JAM

Issue 01 / March 2001

Segmentation
Theory and Practice
Approaches to Segmentation
Case Studies

Journal of Arts Marketing

JAMCONTENTS
We’re Jammin’

Welcome to the first edition of JAM

– the Journal of Arts Marketing,
published by the Arts Marketing
Association. The AMA is the
Jam Making professional development body
We’re Jammin’ 2
for people working in the arts
Jam Recipes 3 whose job involves some element
Spotlight on Wales 5 of persuading the public to
What gets your Goat? 21 experience the arts. The AMA
has a membership of around
Day in the Life 22
1300 from across the four
Book Shelf 24 countries of the UK. The visual
arts and crafts, museums,
Segmentation performing and combined arts,
The theory 6 film, video and literature are all
The practice 7 represented.
Frequency 8 JAM came about from a
membership survey in November
Frequency case study 9
1999. Members said that they
Psychographics 11 wanted the AMA to provide up-to-date information on marketing and audience
Psychographics case study 14 development issues. JAM is the latest addition to a portfolio of services provided free to
Fundraising 15 members, which includes publications, mentoring, email bulletins, a website, networking
and events.
The Future 16
If the phrase ‘segmentation’ makes you think of the Terry’s chocolate orange your Granny
Discriminators 18 gives you each Christmas, then this edition of JAM is for you. There are a number of
articles that take you through the theory, the practice, the current thinking and future
Jam Pips potential of segmentation.
Journal of Arts Marketing is published
by the Arts Marketing Association
AMA Let us know what you think!
Boltons Warehouse
23 Tenison Road
Cambridge
CB1 2DG

T: 01223 578078
We Hope You Like Jammin’ Too!
F: 01223 578079 No innuendo is too cheap, no play on words too cheesy for JAM – and we are looking to you,
E: info@a-m-a.co.uk
the JAM reader, to help us get there! Make JAM with the AMA. We need you to contribute
Advertising is managed by Angela Hastings at to get these content ideas off the ground:
Baker Hastings
T: 01379 651900
E: bakerhastings@totalise.co.uk • Jammy dodger – an easy way to get money for old rope?
• Traffic jam – tell us about the red tape that stops you getting on
Design by Sugar Free on 020 7243 2100
• Do they want jam on it? – does someone have excessive expectations?
JAM is published four times per annum. • Sticky moment – ask JAM readers to answer your queries
UK subscription rates £16 per annum.
Overseas subscription rates £32 per annum.
Email kate@a-m-a.co.uk Let us know what you think about this first edition – we know we won’t get everything right
first time so feedback would be appreciated.

Email us at info@a-m-a.co.uk.
© Arts Marketing Association, 2001
All rights are reserved and reproduction of
any parts is not allowed without the written
permission of the publishers.

Opinions expressed in JAM are not Future JAM issues:

necessarily those of the AMA and no
responsibility is accepted for advertising
content. Any material submitted for July: direct marketing
publication may be edited for reasons of style, October: cultural diversity
content or available space. Meanings will not
be altered without permission from the author. January 2002: customer relationship management
and permission marketing
ISSN 1474-1172

Journal of Arts Marketing


Raspberry & Peaches
Why do we seem to find it so difficult to persuade people to experience the arts? Could it be that we are not talking to people in the right way? Almost all
audience members need straightforward answers to three straightforward questions: What is it about? What is it like? How am I going to feel when I
experience it? In a bid to get us all communicating appropriately, JAM brings you a range of PEACHES to aim for and RASPBERRIES to avoid.
A Big Raspberry to…
■ The three day contemporary music festival
taking place in March in three different towns
which refuses to give potential audience members
a single word of description of any of the pieces,
just the composer and title. We need to tell people
what the music will be like, so another raspberry
to the leaflet for Jocelyn Pook, which, despite
offering in very tiny print (and sideways) a sampler
CD, restricts itself to biographical information and
name dropping like this:
Jocelyn Pook is a composer and performer who
brings together a passion for film, theatre and
visual art as well as live music. Inspired by new
technologies, she draws on musical traditions
and voices from around the world, revitalising
and showing new directions for ‘classical’ music.
Jocelyn Pook’s career as performer and
Peaches and Cream...
■ What about this peach, though, from Trestle at
the Arena in Wolverhampton:
Only ten years old and ready to change the course
of history. Lambert Simnell, crowned Edward VI in
Dublin, marches into England, backed by German
mercenaries, half-naked Irish warriors and
whatever is left of the House of York.
Fast, funny and visceral, taking the audience on a
wild ride from the confines of the Tower of London
to the splendour of the French court and ending up
bloodily in, of all places, Stoke-on-Trent. This was a
confused period in our history, to say the least , and
Trestle brings it brilliantly to life.
■ Or this one from Graeae:
An ultra modern passion play at the sharpest of
cutting edges.
“in order to be made whole we must first be
broken” Thomas Aquinas
Jade is a fan of her local casualty ward – and her
composer is as diverse as her musical and multi-
media collaborations (from Impact and DV8
through to Massive Attack, Laurie Anderson,
Peter Gabriel and P.J. Harvey), and her work
constantly challenges the boundaries between
‘high art’ and ‘popular culture’.
■ It is possible to talk about contemporary,
cutting edge work in an accessible way. Here’s
Hull Time Based Arts:
Vicki Bennett, a.k.a. People Like Us has created
and released over 25 CDs of cut-and-paste
cultural hacking – remoulding radio and TV
footage into subversive tunes to make you smile.
I suspect, though, that the marketer didn’t write
this next bit previewing the festival, which
favourite doctor Chris. She will do anything to be
admitted, even wound herself. But when Jade
meets Robbie, a fellow patient hiding a very
different secret, she undergoes a crisis of identity
– with awesome repercussions.
■ Or this one about an equally difficult subject
matter from Nigel Charnock and Company with
Asylum: trust me I’m a doctor
Total mayhem as five stunning performers get
into bed with Freud and Jung and play havoc
with how mad we are to be normal. Charnock’s
writing and direction detonates a harrowing
dark night of the soul.
Asylum erupts into an hilarious psychic storm of
obsession, intrigue, lust, betrayal and
revelation. Ransacking the unconscious,
Charnock’s company of five misfits crush egos
and trample on traumas in a demonic fight for
redemption from their everlasting insanity.
FEEDBACK JAM
appears on the back of the same leaflet:
Deep_ROOT is a metaphor for the
rigorous research carried out by artists through
theory, making and action. Deep_ROOT expands
the relationship between science and art by
presenting the quantifiable or immeasurable
ways in which artists apply technology to their
practice. It reflects a depth of philosophical,
spatial or social investigation and expression.
This can be seen in artworks about the body and
social interaction with space and time, or a depth
of immersion in physical or virtual space.
■ And how great to see this clear and amusing
guideline about suitability for children from
Company Gavin Robertson:
Due to the occasional swear word and recorded
gunshots during the course of the show, the
Company has granted the production a PG
rating.
So… the peaches win four to two!
Make jam for the AMA.
Send your peaches and raspberries to the
AMA by emailing info@a-m-a.co.uk.
JAM 01 3
 EDITORIAL JAM

