“You can fail at your own dream, rather than succeed at your mother’s” — one of the lines that went hugely viral recently from a theatrical film, drawing no shortage of praise as well as plenty of mixed opinions.
Released on the first day of Tết, the film “The House of No Nu” became yet another major box-office success from comedian and MC Trấn Thành.
So from a marketer’s perspective, what made this film so successful? Let’s go find the answer with The Fool.
A summary of “The House of No Nu”
“The House of No Nu” is the second theatrical film directed and produced by Trấn Thành himself, following the success of his directorial debut, “Bố Già” (Dad, I’m Sorry).
As with the previous film, Trấn Thành again leaned on his strength: family-themed stories, drawing from very real material from his own life to write this piece.
The film follows a three-generation family headed by Mrs. Ngọc Nữ (played by Lê Giang), who sells crab noodle soup in an old apartment building managed by Mr. Liêm (played by People’s Artist Việt Anh). Mrs. Ngọc Nữ has two daughters, Ngọc Như (Khả Như) and Ngọc Nhi (Uyển Ân)…
As Ngọc Nhi grows up, she dreams of working with ceramics, but her mother doesn’t value this trade and forces her to study banking instead — her mother’s chosen path — or otherwise stay home to help sell noodle soup. Not daring to argue, Nhi follows the path her mother chose for her…
After discovering Ngọc Nhi is pregnant, Mrs. Ngọc Nữ goes and disrupts the family business of John (Nhi’s partner). Still young, after being scolded by her mother, Ngọc Nhi runs away from home, and John does the same. The two stay together for a long stretch, but being young, neither fully understands…
After a string of upheavals, Nhi and her mother, Mrs. Nữ, begin to understand each other better. Mrs. Nữ decides to remarry, choosing Mr. Liêm, the building owner, given his daily care and attention toward her. Meanwhile, John tries to hold on to his first love, but fails…
3 customer psychology effects in marketing for businesses
So what made “The House of No Nu” so successful from a marketing standpoint? It’s that Trấn Thành knew how to apply the following 3 customer psychology effects:
- The Mere-Exposure Effect
- The Halo Effect
- The FOMO Effect (Fear of Missing Out)
First, let’s talk about the Mere-Exposure Effect
This effect simply states: “A subconscious sense of familiarity is one of the factors influencing our decision when choosing something.”
Say you’re picking a Vietnamese film to watch this Tết, torn between three: “Chị Chị Em Em 2,” “Siêu Lừa Gặp Siêu Lầy,” and “The House of No Nu.”
So you decide to watch all three trailers to make it easier to choose, and you notice:
- “Chị Chị Em Em 2” tells the true story of Ms. Ba Trà and Tư Nhị, two notorious beauties of old Saigon (sounds interesting and appealing, but it tells a story that feels too distant from today’s era, on top of depicting an upper-class lifestyle that doesn’t feel very relatable…
- “Siêu Lừa Gặp Siêu Lầy” impresses you with comedian Mạc Văn Khoa and fellow quirky actor Anh Tú. This duo promises plenty of hearty laughs. However, the less appealing part comes from the script, which feels…
- In the end, you decide to watch “The House of No Nu,” because after watching the trailer, you realize that beyond its comedic moments (not as many as “Siêu Lừa Gặp Siêu Lầy,” but just enough to be entertaining), the film also gives you a strangely strong sense of familiarity — familiar enough that you…
By using such genuinely real-life material, director Trấn Thành directly tapped into the audience’s subconscious sense of familiarity, influencing them to go support the film.
Next is the Halo Effect
The Halo Effect happens when we form an overall judgment about a person or thing based on just one aspect of it.
Still picking your Tết film — after watching the first two trailers, you still haven’t decided. At this point, even before watching the third trailer, the Halo Effect psychological trap has already gotten you, as you start digging through your memory of family-themed dramas…
Let’s revisit some of “Bố Già”‘s success, both as a web drama and a theatrical film, with The Fool:
- In early 2020, the web drama “Bố Già,” produced by Trấn Thành, took the internet by storm, with all 5 episodes hitting YouTube trending and reaching a combined 165 million views on the Trấn Thành Town channel.
- Just a week after release, “Bố Già” earned 150 billion VND (per the distributor’s announcement). That figure quickly climbed to 400 billion VND after a month in theaters, making it the highest-grossing Vietnamese film of all time, surpassing Avengers: Endgame at the Vi…
You could say “Bố Già”‘s success became an enormous springboard for this film’s success. Because before it even hit theaters, audience expectations were already huge that “The House of No Nu” would match, or at least come close to, that level of quality.
However, the Halo Effect is a double-edged sword when expectations for “The House of No Nu” grew too large. If the content had turned out poor or not worth watching, audiences would have been disappointed even more. Luckily for Trấn Thành, “The House of No Nu” has a decent script, though it still has a few rough spots…
Finally, the FOMO Effect (Fear of Missing Out)
As The Fool covered in a previous article, the FOMO effect is, put simply, the effect that makes people believe others are always happier than they are, and that they’re missing out on something others have experienced to reach that happiness. It’s born from human imagination…
At a theater event meeting the first audiences of “The House of No Nu,” Trấn Thành shared: “I really dislike filmmakers who don’t put their heart into the craft, leading them to make shallow, careless films.”
What’s more, just one day after the film premiered, Trấn Thành filmed a behind-the-scenes video with the cast — including Khả Như, Dương Lâm, and others — to mark its record-breaking 25-billion-VND opening. This move further reinforced to audiences that “The House of No Nu” was well worth watching…
These actions from this talented director-actor created, among the public (those who hadn’t seen it yet), a sense that they were missing out on something worth seeing, and that the people who’d already gone to the theater were genuinely happy. That, in turn, pushed more people to buy tickets and support the film…
Alongside the Halo Effect pushing audiences to decide to go to the theater, Trấn Thành’s film didn’t disappoint, as “The House of No Nu” once again delivered something genuinely real, down-to-earth, and relatable. From there, it’s easy to see why audiences would tell each other about this product so widely.
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