Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1962)

Texas Circuit Guarantees Its Movie Entertainment A Ticket-Back Pass Plan Proves to Be a Solid Public Relations Project for Trans-Texas, Inc. DALLAS — When a patron walks into one of the 11 theatres operated by the TransTexas Circuit, and finds he doesn’t like the picture, he can go to the manager and get a “ticket-back” pass good at any of the circuit’s theatres. The project has now been in operation for five months, and very few patrons have squawked about the pictures or complained about “misleading advertising.” Yet, Earl Podolnick, president, says the promotion is just about the finest public relations project his theatres have ever undertaken. Through it, the public has gained a lot of respect both for the circuit itself and for the motion picture industry as a whole. If there is one thing the public appreciates, Podolnick and his associates have learned, it is getting a square deal in its movie entertainment. Just the fact that the management offers a “ticket-back” pass satisfies, even if they don’t ask for it. Podolnick says the circuit inaugurated the plan “because of the many complaints from patrons that all theatre ads included either the words ‘fabulous,’ ‘fantastic,’ ‘out of this world,’ ‘best of the year,’ or other superlatives to entice people into the theatres.” As a result, the patron after seeing the picture was dissatisfied because the attraction was not up to expectations, nor offered the entertainment values described in the advertising. This resulted in dissatisfied patrons, refunds and “general disgust with theatre business as a whole.” Podolnick decided the time was ripe for establishment of a plan to give the customer a better deal. “Since most fine stores and business establishments guarantee their merchandise, we felt that it was possibly a good idea to guarantee movie entertainment, by more truthful advertising, and in such a manner that the patron was not deceived, nor disgusted with the theatre. “To combat the problem, we instituted the movie guarantee plan with the slogan You’re Our Guest For Any Future Shou> If You Do Not Enjoy This Movie ! This exclusive theatre will cheerfully offer a TICKET-BACK Guarantee if you are not satisfied ! ★ ★ ★ ★ YOUR GUARANTEED MOVIE ENJOYMENT IS OUR PLEASURE ★ ★ ★ ★ THE MANAGEMENT TRANS-TEXAS THEATRES., INC. This eight by ten card is used in theatre boxoffices and in theatre lobbies to publicize the ticket-back pass plan. ‘Movie Entertainment Guarantee — Be Our Guest If You Don’t Agree.’ ” Podolnick said, “If a patron is dissatisfied with a picture or feels that he was mislead by the advertising, he is issued a ticket-back pass, which enables him to see another picture any time between Monday through Thursday.” “Another reason for introducing the plan was the constant lack of good product, and the necessity for playing all product to stay in business. We felt that, at least, we could be truthful with our patrons. Many times, regular patrons stopped coming to the theatre, and we did not know why. Now we understand that the reason they stopped coming was because they had been mislead so many times. Patrons now feel The movie entertainment guarantee slogan is publicized in advertisements placed by the circuit, banners, stickers and a large variety of printed pieces, some of which are shown above. that this is the company where entertainment is guaranteed, and knowing this, are coming back to our theatres.” Surprising to Podolnick and his associates, there are few requests for the ticket-back passes. “Naturally, some pictures are of lesser quality, and a patron will ask for a pass because he honestly feels that it just wasn’t a good picture and he didn’t get his money’s worth,” he said. “Very few people, however, have taken advantage of us by saying that all of our shows were disappointing, or most of them. We have a card catalog of every pass given, so we can keep track of the habitual gripers. We receive weekly reports from our managers, tabulating the number of passes given, to whom, reasons why and patron comments. “We think that many of the requests for the ticket-back pass are made simply to test our guarantee and this being the case, we are making steady customers out of those who do the testing. We are now known as the circuit that guarantees its entertainment, and many times over, when it comes to deciding which theatre a couple or a family wdll attend, the choice is one of our theatres.” The manager of a Trans-Texas theatre gets a great deal of satisfaction, as one did the other week, when two women stopped in front of the theatre, argued over which of several movie houses to attend, saw the movie guarantee card in the boxoffice, and made their decision to attend the T-T theatre on the basis of this guarantee. Podolnick makes these further observations on the plan: “We consider this the best public relations project for all our theatres (with exception of Cinerama roadshows) , because it is proving to be the only real stimulant to create the ‘movie habit,’ which we have not had since TV broke the habit. Slogans like ‘Movies are better than ever’ will never do the job. You can’t go on fooling the public with slogans; our actions speak louder than words. “We are guaranteeing what the industry is producing as we are the store that sells the manufactured product. Therefore, we bear the brunt of any misgivings of the industry and the filmmakers. We compare this marketing of pictures the same as a store like Neiman-Marcus or a Tiffany’s, that has the confidence of the buyers knowing that everything bought at these establishments is guaranteed. This is our same thought, we are guaranteeing our product too. To our knowledge, there is no greater public relations project now in operation by any chain of theatres that can match this accomplishment. This goodwill is backed up by unsolicited editorials from newspapers in our cities and by all trade publications. “The greatest special benefit we have received from this plan is the return of the habit of going to movies. We are getting patrons back into the seats and creating a cycle of seeing the trailers of coming attractions in color on a giant screen (which is still the best form of advertising) . In other words, if they receive a ticket-back pass, they will return to the theatre and see the trailer of coming attractions. Thus, they are exposed as a captive audience to our advertising and chances are they will return again, and paying regular admission. It has shown that if a couple receives ticket-back passes, they will bring another couple (paying customers) with them.” 14 BOXOFFICE :: February 26. 1962