CONFERENCE SPOTLIGHT
ON WALES
This year’s AMA conference is now on sale. Called ‘Made in Heaven?’ it will
explore the theme of collaboration. AMA member Liz Waring made a diary of her
D uring the last few months officers at the
Arts Council of Wales (ACW) have
been focused on reviewing grant applications
experience at last year’s conference at The Lowry, Salford for revenue funding. Council has agreed to
continue funding three marketing agencies in
Arrive at hotel. Looks posher than expected. Wonder why so cheap though, must make a note to ask Wales: Cardiff Arts Marketing (CAM);
reception why there are bars at the windows. Meet chambermaid in room. I’m all for equality but don’t Marketing the Arts in Swansea and
know why he is asleep in bed. Shower and change. Investigate. No one else at conference is staying Carmarthenshire (MASC); and Valleys Arts
here. Marketing (VAM). ACW is working
Get in car and head to the venue. Apply lippy – got to make a good impression. Large impressive towards a two-year funding agreement with
construction by the water. Find it. Didn’t expect Ryan Giggs to be speaking here. He’s not. Get to know these agencies so that a longer-term approach
Old Trafford quite well (which is more than can be said for Posh). to audience development can be achieved.
Arrive finally and find somewhere to stop – admittedly on the wrong side of the tracks – but free. Miss Developing marketing skills and audience
colliding with tram. Thought had been replaced by more up-to-date transport, didn’t realise Manchester development initiatives in the North Wales
so behind times. region is a priority for Council. To this end a
Apply more lippy – must make a good impression. Make an impression. Skirt tucked into knickers (have number of informal ‘skills sharing’ sessions
been very flustered). There is much laughter, which I think childish. Could they not recognise it for the have been held over the last year.
ironic postmodernist gesture it is intended to be? Response to entrance same as used to be at primary In November 2000 ACW hosted a
school when this trick was raison d’être. (Come to think of it may have been the same knickers too). Marketing Symposium in Aberystwyth Arts
First speaker. From the Dfee. Funnier than I remember David Blunkett being – very good, must Centre. Just over 100 people took the
remember to book him for party giving next month. Rest of day goes well. Interesting things said by opportunity to meet with friends and
interesting people. Get lost and find myself in Rosie & Jim – going to leave – in a minute just after this colleagues, listen to a variety of speakers and
bit… attend practical seminars. Topics included
Find I have missed everybody. Go upstairs. All drinking champagne – ah this is what I was expecting. assessing the economic value of arts festivals;
They seem to think I’m someone else. (Won’t tell them I am not someone else as need invitation to be bridging the gulf between producers and
here – one more glass then I’ll go). presenters; and working together to develop
Get back to hotel. Bump into chambermaid again. At least awake and vertical this time. Change, audiences in rural areas. It is hoped that this
shower, apply lippy and head off for an actors changing room. Suppose this is what they mean by mixing successful day will now become an annual
with stars. Find Green Room not in back of theatre but a club. No actors but will keep looking. event in Wales.
Decide to join in. Don’t normally drink but when in Rome (someone says this to me and I ask if Richard Hogger, the first Director for
Manchester is twinned, don’t know why they gave me that look). Don’t remember any more. Wales’ new touring agency, Creu Cymru,
Sleep in clothes. Make note to buy new outfit if time. Leave hotel room, go to reception, order taxi. Go took up his post in January and is busy
back to room. Get dark glasses. Go back to reception to wait for taxi. Go back to room to get paracetamol. recruiting staff and sorting office space. The
Go back to reception. In taxi apply lippy. Got to make a good impression. Get to conference and find agency, which will work on behalf of venues
impression marred by last night. Apparently tried to get to see young men’s pants but dragged away before of all sizes throughout Wales, plans to be in
got the chance. Before, I might add, I could explain that I was doing research for a designer pants business by the end of March 2001. The
company. Later research shows that 8 out of 10 men prefer a more hands-off approach of research. Still agency will play an essential role in
looking for the other 2 though doubt they wear Calvin Klein. developing and sustaining audiences for the
I’m skulking. I must hide. Too embarrassing to be seen now. Oh wait there’s chocolate pudding. performing arts in Wales.
Perhaps should just face my critics. ACW is undergoing a comprehensive
Chocolate pudding fantastic. Accompanied by sophisticated witty repartee (by me), am found very review and re-organisation which will be
amusing. Go to the loo to apply lippy. Find had chocolate pudding smeared over teeth and on chin. implemented during the 2001/02 financial
Have to leave next key session. Feel sick. Just wait till it dies down. Go back to hotel for quiet night in. year. How this will affect the marketing and
Find chambermaid in shower. Not chambermaid after all. Find out new meaning of time-share. Find out audience development functions of ACW is
why hotel so cheap. yet to be decided so, as they say, watch this
Reflect on conference. Better refine networking skills. Next year must make good impression. space …!

To find out more about this year’s conference go to www.a-m-a.co.uk Ann Kellaway, Senior Presentation &
Marketing Officer, Arts Council of Wales

JAM 01 5

Q&A
Q: What is a market segment?
A: It is the subdivision of a market into
distinct and increasingly homogenous
(similar) subgroups of customers, where
any subgroup can conceivably be
selected as a target market to be met
with a distinct marketing mix.
Q: Do I decide on a market segment
myself by creating it, or is it already there?
A: All customers were created differently.
However, some similarities between
different customers already exist. The
difficult process of market segmentation
is, therefore, involved in establishing the
commonalities between different
customers, and ensuring that when the
common features are identified, there are
enough customers with similarities to
make them economically viable to target
as a group, and that the similarities are
such that customers who exhibit them
can be identified or targeted for
marketing purposes, and that the
segment sizes can be measured. So, for
instance, customers on a single, simple
mailing list are not necessarily a segment
as they may have a range of entirely
unrelated attributes such as attending
habits, spending power, artform
preferences etc. The single commonality
may simply be that they belong to the
same mailing list, which in itself may not
constitute an appropriate segment for
marketing purposes, because it is not
economically viable.
6 JAM 01
SEGMENTATION –
THE THEORY
Marketing is a planned process that involves talking to the right
people, about the right things, in the right way, and at the right
time, to achieve your objectives. Segmentation is basically
concerned with the first of these – talking to the ‘right
people’. It is a means to identify who these ‘right people’ might
Y ou cannot possibly communicate
effectively with every single person in the
communities you serve, so you need to divide
most arts organisations combine factors to
narrow down their target groups, for example:
• People with at least one child under 5
the population into bite-sized chunks. These living in postal sector KP4 3.
groups of people must have something in • Existing attenders who have bought tickets
common which means that you can for at least three events in the
talk to them about the same things ... you need to past year but not contemporary
in the same way and all of them separate out the dance.
will be likely to respond. The more the target group has
Choosing who to talk to involves
informed art in common, the more effectively
examining your organisation’s form you can communicate with them
audiences and comparing them enthusiasts, and the more likely they are to
with the people in your community people who like respond.
to decide on which groups you seeing a bit of This approach means that,
want to focus your resources. This instead of mailing everyone who
process is also known as ‘targeting’
everything and has attended a particular art form,
or ‘market segmentation’. the people who you need to separate out the
You can use a wide range of would be informed art form enthusiasts,
factors to define possible target adventurous if people who like seeing a bit of
groups, such as purchasing they were given everything and the people who
behaviour, demographics, atti- would be adventurous if they were
tudes and beliefs, life stage and
a bit of given a bit of encouragement.
lifestyle. encouragement. Then you can communicate
The more the people in your effectively with each group by
target group have in common, the more giving them the specific information they want
effectively you can communicate with them. and need. Beth Aplin considers the practicalitites
Most of the factors listed above are rather broad of this on page 7.
– there is a big difference between a 16 year old
who has just left school for employment, and a Adapted from The Marketing Manual by Heather
16 year old studying the violin to Grade VIII Maitland, published by the Arts Marketing
standard. You cannot talk to them about Association and available from SAMs Books on
classical music in the same way. For this reason, 01883-345011 or www.sam-arts.demon.co.uk

SEGMENTATION –
THE PRACTICE
Beth Aplin explains how you
can use segmentation to
achieve marketing objectives.
W
orking out your starting point for
communicating is undoubtedly a
daunting task. You will already be
using segmentation when you select the most
effective communications method for each
group. If we take the world to mean ‘the world’,
‘intenders’, ‘your audience’, and ‘your bookers’, it
is easy to see ‘your bookers’ as a group of
harmonious like-minded enthusiasts! In fact, of
course, your bookers vary enormously. If you
focus all your marketing activity on your ticket
bookers alone, bear in mind what a small
percentage of the world this is restricting you to.
There are very finite limits about what
information can be consistently gathered by
ticket sales alone. Additional information about
what motivated the customer or their habits can
be captured reliably for specific periods of time,
but there are issues about what quality of data
can be obtained during a busy period. This
highlights the one remaining significant caveat
about all analysis and communication you
perform using your booking system – be aware of
exactly how much information you don’t have.
Your computer system will probably know
who has booked for what, when and by what
booking method. This raw data is then made
massively more useful by summary and
collation, thus you will know:
– How often the booker has purchased and
attended (note the difference)
– The first and last time they attended
– Their average party size
– How far in advance they tend to book
– What price ticket they tend to choose
– How long they have been a member,
subscriber, donor
With all of this, you don’t really know ‘why’.
Generally these ‘whys’ can be grouped together.
By targeting specific groups of people you can
draw them deeper into your web. However this
will work best if you have a specific objective and
this is presented appropriately for the group.
For example, you may wish to target any one
who has booked tickets to your venue for the first
time within the last 6 months. However you will
probably wish to check that they have not booked
anything else already and you may have decided to
restrict your efforts to specific art forms or
categories and perhaps to a small range of
postcode sectors. The things that might get their
attention will be different:
– Price sensitive people may be interested
in a 2 for 1 deal
– People who travelled a long way may jump
at a free car parking place close to the venue
– Dance attenders may like a pre-
performance talk
You may then decide that different methods of
contact may be appropriate for different groups:
– A last minute email with a ‘just turn up’
discount offer will appeal to non-planners
– A personal letter from the Marketing
Manager might warm Senior Citizens
– A brochure with early-bird best seats
may encourage planners
You need marketing skills to select the objective,
decide who would react best and what will ‘turn
them on’. The use of segmentation to selectively
target specific messages should help you to exert
some influence over your audience. And you can’t
say fairer than that.
Beth Aplin,
Catalyst Arts, Info@catalystarts.com 07977 521045
FEATURE JAM
Q&A
Q: What sort of similarities should I
look for in my customers in order to
segment my marketplace?
A: There may be a number of factors,
but any that you investigate must
ultimately be factors by which you can
locate and identify your customers.
Factors such as geographical location,
reason for purchase, age, sex, family or
lifestage situation, income, education,
occupation, social class, lifestyle etc. are
obvious factors. Additionally, with the
advent of computerised box office and
marketing database systems, general
buyer behaviour and previous behaviour
patterns have become extremely useful
factors to consider. In some instances,
consideration should be given to factors
other than those immediately related to
the end user (attender or participant).
For instance, group bookers, school
parties etc. may have a number of
people involved in the decision-making
process, and thus the motivations of all
parties in a decision-making unit (DMU)
may be different.
Q: Is there an alternative to segmentation?
A: Yes, but in these days of limited
resources, time availability and highly
selective customers, the alternative
should not be intentionally practised
within the arts. ‘Undifferentiated
marketing’ is the alternative, and may
be paraphrased as attempting to offer a
‘one size fits all’ solution to a marketing
problem.
JAM 01 7
SEGMENTATION – USING FREQUENCY
TO INCREASE ATTENDERS

Roger Tomlinson considers how to segment box office data on frequency of attendance,
to allow marketing action to increase attendances.

