Strategies to Promote the Iranian International Film Market

The most popular international film market in Iran is "IFM", the Iranian film market where to present films and TV programs for sales and distribution from all over the world which is held each year in February in Tehran simultaneously with Fajr International Film Festival. It is to be mentioned that Farabi Cinema Foundation as the administration foundation has held this event till February 2011, the 14th edition of IFM. Despite its successful feedbacks, it seems there are some deficiencies in the previous editions which can have a noticeable impact on the market’s creditability like the unprofessional marketing by the participants and uncertain statistics regarding the contractions done in the market, disqualified film screenings, lack of famous and big companies attending at the market and the classification of the buyers and sellers based on the supplies and demands and the absence of local markets. To promote IFM, we have to identify the effective factors on the film market and its marketing as well. This is the first time that film marketing research as a thesis done in Iran as a research project and has two objectives: (1) To present a solution for more impressive participation of the companies and independent people at IFM, (2) To present a useful solution to promote the sales of the Iranian films at IFM. The theory in this regard has been made by the experts and all variables and indexes have been gathered out of the scientific resources. There are Iranian and Non-Iranian buyers and sales agents attended at least at one edition out of thirteen ones of IFM. About 152 samples have been randomly chosen among 251 members of the very society. The results of hypothetic tests prove that the cultural and social factors are the most important reasons for the participants. On the other hand, the films themselves for marketing, the received awards are the significant criteria for quotation the best prices. The opening date and place of market, IFM publication and publicity secretariat are to be considered so effectively as well. IFM participants believe that the film production technique is the most important factor in making a film. The data analysis indicate that there are other indexes which are part of the public relations task like inviting special guests, notifications during the market, the reflections before and after it, inviting international press agents, call for entries for the next edition. There are multimedia and word of mouth seems to be more effective to IFM participants. Screening films, adverts in technical publications, posters, film announces at the market, publicities on TV channels, billboards, banners, market's bulletin are in the 1st to 8th alternatives in publicities agencies services. Posters, brochures, word of mouth, multimedia, TV channels, and press book are in the 1st to 6th alternatives in advertising by the film sales agency. The film, the way a manager presents a film in the market and the sales company is in the 1st to 3rd place.