American spending on art events have not changed since the 1970s; when the spending is adjusted to inflation. Studies undertaken in the 1980’s indicated that attendance of classical music concerts have been on the decline. Further, the classical music concerts have faced dwindling government support since the 1980s. Due to the above facts, the symphony orchestras in the US have focused on ways of increasing the audience base. The attendance picture of concerts nationally is that approximately 15% of the total population have attended at least one orchestra concert (Knight Foundation, 2002). The demographics of the attendance is mostly white, over 65 years, women and with incomes above $150,000 per year (Knight Foundation, 2002). The most important characteristic of the specific market of the symphony orchestras is the devotion of the subscription patrons of the symphony orchestra. The integrated communication plan are Facebook and blogs –primarily the use of social media as well as the existing Symphony Orchestra website. The use of Facebook and blogs will be focused on the intensification and enhancement of the participation of Symphony Orchestra in social media through the development of a unified voice; that publishes desirable content on the blog and on Facebook, especially due to the limited budget of Symphony Orchestra. Facebook page will entail the use of incentives for instance if a person clicked ‘Like’ button, they will get a discount code which they can apply when making purchase of tickets. They will get massive amounts of information about the people who are performing. The blogs will be optimized with key words and integrated into the Symphony Orchestra webpage; as a means of boosting the ranking of Symphony Orchestra in natural search. The blog will feature posts on the upcoming events as a means of provoking analysis and engagement on the performers, composers and music. Through the adoption of the plan, it is estimated that after approximately 6 months, the audience numbers at Symphony Orchestra will start to increase.
Abstract
American spending on art events have not changed since the 1970s; when the spending is adjusted to inflation. Studies undertaken in the 1980’s indicated that attendance of classical music concerts have been on the decline. Further, the classical music concerts have faced dwindling government support since the 1980s. Due to the above facts, the symphony orchestras in the US have focused on ways of increasing the audience base. The attendance picture of concerts nationally is that approximately 15% of the total population have attended at least one orchestra concert (Knight Foundation, 2002). The demographics of the attendance is mostly white, over 65 years, women and with incomes above $150,000 per year (Knight Foundation, 2002). The most important characteristic of the specific market of the symphony orchestras is the devotion of the subscription patrons of the symphony orchestra. The integrated communication plan are Facebook and blogs –primarily the use of social media as well as the existing Symphony Orchestra website. The use of Facebook and blogs will be focused on the intensification and enhancement of the participation of Symphony Orchestra in social media through the development of a unified voice; that publishes desirable content on the blog and on Facebook, especially due to the limited budget of Symphony Orchestra. Facebook page will entail the use of incentives for instance if a person clicked ‘Like’ button, they will get a discount code which they can apply when making purchase of tickets. They will get massive amounts of information about the people who are performing. The blogs will be optimized with key words and integrated into the Symphony Orchestra webpage; as a means of boosting the ranking of Symphony Orchestra in natural search. The blog will feature posts on the upcoming events as a means of provoking analysis and engagement on the performers, composers and music. Through the adoption of the plan, it is estimated that after approximately 6 months, the audience numbers at Symphony Orchestra will start to increase.
Introduction
The integrated marketing plan through the use of incentives on Facebook, blog posts and Facebook will be used as a means of increasing the awareness of the audience as a means of increasing the attendance of the audience and maintaining the audience interest in the performances at the symphony orchestra. The solution focuses on the developing an understanding of the audience and their needs as well as developing a communication plan that would meet such needs. Since the target audience is people who are aged between 30 and 60 years, educated, with medium to high income levels, the use of social media and blogs will be more appealing as sources of information.
Issue
The Symphony Orchestra (The Symphony Orchestra is used as the name of the symphony orchestra used in the analysis due to concerns about privacy and rights to publish the information) located in a State in the US has a number of issues/ challenges that have hampered its ability to develop a successful communication plan that is critical for the achievement of success. Despite being over 35 years’ existence, the attendance of the performances of the orchestra has been irregular as some of the events attract full house attendances while others draw meagre crowds. Secondly, the other internal issue is the limited promotion of the events and concerns with a particular focus on only the website information, Instagram and Facebook. The other internal challenge is the funding as the budget for promotions and advertising is limited. Moreover, the organization is unable to make use of extensive marketing campaigns due to the limitation in funding. Limited personnel especially personnel committed to marketing is a significant challenge of orchestra. In terms of relationship with the audience, there are some challenges such as the inefficiency in attracting younger audiences as the symphony orchestra has often focused on the older demographics. Further, there is a challenge with the branding as the key messages communicated to the audience is not effective.