I
t is important to understand customers’ frequency of attendance and
put in context their behaviour. In my experience, Box Office data
consistently show that most people attend venues infrequently, and
this is borne out in qualitative research conducted on customer
behaviour. Venue Box Office data regularly show that around 60% or
more of ticket purchasers attend there once a year or less, and a very
small percentage represent the core most frequent attenders. Some
venues have a core audience as small as only 600 ticket purchasers.
But it is important to consider whether your Box Office data and
records are reliable. Does the Box Office capture data on more than 85%
of customers? Have you looked at the records by households? How
many old customers are not attending at all; how many new customers
are starting to attend each year?
Table 1 (see p.25) uses not Box Office data, but the Target Group
Index (TGI) survey results from BMRB published by the Arts Council
of England, so this is telling us about people’s total attendances at all the
venues they visit. It is powerful, statistically reliable, and socio-
demographically balanced. We can find
out three things, and then relate them to
Table 1: Frequency of Attendance - Any Theatre Production
Box Office data: What percentage of the
% of all
public attend at different frequencies? adults
What percentage of the audience are who attend who attend
theatre
attending at different frequencies? What
percentage of the attendances are made by
FREQUENCY OF ATTENDANCE
only 50.5% of the attendances. Chart 1 starkly illustrates this in the
relative height of the frequent and infrequent theatregoers columns.
Remembering that these are data on people’s total attendances at all
the venues they visit, then we should expect frequency to be lower at
individual venues, especially in towns with a choice of venues to visit.
Pulling data out of the Box Office system, it is best to select a three year
period and analyse frequency of attendance. This makes for more
relevant comparison with TGI figures on frequency. For mixed
programme venues, it would be appropriate to then run the analysis
again, according to the type or category or artform of event attended.
There are different frequency of attendance patterns for every artform.
What usually emerges from Box Office data is a pattern that shows
that there is a small minority of frequent attenders and then a substantial
percentage who attend around 2 or 3 times a year or less often, with
further large percentages who attend only once a year or less often. In
Chart 2 theatregoers visiting up to 7 times, or up to 3 times or just once
in three years, confirm that most attenders’ actually attend less
frequently. Qualitative research into
attenders behaviour bears this out, with
many customers claiming to miss events they
% of % of Visits
theatregoers attendances per
wanted to see. People intend, but often don’t
by people at annum actually attend.
theatre different
frequencies The obvious target is to increase the
frequency of those who attend once a year or

At least once 01.6 04.4 24.6 12.0

people attending at the different a month less often (1 to 3 visits in three years), but
frequencies? It took me years to get my Every 2 to 3 03.9 10.7 24.9 05.0
careful analysis of what they book to see may
head round that lot. months indicate that they will be hard to persuade
These data provide an analysis of 2 or 3 times 10.5 28.5 33.2 02.5 without programme development; if they
a year
attendances which will surprise many only visit the Christmas show with children
people. For example, if you add together Once a year 10.7 29.1 13.5 01.0 for example, thought will be needed as to
those members of the public attending at Less often 10.1 27.4 03.8 00.3 what else in the programme could attract
least once a month and 2 or 3 times a TOTALS 36.7 100 100
them.
month, then these are 5.5% of all adults, So the primary opportunity to increase
Source: ACE 2000 - BMRB?Target Group Index
constituting 15.1% of all theatregoers, and frequency may lie with those who already
purchasing a remarkable 49.5% of the tickets. However, if you add attend 2 or 3 times a year (Chart 3). The target would be to increase
together those attending 2 or 3 times a year, once a year, or less often their attendance by at least one visit per annum. The tactic could be to
(which we know is about once every three years) then these are 31.3% of persuade these people to simply make another visit to an event similar to
the public, constituting an incredible 85% of theatregoers, but making ones they have enjoyed before, or, perhaps more challengingly, to attend

8 JAM 01

something new or different. What would persuade them? What
incentives could trigger the visit?
Chart 3 clearly shows the size of the opportunity at 2 or 3 times a year.
The Box Office system database ought to enable you to extract customer
records by frequency and mark them accordingly on the system. This is
the start of the process to identify what kind of incentives to offer them
to: attend again ; attend sooner rather than later; try something
different; bring friends or family; sit in more expensive seats.
Direct marketing action to build frequency of attendance must be
specific, tailored and personalised. After all it is intended to try to
persuade specific people to change their behaviour. No addressing
people as “Dear Theatregoer” – real marketing is necessary. Be creative
in your persuasive communication.
Roger Tomlinson, rtomlinson@tickets.com, Tickets.com
CASE STUDY 1 JAM
SEGMENTATION
Heather Maitland segmented
Lincolnshire venues box office data
based on frequency to reactivate
lapsed attenders.
In April 1999 Stamford Arts Centre, the South Holland Centre and
Guildhall Arts Centre made a joint bid to East Midlands Arts for a project
to regenerate lapsed attenders.
The venue staff felt that they enjoyed relative success in widening
their audience base but at the expense of losing existing audiences.
Whilst this might be a very simple problem related to the varied nature
of an arts centre’s programme, they found it difficult to judge whether
it was pernicious. By researching and addressing the problems of
lapsed audiences, they believed they would be more likely to retain
new audiences they had developed and ensure that a high proportion
became regular attenders.
I was employed to analyse the databases, lead the research, co-
ordinate the project as a whole and provide advice and support on
regenerating attendance. I worked together with Graham Burley, Sarah
Mallett and Jo Wilson from the venues.
DATA ANALYSIS
Firstly, I ran a series of reports at each of the venues to analyse overall
frequency and recency of attendance. I reported back to Graham,
Sarah and Jo who decided to define a lapsed attender as someone
who had not bought tickets in the past 18 months. I then ran a series
of reports using this definition to distinguish between lapsed,
continuing and new attenders. These consisted of:
– Attendance by event type and venue to exclude those buying for
events outside the particular arts centre
– Cumulative sales by customer and concession type to distinguish
between individuals, schools and groups
– Purchase by art form, recency and customer and concession type
(individuals, schools, groups)
– Geoanalysis of ticket sales by postal sector:
• single attendance more than 18 months ago by individuals
• more than one attendance but not in the past 18 months by
individuals
These data were used to segment the database. The exercise showed
that each of the three participating venues had significant proportions
of lapsed attenders who had not bought tickets in the past 18 months:
Grantham 63%, South Holland 36%, Stamford 39%. This is in line with
other venues across the UK, e.g. the MapEast project which analysed
the databases of 14 venues in the East of England showing that an
average of 51% of ticket buyers had not bought in the past 12 months.
JAM 01 9
JAM CASE STUDY 1
SEGMENTATION
Telephone Research
The database analysis enabled each venue to identify a different
priority for further research and we extracted the names, addresses
and phone numbers of customers who matched these criteria from
their databases.
We asked The Phone Room to do some telephone research and
developed a script. As box office computer systems only record the
name and address of the ticket buyer, the steering group
acknowledged that it was possible that some customers would have
attended more recently. The script did not assume that everyone
called was a lapsed attender but ensured that detailed responses
were recorded from those who said they had attended recently to
identify reasons for the discrepancy.
In addition, it explored the following key issues:
Are they really lapsed? – possible explanations for current attender
status:
• someone else booked the tickets on their behalf
• the customer did not book their tickets in advance; arrived just
before the show so their details were not captured
• the venue database is wrong
• the customer visited the venue but not for a ticketed event.
Another possible customer response that needed to be taken into
account was that they did not recall ever attending the venue.
Reasons for not attending recently:
• choice of events on offer
• attendance elsewhere
• a preference for another venue or cinema
• other things to do with leisure time
• changes in personal circumstances
• a poor experience of buying a ticket and visiting the venue
• travelling distance or time
• poor value for money.
Customers’ perceptions of what might attract them back to the venue.
Any other comments they would like to make about the venue.
The Results
Some of what we learned from the project was very practical – for
example, the venues needed to change the way they recorded group
and school bookings so that these could be more easily identified and
allocate different event types to outside events that they were simply
selling tickets for rather than promoting. We also discovered that all
three venues have very impressive data capture rates that show that
their box office staff understand the importance of information about
customers.
The telephone research presented us with some conundrums,
however. It told us that, for a number of reasons, data about lapsed
10 JAM 01
attenders at all three venues are unreliable. Basically, the lapsed
attenders were telling us that they weren’t lapsed.
All three venues undertake database ‘housekeeping’ on a regular
basis using the analysis routines supplied as standard with the
Databox system. This is not, however, picking up all inconsistencies.
The venues feel they need to invest staff time in a rigorous manual de-
duplication exercise as they all would appear to have significant
numbers of duplicate records. They also decided they needed better
codes of practice for box office staff to ensure that either initials or full
first names are recorded and that either house names or numbers are
recorded when both appear in the address. It also seems possible
that a few changes of address are being made as new records without
finding and deleting the old record.
18% to 25% of those who said they had attended more recently
than 18 months ago stated that someone else had booked the tickets
on their behalf. This is significantly higher than in the available
secondary research. Of course, it is not possible to identify a practical
way of recording on the database information about other members
of a group visiting the venue. We would be very interested to hear
from people at other venues who may have resolved this problem.
The telephone research implies that between 24% and 32% of the
lapsed attenders on the venues’ databases have actually lapsed.
These are significant target groups as campaigns to reactivate lapsed
attenders elsewhere in the UK have proved highly successful.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to identify these actual lapsed attenders
from information held on the databases. Our project has identified
that the concept of reactivating lapsed attenders is far more elusive
than we previously thought. In the end, we decided that the venues
would benefit more from a focus on encouraging re-attendance by
new audiences.
There was some really good news, though. The telephone
research demonstrated that customers at all three venues think they
have very high standards of facilities and customer care. Only a tiny
proportion said they preferred venues elsewhere and these are most
likely to be large multiplex cinemas. Most seem to like the intimate
surroundings the three venues provide and the convenience of having
them relatively close by.
The issues we felt we needed to work on were customers’
perceptions of their safety at night and parking. We are going to
explore this further through customer circles and/or questionnaires.
We hope that we might be able to resolve the first issue by working in
the long term with colleagues at the local authorities on things like
improving lighting and the second by improving the information about
car parking we make available to customers.
Heather Maitland
hmaitland1@aol.com
01949 843161
 FEATURE JAM

