Marketing Strategies by Christopher Stager, Marketing Consultant
Allow me to weigh in here. My name is Christopher Stager, and since October my firm has had the privilege to serve as marketing consultant to The Phoenix Symphony. We also provide counsel to the Hartford Symphony, Toledo Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony and numerous others. I suppose this makes me an "apologist".
We have observed that The Phoenix Symphony stumbled in its marketing early in the season by focusing its marketing efforts on the "brand" of the institution, rather than the inherent artistic values of any given program. We have seen the failure of this time and time again in city after city. While the blogger is correct in observing that some houses are between only 60-70% full, this is attributable more to a dearth of subscribers rather than a shortage of single ticket buyers. These two constituencies make up the composition of any house. To clarify the comments that have been posted – ONLY single tickets have set a record this season, not subscriptions.
It must be noted that the Phoenix "branding" philosophy did not significantly increase the subscription base, particularly given the re-opening of the hall and the debut of Mr. Christie. In other cities, such an alignment would have been capitalized on for a breakthrough in subscription sales. We noted that the telemarketing and direct mail efforts were not managed in tandem to present a compelling, urgent offer to subscribe. In our 17 years of experience, this coordination is crucial to an effective subscription campaign.
We proposed a course correction in marketing planning for the coming season and I am delighted to report that subscription sales for the coming season are outpacing a last year at this time. It should also be stressed that the age of The Phoenix Symphony audience is, in fact, lower than national averages – this attributable to the lack of a classical matinee series that patrons can age into. The suggestion to include the bus information is wise and appreciated. You will see it in upcoming ads. As many of these blogs refer to audience and sales issues, I will be delighted to answer any of your questions here. Or, you may feel free to write to me directly at crstager@crstager.com. Thank you for allowing me to provide a considered response.
We have observed that The Phoenix Symphony stumbled in its marketing early in the season by focusing its marketing efforts on the "brand" of the institution, rather than the inherent artistic values of any given program. We have seen the failure of this time and time again in city after city. While the blogger is correct in observing that some houses are between only 60-70% full, this is attributable more to a dearth of subscribers rather than a shortage of single ticket buyers. These two constituencies make up the composition of any house. To clarify the comments that have been posted – ONLY single tickets have set a record this season, not subscriptions.
It must be noted that the Phoenix "branding" philosophy did not significantly increase the subscription base, particularly given the re-opening of the hall and the debut of Mr. Christie. In other cities, such an alignment would have been capitalized on for a breakthrough in subscription sales. We noted that the telemarketing and direct mail efforts were not managed in tandem to present a compelling, urgent offer to subscribe. In our 17 years of experience, this coordination is crucial to an effective subscription campaign.
We proposed a course correction in marketing planning for the coming season and I am delighted to report that subscription sales for the coming season are outpacing a last year at this time. It should also be stressed that the age of The Phoenix Symphony audience is, in fact, lower than national averages – this attributable to the lack of a classical matinee series that patrons can age into. The suggestion to include the bus information is wise and appreciated. You will see it in upcoming ads. As many of these blogs refer to audience and sales issues, I will be delighted to answer any of your questions here. Or, you may feel free to write to me directly at crstager@crstager.com. Thank you for allowing me to provide a considered response.
6 Comments:
After I signed my last post, I realized that I had incorrectly stated that The Phoenix Symphony does not have a matinee series. Of course it does.
The age of The Phoenix Symphony's audience is quite similar to the national average. If polled today, the age would likely be somewhat younger because of the growing number of single ticket buyers, who tend to be younger.
My apologies for the misstatement and thanks for the opportunity to correct it.
I'm glad to see Christopher Stager joining this discussion, and to know that there's a professional marketing group helping the Symphony. Frankly, there hasn't been much evidence of a marketing campaign in the recent past, and I hope that's changing.
A couple of points. First, if the intent is to grow a younger audience, then marketing via channels such as "Me Media" seems like a no-brainer. This is the current in thing for many younger people, and you most likely won't reach them via "mainstream media." It's also unclear that we older audience members will have much influence on them, even if they're our children or grandchildren; we're simply not singing off the same sheet of music.
Second, I'll again bring up the need for a strategic plan and direction. Maybe one of the goals for this blog is to generate ideas that will lead to such a plan, with Mr. Stager's help. If so, fine, but please say so.
Finally (for this post :-), this blog really needs to be subdivided by topic so that it isn't just a stream-of-consciousness which doesn't allow anyone to reach any conclusions. Most likely the Symphony is hosting this blog with minimal resources, but perhaps among those participating some individuals could help, either with Web expertise or with monetary support.
Grayce
Grayce,
I'm sure it hasn't missed your attention that this blog is on a free site. - blogger.com.
Minimal resources would be an overstatement.
To the extent we can build some infrastructure we will. If you or anyone else out there would be willing to contribute your expertise in this arena I can assure you it would be very much appreciated. The symphony office phone number is 602 495 1117. As this is not my area of expertise I don't know the financial reality of a well structured blog but I would think this project would be very worthy of someone's financial support. Thank you for caring to see this effort grow. I know our musicians, staff and Board have been following this over this first weekend of existence so I'm confident gears are already turning!
To Christopher Stager: Please stay in touch with the public via the SoundPost! We very much appreciate your explanations and responsiveness to suggestions about advertising and Symphony communications in general. You are VERY important in the quest to publicize our great orchestra and conductor!
A comment sent to me this weekend states “I doubt it if you've ever made it in the real world of consumer products.” Guilty as charged. I have only ever made it in the very unreal word of art and culture that has endured for only a few centuries. I own up to not being good enough to sell air fresheners or pizzas.
Both of which, mind you, DEMAND brand management. But the brand doesn’t work for the distributor of entertainment. Does anyone have brand loyalty to NBC, or Paramount Pictures, or Atlantic Records? I would like to quote a couple of men smarter that me. Peter Bart – Editor of Variety and former VP of Production at Paramount and Peter Gruber – President of Mandalay Entertainment; former President of Columbia Pictures.
In their book “Shootout”, they write “Given the high stakes, the selling of pop culture [and for that matter high culture– crs] has clearly become something much more complex, expensive and, in some ways, insidious than the marketing of, say, packaged goods. The process of marketing toothpaste involves the relentless building of brand recognition. Awareness is enhanced through the tried-and-true formula of reach-and-repetition. A major soft drink like Pepsi Cola must be ubiquitous both in terms of brand and availability. Movie marketers face a more complex universe, however. They have dozens of new products to introduce every year. The overall "brand," per se, whether it is Warners or Paramount or MGM, no longer represents added value. No one goes to see a film because Twentieth Century Fox released it—even the company name is an anachronism.”
“Reach and repetition.” Pepsi tastes the same anytime, anywhere. But we deliver a significantly different product. Mozart one week. Messiaen the next. The experience changes. “The Phoenix Symphony” brand, if there is one, will not be enough to address “overcome” in attracting patrons to Messiaen.
Thanks for your efforts christopher. Im still adjusting to going to concerts on thursday nights (used to go Friday nights and have had to reconnoiter friends from those days.) And cant you get the AZ Republic to print reviews on Friday morning? It seems weird that they attend on Thursday evening and then dont print the review until Sunday -- too late for people to check the action reported. Even when its a crummy review at least it gets the word out. by the way -- whatever happened to Ken LaFave? He was pretty good. Maybe the PSO needs to play some of his musical compositions and he will come back?
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