Audience idea of experiencing and supporting the

AudienceDevelopment is a particular type of marketing that requires something beyondthe authority of conventional marketing techniques, for example, direct mail, series subscription drives, membership drives or advertising and press media. Audience Development is the converging of marketing strategies withrelationship-building abilities, in light of the fact that keeping in mind theend goal to lastingly impact your targeted audience, the relationship must beboth individual and institutional. The main goal is to make an association withyour audience hearts by exhibiting the value of fusing arts into their lives. Once that connection is made, the idea of experiencing and supporting the arts andculture ends up noticeably organic, empowering the foundation of a long-termrelationship. A vast variety ofactivities is needed to develop audiences such as:·        Examiningcommunity demographics to develop lists of community leaders;·        Gatheringinterviews and concentrate on groups from different communities to debate theirinterests in the arts and access points and barriers;·        Buildingconnections with different communities through relationships with communityleaders and organizations;·        Findout partners and work with them.

Partners include arts organizations in differentcommunities;·        Makecommitments to a short, medium and long-term approach to creating audiencesfrom different communities by putting the proper financial and human resourcesinto place;·        Educateartists/staff/audiences about different communities and effective strategies tobuild audiences among them; ·        Managerperiodic reviews and critical analysis on activities and put into practicefollow-up based on the results; ·        Developgroup sales within different communities and provide discounts to help buildinginterest among them;·        Investigateinsights from community leaders, organizations and artists aboutcommunity-based initiatives that have worked in other areas;·        Developan audience development committee with internal/ external stakeholders workingtogether; ·        Adoptoutreach to collect data on communities and potential audiences. Examples ofvaluable data: the size and functions of communities, places members ofcommunity frequent, organizations that gather community’s members.    ·        Analyzethe characteristics of different communities regarding geographic residence, periodthat community’s members live there, disposal income and educational level.·        Motivateaudiences in the work of the arts organization, e. g., as volunteers, boardmembers, staff; MarketingChallenges: Ingeneral, nation’s arts community is strong and successful.

However, donors andfunders provide grants while they re-access their priorities. Furthermore, entertainment consumption is limited by time since people are more cautiouswith their commitments. Non-profit arts groups also have to face fiercecompetition, as for-profit arts companies flood the market. Marketinginitiatives play a crucial role to overcome these challenges. One big challengethat marketing teams face is to create a new point-of-view a new attitude toenhance audience development. The new concept to bear in mind is that thecustomer is a partner, a member of a huge family rather than a passivespectator. Relationship is the key word here, because new audience development requiresa shift in the way arts organizations think about their consumers. Developingthese kinds of relationships requires arts groups to be far more sophisticatedin their marketing efforts.

Probably harder still, it requires artsorganizations to undergo a systemic change to permit them to be responsive toaudience needs and wants without compromising their intrinsic artistic mission. Marketers are challenged to provide arts organizations with effective tools toattract and engage new audiences, develop genuine ways to increase thefrequency of attendance, develop loyalty among patrons, approach and createservices and messages, so that target audiences will respond enthusiasticallyand effective ways for arts organizations make their performance and servicesan intrinsic part of people’s lives. Furthermore, arts organizations count on marketers to develop long-termstrategic plans in a complex and rapidly changing environment making sure thatthese plans satisfy the interests of target audiences and thereby increaseaudience size and engagement.

In order to enhance arts andentertainment properties’ value proposition and grow audiences, arts organizationsshould understand and implement vital strategies in a high competitive market.   Strategies: Know audiences at agranular level – thismeans that organizations need to establish an all-encompassing definition oftheir customers. Organizations should build on this foundation by developingactionable segmentation that draws from a variety of sources, includingcustomer behavior and psychographics.

By cultivating deep customer insights, including future needs, organizations can develop targeted offers withdifferentiated value propositions. Link organization’scustomer strategy to its overall identity –  A clearly definedvalue proposition goes far beyond differentiating organizations’ offerings inthe market; it helps them shift their customer’s perception of what isvaluable. This is how organizations may create a sustainable advantage. Developing a clear value proposition is an ongoing process that should beundertaken for each of organizations’ customer segments. This requires abalancing act that outline how value will be created for customers in thesesegments while delivering profit to the bottom line. In other words, they needto determine optimal pricing for long-term value creation.     Target Customers with whomorganizations have the right to win– Organizations should recognize their capabilities and use them to compete foraudiences they are confident of winning against competitors in a profit way. The first step to implementing this strategy is identifying profit pools ineach customer segment and how those profit pools are evolving.

Then, targetsegments based on both segments attractiveness and organizations’ strengthsavoiding to expand into segments where they do not have the right to win andwind up investing time and resources on indifferent customers. Treat customers as assetsthat grow in value-Organizations should cultivate long-term relationships with customers in a waythat keeps adding value. It starts with quantifying the lifetime cost of acustomer relationship at either the individual or the segment level. Then, organizations should layer on an analysis of their customers’ path to purchase. Therefore, it gives organizations the insight needed to monetize the value ofthese relationships by expanding and tailoring services offerings to meet theneeds of their customers. Developing customers as assets requires a holisticapproach to build customer relationship and intimacy and driving customerengagement. Moreover, tracking customer engagement and understanding the linkbetween engagement and sales growth is critical. The point is not simply toexpand offerings, but also organizations should be able to offer services thatare the most relevant to their customers and the most profitable for them whilealso quickly responding to customer problems.