SEGMENTATION – USING
PSYCHOGRAPHICS TO DEVELOP
AUDIENCES
Is there a right and wrong way to segment the market? Andrew McIntyre suggests that psycho-
graphics, as an understanding of needs and attitudes, is an ideal basis for segmentation.

C learly, the market is not homogeneous. It is made up of diverse to say, we have sold more tickets at lower costs. This is a very internal
individuals with different needs. But we cannot ever hope to plan approach, focused on meeting our objectives, not the audience’s needs.
for, market to or evaluate the response of each one of millions of But as long as it sold enough tickets there was little appetite for change.
individuals. Segmentation is a compromise between the homogeneous However, just as the impressive early impact of active selling waned
mass and the single individual. It groups people together to reflect when everyone caught up, so the amazing impact of marketing science
some of their key differences but in manageable numbers. It helps us is beginning to plateau. We have increased the frequency of the core
to make sense of the market. audience, but we have enormous numbers of infrequent attenders and
The more similar the needs within a segment and the more distinct we are finding it more and more difficult to win and keep new attenders.
they are from the needs within another segment, the better. So the That is because they have different needs to our core attenders and we
variables used to segment the market are crucial to a successful are failing to persuade them that their needs will be met. To put it
outcome. If we get it wrong, and people in a
segment don’t share needs, our marketing won’t THE EVEOLUTION OF ARTS MARKETING
work very well. PRODUCT FOCUS SELLING FOCUS MARKETING AUDIENCE FOCUS
SCIENCE FOCUS
How Can We Segment? PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT
Assume product is desirable Won’t sell without effort Enhance with services Differentiate for segments
There are many ways to segment the market, using
MARKETING FUNCTION MARKETING FUNCTION MARKETING FUNCTION
many different variables, and each approach will Information and Promotion Sell benefits, build brand Communicate efficiently
MARKETING FUNCTION
Shared Philosophy
have something different to offer. But the bottom
MARKETING POSITION MARKETING POSITION MARKETING POSITION MARKETING POSITION
line is this: there are only really two approaches to Low resources, low status Increasing resources Management Status Strategic, integrated
segmentation. The first kind is not led by audience MARKETING KNOWLEDGE MARKETING KNOWLEDGE MARKETING KNOWLEDGE MARKETING KNOWLEDGE
needs, instead it is led by the organisation’s need to Irrelevant Need to locate Profile and behaviour Needs, wants, attitudes

sell tickets at the lowest possible cost. The second SEGMENTATION NEED SEGMENTATION NEED SEGMENTATION NEED SEGMENTATION NEED
General Classification Maximise repeat sales Locate precisely Change attitudes & behaviour
kind is audience focused and clearly based on
SEGMENTATION METHOD SEGMENTATION METHOD SEGMENTATION METHOD SEGMENTATION METHOD
understanding and meeting the audience’s needs. Socio-demographic Customer History (Box Office) Geo-demographic, profiling Psychographic
Most arts organisations use the first kind. They
SOURCE: MORRIS, HARGREAVES, MCINTYRE
concentrate on how they see the audience rather
than how the audience sees them.
The Evolution of Arts Marketing model above illustrates how another way, they are in different segments than our core audience. And
segmentation needs and methods have changed over time. each of these segments has different needs. But if we don’t understand
When the arts were product focused, socio-demographic segments what those needs are, then we probably aren’t meeting them.
were adequate to generally classify and locate markets. But as funding This, then, is the catalyst for moving into the fourth box, audience
cuts forced the arts to become selling focused, ticket sales records focus: we need a new, approach to segmentation to help us change
produced customer history segments to promote subscription and people’s attitudes and behaviour.
maximise repeat sales. The shift towards a marketing science focus has
used ACORN and MOSAIC geo-demographic segments to locate A New Approach
people similar to customers, then overlaid TGI to give market profiling If a true segment is “a group of customers with shared needs”, then it is
segments to locate other people’s customers. only these needs, and nothing else, that defines a segment. Any other
All of these have increased the efficiency of arts marketing. That is variables, such as demographics, social class, postcode, lifestyle and

JAM 01 11
JAM FEATURE

EVOLUTION OF SEGMENTATION APPROACHES

12 KEY TESTS SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CUSTOMER HISTORY GEO-DEMOGRAPHICS MARKET PROFILING PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Define the
size of the
market ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔
Define current
market needs
that are met ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔
Classify
current
market ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Explain current
consumption
patterns ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔
behaviour, are at best proxies for this definition, or merely
describe people. While each of these successive proxies is
Define potential
markets’ needs
that aren’t met ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔
clearly better than the last, none is a true definition. Ideally,
a new audience focused segmentation should get much
Classify
potential
market ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✔
closer to defining shared needs rather than shared postcodes.
An audience focused approach wouldn’t segment by how
Access our ‘fit’
with market
needs ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔
we sell, but by how they buy. If people buy to satisfy their
needs, then this is the missing link: how do we best define
Predict
consumption
propensity ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✔
what those shared needs are? I believe that psycho-graphics
is that missing link to audience focus. To change people’s
Differnentiate
for each
segment ✖ ✔ ✖ ✔ ✔
behaviour, we must first understand their needs and then
change their attitudes. Psychographics is an understanding
Select
media for
current users ✖ ✔ ✖ ✖ ✔
of needs and attitudes, so it is an ideal basis for
segmentation.
Select media
for potential
users ✔ ✖ ✔ ✔ ✔
Different segments have different attitudes to taking
risks. Risk is the perceived gap between the benefits we
Explain
responses
by segment ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔
communicate and their needs (the benefits they’re looking
for). As long as they can be persuaded that the level of risk is correlated to booking patterns. But there’s one big difference. With
acceptable, they are more likely to attend. Our job is to reduce that psychographics, you’re aiming high, starting with defined needs, before
risk, but to do this effectively we need to understand people’s needs, you compromise for practical application. With other approaches,
their attitude to risk and precisely how these attitudes affect their need you’re aiming low, starting with the medium, not the message, and
for reassurance and persuasion. then compromising further.
Attitude to risk is a psychographic measure that is a more powerful This is the golden rule of segmentation: start by understanding the
proxy than those commonly in use, but it is still a proxy. Profiling audience’s different needs; then differentiate the marketing mix and
shared needs themselves is the ultimate psychographic classification, messages accordingly; then find the cheapest way to deliver these
and the ultimate form of segmentation. So the more a segmentation messages. Not the other way round.
system employs psychographics, the more powerful it will be. The objective for most of us is to develop audiences. Does your
segmentation system help you to do this? The Evolution of
The Message versus the Medium Segmentation Approaches table above applies a 12-point test to see
Psychographics helps us to adapt and differentiate the marketing mix how each segmentation approach shapes up. How does yours do?
to meet the needs of each segment. It informs the message, whereas Whilst each approach is useful for certain applications, employing
all previous approaches to segmentation have focused on finding the psychographics passes all 12 tests. Because of this, psychographics is
cheapest medium. In other words, psychographics helps us to be widely employed in the commercial sector and is now proving to be
effective (do the right things) whereas demographics and lifestyle both practical and cost-effective in the arts for planning, marketing
profiles simply help us to be efficient (do things right). and evaluation.
Critics of psychographics worry about how to quantify attitudes and Northern Stage and the Royal Exchange Theatre have
needs and how to locate people with those needs from the population, psychographically profiled many thousands of their attenders. This is
or even from their own database. Because of this, some question its changing the way they communicate with different segments.
practicality. Manchester City Art Gallery has segmented by visitor needs and
All segmentation requires some compromise. It is a pragmatic art, motivations. This is influencing the re-design of their galleries to
not a clinical science. So too with psychographics. It isn’t just an better serve each segment. Edinburgh International Film Festival’s
interesting, if impractical, theory. Attitudinal groups can be defined segmentation is a classic compromise. Based on attitudes to risk, it is
and measured. And just as MOSAIC types can be related overlaid by frequency and even age. But it works, significantly
approximately to box office data, so psychographic types can be increasing risk-taking by the previously risk-averse (see case study).

