Marketing Of Memphis Area Community Theatres example essay topic

Table of Contents Page 1.0 Executive Summary 32.0 Situation Analysis 32.1 Overview 32.2 Current Market Situation 42.3 SWOT analysis 52.3. 1 Strengths 52.3. 2 Weaknesses 62.3. 3 Opportunities 72.3. 4 Threats 72.3. 5 Keys to success 83.0 Objectives 84.0 Marketing Strategy 94.1 Overview 94.2 Mission 94.3 Target segment 94.4 Positioning 104.5 Communication Program 105.0 Action Program 116.0 Expenses Forecast 127.0 Implementation Controls 131.0 Executive Summary The consortium of Memphis community theatres including Germantown Community Theatre, Theatre Memphis, Playhouse on the Square, Circuit, Theatre Works, Harrell, and Arlington Arts Group provide immeasurable value in increasing cultural quality of life in the community.

By working together with a strategic marketing plan they can increase the audiences from 60% to 75% of capacity, while building strong support for the years to come. Memphis corporate leaders support the arts, including the community theatres, to ensure that Memphis is a place the best and the brightest will come to work and live. Young professionals are the audiences of today and the board members and supporters of tomorrow. We determined to target the young professionals with needs of networking in the artistic world in the greater Memphis area. Our intention is to direct a greater share of the Memphis professionals' entertainment dollars and time towards community theatre. To fit the needs and wants of our target audiences, the theatres have to position and project themselves at a unique level compared to other commercial forms of live entertainment.

Community theatre cannot compete if all it offers to its audience is the stage. A theatre experience has to be much more than watching a play. We need to combine the theatre ambience, audience, actors and directors to create a unique mix of a "cultured" event. For this revival and recast, Memphis community theatres, as a consortium, need to play a vital role in offering a high value for audiences in enjoyment, culture, and bonding to the community.

We plan to use young professional groups like MPACT as channels to communicate the novel concept of "Theatre Experience" through presentation and distribution of CDs, fly ers with opinion leaders endorsing their experience. 2.0 Situation Analysis 2.1 Overview Community theatres throughout the Memphis / Shelby county area, from Midtown to Collierville, produce a variety of plays throughout the season. Members make up about 60% of the audiences, who have high level of education and value arts. Theatres compete in the leisure / entertainment industry, with Orpheum Theatre, movie theatres and sports events.

Opportunity and issue analysis is followed the current market situation. 2.2 Current Market Situation True to their name, community theatres in the Memphis area cater to the needs of their immediate communities. An interesting aspect is the high opinion of the theatres their respective audiences have, in spite of the fact that they vary a lot in physical and psychological ambience and the plays they stage. Thus we have both audiences and theatres supporting each other while consuming very diverse offering. Very often the community theatres are imbibed with the characteristics of the community they live in. Community theatres throughout the Memphis area, from Midtown to Collierville, produce a variety of plays throughout the season.

It is an amazing blend of artistic expressions that reflect the cultural dynamics of the city's heritage. Some are family oriented and some are for a more mature audience. The memberships make up about 60% of the total attendance. Those that value the arts are typically people with a high level of education, a background in exposure to the arts, and / or an education in the arts.

The theatres cover some of Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). With a population of 1.2 million, Memphis MSA includes 8 counties touching three states, which is showed in the Exhibit. Population in the Memphis MSA is project to grow 3.6% in the next 5 years. The direct competition comes from Orpheum Theatre, which is an upscale and for-profit theatre whose ticket prices are sometimes twice as expensive. Movie theatres, sporting events and other arts activities also intensely compete with community theatres. Theatre communication group survey result indicates that overall attendance rose 4.2% from 1999 to 2003 country wise.

Memphis economy in the first eight months was particularly strong in the Professional and Business Services sector and the Leisure & Hospitality sector. Hino Motors (major supplier to Toyota) broke ground recently on its new auto parts plant in Marion, Arkansas. The location of Hino near Memphis could result in economic benefits in the Memphis area. With the positive trend of approximately one-third of adults attending live performances in the arts each year, we would expect Memphis community theatres will experience growth. 2.3 SWOT analysis Based on the SWOT analysis, we will use the strategy that use strengths to take advantage of opportunities, minimize weakness and avoid threats, to enhance the cultured value of the theatres by offering quality plays. 2.3. 1 Strengths Community theatres have excellent awareness, as most of Memphians knew the theatres are out there.

