Arts Marketing Insights

The Dynamics of Building and Retaining Performing Arts Audiences

Joanne Scheff Bernstein

• Editorial: Jossey-Bass
• Año: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781118046821
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Business
• Categoría: Nonprofit Organizations & Charities

Audience behavior began to shift dramatically in the mid 1990s. Since then, people have become more spontaneous in purchasing tickets and increasingly prefer selecting specific programs to attend rather than buying a subscription series. Arts attenders also expect more responsive customer service than ever before. Because of these and other factors, many audience development strategies that sustained nonprofit arts organizations in the past are no longer dependable and performing arts marketers face many new challenges in their efforts to build and retain their audiences. Arts organizations must learn how to be relevant to the changing lifestyles, needs, interests, and preferences of their current and potential audiences.

Arts Marketing Insights offers managers, board members, professors, and students of arts management the ideas and information they need to market effectively and efficiently to customers today and into the future. In this book, Joanne Scheff Bernstein helps readers to understand performing arts audiences, conduct research, and provide excellent customer service. She demonstrates that arts organizations can benefit by expanding the meaning of "valuable customer" to include single-ticket buyers. She offers guidance on long-range marketing planning and helps readers understand how to leverage the Internet and e-mail as powerful marketing channels. Bernstein presents vivid case studies and examples that illustrate her strategic principles in action from organizations large and small in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and other countries.

CHAPTER 1

The State of Performing Arts Attendance and the State of Marketing

If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.

—Old Chinese proverb

In business, as in art, what distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness from mediocrity, is the ability to uniquely imagine what could be.

—Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad

UNLIKE THE CLASSICS, WHICH REMAIN FRESH FOR each generation, many aspects of the performing arts world are in constant flux. Especially since the turn of the twenty-first century, audience needs and preferences have changed significantly. There is much debate as to whether the art presented on our stages is the source of changing ticket purchasing behavior or whether people are responding differently to how the art is packaged and communicated to its publics. In this chapter I present the perspectives of various experts on this topic, discuss the results of significant survey research on audience behavior, and offer marketing trends and concepts that have a strong effect on consumers in this new age.

THE STATE OF PERFORMING ARTS ATTENDANCE

Among experienced practitioners and researchers in the performing arts industry there is no clear consensus as to the state of performing arts attendance. The following discussions consider the perspectives of various experts in the field and the results of several extensive surveys, all designed to help identify current attendance patterns and important audience trends.

Extinction, Survival, or Vitality?

For decades some knowledgeable observers have been predicting the morbid decline of the performing arts, especially of classical music. Says New Criterion music critic Samuel Lipman, “Classical music now stands, for the first time in the modern world, on the periphery of culture . . . classical music today is in deep trouble. It is not clear whether we can do more than bear witness.”¹ Norman LeBrecht, music critic for the London Daily Telegraph and author of Who Killed Classical Music? has written, “Ticket sales have tumbled, record revenue has shriveled, state and business funds have dried up . . . orchestras [are] threatened with extinction.. . . The future of musical performance hangs in the balance at the close of the twentieth century.”² Pulitzer prize-winning composer William Bolcom warns that “we are, it seems, currently witnessing a crumbling of the façade of the serious music scene in the United States.”³ Robert Schwartz, writing in the New York Times, summarized the reasons for orchestras’ despair: “There is much unease today among those who head America’s orchestras. Statistics show that audiences are aging, and the collapse of arts education in the public schools makes it difficult to find new listeners among a younger, more ethnically diverse urban population. The repertory has grown stuffy and predictable, and daring ventures tend to alienate old, reliable subscribers. Finances are shaky in all the arts, but orchestras . . . are particularly vulnerable.”⁴

These concerns are not exclusive to the United States. Heloisa Fischer, founder and director of Viva Música in Rio de Janeiro, says, “In Brazil, classical music plays only a small part in the life of most people.” Asks Fischer, “Is someone working in this segment rowing against the tide? Is classical music an art form which is able to be consumed in contemporary societies?”⁵