Target
The main goal of the symphony orchestra is to improve the community engagement through increase in the concerts and events regular attendances. Based on the research undertaken by Knight Foundation, the large base of classical consumers are highly inclined to subscribe. The research by Knight Foundation found that approximately 50 per cent of the former subscribers are positively inclined to make subscriptions to the orchestra (Knight Foundation, 2002). Considering the people who subscribe as well as the demographic changes, the current statistics indicates that people who are 65 years and older make up the significant number of those who subscribe to the orchestra tickets. While current focus on the older target of over 60 years and retired people who have incomes over $150,000, have significant amount of time, and have greater appreciation for classical music increases the number of attendees; there are twice as likely to be subscribers to the orchestra as compared to the younger target market.
However, despite the advantages of the current targeting of the older attendees, the subscription marketing runs counter to the symphony orchestra’s goal of attracting and retaining younger audiences. The target market is identifiable as the people in the age group 30-60 years old have shared characteristics that are relevant to the symphony orchestra products or services. Further, the stability of the target audience is stable in terms of the consumption and lifestyle. Further, the target market is selected as it accessible in terms of the geo-location as well as the ability to reach the target market using the communication plan. The segmentation bases used to select the target audience include demographics as well as psychographics (Knight Foundation, 2002). The demographic segmentation allows for easy classification of the target audience. The demographic is considered a cost-effective way of reaching as well as locating specific segments and the various consumption behaviors, media exposure and attitudes are directly linked to the demographics.
With regards to the demographics, the target audience falls between the age of 30 and 60 years. The target audience are at the start of or have established careers, as well as have formed or are in the process of starting their families. Due to the relative financial stability of this group, they can afford to purchase the tickets for the performances. Further, the income levels are sufficient thus they can be able to afford the tickets for the live performances (Knight Foundation, 2002). The group is fairly educated thus they are both inquisitive and have a higher level of exposure to different kinds of entertainment and they appreciate the fine things in life such as good musical performances. With regards to the psychographics, the target group are willing to try out the orchestra experience. They are influenced by their social circles thus their consumption of the orchestra experience will mirror that of their social group. Due to the new freedom especially the financial and social freedom especially amongst the 30-45 year olds, they are often willing to try new things.
The research undertaken by the Knight Foundation (2002) found that captured active audience for the orchestras entail the lovers of classical music and have high levels of participation in the arts; especially classical music. They listen to classical music on their radios or on the recordings. They have fairly good knowledge of orchestra performances and would be willing to attend or subscribe to the orchestra performances. In terms of the demographics, the target audience will mostly focus on female as they have an inclination to partake in finer things in life. Further, women have a pull power thus when the attendance of the women begins to increase, men will start to attend. The group is made of responders – i.e. those who would attend the events or performances when they are invited by other people. With regards to the age, the oldest average age of the attendees is 52. Adding on the psychographics, the group is very acquisitive in that they are looking for new information about cultural activities that they can be involved in. the target market hold sociocultural belief and values that attending orchestras is a sign of status. The status symbol is an important element for the target group. The group would want their friends as well as acquaintances to know that they appreciate the fine music and performances.
Background/ Literature Review
Review of what has been done before with similar organizations
Various symphony orchestras in the US and globally have undertaken diverse strategies as a means of increasing the levels of attendance. SAS (an acronym for a symphony orchestra in the US state of Texas) founded in 1939 is an example of a Symphony Orchestra that was faced with the similar challenge of dwindling performances (San Antonio Symphony, 2019). SAS placed greater emphasis on the growing of the audience through subscriptions – aimed at forming and fostering long-term relationships. The long-term relationships helps in the cultivation of sustainability and loyalty of the audiences. The subscribers get a number of benefits such as priority seating, as well as get the first notice of special events and future seasons. Since price had been determined to be major barrier to the attendances, SAS focused on giving discounts of 50% to first time subscribers and 30% discount if they renew. For the subsequent years, there is a 10% discount. The subscription model offers a money back guarantee if the audience member does not enjoy the performance. SAS developed what is called “You Pick Three” where the patron purchases 3 tickets for three performances at a discount (SAS, 2019). Once a person attends three concerts, they will keep coming back; to enjoy the luxuries of the subscription. SAS managed to achieve 80% single ticket attendees and 20% subscribers.