Leverage ecosystem -The availability of data and digitalnetworks means that organizations’ existing and potential network of partnersand customers is much more powerful nowadays. Therefore, Organizations shouldmake the most of this opportunity by building a broad and diverse ecosystemthat can help them create value for their customers and support the executionof customers’ strategy. It is equally important that Organizations manage thisnetwork for everything from inherent financial and brand risks to new marketopportunities. Ensure a seamlessomnichannel experience –Organizations should deliver a consistent experience across all theircustomers’ touch points and analyze the costs and benefits of theirmultichannel networks.

Organizations should select channels based on customerexpectations, brand positioning, customer value, and cost-to-serve. Then, Organizations should take their analysis further and assess the full cost andthe full benefits across every channel to track the performance of thosechannels. Nowadays, customers take the multichannel experience for granted, soit is crucial that Organizations have technologically adept talent andprocesses in place to keep improving channel experience. Organizations shoulddeploy their process and technology capabilities, and talent to ensure aseamless omnichannel experience.    Reorganize around thecustomer –Organizations should understand the importance of building and maintaining avibrant, healthy culture.

To achieve this, Organizations need to explicitlyfactor culture into their strategy and differentiating capabilities. Cultivateculture as an accelerator and differentiator. Nowadays, it is common forcustomer expectations to evolve so quickly that Organizations must work hard tokeep up. Organizations should create policies, so they can explicitly addresscultural inhibitors. A culture must evolve.

For instance, having employees leadthe charge in solving customer problems proactively, and rewarding employeeswho demonstrate these behaviors, certainly help organizations’ culture developin a valuable way. Outreach and accessibility – For instance, Europe upholdsprinciples of equal opportunity for everyone in society, including people withspecial needs. The arts sector and the community are very supportive. Education – More education in cultureOrganization, more culture in education systemPartnerships – Cooperation with different sectorsand groups (Science, modern technologies, business, tourism, ecology, etc.). For instance, a culture Organizations for a certain city should create a commonproposal for the audience. Audience engagement – Organizations should motivate youngcritics to provide feedback on their services, concerts, operas, etc. An actual case example of a current artsand entertainment property’s successful audience development initiative(s), supported by data.

California SymphonyThe problems inthe orchestra world of declining audiences, aging audiences, and audienceturnover have been well articulated. In response to these problems, this marketoften talks a lot about incremental gains and successes. For instance, anorchestra that may sell 5% more tickets than the year before or trimmedexpenses enough to balance the budget is often celebrated among this specificmarket experts. Under the current model, this example is a great achievement. However, experts in orchestra industry know that fixed costs continue to riseand outpace the operational tweaks and incremental revenue gains the industrycan achieve.

That is why the California Symphony reexamined the current modeland has changed the approach to audience development strategy. Artsorganizations have a lot to offer to their patrons, which is why when a first-timeattendee come to a concert, what ensues is essentially a marketing anddevelopment free-for-all: that person goes right into all campaign mailings forsubscription, right to the phone room for telefunding, into all the singleticket marketing efforts like email and on-line ads, and into almost everydirect mail solicitation for single tickets or for donation appeals. At somepoint around the time someone becomes a renewing donor or major donor, themarket sort of get their act together and have a clear path of next steps forcultivation and stewardship. To a certaindegree, the current model works. Organizations make money this way. However, when90% of first time buyers do not come back it turns to be a giant pipelineproblem to solve since first year subscribers are known to be the number oneindicator of future donation proclivity but the hardest segment to renew. In short, TheCalifornia Symphony decided it would do everything it could to create a flowingpipeline which meant for them that calculated changes to the approach describedabove were made, shifting to a strategy focused on patron retention.

Throughthe new initiative/approach no matter the attendees are, whether a first-timeattendee, or repeat attendee, or new subscriber, or long-time donor, theOrganization has a specific plan for each one. A personalized approach. Anotherinitiative was that the Organization decided not to solicit a donation before apatron is a second-year subscriber.

The innovative approach is a long-term, disciplined strategy, and one that has proven lucrative for the Organization. The Organization’s new model offer one step (and only one) to every audiencesegment such as Fist-time attendee, Multi/repeat-buyer, season ticket holder, renewing subscriber, new donor, renewing donor. This has been proved for theorganization that they could maximize revenue over time. Differently, most artsorganizations state they would like to see this type of logical progression, but almost none deliberately limit the next step offered to each customersegment following the traditional audience development model.

The successfulinitiative to change to an innovative model has boosted California Symphony’sresults which turned to be profoundly different from the national trends fororchestras.