Yet, other observers view the state of performing arts attendance with a great deal of optimism. “We live in something of a classical music golden age,” insists music expert Douglas Dempster. “Classical music is more widely heard and available, performed at a higher level of preparation and artistry, both in the U.S. and, I would wager, around the world, than it has ever been before.. . . If classical music is in some kind of trouble, it is trouble that is simply not evident in tangible measures of its popularity and availability.”⁶ In addition, the availability of digital classical music, although in its early stages of adoption, is already having dramatic effects. Even though sales of classical CDs in the United States decreased by 15 percent in 2005, digital downloads of classical albums grew by 94 percent. More significant, several labels are finding that the classical share of the downloaded music business is about 7 percent, more than twice the share in traditional retail outlets. BBC Radio offered free downloads of Beethoven symphonies in June 2005, and the 1.4 million people who downloaded in response prove that audiences for classical music might be larger than anyone thought. And these audiences are likely to be young—Forrester Research reports that most people who listen to downloaded music are between the ages of fifteen and the mid-forties.⁷

Furthermore, reports the Wall Street Journal, “the American cultural barometer is rising.” In the 1990s, Americans attained a historically high level of wealth, education, and cultural exposure, and as a result the lowest common denominator of American culture is rising rapidly (notwithstanding the popularity of MTV and reality TV). As proof that America is becoming a nation of culture, consider that 41 percent of Americans listened to classical music in the late 1990s compared to 19 percent in the early 1980s; 35 percent of Americans visited art museums in the late 1990s compared to 22 percent in the early 1980s.⁸

A Harris Poll has found that more Americans travel for cultural enlightenment than for sports, shopping, and theme parks combined, and a survey by the Travel Industry Association of America indicates that 46 percent of the almost two hundred million total U.S. travelers in 1998 included a cultural, arts, heritage, or historical activity while on their trip.

There is further evidence that performing arts attendance is strong. Extensive research conducted in 2003 in ten communities across the United States by the Performing Arts Research Coalition (PARC) indicates that attendance at live, professional performing arts events is an activity enjoyed on at least an occasional basis by a significant majority of adults—ranging from 61 to 78 percent of respondents in the various communities surveyed. In fact more people attended a live performing arts event at least once in 2003 than attended a professional sporting event. Frequent attenders, defined as those who attended at least twelve performances over the past year, ranged from 11 to 18 percent of respondents. ⁹ Moreover, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has reported that a 2002 survey it conducted found that nearly 23 percent of the national audience for classical music was under age thirty-four and a whopping 43 percent were under age forty-four. Opera audiences tracked even younger: 25 percent were under age thirty-four and 44 percent were under age forty-four. Opera attendance, spurred by the use of computerized supertitles that translate lyrics, has been rising steadily and dramatically since 1982. According to the NEA survey, 6.6 million adults (3.2 percent of the adult population) attended at least one opera performance in 2002, reflecting a growth of 43 percent over a twenty-year period.¹⁰ In the United States there are now 110 opera companies, 34 of which were founded after 1980. More than 110 symphony orchestras have been founded since 1980, and the number of nonprofit, professional theater companies has grown to more than 800, compared with fewer than 60 in 1965.

In the U.S. theater industry, some managing directors express concern that they were lulled into a false sense of security during the boom years of the 1990s, when the economy seemed to rise with no end in sight and attendance grew annually. In the five-year period from 2000 through 2004, according to a survey conducted by the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), attendance at 92 trend theatres declined 4 percent, and these theaters’ ticket sales covered a decreasing proportion of expenses, 5.1 percent less in 2004 than in 2000. Yet during the 2003- 2004 season, the 198 profiled theatres in the TCG survey attracted a cumulative 12.8 million patrons to more than 39,000 main series performances, numbers that hardly ring a death knell for the field. Among the 258 universe theatres that responded to TCG’s 2005 survey of nonprofit, professional theaters, a majority ended the 2004 season in the black, reversing the trend of the previous few years.¹¹ This rebound was the result of belt tightening and a vigorous commitment to contributed income generation, meaning that these theaters are managing more intelligently and effectively, as all businesses should do, whether in growing or lean times.

Those who claim that the primary factors inhibiting the growth of performing arts attendance are less expensive and more convenient forms of entertainment should compare the state of the performing arts with the state of the movie industry, which has experienced truly precipitous audience declines. In 1948, ninety million Americans—65 percent of the population—went to a movie house in an average week; in 2004, thirty million Americans—roughly 10 percent of the population—went to see a movie in an average week.¹² Performing arts advocates should be encouraged that home entertainment options such as DVD players, VCRs, TVs, TiVo, and iPods do not closely replace live arts events as they do the in-theater movie experience.

