Pathe Cinemas Customer Relationship Marketing

PART I

Our choice- When looking at different possibilities of service companies, we decided to go for a service that would not be involved directly in hospitality (i.e hotels, restaurants, airlines). We rather found appealing to focus on a service that has been gaining popularity around the world and that continues to be one of society’s main pastimes: Cinema. Pathé Group plays an important role in the European movie industry since it represents one of the top film producers, distributors and movie theatre operators in Europe (Pathé Business Review, 2006).

Pathe has an extensive profile of service offers. Pathe Pictures represents a mayor film producer in Europe while Pathe Distribution delivers theatrical and video productions in France (Pathe Distribution), United Kingdom (Pathe Distribution Ltd) and Switzerland (Monopole Pathe Films AG). However, this project will be focused on the service delivery of Pathé’s movie theatres in Switzerland since it represents the actual stage where the customer interacts with the service provider. Therefore, the service offer studied consists of the opportunity to experience a film with all the comfort and adequate service. The objective is to conduct this experience to a moment of relaxation and distraction of the daily routine.

When it all began- Pathé was founded on September 28th, 1896 by Société Pathé Frères (Charles, Téophile, Jacques and Emile Pathé) in Paris, France (Early History Pathé) being the first cinema company in the world. After belonging to multiple societies and conglomerations it was transformed into Pathe Group in 1998 (G. Schnegg, personal communication, August 31st, 2007). In the same year, Pathé began its expansion an entered the Swiss market as Pathé Suisse. In 2001 the Gaumont and Pathé cinema chain were merged as Europalaces SA , the largest movie theater chain in France, Netherlands and Switzerland (Pathé). Nowadays, Europalaces including Pathe has expanded significantly and manages an...