The perceived value of theatrical arts by well educated people is actually commercial. Richard Florida in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class, stated "a rich arts and culture scene is essential for luring the country's most educate professionals who need high-end cultural stimulation. Businesses follow the talent". Memphis has a significant number of community theatres, spread all over the county, playing a variety of shows.

This diversity helps community theatre appeal to a wide range of audiences from young midtown residents to the families in the suburbs. There is a vexing trend in TV shows and movies towards catering to a majority audience who prefer slang, sex and violence. Community theatres could be the one place people could go often to feel nurtured and engaged in a cultural quality of life. Community theatre could be the medium where the audience feels that they are interacting with the actors, directors and players. Very often, especially in children's plays, the actors are drawn from the local neighborhood.

This intricate association with locals could be leveraged to get the acquaintances of the participants to promote community theatre. The University of Memphis, Rhodes College, & Christian Brothers University have strong theatre programs that produce a continuous supply of ardent advocates and actors for community theatres. The boards of various community theatres are full of influential people and opinion leaders whose contacts could amplify marketing efforts. The economy of Memphis depends more on a growing service sector and less on dying manufacturing and agriculture. Thus the existing workforce of Memphis has not seen a debilitating effect on their wages and there are new opportunities for younger workers too. These two factors keep the community of greater Memphis vibrant, which helps the community theatres garner new audiences, actors and volunteers. 2.3.

2 Weaknesses The theatres are not clearly positioned compared with Orpheum ("Symbolic") and movie theatres ("Fun / Relaxation"). There is lack of marketing sense of the artsy people in the community theatres, thus it is not atypical that the marketing of Memphis area community theatres leaves a lot to be desired. Though the bottom line for community theaters is as vital as it is for a corporation, being non-profits they do not speak, think or act using traditional corporate financial jargon's like return on investment, profit margins etc. Marketing for community theatres has to be discussed emphasizing how to increase audience experience, retain attendance etc. The theatres physical environment is not as appealing as movie theatres or FedEx forum in town, which in turn is difficult to attract young people. The ticket is priced higher than other leisure / entertainment, such as movies, which has impact on our box office sales.

The assortment of activities / plays that community theatres promote cannot necessarily follow the general culture / fashion trends, while other competition like movies can. Just because reality shows are popular, it might not be prudent to stage the "spouse exchange show". Community theatres will also be painted with a shade of elitism. They will tend to use refined and polished language which may not appeal to the sitcom addicted audience. 2.3.

3 Opportunities Most sectors (except the manufacturing sector) of the Memphis MSA's economy grew during the first eight months of 2004, which indicates a good economic environmental condition for the theatres. For the past 20 months, the Greater Memphis Arts Council has been at work on the Memphis for the Arts (MFT A) campaign, the largest arts fundraising initiative ever launched in this region, which was led by Steve Odland, Chairman, President and CEO of Auto Zone, Inc. Community theatres will benefit from this when fully funded. There are quite a few excellent stories which are not suitable for a mass market like television or movies.

At the same time these stories could be very relevant to Memphis and the South. Plays depicting such stories will be intriguing to community theatre audiences. There is a strong latent need for locals to understand other cultures. Community theatre could be used as an exclusive medium through which locals get a glimpse of other cultures and geo-political issues. Memphis Speakers Bureau takes arts into the community, and the idea is to keep the Memphis area informed about the arts and arts-related issues by providing speakers for local civic groups and organizations. 2.3.

4 Threats With the rapid expansion of the conservative movement especially in the South, places of worship like churches have taken center stage as activity centers with activities for the family, singles, and children. Thus it becomes very difficult to promote community theatre as a "Cultural" rendezvous point. Also, a conservative audience restricts the gamut of plays that can be staged in community theatres. From generation to generation the paucity of time has increased exponentially and the trend shows no signs of reversing or even pausing.

