This comes from my friend Christopher Stager, an expert marketing and audience development consultant, who works with arts organizations, especially orchestras. He also knows music in genuine, enthusiastic depth. Chris and I were talking over lunch, and the subject of orchestra programming came up — not gigantic questions, like how much new music an orchestra can dare to do, but something smaller, the way sometimes there’s a panic about one piece on a proposed program, something maybe a little obscure, which (or so it’s feared) will stop people from buying tickets.
Here’s Chris’s comment, not describing any specific orchestra, but instead summarizing things he’s found in many places: “Their marketing isn’t ready on time, neither is their advertising. They haven’t figured out any message to communicate, and their call center isn’t functioning right. Why do they worry about programming?” Fix these very basic things, Chris suggests, and then find out what effect a change in programming might have.
One thing my friendship with Chris has taught me — anyone with tickets to sell should make sure they’re doing the basics right before they try any new marketing ideas. Maybe that seems odd, coming from me, since I’m always urging new ways of doing things (and certainly classical music institutions need to try something new if they want to reach the wider audience they so badly need). But still, the truth is the truth — the first thing to fix is your basic operation. If you’re not selling enough tickets, maybe you’ll sell more if you do the standard marketing things better. And if your basic marketing isn’t working right, your new marketing ideas won’t stand a chance.
What a great point. Look at how many orchestras have websites that make it nearly impossible to see what the whole season is! I was talking to someone on the staff of a major midwest orchestra recently, and complimented her on the fact that finally one can see the whole classical season, and not have to piece together the various miniseries or click on a calendar month by month.
She was glad to hear the compliment, but surprised that anyone would compliment their website (which has much room for growth). “It needs so much work,” she told me, “but there are only so many resources.”
What does it take to figure out that if you want to reach potential audiences of young professionals, who gather information via the web, that you have to have a good website?
Oh, well. This same orchestra runs radio spots that will focus on one piece (“Beethoven’s Second!”) and not mention the big-name soloist.
If I played in that orchestra, which (surprise, surprise) has been having attendance problems, I’d be apoplectic. Which many of the players who think about these things are.