.co.uk. This is an excellent site that is very helpful not only to those people who are using the Star City complex but other cinemas around the country. You can easily and quickly access film information and timings for films. If you require the service to book online then you can, it is a really good service, which is protected as well to insure Internet security. I believe that even though Star City has loads of advertisements all over the country, expanding on the Internet would be a really good idea. They currently have the website set up, but they haven't publicised too much. I think that they should research, and find out which are the most popular and most frequently visited websites and then set up a hyperlink through the website to the Star City website. It is obvious that they would have to research in the .co.uk websites. This is another form of advertising, which the people who are in charge of advertisements should consider. They currently don't have any hyperlinks connecting another website to their own. I think that they should do this. The reason why I think that they should do this, is because, many people use the Internet now in the modern world. Those people who do use the Internet quite frequently will then know about Star City and they may then visit it if they live near or find it interesting. They haven't advertised it like this using hyperlinks before, so I am not sure whether it would work, but I would have thought that it would work. The Cashier at Star City gave us this report when we asked her about the business. "The job that I have is a very difficult one for what I do, and my job title. Most people think that it is a very easy job being a cashier; all you have to do is sell the tickets and make sure that everything is running smoothly at the ticket desk. But that isn't all you have to do. Believe it or not, there are many stresses which cashiers carry with them. A really stressful thing is when you are serving a customer and then the telephone goes directly to you. You have to pick up the telephone and talk to the person whilst you are serving the person who is standing in front of you. First of all, that isn't very good personal attention to both of the customers, and secondly it can get stressful when the person who phoned you wants to book tickets for a film. They aren't sure what they want to watch, when it is on, but never the less, they want to book a film. I have to run through all of the films that are currently on at the cinema, keeping in mind that I am serving a customer at the same time. Then they ask me for my opinion and which one I would go and watch. They then select the film that they would like to see, and then I have to read out the timings for the film which they have selected, and it takes them some time to choose which time they would like to come and see the film. Some people even say: "I can't make that, which other films were there?" that is when it gets really stressful. That is what I hate the most about being a cashier. Another thing, which is rather irritating, is the new computer systems, which they keep on updating, supposedly for a more efficient cinema. The new computer system tells the people where they are sitting, and they can no longer go in and sit where they like. As you would expect, there is a little bit of discomfort at the till, when people argue about this. I personally prefer the old system, when we just issued the tickets and the customers sat where they pleased, least there were least arguments. The computer system it-self isn't very nice to use, it can get a bit complicated and stressful when you are in a rush. You have to key in the show and what time the customer would like to see the show, and then the computer system prints off a ticket. Sometimes, the wrong information can be inputted and it takes longer to correct the mistake making the customers frustrated. This specially happens when there is a large queue and you have to hurry to get the customers served."
Here is another report from a projectionist who works at the cinema. "I believe that the way that everything works in eh new modern world is a great advantage and a disadvantage. For instance, all of the films are digitally controlled, along with the lighting and the new sound systems, which we have. Everything is controlled digitally, at the click of a button and everything starts to work together and I just have to make sure that I have programmed the time and everything correctly. Once I have made sure of that, then I can leave it and it will automatically work. I have to do this with all of the screens in the cinema, usually it a fairly easy job, until something goes wrong. That is when I have a few problems. All of this digital technology is easy to use but when an error does occur then usually it isn't very easy to fix. That is when I wish that we still had those old projectors, and we would start them ourselves and sit there and monitor it and watch the film. It can be very difficult when a problem does occur. Because of the change from analogue to digital, which includes, fire alarms, smoke detectors, sprinklers, lights, exit doors, doors (in general)- everything. There are always those problems which occur, when someone try's to smoke in a none- smoking area, and sets the alarms off, or when someone try's and gets into a film without paying via the exit doors. All of those things triggers an alarm, all it does is scares the people, there is a unlikely chance that we are going to catch them as we don't have enough staff to manage problems like that. Finally, I never know when I am going to be needed of what for, but usually it is because something has gone wrong. I carry a pager around with me and I am usually paged when I am least expecting it. ".