As audiences have less time and are a lot more stressed, convenience and relaxation have become paramount. Instead of going to the movie theatre they now watch movies at home. In fact, pay per view and the internet make trips to the Video / DVD store redundant. We have seen audiences changing their preference from lengthy soaps to sitcoms to the latest reality shows (very soon we might have few for kids). Theatre, by and large, requires and is produced, written, and directed to cater to an audience that puts a little more effort in understanding the nuances compared to TV or movies. The audiences who have the time and patience to go to a community theatre and enjoy a show are shrinking.

The median household income in Memphis MSA was $45,000 in 2003. In such a relatively low income city, the recent explosion in social services costs, such as health care, leave an increasingly small amount to be spent on the arts. The local arts scene has seen a resurgence of support in the last year. For many, the Orpheum and its Broadway shows become the theatre of choice. It has significant marketing muscle to wean the well off crowds from community theatres. 2.3. 5 Keys to success Significant opportunity exists to make the community theatres the destination of choice for Memphians, especially young professionals, through the development of market strategies.

The websites of the community theatres need a complete makeover including new information such as e-ticketing, more details about the plays, actors' bios and a detailed description of the theatre's ambience and feel. 3.0 Objectives The overall objective is to raise the attendance from the current levels of 60% to 75% for each community theatres. For the segment we are targeting, the objective is to get each young professional's organization, like MPACT, to sponsor / buy at least 3 full houses every season. (It depends on the size of the organization; we encourage an organization to buy a full house for every 250 members).

We hope the strategy will build more repeated attendances, which in turn will increase the primary demand for the community theatres. 4.0 Marketing Strategy 4.1 Overview The market plan rests on convincing the leaders of the young professionals groups in Memphis that community theatres are the place to meet, network, and experience the culture valued by their opinion leaders. Through presentations, video clips, fly ers and public relations we can have an effect on the leaders and the members in a diverse population of young professionals. 4.2 Mission Memphis community theatres, as a consortium, enrich our community and its diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of theatrical excellence and bring a higher level of entertainment to Memphis.

4.3 Target segment We are targeting young professionals who need socialization within the artistic world and looking for career growth. Community theatre represents a certain cache and an ambiance as well as an experience that is much more intimate and memorable than movies or other forms of live entertainment. The young professionals want a cultured quality of live that is unique to community theatre. Young professionals are seeking a venue to meet people casually, network and have some fun. The desire to network and meet people in similar professions and life stages is quite prevalent in young professionals. They are eager to share ideas and express themselves not only peers, but to people at the pinnacle in their professions.

Young professionals are usually socially and culturally active and are open to new experiences making them prime targets for theatre marketing. They have fewer financial commitments than other segments making them less price sensitive. Thus this segment can be counted upon by community theatre management to cross subsidize other price sensitive audiences. Young professionals discuss quite a few geo-political events in the real and virtual world.

In this life stage they seek an active lifestyle and are eager to form new contacts. Consumers in this segment are mostly wired and tech savvy, making the Internet an efficient and economical marketing tool. Demographically they are concentrated throughout Shelby County, with a significant young professional presence in the suburbs due to the presence of FedEx World Headquarters and Downtown with its appealing urban flavor. Community theatres as a consortium provide high quality shows and pre / post events, which would satisfy the needs for young professionals of socialization and career growth. Also, according to the research done by the Urban Institute, people with moderate incomes and good education are the best customers for performing arts. 4.4 Positioning We will reach young professionals through various professional groups like MPACT, the Junior League, LeBonhuer Club, 100 Black Men, Arts Today, and the Memphis Bar Association's Young Lawyers.

Hence we need to position community theatre with respect to two audiences. The obvious one is the end users of young professionals while the second audience, who will act as "resellers", is the office bearers of various young professional groups. For young professionals community theatre will be positioned as "the place to network professionally and personally and model the opinion leaders". To the office bearers, community theatre will be projected as a great place to gather members and project their organization as "Cultured". 4.5 Communication Program We will prepare presentations for office bearers of each of these groups. The presentations will include video clips by opinion leaders who endorse the value of community theatres to improve the image of the organization, increase the contacts for group members and deliver culture.