12 JAM 01
 The most practical psychographic segmentation of an arts audience
has been done at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Again,
it makes no-nonsense compromises, combining motivation, attitudes
to risk, knowledge of music, vocational interest and length of concert
going experience with a ‘degree of difficulty’ for concerts attended and,
finally, frequency. The correlations between these and booking
patterns are compelling. These profiles can accurately predict
behaviour so they allow The Phil to assign every single attender to a
specific segment. Each segment can be targeted with their own
tailored version of the marketing mix. Different selections of product,
offered in different price structures, with different added value events,
at different times (even on Sundays!), promoted in different ways. Now
that’s practical, powerful, persuasive segmentation.

In Conclusion
There isn’t a single right or wrong way to segment. Each
organisation’s solution will be different. If you’re not audience
focused, then stick with old fashioned proxy segments, as the needs
of the audience are not important to you. However, if you want to be
audience focused, then start with defining needs but then be prepared
to find a workable compromise between designing the ideal message
and delivering it via a practical medium. But the message must be
primary. And once you have segmented, you should be prepared to
follow through. One size of marketing doesn’t fit all. So, to make full
use of segmentation, you have to be prepared to differentiate and
target your marketing. The rewards are well worth it.
Andrew McIntyre intray@lateralthinkers.co.uk 0161 839 3311

Recommended Reading

Stephen Cashman, Chief
Executive of Developing
Audiences in the North
(DAN) suggests some
further reading for the
segmentation enthusiast.
Stephen recommends the
Hooley, Saunders & Piercey
book in particular.
Peter Doyle [1994]
Marketing, Management &
Strategy. Prentice Hall
International, London. ISBN
0-13-065350-0. See pages
59 to 88.
Graeme Drummond & John
Ensor [1999] Strategic
Marketing - planning &
control. CIM/Butterworth-
Heinemann, London. ISBN
0-7506-4482-6. See chapter
3, pages 23 to 49.
Colin Eagan & Michael J
Thomas [1998] The CIM
Handbook of Strategic
Marketing - a practical guide
for designing &
implementing effective
marketing strategies.
CIM/Butterworth-
Heinemann, London. ISBN
0-7506-2613-5. See Chapter
6, pages103 to 120.
Graham J Hooley, John A
Saunders & Nigel F Piercey
[1998] Marketing Strategy &
Competitive Positioning
(second edition). Prentice
Hall Europe, London. ISBN
0-13-371253-2. Chapters 9
& 10, pages 201 to 264.
Nigel Piercy [1997] Market-
Led Strategic Change
(second edition)
Butterworth- Heinemann,
London. ISBN 0-7506-3285-
2. See pages 154 to 168.
John O’ Shaughnessy [1995]
Competitive Marketing - A
strategic approach (third
edition). Routledge, London.
ISBN 0-415-09317-1. See
Chapter 6, pages 190 to 227.

JAM 01 13
 JAM CASE STUDY 2
Richard Baker explains how Edinburgh International Film Festival(EIFF) used
psychographic segmentation to develop audiences.
In 1999 EIFF commissioned Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (MHM) to obtain
a current audience profile, to explore the attitudes, perceptions and
behaviour of attenders and non-attenders and to measure the potential
for developments.
The methodology comprised qualitative and quantitative research
to explore the perceptions, motivations, behaviour and attitudes of
these four groups. MHM did not use traditional arts marketing
‘behaviour focused’ methods of segmentation, opting instead for a
‘psychographic’ or ‘attitudinal’ approach.
In order to segment at an attitudinal level MHM identified the
following factors as being most important in defining needs:
knowledge; confidence; familiarity/knowing what to expect;
willingness to take risks; amount of external endorsement required;
amount of persuasion required.
After both qualitative and quantitative multivariate analysis of these
factors MHM suggested the existence of 3 macro segments and 8
micro segments. The macro segments were based on broad
psychographic attitudes and opinions and the micro segments
overlaid this approach with behaviour and demographics to produce
more particular and workable target segments.
The attitudinal profiling questions in the survey allowed MHM to
allocate respondents to a macro segment. The macro segments were
identified as RISK TAKERS – confident, open minded, opinion
formers, inner direction, intentional attenders; CAUTIOUS
GAMBLERS – early adopters, early majority, require endorsement but
open minded, fashion conscious, and SAFETY FIRST – conservative
and risk averse.
RISK TAKERS
Vocationals: customers with a professional or personal involvement
in film.
Psychographic
Avids: customers with very high frequency attendance (11+
segmentation has
screenings).
helped us become
Confident Selectors: customers aged 25+ with high frequency
an audience -
attendance (3–10 screenings).
focussed arts Conscious Image Builders: customers aged under 25 with high
organisation. frequency attendance (3–10 screenings).
CAUTIOUS GAMBLERS
Mainstream Selectors: customers with high frequency attendance
(3–10 screenings).
Open Minded Samplers: customers with low frequency attendance
(2 screenings).
One-Off Incidentals: customers with very low frequency attendance
(1 screening).
SAFETY FIRST
Arthouse Strangers: customers who had not attended any arthouse
screenings in past 12 months.
14 JAM 01
The completed 1999 research identified that EIFF was successfully
attracting RISK TAKERS from Edinburgh but there was potential to
increase attendance from amongst RISK TAKERS outside Edinburgh.
Also there was potential to increase attendance from amongst the
CAUTIOUS GAMBLER segments. The broad recommendations from
MHM after the 1999 research included:
• Packaging films to steer advance bookings for less popular
films.
• Developing publicity to attract new attenders from
CAUTIOUS GAMBLER segments.
• Developing systems of packaging and directions to assist
multiple bookings.
• Evaluation methods should include an assessment of the
proportion of attendance within the psychographic segments.
EIFF responded to these recommendations by amending its marketing
effort for the 54th Festival in 2000. The layout and tone-of-voice of the
main brochure was changed to make it a more popular and accessible
tool. A new piece of print called ‘Guide to Directions’ was produced to
offer ‘signposts’ to less knowledgeable attenders to help them make
selections. Print distribution was more tightly targeted. Advance flyers
were produced to avoid waste of the main programme and build the
database. A satellite Box Office and info point was established at The
Hub to raise profile and access to EIFF for incidental Edinburgh
attenders and festival tourists. Direct mail, advertising and poster
campaigns were mounted in an attempt to raise the profile of the EIFF
among the Edinburgh populace.
EIFF also commissioned MHM to undertake a survey amongst
current attenders to the Festival in August 2000. The research was
designed to compare the findings from 1999 to those in 2000. There
was apparently little or no change when examining the macro segment
proportions but there was a significant shift apparent in the micro
segments. There had been an increase in average frequency among
Conscious Image Builders and Mainstream Selectors, which were the
two segments targeted with publicity and Guide to Directions. There
had been a net gain in the Avids, Conscious Image Builders and
Mainstream Selectors segments as well as the One-Off Incidental, which
confirmed the marketing strategy had been effective.
For EIFF understanding the attitudes of its audiences has led to an
appreciation of their needs and wants and, in turn, how this underpins
their behaviour. This approach has allowed EIFF to guide the behaviour
of its audiences in two ways: by matching what it has to offer more
closely to its awareness of its customers’ needs and wants; and by
effectively adjusting their attitudes and opinions to the Festival.
Psychographic segmentation has proven itself to be a most effective
and practical guide to becoming a market-focussed arts organisation.
Richard Baker richard.baker@edfilmfest.org.uk 0131 221 8715
 CASE STUDY 3 JAM

Adrian Salmon shows how effective segmentation can reap generous rewards
in fundraising campaigns.

