Event Strategy (Section 2)
Strategic Marketing For Events
What is Marketing?
• The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM, 2005) defines marketing as, ‘the management process
responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably’. In simple terms,
Marketing Functions
• growth in the number and diversity of services (including events) that require different marketing approaches from those for goods
• recognition of the unique marketing requirements of not-for-profit organizations (typical of many festivals)
• the increasing importance of stakeholders – for example, the community, government, investors/sponsors, media and others who can be as influential as consumers on organizational survival
• advances in technology such as the Internet, the linking of computers with telecommunications and other innovations that affect the marketing of services, including events
Marketing Activities
• Analyze the needs of the target market to establish the design of the event experience and the way in which it will be delivered.
• Predict how many people will attend the event and the times that different groups or market segments will attend.
Conti’d
• Estimate the price or value that visitors are willing to exchange to attend an event – for example, ticket price or donation.
Cont’d
• Consider how the choice and design of venue(s) and the methods of ticket distribution fit with the needs of attendees.
The need for marketing
• gives event managers a framework for decision making that should result in events that reflect innovation and creativity, but cater for market segments that seek novelty or the excitement of something new.
• Sponsoring bodies need reassurance that their sponsorship is linking their brand with their target markets. Sound marketing practices give marketers the ability to
convince sponsors that a festival or event is the right marketing investment. • Local and national government financially assist many festivals and events.
Governments usually fund only those events whose management can demonstrate some expertise in marketing planning and management.
• Event stakeholders, such as the community, environmentalists and indigenous leaders, as well as consumers, are critical in today’s societal marketing approach alongside satisfaction of the needs and wants of event or festival markets.
Role of Strategic
Marketing
• longer term, rather than short
• not another word for tactics – strategy is the broad overall direction that an event takes to achieve its objectives, while tactics are the detailed manoeuvres or program that carry out the strategy. Tactics can be changed as market conditions change, but the overall direction – the strategy – remains constant (at least for the planning period).
• based on careful analysis of internal resources and external
environments – it is not a hasty reaction to changes in the market.
• essential to survival – well-considered thought out marketing
Event marketing research
• Macro Level: to understand external forces affecting the event and its markets.
• Kinds of Online and offline information sources:
• government statistics and reports (national and region statistics on the consumption of festivals and events, arts and sport)
• media coverage (about the events sector and particular events or festivals in the region)
• industry magazines and Conference & Incentive Travel
Cont’d
• Micro Level: to gain insight into the event’s existing and
potential consumers and any strategies previously used by the organizers(segmentation & target market).
• This level use a mix of research techniques: in depth
Analysing event
environments
• The C-PEST Analysis includes: competitive analysis,
political environment, economic environment, socio-cultural environment, technological environment.
• Internal Resources Analysis: human resources,
physical, and financial resources.
C-PEST Analysis
• Political Environment
• All levels of government can be active players in producing and sponsoring events and offering event development
grants. Steps to understand new legislation or changes in the regulatory environment that affect event delivery – for
Conti’d
• Economic Environment
• The buoyancy of the economy (the property of maintaining a satisfactory high level), foreign exchange rates, interest rates, employment rates, growth in household incomes and the government’s fiscal policy. The value of the pound
compared to the currency of other nations, for example, can raise or lower the cost of attracting foreign artists to an
C-PEST Analysis
• Socio-cultural Environment
• The size and variety of cultural/subcultural groups in the event’s target market; changes in lifestyle, including work–leisure patterns; changing demography; changes in entertainment demand and changes in education levels and household structures.
Conti’d
• Technological Environment
• the use of the World Wide Web, email marketing (including e-newsletters) and a mix of on-line and off-line event participation.
• Entertainment Environment
• Trend analysis in the entertainment environment can be done via desk research and travel to center of artistic innovation or places where emerging sports are practised (certainly a fun part of the job). A good understanding of event innovations is also gained from reading professional and popular journals, networking with industry colleagues and travelling to trade fairs and exhibitions
Internal Resource
Analysis
• Human resources
• the number and type of staff and volunteers available, the particular skill sets required to produce the event, the costs of employing people, and innovative ways in which people can contribute to the event’s success.