For each of the houses these groups buy, we can arrange for an event specially designed to meet the needs of the group such as a forum discussion with the actors, directors and writers connected with the show or a pre or post show cocktail party. Each event will also include 20 exquisitely printed tickets and fly ers the office bearers or the members of the group can distribute to "Special guests or Prospective members" to encourage them to participate in one of these events. The group would be named in the play bill as a theatre supporter or patron under the designation Culture Club to increase their visibility and presence in the community. The office bearers would be provided with fly ers including information about play schedules, whom to contact for group bookings, pricing, food service ideas and programs available.

CDs with video clips of opinion leaders explaining and endorsing the "Theatre experience", the importance of theatre as a cultural event, and as a great place to network will be provided for the group officers and the members. Also, we plan to build a positive image of community theatre to young professionals using PR. We would encourage WKNO's "Checking on the Arts" and Channel 3's W REG - "Live at 9" to interview directors, actors, and the spokespersons of community theatre. 5.0 Action Program We will carry out the marketing strategy and achieve its objectives through a variety of scheduled programs. The table below maps out our milestones for the programs we will start implementing in January. The plan is to designate $1,000 to design and produce the video CDs in January, 2005.

The program includes inviting several opinion leaders to be the spokesperson or spokespersons including Steve Odland -CEO of Auto Zone, Fred Smith - CEO of FedEx, Pat Kerr Tigrett - President of Pat Tigrett Designs, and Carol Collett a - Smart City on WKNO. A professional will produce the videos and design quality fly ers. 5000 copies of the video and fly er will be made for distribution. The spokesperson's picture and their opinions as well as play schedules and contact information will be included in the fly ers.

In January 2005, a presentation will be given for the office bearers for MPACT. CDs and fly ers will be distributed to the members through the officers. In February and March, we will focus on the Young Lawyers Division. The action schedule for other groups is indicated in the milestones. Milestones Design and produce movie CDs & fly ers MPACT 1,500 members Memphis Bar Association (Young Lawyers Division) 1,000 members Le Bonheur Club 650 members Junior League of Memphis The Memphis Urban League Young Professionals 100 members 100 Black Men of Memphis 100 members Dec., 04 Jan., 05 Feb., 05 Mar., 05 Apr., 05 May, 05 Jun., 056.0 Expenses Forecast There are three major categories of expenses for our marketing plan.

First one is materials for the CDs and fly ers. Second is the labor to prepare and make the presentations to the office bearers of the professional groups, to make good video clips and design the fly er. The last category is money required to build and maintain top-notch web sites for the community theatres. The expenses are shown in the table below: Unit price Quantity Expenses CDs $0.10 5,000 $500 Flyers $0.25 5,000 $1,250 'Special' tickets $500 Labor $1,000 Others $5,000 Total $8,250 For the first we plan to make 5000 CDs and the same number of fly ers. We will make use of "Black Fridays" to get all the best deals we can get on CDs & cases (some times they come free with mail in rebate) though we will have to pay to copy. At 10 cents a CD (material and copying) we would need $500.

We will need two sets of fly ers, 100 of the kind we would distribute to office bearers and another 5000 for end users. At 25 cents a fly er (quality) we would need close to $1,250 for fly ers. Expense for special tickets and fly ers for "Guests" is budgeted at $500. For the labor costs we plan to use volunteers, their digital camcorders and desktop editing software.

We plan to spend $1000 for sundry expenses for the volunteers. There are a few very good Indian consulting firms doing all kinds of IT work for major corporations in Memphis. Infosys does work for International Paper, Syn tel & BFI consult for FedEx and so on. Marketing departments of these companies are always on the look out for high profile contacts and good image building activities especially due to the on going outsourcing concern. As community theatre boards include executive level staff these consulting companies could get high visibility and a sophisticated image by pairing up with something as "cultured" as theatre. These companies can be requested by the boards of community theaters to sponsor the building and maintenance of the theatre websites in exchange for good PR and contacts.

Finally if we include miscellaneous expenses of $5000 (Including professional Video graphing expenses in case our home Videos don't measure up) our total marketing budget should not exceed $10,000.7. 0 Implementation Controls This plan will go into action by December, 2004. We want to see our growth progressing by comparing the month-end ticket sales with November 2004, since the sales in December are different from other months due to the holiday season and the type of shows. For control purposes, the plan also allows for month-by-month comparison of actual versus projected sales and expenses. We will discuss and monitor the growth with monthly reviews of progress throughout the first year..