Movie Trailers as a Marketing Communication Tool

Marketing communication activities are generally used to reach consumers and convince them to purchase a product. These activities vary and diversify depending on the type of product. Trailers are one of the important marketing communication activities prepared for movies in the movie industry. In this study, the trailers of the five most-watched movies in Turkey over the past 10 years were analysed to examine how Aristotle's rhetorical elements of ethos, pathos, and logos are applied in movie marketing. Using a scene-based coding method, each trailer was divided into specific sections, and the persuasive techniques applied to each scene were systematically evaluated. Ethos was constructed using cultural representation, biographical reality, and the use of social figures; pathos was constructed using music, humour, universal emotions, and visual narration; and logos was constructed using a consistent plot and clear cause-and-effect relationships. The sample was limited to Turkey in order to enable a consistent analysis of local rhetoric and marketing practices. The findings show that emotional, cultural and logical elements are intertwined in box office successful movie trailers and marketing communication strategies are designed in this direction.