• Physical resources
• includes ownership of a venue (although this is rare), computer hardware and software, desktop publishing equipment, access to venues at competitive rates and the use of conference rooms in buildings of some significance.
Conti’d
• Financial resources
• Current access to funds or a demonstrated ability to acquire
SWOT Analysis
• Once the C-PEST and internal resource audit is completed, an analysis of strengths, weaknesses,
Consumer’s Decision
Key steps for consumer’s decision process known as
PIECE:
• Problem recognition – difference between someone’s
existing state and their desired state relative to leisure consumption. Events and festivals fulfill physiological needs (exercise, relaxation, sexual engagement),
Consumer’s Decision
• Information search – internal or external search; limited or extensive search processes for leisure (including event)
solutions.
External Influences:
• Family and household influences, such as the desires of children, often influence the leisure behavior of parents.
• Reference groups are those groups that influence the behavior of individuals. Groups in close contact with individuals (peers, family, colleagues and neighbors) are called primary reference groups.
Consumer’s Decision
• Opinion formers or opinion leaders such as media,
theatrical or sports personalities (including critics and commentators).
• Internal Influences:
• These influences include perception (how we select and
Consumer’s Decision
• Evaluation and selection of leisure alternatives
• For everyday products and services, evaluative criteria are often price, brand image and the contents of the market offer.
• Functional values, such as our perception of an event’s price–quality relationship and ease of access, may dominate.
• Emotional values may be more influential (the likely effects of a festival experience on our mood)
Conti’d
• Choosing whether to attend an event and which optional purchases to make at the event or festival
• Evaluation of the post-event experience.
• Once we have attended an event, we start to compare what we expected with what we experienced. Consumer expectations arise from a combination of marketing communications planned by the event or festival organizer, word of mouth from friends and
Event Satisfaction, Service
Quality, Repeat Visits
• Five (5) main dimensions of service quality in the commonly used SERVQUAL questionnaire:
• assurance – staff and/or volunteers give the appearance of
being knowledgeable, helpful and courteous, and event consumers are assured of their wellbeing
• empathy – the event staff and/or volunteers seem to
understand the consumers’ needs and deliver caring attention
Conti’d
• reliability – everything happens at the event in the way the
marketing
• communication has promised
• tangibles – the physical appearance of the event equipment, artists’ costume/ presentation and the physical setting meet expectations.
• consumer ‘perceptions’ are better indicators of the link
Strategic Marketing
Process
• Segmentation and Targeting the Event Market
• The process of identifying appropriate target markets is known as market
segmentation. Segmentation can occur by geography, demography or lifestyle (psychography).
• The market segments chosen should be:
• measurable – that is, the characteristics of the segment (socio-economic status, gender, age and so on) must be accessible to the event marketer
• substantial enough in size to be worth targeting
• accessible by normal marketing communication channels
Conti’d
• Geographic segmentation: the place of residence of event visitors ;local residents of the area, day visitors from outside the immediate area, regional domestic tourists, international inbound tourists.
• Demographic segmentation : age, gender, occupation, income, social class, education and cultural group.
• Geodemographics segmentation: segmenting residential areas according to variables from population census data and additional sources including lifestyle databases
Conti’d
• Positioning Event
• Positioning represents the way in which the event is defined by consumers, or ‘the place it occupies in consumers’ minds relative to competing products’
• 10 ways for positioning events:
• The existing reputation or image of the event – for example, the Olympic Games and other longstanding events such as the Edinburgh Tattoo.
Conti’d
• A focus on event programming – for example, Trafalgar Square Festival 2005, which was a three week festival programmed and positioned around the ‘city rites’ theme.
• A focus on performers – for example major sports (such as
the football and golf) and theatre that highlight the players/performers.
• An emphasis on location or facilities – for example,
Positioning Event
• Event users – for example, Bank of Scotland Edinburgh Children’s Theatre Festival.
• Price or quality – for example, a free civic concert series
versus an operatic
• performance by the world’s three best tenors.
• The purpose or application of the event – for example, health awareness of SIDs or diabetes, or celebrations such as the United Kingdom’s Trafalgar Weekend as the
Positioning event
• The event category or ‘product’ class – for example, fashion events, food and wine festivals, and concerts.
