THE CONCEPT APPLIED TO A MULTIPLEX: -SESHAN E-mail: seshankartik@gmail.

com

We are trying to change the way people watch movies, or at least the way people buy tickets. This is some kina lottery system that has a rigorous mathematical pattern attached to it. Here people buy tickets from a multiplex and hence give away some amount of cash, say CASH, and the amount of cash that exceeds the nearest multiple of 500 or the BASE is the DELTA. A certain amount of money goes to the customers wallet depending on BASE and DELTA. The money equals a certain function f. We shall describe the function f at a later time for good, no math to begin with. This sum of cash grows at about 12.5% (typical bank rate). Cle arly f is an extremely hard function and hence and for other reasons it will not be disclosed to the customer. However some basic statistics (table columnar data) will be provided to the customer in the official website of the multiplex. And some basic clues of, shall we call it ticket investment; will be put on the site too. We choose to study some typical multiplex. And see how this system will help business progress. Our work can be split into some problem statements; working on these problem statements will bring the ultimate result of the study. Problem statement: 1 We need to analyse the schemes used by a typical multiplex to attract customers. We need to see what they are doing to increase their traffic. We need to do research on how much these multiplexes work on building a decent customer-multiplex rapport. And considering that there is such a steep increase in the movie watching population and in the use of the internet, we need to analyse how much the organisation works on building an online relationship with the customers. Considering also that there are some or the other big releases all through the year we need to analyse the gross sales of the multiplex so we can set our BASE and all that. So some ones got to do the analysis. Problem statement: 2 We need to come up with a mathematical model to drive the machine. The mathematics of the situation may be changing from time to time; a lot of improvising may be required to achieve optimum results.

Problem statement: 3 Can we make an interactive software to kind of help multiplexes do their organising?

Yet again we intend to inform the customer regularly about his wallet information. We intend to do so either by sending him text messages or e-mail or both. The multiplex must have a well designed web-site where the customer can login and find out his wallet informations. In this system we dont really let the customer go into the intricacies of the situation but in due course he will learn how to use the system effectively. For instance we could kind of tell him that he could have had a better deal had he put in a little more cash. Note that f is designed such that you can enjoy the advantage of a large DELTA iff you have a large BASE. For instance your wallet will be heavier if you spend Rs 1525 than if you spend Rs 1499(assuming a BASE of 500). So we only help the customer buy cleverly, never expose our mathematics. I now intend to describe f clearly in words because we still have not worked on the function as such. DESCRIPTION OF f What it is: 1) The function describes the amount of money that would go into the customers wallet. The money grows at 12.5% for about 8 days and then suddenly remains there and hence a point of non-differentiability. 10 days hence it becomes zero. 2) The function depends very heavily on BASE and frequency (FREQ) of visit of the customer. A large DELTA will come be of significant help if and only if BASE is large. 3) The functions input parameters are (BASE, AMOUNT, and FREQ) and it outputs WALLET. It is this wallet that grows. Statistics required for creating f: 1) For a particular class of ticket (say a balcony seat) we need to know the average profits that the theatre makes. To know this we need to know how much he pays a distributor to buy the movie (that again varies from movie to movie, but we presume that there is always some big movie around, because film makers need cash too) and the average number of customers per day. So the average profit is 2) Next we need to know how much money he loses from the ideal profit because of his customer attraction schemes. 3) Next we need to fabricate f in such a way that the multiplex may stop all th eir customer attraction schemes and still have a huge traffic and in the process of traffic enhancement they dont lose their profit. How will the multiplex introduce this scheme? 1) A huge database of all the customers is created as and when a customer buys a ticket. The situation is simplified if the customer books ticket online. First, a customer should know why hes being asked for such details before buying a ticket, so he has to be given a pamphlet explaining to him the multiplexes innovative schemes. Note that the customer will not mind giving his e-mail details when it is clear to him that he will be gaining and not losing money.

GROSS PROFIT

CUSTOMER TRAFFIC

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

2) There on the customer will receive regular updates by mail and text message. When his wallet reaches an appropriate amount of money, the customer is given a list of movies and timings that are available and the number of tickets he gets free of cost. In most of the cases a ticket either gets booked in advance or the theatre is not fully packed. In the first case the customer will get no intimation from the banks side, but in the second case he gets a free ticket, and hence only takes a seat which will otherwise be unoccupied, so the theatre does not lose much anyways. 3) Also the customer is offered some space in the theatres official web-site. Here the customer is taught how the machine works superficially and how to invest cleverly in the machine. Some sample statistics are also provided.

Intuitional advantages: Assume there to be a couple of theatres A and B. Let A use our system and let B use conventional systems. Let us assume 3 things: 1) A and B are doing almost equally good/bad at the moment. 2) We actually find an appropriate function f. 3) We are through the transient curve and customers have understood the system, as in they now know how to use the system conveniently. There are 3 parameters we intend to work upon: 1) Gross profit. 2) Customer traffic 3) Customer satisfaction The scenario at multiplex A:

ASSERTION: gross profit is expected to increase steeply

ASSERTION: ASSERTION: There will be a steep increase in Customers will clearly be a lot the customer traffic as well. more satisfied.

REASONING : The customer is keen on rounding his purchase to a multiple of the BASE, say 500 in a typical case, so almost all purchases will result in an elevation in profit, which when seen over a larger scale will account for a huge amount of money. Also note that the multiplex only gives away the vacant seats and hence makes no loss, moreover it gains because the customer buys food stuffs and drinks. I think there will be a steep rise in gross profit.

REASONING : REASONING: It is human tendency not to Go ask my daughter on her first lose cash, so when a movie birthday!!. goer already has cash in his wallet why would he go elsewhere? People love it when they get things free of cost !!.

While the scenario will not remain to be the same with multiplex B, things would have g one worse because of they lost their traffic to A. Similarly if you consider n such multiplexes note tha t all the traffic that there once was will flow to A. This will increase As traffic immensely. Drawbacks of the system: (I am too optimistic for this section, leave it to you :) you are not allowed to come up with more than 6 points, LOL 1) Takes time to stabilise (not that the firm loses cash until things get stable, just that the avalanche will not occur until the transient is achieved.) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

Immediate progress to be done: Collect all statistics from a multiplex, required to fabricate the function f. Develop an appropriate function f. Simulate the function and record the predicted increase in profit with respect to the past statistics collected.