Following the tragedy of September 11, 2001, fears that audiences would evaporate as people stayed closer to home proved unfounded. On the contrary theaters reaffirmed their relevance as gathering places for people in troubled times. “It was amazing how many people walked by our theatre who just wanted to come in and be a part of something that made them feel good,” says Kate Lipuma, managing director of the Signature Theatre Company in New York City.¹³ This is an example of the reasons why, despite the uncertainty of the times, many theater leaders are fundamentally optimistic. “The best thing we have on our side is the goodwill of our audience,” says Kate Warner, managing director of the Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta. “Of course, the quality of the work on stage and the creativity of artists and administrators are crucial intangibles.” By making the most of such assets, while focusing on their mission, arts organizations are positioning themselves to build toward future growth.¹⁴

It is my contention that the arts themselves are not less desirable than they were in past decades or to past generations. Stagnating or declining attendance can be largely attributed to the fact that the ways the arts are described, packaged, priced, and offered to the public have not kept up with changes in people’s lifestyles and preferences. Some declines are and always have been, of course, a function of programming choices. Even during the years when arts organizations enjoyed overall enormous growth in attendance, ticket sales were weak when too much work that was new, unfamiliar, or otherwise undesirable to the organizations’ audiences was put on the stage. Other aspects of programming and style of presentation have had an effect on audiences—especially those for symphonic and chamber music concerts—and the nature of arts criticism in the media at times has a negative effect on ticket sales as well.

But in recent years it is changing lifestyles and values that have had the strongest impact on ticket sales. Because of these changes, long-standing arts marketing practices no longer work as they once did. For example, people today are more spontaneous in choosing leisure time activities, are more eager to select exactly which productions they will attend, and in this high-technology age, expect better, faster, and more customized service. Because these trends bode well for new strategies that appeal to single ticket buyers, why do many arts marketers still produce and distribute costly subscription brochures, which restrict people to the packages a marketing director offers them, rather than season brochures, which people can use to order exactly what they want?

People know what they like and often do not want to take risks on what they do not know. Many arts organizations fail miserably in their marketing communications at answering the questions prospective patrons have in their minds: Will I like this show? Will I understand it? Do I need to understand it to enjoy it? Will I feel comfortable there, and will I fit in? What relevance does this performance have to my life? Arts marketers must make a sincere effort to get inside the heads and hearts of their publics. Managers who blame external forces for a decline in audience size, believing the problems are out of their control, are likely to fail. Managers who implement marketing strategies relevant to their target audiences are realizing significant success.

Trends in Arts Participation

Some strategies that were once commonly accepted best practices in the performing arts industry are rapidly losing effectiveness because of behavioral and attitudinal changes in the broader environment. These trends affect not only the ways arts organizations reach out successfully to new audiences but the satisfaction and retention levels of current audiences as well. The trends, insights, and marketing principles presented in the following sections of this chapter are the foundation for the concepts and recommendations presented throughout this book.

SUBSCRIPTIONS VERSUS SINGLE TICKET SALES Subscriptions fueled the dramatic growth of performing arts audiences and the number of new organizations from the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s. But since the late 1990s, with changing lifestyles and more competition for leisure time activities, subscriptions have decreased for the industry as a whole. People have become more spontaneous in choosing their entertainment options, and younger audiences in particular are less likely to commit months in advance to specific dates or to an entire series of performances. From 2001 through 2005, subscriptions at 100 trend theatres surveyed by the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) in its 2005 study declined 5 percent, and the average subscription renewal rate dropped from 73 percent to 63 percent. The total number of seats occupied by subscribers declined by 10 percent. But single ticket sales at these same 100 theaters increased 13 percent during that five-year period. Average single ticket income was greater than average subscription income in each of those five years for the first time in decades.¹⁵

This change in ticket purchasing behavior has dramatic implications for arts marketers. Subscribers guarantee an audience for virtually all of a season’s productions and allow artistic directors to produce some works that are less well known or more adventuresome and that might not attract sizable audiences on a single ticket basis. Organizations with a strong subscriber base are far less dependent on good critical reviews for each production than are organizations that rely on rave reviews and word of mouth to attract ticket buyers. Subscribers produce enormous lifetime value to arts organizations. Once a person has subscribed, renewals are far less expensive for the organization to sell than repeated si...