• Multiple attributes – for example, the London Fashion
Week, which is positioned on its designers, reputation and image, as well as its purpose of bringing new fashion
Developing event
marketing objectives
• Choosing generic marketing strategies for events.• Before events marketers begin the more precise task of deciding on
marketing elements such as the program, the ticket price and other variables, they should reflect on their overall strategies for the event’s future. Is there a plan to grow or expand the event and/or its markets? Or is there a plan to consolidate the current program and further penetrate existing markets?
• Selecting the event’s ‘services marketing’ mix
Conti’d
• the place (location(s) where the event is held and its tickets are distributed), its physical setting (the venue layout relative to consumer needs) and on-site event processes (queuing and so on)
• people (cast, audience, hosts and guests) and partnerships (stakeholders such as sponsors and media)
• price, or the exchange of value to experience the event
Developing Event
• The ‘product’ of an event is the set of intangible leisure experiences and tangible goods designed to satisfy the needs of the event market.
• The development of an event or festival can be easily
Planning ‘event’ product
• Festivals and events, as service product experiences,contain three elements (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2004):
• The core service and benefits that the customer experiences – for example, performing arts or sports event.
• Supplementary features/augmented services that
differentiate an event from its competitors – for example, its artists, service quality, the type of visitors, different modes of transport, and merchandise.
Programming the event
• 4 key elements in programming the event into a success:
• The need for a distinguishing core concept in the program – what is it that you’re presenting that actually has meaning to the audience?
• The need to marry the event program with its physical environment or site – what kinds of performances will really be spectacular in this setting? What kinds of performers and stage structures (existing and created) will shine in this environment?
Programing Event
• 4. Established criteria for program content – criteria include the compatibility of performers to a festival’s market, the history of this type of performance at other events, and a performance’s technical quality. Some producers of bigger festivals have a rule about (1) how many times an overseas act has performed within the country, and (2) a desired ratio of innovation and
Packaging Event
• Avenues for packaging include the opportunity to package different types of entertainment, food and beverage, and merchandise as a single market offer (a service bundle), and the opportunity to package the event with accommodation, transport and other
People and partnerships
• Successful events have solid partnerships and strong links with loyal supporters (attendees, volunteers, government and corporate representatives).
• For example: the Glastonbury Festival worked to
overcome negative reactions by local residents, local
newspapers and other media annually reflect coverage of events that retain protestors. From a brand equity
Pricing, free entry or
donation
• Price can be a key influence on event demand. Many
special events are ticketed, a large number of festivals do not charge an entrance fee, and some simply seek a gold coin donation. However, a ‘free’ event still presents costs to the consumer and costs to the producer. Other key
Conti’d
• the Barnardo’s fundraiser example, potential consumers compare the perceived benefits – dinner, drinks,
entertainment, parking, opportunities to socialize, prestige and the novelty of an unusual night out – with the perceived costs.
• These costs could include money, time, the physical effort
involved in getting to the venue, psychic costs (related to
Conti’d
• In establishing the pricing strategy for an event, an organizer will account for two cost categories:
• Fixed costs – those costs that do not vary with the volume of
visitors (for example, venue rental, interest charged on loans, lighting and power costs, the cost of volunteers’ uniforms and artists’ fees).
• Variable costs – those costs that vary with the number of visitors (for example, the cost of plastic wine glasses at a
Event ‘place’, physical setting,
and process.
• ‘Place’ refers the venue and the place at which consumers can purchase their tickets.
• Use ticketing agency as physical setting for ticket distribution. The
advantages of selling ticket in ticketing agency: Ticket sales can be monitored, and the data collected can guide decisions on the level of marketing communication expenditure needed to attract the targeted visitor numbers. The security problems inherent in accepting cash at the door or gate are also alleviated. Because customers pay in
Integrated Marketing
Communication for Events
• Public relation
• A direct email campaign and newsletter • Advertising
• Sales promotion: discount or special offers.
• Direct marketing communicates one-on-one with existing festival or event-goers via mail, the telephone or the