Fundraising from audience members is still a relatively neglected and
misunderstood marketing discipline. The forms of fundraising
approach you decide to employ should always inform the
segmentation method. The different possible fundraising approaches
would divide roughly into three main areas:
• Face-to-face/peer to peer (most suitable for very hot prospects,
e.g. personal contacts of Board members, potential corporate
sponsors, trust contacts, potential major donors, etc.)
• Warm direct marketing approaches by telephone, mail and email
(suitable for people who have a relationship with you – i.e. as
ticket buyers, members of Friends schemes, subscribers, etc.)
• PR and cold direct marketing approaches (the wider
community) for recruitment of donors and prospects.
database. Happily, an audience member’s perception of regularity is
often at variance with a marketer’s measure of frequency. Someone
who has only attended twice in two years may still think himself or
herself to be a relatively regular attender.
Although not so good for other marketing purposes, this bodes well
for fundraising – we are always very interested to test relatively
infrequent attenders’ response to a telephone approach. If they
respond well it significantly expands the possibilities for telephone
fundraising – and since a telephone approach yields on average 10
times as much income as an approach by mail alone, this can result
in greatly increased levels of overall income.
In order to achieve 1,000 telephone contacts for Theatre X we took
a sample of 2,500 people from the database, divided equally among
the following segments.

In fundraising as elsewhere in marketing

segmentation the Pareto Principle applies – Segment Number Pledge Total Average Average ROI
contacted rate % pledged per per
at least 80% of your fundraising target will year (4 yr value) contact definite
be delivered by 20% or less of those you pledge
approach. So you should set targets and
T2 229 24.45 £4,000 £18 £74.74 3:1
assign costs with this in mind.
Theatre X is a small regional producing T3-4 308 27.73 £7,000 £22 £96.10 4:1
theatre (around 500 seats). As is common
with all theatres of this type, resources are T5+ 212 29.72 £6,000 £28 £94.42 5:1
very stretched. We helped them to establish
Friends 335 30.15 £17,000 £50 £168.35 9:1
a ‘Development Fund’ – a flexible source of
income that the theatre could draw on to TOTAL 1084 30.15 £34.000 £31.24 £116.77 5:1
fund productions, community and
education work and structural improve-
ments. Our aim was to test telephone fundraising to different T2 (two attendances in the last two years)
segments of the theatre’s audience database – to establish the T3 – 4 (three to four attendances in the last two years)
responsiveness of audience members to this kind of fundraising T5+ (five or more attendances over the last two years)
approach and to establish average levels of giving across the Friends
database.
When working with an audience database in this way, frequency of On the basis of these results we were able to make predictions of
attendance is invariably the most reliable indication of a prospect’s fundraising income from the remaining attenders on the theatre’s
propensity to donate, over and above other factors such as postcode database.
and average spend. Someone who attends frequently, but in cheap Donors recruited during a test would subsequently be treated as
seats or from a less promising postcode, is nevertheless more likely separate segments for future donor development work. They become
to donate than a high spending attender who lives in a wealthy an increasingly profitable group over time and many will become
postcode area, but attends only infrequently. long-term donors to the theatre.
Existing donors and members of Friends or subscription schemes,
which imply a certain self-selection and a higher level of relationship,
are an exception to this rule and should be tested as a separate
segment.
So the higher the frequency, the better the prospect – but here Adrian Salmon
again the Pareto Principle comes into play – there are always far more adrian.salmon@phoneroom.co.uk
infrequent attenders than frequent on an arts organisation’s 01865 324000

JAM 01 15
SEGMENTATION – THE FUTURE
Adam Thomas, Leisure Manager at Experian Marketing, does a little crystal ball gazing.
W hen I first read the title of this article, although not a “Trekky”, my
thoughts were initially filled with a vision of the starship
Enterprise, the bridge of which was, and contained, Captain Kirk’s
famous seat of power. Whilst superficially this may not seem entirely
relevant, there are some very interesting parallels. Who could forget the
hand-held communicators used by the crew of the Enterprise? – consider
your response if I had suggested a decade ago that people would walk
down the street seemingly talking into thin air with an ear-piece linked to
a communicator smaller than an average deck of playing cards (that’s a
mobile phone to you and I!). The science fiction of ten and twenty years
ago is now a reality.
Just as the bridge provided a central control point for the technological
wizadry and huge resources of information available to Kirk on the
Enterprise, arts marketers need to ensure that the technology and
information available on their ‘bridge’ are appropriate for both the present
and the future. However, before we look forward it is worth considering
where we have come from.
Segmentation is a process that has been used by humans for as long as
records exist; there were, for example, twelve tribes of Israel in the Old
Testament circa 2000 BC. Segmentation provides a basis for ordering
and simplifying our lives, striking a balance between creating groups that
are very distinct, and recognisable, but not too numerous to remember. In
other words segmentation is a trade-off between ‘discrimination’ and
‘visualisation’. On the ‘marketing bridge’ we have had access to
segmentations of residential neighbourhoods (e.g. MOSAIC) since the
early 1980s. Combined with the revolution in PC technology,
increasingly powerful analysis tools have become available with which
these segmentations can be deployed to assist with applications such as
direct marketing campaigns (e.g. direct mail) and location planning (e.g.
where to open new outlets).
As technology continues to advance, enabling the gathering and
processing of larger amounts of more detailed information in shorter and
shorter time frames, marketing segmentations will not be based purely
around lifestyle / socio-economic descriptions of 1.6 million residential
postcodes or 23 million residential addresses.
So step on the transporter and take a trip with me into the future….
As the universe has continued to evolve, life and everything associated
with it has become more complex. This is particularly true of the ‘new’
consumers who have realised that being asked for personal details such as
a telephone number or e-mail address can be correlated with the receipt
of further information. Consumers are aware that they are being marketed
16 JAM 01
to, have high expectation levels and an increasing amount of information
at their fingertips.
Therefore, our “new” consumers will trade information in return for
items that are considered of worth, such as a customised service, offers,
and time saving services. It is this trading of information that will form
the basis of customer relationships. This means that consumers will
provide personal information to those organisations that they trust and
with whom they want to have some form of relationship.
Also, as levels of disposable income continue to increase, consumers
will place more value on their ‘time spend’ than they will on their
financial spend. This has implications for the experience that
consumers enjoy (or not!).
On the basis that consumers are more complex and there are an
increasing number of channels through which one can contact them,
future segmentation will be based around multiple dimensions in
combination, deployed operationally in real time (or very close). For
example, we can take the ingredients of most current segmentations such
as: age, gender, affluence, occupation and lifestage; and then add or
multiply by: day of week, time of day, location of venues / outlets, locations
of consumers, contact channel (e-mail, SMS, web-sites, newspapers, TV /
digital TV, ATMs, telephone, poster sites, radio, outlets, direct mail
personal visit).
However, rather than segmenting individuals discretely (i.e. each
individual is a member of one segment only) future segmentations will
take into account the differing and sometimes contradictory behaviours of
individuals. Segmentation of this kind will identify clusters of behaviour,
but will calculate the probability that a consumer is a ‘member’ of each
group. In addition, as consumer behaviour changes more rapidly
marketers will need to re-create their segmentations on a far more
frequent basis to take account of this change.
For example, if a media group decided to use a piece of opera music as
an introduction to a popular programme (remember the World Cup in
Italy 1990!) the impact of this will need to be reflected through our
segmentations. In this particular example, an increased awareness of
opera music and might result in an increased probability of visiting an
opera – particularly if the individual has never previously attended an
opera performance.
In practice, this will manifest itself as segmentation tools that will enable
the targeting of individuals, by day of week, time of day, location, contact
channel, message, offers etc. Future segmentations will also be even more
firmly embedded within an integrated technological environment –
 FEATURE JAM

phones, ATMs, PCs, box office systems, electronic points of sale (EpoS).
For example, the increased sophistication of mobile phones and the
associated networks will also further enhance our marketing view of the
Your advert could
consumer and could enable the operationalisation of our enhanced
segmentations.
go in here
One obvious example is the ability to pinpoint where an individual is,
based on where a mobile phone or communicator physically is, through call Angela at Baker Hastings
global positioning technology. This could be used as a means of
segmenting communications such as text messages (SMS). Some
on 01379 651900
organisations are already using SMS although largely not segmented in
any way – imagine the ability to segment individuals not only on the basis
of a target profile for a particular performance but also on proximity to a
particular box office.
Mobile phones (or communicators) will form a central link between
consumers and organisations and not just purely from a verbal
communication perspective, they will be “intelligent” and will “talk” to
other electronic equipment. Therefore, as consumers complete Association of
transactions at an ATM they could receive messages on screen and
receive discount offers through their mobile phone. These offers could Arts Fundraiser
be automatically redeemed when the mobile phone is placed next to or
38 Convent Road, Broadstairs, CT10 3BE Tel: 01843 600586 e:artrais@aol.com
near a box office system – which in turn may also upload new offers /
information and the cycle begins again. ◆ Involved in raising funds for your arts organisation?
This type of approach becomes particularly relevant for tactical ◆ Lonely? Isolated? Unappreciated? Unsupported?
marketing. For example, in the event of a performance being under -
◆ Why not join the AAF?
subscribed, targeting offers to people within close proximity of the venue
perhaps offering very large discounts or free entrance to those consumers For just £35 p.a. you’ll get newsletters, bulletins, meetings,
who have never visited a venue or the particular performance type before. information, trianing opportunities, and the knowledge that
Is this really the future of segmentation? – let us boldly go and you are not alone.
discover……
Why not ring or email now?
Adam Thomas adam.thomas@uk.experian.com0115 968 5042

