Business development insights from Indiana Jones!

I spent an evening at the movies recently watching the movie ‘Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull’. I was very disappointed with the movie but thought I would have a go at at least getting a blog out of it by drawing some business development insights.

My own personal rating of this movie is 6 out of 10 and deducting the business development insight from it was a bit challenging – I was rather quiet on the journey home whilst pondering the possibilities. Here goes:

Business development insight #1 – Get a good title for your product
A good title for a product makes a lot of difference. The title of this movie pushes a few hot buttons. Having ‘Indiana Jones’ in the title was probably enough for many fans of the previous Indiana Jones movies. Also having the words ‘Crystal Skull’ would be attractive to some new people especially when then promotion alluded to it being connected with Peru – a popular tourist destination.

Business development insight #2 – Deliver on your promises
For me it was so OTT Indiana Jones that it lacked credibility and Peru hardly featured at all which left me feeling a little let down. You can argue that the buyer should beware and all that…. true but I am not sure I will be spending my money to watch another Indiana Jones movie at the cinema. By the time I had stuffed my face with overpriced popcorn and Pepsi, it cost £30 for the visit. I think that a lot of people were entertained but the Indiana Jones fans would be a little disappointed at the fact it was so farcical.

Business development insight #3 – Give people what they want
The fact that I was disappointed with it does not mean that it did not have a lot of great bits in it. Lots of car chases, lots of action, lots of stunts and special effects. It was as if Steven Spielberg and George Lucas piled in a collage of ideas from all their previous movies. Personally, I think this is what ruined it for me. It was a case of overdoing it and in terms of the movie, a little less would have made all the difference.

Business development insight #4 – Have a back end!
I takes effort to find a client so make sure that people who like you and your stuff have more they can buy from you in the future. Now that Harrison Ford is getting a bit past it – he has discovered he has a son. Actually, his son does a lot of the more extreme stunts and turns out to be a bit of a swashbuckling hero himself. In fact, along with William Hurt, I thought he out performed Harrison Ford by miles. Anyway, it looks like they may be setting him up for some kind of Indiana Jones Junior role with Harrison Ford taking a back seat..

Business development insight #5 – Promote, promote, promote
I get a big suspicious if a movie is over promoted these days but Hollywood knows that if they promote a movie it is more likely to sell than just relying on PR and word of mouth. I would have given this one a miss had it not been for the promise of some connection to Peru and South America…..(apart from the fact that my young lady wanted to see it because everyone at her office was talking about it!)

So, as for the business development insights, finding the angle was a little challenging but there was clearly something to learn as the cinema was packed!

Best wishes

Richard