Further, through partnerships with the local public radio, they feature guest artists in the local news. Social media and educational programs are used by the SAS to attract younger audience members. Through the social media and blogging, SAS has been able to attract a higher number of attendees. The blog helps to inform the potential attendees about the recent events, upcoming concerts as well as various arts topics. Partnerships in the programming has helped the success of SAS (SAS, 2019).
The other Symphony Orchestra that has achieved significant success after adopting new marketing models is the ASO also in Texas state. ASO was founded in 1911 and mostly uses youth education programs as a means of developing the audience. It puts free summer arts programs as a means of nurturing and creating lifelong patrons as well as advocates for the symphony. ASO offers free concerts once a year as a means of introducing the potential audience to the product. They undertake diversity in programming as a means of attracting diverse audiences (Austin Symphony, 2019). The majority of the marketing communication at ASO is mostly through traditional media as well as the adoption of social media such as Facebook and Twitter to reach the younger audience.
Characteristics, trends and histories of this specific market
American spending on art events have not changed since the 1970s; when the spending is adjusted to inflation. Studies undertaken in the 1980’s indicated that attendance of classical music concerts have been on the decline. Further, the classical music concerts have faced dwindling government support since the 1980s. Due to the above facts, the symphony orchestras in the US have focused on ways of increasing the audience base (Bernstein, 2007). One viable audience that classical music performing organizations like the orchestras have focused on is the people aged between 30-50 years old. Arts organizations have used a number of strategies as a means of attracting the target group. Price discounts on single performances have been used as a means of attracting the customers. However, despite the realization that the attendances have been dwindling, few of the arts organizations have developed marketing plans aimed at attracting educated young adults to become season ticket holders (Knight Foundation, 2002).
The attendance picture of concerts nationally is that approximately 15% of the total population have attended at least one orchestra concert. The demographics of the attendance is mostly white, over 65 years, women and with incomes above $150,000 per year. The concert attendance by different types of classical music include 53% for symphony orchestra, 53% for holiday performances, 45% symphony band/ concert band, 36.8% for chamber music concert and 42.6% for classic concert for families and children (Knight Foundation, 2002).
The most important characteristic of the specific market of the symphony orchestras is the devotion of the subscription patrons of the symphony orchestra. While the subscription model has persisted over many years and has worked well for many arts organizations, the evolution in the generations has led to lower inefficiencies in the model (Kotler, & Sheff, 1997). The challenge has always been greater for the symphony orchestras that are focused on attracting younger and new audience members. Due to the generational changes, especially the new commitment such as work, and other commitments, coupled with the financial challenges that the younger audiences may face, the targeted individuals are in many cases unable to make commitments to the subscription packages. The subscription model as well as other elements of the relationship marketing in the arts were explored in detail by Rentschler, Radbourne, Carr, & Rickard (2002). With the subscription model, the art organization should focused on incentives, developing and maintaining shared values, interaction, mutual understanding and customer service. The subscribers are the third in the loyalty ladder. The first category of patron in the loyalty ladder are the advocates where the focus is on loyalty marketing. Loyalty marketing entails promise fulfillment, interdependence, as well as motivation. The donor/ member is the second category where the focus is on the satisfaction of the cultural and social needs, trust, shared risks, development, loyalty, as well as commitment. For the repeat customers, single ticket customer/ purchaser and prospects, the organizations should focus in the transactional marketing. With the prospects, the focus should be on raising their interest, provision of information, raising their awareness as well as selling. For the single ticket customer, the focus should be on stimulation, excellent customer service, expectations and promises as well as enjoyment and entertainment (Rentschler et al., 2002).
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- Quote paper
- David Onditi (Author), 2019, Symphony Orchestra Challenge, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/537193
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