JAM 01 17
SEGMENTATION – USING POSITIVE
DISCRIMINATION TO DEVELOP
AUDIENCES
Richard Hadley and Stuart Nicolle at marketing:arts describe data:crunch.
T
he accurate identification of target segments is directly related to
business (and in relation to the arts, audience) growth and
financial profitability. Two basic criteria exist for segmenting a
market – customers needs and market profilers.
This article is concerned with the second aspect of segmentation
planning: describing ‘market profilers’, the characteristics and attributes of
customers and the factors that discriminate them as belonging to
recognizable groups. marketing:arts, the West Midlands based audience
development agency, has developed a tool to analyse relevant market
‘profilers’ for the arts – data:crunch. It provides precisely those descriptive,
measurable customer characteristics that are essential in developing a
coherent strategy.
data:crunch offers the ability to understand the dynamics of the total
audience and to sub-divide this into recognisable groupings. Over time it
enables customer behaviour and consumption patterns to be tracked. It
points to their socio-demographic characteristics, and suggests their likely
future attendance profile with attendant market growth possibilities. In
the near future as the data-set expands with each successive analysis,
data:crunch will enable individual venues, regional groupings, or specific
industry sectors (e.g. opera, classic drama, dance) to quantify market
penetration indices and customer profiles compared to industry norms.
marketing:arts has undertaken several comparative studies for
groupings of organisations looking to quantify and profile the existing and
potential audience within a shared geographical catchment. The most
advanced of these has revealed a range of important findings.
Audiences tend to stick to a single preferred art form at a single
preferred venue. The incidence of that audience development holy grail -
venue and art form cross-over - seems to be extremely low. There is a high
audience turnover – depressingly high rates of lapsing year on year, but
this is balanced by a strong influx of attenders. The audience figures may
superficially look stable but the calm exterior conceals a seething ferment
of customers walking up and walking away from arts venues. There is a
small fraction of the audience who ‘float’ between venues and these are
people who exhibit greater artform eclecticism.
We modeled these people and found those things that statistically
discriminate them from the audience base as a whole: unsurprisingly, they
generate a disproportionate amount of income for the venues they choose
to patronise, being more frequent purchasers than the norm, they are very
much more loyal than average – 92% return year after year. They are
dominated by younger (under 25) and older (over 55) age ranges and they
book significantly further in advance than the norm. Probably by
18 JAM 01
definition they are also relatively stable, consisting largely of ‘old-hands’ –
they have a much lower rate of newcomers to their number than do
audiences generally. In terms of their income profile, however, they look
identical to the arts audience as a whole.
What is exciting about this type of analysis is how we can then use it
to prospect for other high value customers who share these discriminating
characteristics. marketing:arts uses the resulting customer profile to
generate mailing lists of customer prospects using its in-house ‘Prospect
Locator’ and ‘Micro-marketer’ packages. One area of prime interest at
marketing:arts is customer loyalty. We have been fascinated by the
possibility of using loyalty as a key segmentation variable. Readers of
Frederick Reichheld’s The Loyalty Effect will know why every marketer
should be working intensively to retain customers, particularly, the ‘right
customers’, those who spend most and are stable in their consumption
patterns.
Stemming the tide of lapsers should be one of the prime concerns for
the arts. It looks like the arts have lower than expected levels of customer
retention. One data:crunch analysis after another shows performing arts
organisations to have lapse rates of up to 40% annually against an
estimated UK market average of about 20%.
Why is customer loyalty important? New customers by definition have
an acquisition cost attached to them – they are expensive to attract. In
terms of operating costs, loyal customers are cheaper to service than new
ones. They understand your business and you understand their needs.
Loyal customers generate referrals. Word of mouth is the most powerful
form of promotion. Loyal customers are less price sensitive than new ones.
They spend more money with you. And so on.
Reichheld proposes a remarkably simple way of segmenting a market
place – but one rarely given any thought to. He suggests that customers
exhibit a ‘loyalty coefficient’, the ease with which they might be tempted
to defect from you. (The concept is derived from notion of ‘friction
coefficient’ – essentially the ‘slideability’ of different materials over
different surfaces.)
Loyalty coefficient is about categorizing your customers according to
their slideability from your organisation to your competitors. data:crunch
helps us to identify those discriminators for inherently loyal customers on
one hand, and inherently unstable, lapsing customers on the other.
Who are the customers that are inherently loyal and predictable in their
consumption behaviour? Who spends most money with you? Who are
the customers who seem to find your products more valuable than those
of your competitors by virtue of the stability and duration of their