Here is a report, which was given to us by the Promotions manager. "As I am the promotions manager it is my job to make sure that we produce the best leaflets and the best advertising materials that we can, so that more customers will come to the cinema. Whist the rest of the cinema is going digital and new facilities are introduced, unfortunately my computer system has stayed the same to what it was 15 years ago. The system, which I am using at the moment, would have been fine for producing promotions for the cinema 15 years ago, but these days I can't manage to produce the things, which I am expected to. The system which I am using at the moment is very slow and isn't very good at producing advanced advertising materials which I need to produce. It can only deal with the basic designs, and that isn't enough. Once I have designed it, the system takes do long to format the document that by the time I have finished and sent it to the printers it is often changed to something which I didn't want. All I would need is a decent printer, and a new software package to produce better advertisements, which would stand a chance in attracting customers to the cinema. If I was given a printer then I could print the copy off, and then keep on changing it to what I think that the customers would like, and obviously I can only design good advertisements if I have the correct software."
My final report is by an important person and that is the personal manger. This is what he said: " My job is jus as hard as it sounds. First of all, I have to make that everyone comes in to work, on my computer I have a list of all of the people who are supposed to be at work, and when my staff's rota is how many days my staff take off. In order to efficiently complete this I have to keep manual records of all of the information, and using this I can prepare the work times and such things. Many of the staff are lazy and unreliable. Some of them just don't turn up to work when they are supposed to, and this does create problems with the rota and such things. Because of this rather frequent problem I have, I must keep advertising in the local paper for jobs available at the cinema. Most of my staff are part time. There are only two people who are full time at the cinema. The most part time workers work at the refreshment stalls, where there is likely to be the most amount of business. We have 14 attendants working at any time. Each of them on 4 hour shifts. These people are important to the business. They show people to their seats, collect their tickets and clean the cinema once a show has finished. These people must work efficiently. I believe that the only way that we get all of the staff working at the same time is by timing the shows of the film to perfection. If that is correctly done then the staff will always be working because it will be busy. When people don't turn up or phone in sick, we have a major problem. Everyone works as a team, and everyone relies on each station to do what they are supposed to do. If someone doesn't turn up then I must find a replacement and that can be a difficult job. These are just some of the things, which I have to take care of, when I finish my shift, then the manager takes over my role because he is a full time worker. I believe that we should have better job title, which underlines our role in the business. Once again, that is left to me, but I never get time to create them, as I never have the time."
I personally believe that the first thing that the business should do to get better is to employ more staff. If more staff are employed then everyone can work at an efficient rate, and they won't be as stressed. If the staffs are efficient then the business is bound to run much more successfully. The staffs are the people who control the customers, and stressful and tiered staffs are not going to work well and communicate properly with the customers. The second thing, which the business needs to do, is to advertise more. I believe that Star City is doing a lot to advertise and attract attention to the complex, but more can be done. They do have a lot of seats to fill, and the only way that is going to be achieved is by letting people know that you are showing the films that you want. Another thing that they would need to improve to make the business generally better is to have more security, which would give a sense of security to the people who go and visit the complex. It is inevitable that if they want to achieve the above then they will need money to do it. Only if they can afford the employment of staff, and such things then they can improve the business in that sense.
Generally looking at the situation at Star City, I believe that there is room for improvement, but what they are doing at the moment is good enough, they are filling most of the seats in their 30 screen complex. That is the main thing. If the promotion manager was given the things which he required for his job, then may be he could promote the business a little bit more better, and therefore he could produce better leaflets and do them things which he wanted to, and not be restricted to basic and boring advertisements. This would also inevitably improve the promotion of the complex. Everything is about promotion. If the promotion manger can promote the business correctly then more people will visit. Another thing that they could improve would be the sales office. At the moment there is a lot of stress on the sales person. All of the telephones dealing with booking could be re-directed to a person who only deals with booking via the telephone. This would be better for the person on the ticket desk. Also, both of the customers would have better attention and that is also what is required. If more ticket desks were opened then that would be a good thing as well, as there are many boom periods and the customers do start to complain if they are late for the film, because it was the cinema's fault. These are just some things which may need to be taken into consideration.