relationship with you? What are the factors which are likely to
increase ‘customer friction’ (the positive sort!)?
marketing:arts has undertaken an in depth analysis using
data:crunch for a major regional producing and presenting
repertory theatre. The results are startling: Up to 60%4 of the
audience have been attending for one year only – most of those
to just one performance. Slightly over 10% have been
attending for each of the previous three years and these are
evenly spread between those who attend once, twice or more
than three times annually. So what discriminates loyal
customers from the rest?
A few early pointers – they are: 26 times more likely to
attend more frequently (twice or more a year) than average;
more likely to be older and elderly people (over 50) rather than
mature or younger people; more likely to belong within a family
FEATURE JAM
group than singles. Lapsers have a significantly higher % of
single people
Loyal people book significantly further in advance than the
others (69 days compared to 36 before the performance), spend
about the same on each transaction but by virtue of their
increased frequency and longevity are financially worth much
more than other customers.
This is work in progress. Much remains to be uncovered –
particularly in establishing the predictive variables of a lapsed
attender are in order that they can be identified before they
lapse. And in refining the discriminators of loyal customers – so
that their economic contribution to business performance can
be fully exploited at the earliest stage.
Richard Hadley and Stuart Nicolle
www.marketingarts.co.uk 01926 409058
JAM 01 19
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WHAT GETS MY GOAT!
Julia Ient, Head of Marketing and Development at Academy
of St Martin in the Fields, lets of steam
What gets my goat? It has to be said, that old
chestnut – Artistic Directors! Yes you know,
can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
You are a keen, committed Marketing
Manager. You’ve done your CIM course,
researched your audience, identified the
issues, had lots of great ideas for customer
segmentation and audience development. Yet
the truth is that selling what you’re given can
only get you and your organisation so far.
What you really need is a voice in the artistic
planning process. But that means a dialogue
with your Artistic Director(s). Eeek! How to
get him or her to listen to you? Very difficult.
A good place to start is to understand
him/her better.
Artistic Directors fall into five main types.
The visionary fireball.
These people will fire with enthusiasm
anyone who spends more than 20 seconds in
their presence. Full of imaginative, zany ideas
that you know they’ll pull off. Extremely good
for your motivation. Very difficult to turn
round if you think they’re on the wrong track.
The learned academic.
Engender great respect within the industry.
Can be relied upon to uncover fascinating
new influences and interpretations. Great if
you have a degree in the artform yourself. But
the knowledge that that 98% of your audience
don’t can be tricky.
The arts development practitioner.
These can make brilliant Artistic Directors.
Don’t need to teach them anything about
marketing – they’ll come up with an artistic,
outreach and audience development
programme all rolled into one. Blissful.
Although sometimes you long for that
artistic genius who can generate lift-off, by
the very virtue of not being connected to the
real world.
The veteran specialist.
These people will give you the best of that
thing they do. Very reassuring to know you
have the pedigree, the guarantee of top quality.
But we’re talking huge egos here. Difficult if
you want them to adapt.
The figurehead.
These can be trouble. Often don’t come up
with any ideas at all, but have no hesitation at
vetoing other people’s.
Building a good working
relationship with your
Artistic Director
Make sure your whole team is singing from
the same song sheet.
Almost certainly, you won’t be the person with
the most direct and regular contact with the
Artistic Director, and yet, right from the start,
you need audience-centred thinking to be at
the forefront of the planning process. So work
on your colleagues. Circulate information
widely, so that everyone begins to see the need
to understand the marketplace as their
problem too – not just yours.
Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of
your area of responsibility!
What gets performed/shown is only one
part of the equation. Equally important is the
‘where’ and ‘when’. Marketing is not just about
selling; it is about the creation of an offering
that best meets the needs of your target
market. So put forward your ideas for type of
venue, day of the week, length of event etc.,
and explain why they are suitable for the
market you are after.
Give encouragement.
Artistic Directors rarely like being told they’re
wrong. But most are susceptible to a good bit
of flattery. Make sure they get to hear the
TALKBACK JAM
positive feedback – press cuttings, copies of
audience letters, survey comments etc. As in so
much else, the carrot is often far more effective
than the stick.
Make them think it was their idea all along!
Even more than flattery, Artistic Directors like
glory. When you have an idea, drop it in casually
and back off. Then when it pops up later as
their proposal, congratulate them on their
ingenuity, and make sure they get the credit.
The lure of money.
Don’t underestimate the attractiveness of
money to an Artistic Director! Work with
your fundraising colleagues here, to identify
possible sources of money for the kinds of
projects you would like to see your organisation
doing. The response “I like that idea, and I
know where we can find funding for it” will
always go down well.
Understand their limitations.
Coming up with inspired, original program-
ming season after season is actually very hard.
Many creative types find it helpful to work
within a framework – a theme for the season or
a particular audience group to target. Which of
course is something you can propose.
So there you are:
Understand your Artistic Director.
Get your colleagues on board.
Put forward your ideas.
Give positive feedback.
Maybe our stubborn goats are really gentle
lambs with the right handling. Hard to believe,
but worth having a go!
If you would like to tell other JAM
readers what gets your goat, then email
the AMA at info@a-m-a.co.uk.
JAM 01 21
JAM A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...
JAM spends a day with Matthew Carwardine-Palmer,
Head of Marketing, Wycombe Swan.
lthough not naturally a morning person, I do try to get into the
A office between 9 and 9.30am, giving me at least half an hour
of quiet thinking time before the phone rings and the other
members of the marketing team arrive. The start of the day has a
familiar routine to it – downloading email whilst making the first
coffee. As we do internet ticketing here, I get more than the usual
number of overnight messages. With people clearly wanting to book
tickets late at night and early in the morning, this is a great way of
having a 24 hour Box Office. This is fast becoming a necessity for us,
rather than a luxury.
From 10am the day becomes a whirl of activity for us all,
heightened by the open-plan office space and constant phone noise.
I really think there is a sense of urgency that exists in a venue that
can be lacking elsewhere in the industry. With around 300 separate
events taking place in 3 venues here each year, we are constantly
kept on our toes. Busy seasons of course need planning and
prioritising, and each morning a careful scan of the daily box office
reports helps me focus the marketing effort accordingly. I have
become scrupulous in using spreadsheets for campaign plans,
budgets, targets and sales figures. The weekly effort of updating a
cumulative sales spreadsheet, for example, is amply rewarded by the
strategic benefits it provides when forward planning.
Much of the morning usually gets taken up with dealing with
phone calls and other immediate demands, responding to urgent
faxes, going through the post and getting feedback on the previous
night’s performances. I also find the morning to be a good time for
dealing with individual campaign needs, such as advertising and
direct mail. All too soon it is the middle of the day; something that
comes around quickly in a job with a relatively late start. Lunch, I’m
afraid, is usually eaten at my desk. This is a bad habit that I am trying
22 JAM 01
to break.
Producing our quarterly showbill has certain Groundhog Day
similarities. You wake up one day and realise that the job has come
around again, and the seemingly never-ending task continues. With
perhaps 80 different events per season, they take a lot of planning,
a lot of patience and very often the line-up (and layout) is only
finalised at the very last minute. There is, however, an inordinate
amount of chasing to be done, followed by much rewriting of copy
provided by touring companies to make it usable. Not to mention the
detective-like search for images. I am learning not to let my
perfectionism make the showbill production even more onerous,
though I take a great deal of pride in my work.
As well as running the marketing department, I am responsible for
the Box Office, and I try to keep in good communication with them.
This is not always easy as we are in opposite corners of the building
and their phones very often don’t stop ringing all day.
A typical day will often also include a campaign planning meeting
with a visiting company, some work on the website, a discussion with
our Director about some element of programming, brainstorming
ideas for new ways to sell old shows, and comparing notes with
another venue. I believe that maintaining morale and ensuring that
we enjoy ourselves is crucial to the success of a team. We all work
very hard, but we also take time out to make each other laugh. The
constant throughput of shows is exciting and daunting, but the
passing of time does have a positive side. However hard a show is to
sell, and whatever the problems in doing so, it will eventually come
and go!
By 5.30pm the phones have quietened down, and it is possible to
think back on what has been achieved during the day, and to think
ahead to tomorrow. This is a great time for clearing paperwork and
generally working through some of the more routine elements of the
job, such as clearing invoices, updating the budget and responding
to non-urgent requests. The last thing I do each day is to clear my
desk and jot down a to-do list for tomorrow. I have to constantly write
down reminders, ideas and notes as these things are so easily
forgotten.
Unless I am staying on for the evening show, I usually finish
between 6pm and 7pm. As with all theatres, Wycombe Swan comes
alive at night, and it is great to see the place buzzing with activity and
(hopefully) a full house. I take great satisfaction from knowing that I
played some part in the process.
If you would like to share a day of your life with JAM readers then
please email info@a-m-a.co.uk.
 RECRUITMENT JAM

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20 Mortlake High Street London SW14 8JN T: 020 8392 6654 F: 020 8392 6653 E: ra4info@cs.com

JAM 01 23
JAM BOOK SHELF CLASSIFIED JAM

The Marketing Manual By Heather Maitland ARTS INTELLIGENCE LTD

(Arts Marketing Association, 2000, ISBN 1 90331502 6, £25, plus p&p)
Every marketer wants the perfect handbook to dip into for reassurance and guidance and this is an
excellent choice. Peppered with case studies and examples, it’s full of useful tips and suggestions.
Two thirds of the book gives clear, jargon-free recommendations on day-to-day marketing from basic
planning and copywriting to managing budgets and advertising campaigns. It also covers areas that
may be outside some marketers’ expertise: for instance how to brief photographers, design a website or
write a lottery application.
For the bigger issues, turn to the book’s remaining third. Advice on research, analysis and targeting
of existing and new audiences lies alongside matters of corporate identity, branding and pricing.
At around 1.5kg it’s not very portable, but as a desktop reference book, it will definitely become a
permanent, well-thumbed fixture. Debbie Court, Welsh National Opera
This book will surely become a ‘must-buy’ addition to marketing office shelves across the arts. Written
with Heather Maitland’s customary clarity of thought and expression, it will be of use to marketers at all
levels of experience. The nineteen chapters of the ‘how to…’ section offer systematic advice in the
everyday tactical tasks of arts marketing, backed up by case studies, examples of work and the odd pro-
forma; the rest of the book deals with some of the more strategic issues that marketers will face,
particularly as they progress up the career ladder.
Planning a research project? For the highest quality research
services, including realistic project planning and design,
competent management, thorough data analysis and thoughtful
interpretation, call Brian Whitehead or Liz Hill.
Tel: 01954 250600 email: brian-whitehead@email.msn.com
LABAN CENTRE LONDON
Leading centre for professional contemporary dance training.
Courses for all ages and abilities and diverse theatre programme.
Moving to new premises in 2002, designed by Herzog and De
Meuron.
Tel: 020 8962 4070
ACCOUNTING SOLUTIONS FOR THE ARTS
Management and end-year accounts, business plans, funding
applications, advice from arts specialists. Contact Hilary
Seaward, Andrew Webster Associates
Tel: 01223 507080 Website: www.tax.uk.com/arts
OXYGEN
Specialist design services for the arts: identity, branding,
campaigns, corporate/sponsorship, communications through
print, advertising, mew media. Contact: Howard Sherwood tel:
0118 930 6603 email: howard_oxy@splash.co.uk

As a marketer of mature years, it won’t, for me, be a cover-to-cover read. But I can imagine using WORK IN ARTS MARKETING?
the book as a comfort blanket in those moments of self-doubt and as both a refresher and challenge to Why not join the Arts Marketing Association? For more details,
my own, and my department’s, thinking. phone Julie on 01223 578078. email: ama@dial.pipex.com
Website: www.a-m-a.co.uk
For the cost of a mid-priced opera ticket it’s worth every penny.
Peter Bellingham, Welsh National Opera
Your listing could go in here call
Commissioning Market Research Angela at Baker Hastings
– a guide for arts marketers By Liz Hill on 01379 651900
(Arts Marketing Association, 2000, ISBN 1 90331503 4,
£7.50 AMA members, £10 non-members, plus p&p)

Commissioning Market Research is a short, jargon-free, easy-to-read summary of the key things
someone should consider before undertaking market research. For those who don’t know much about
market research, it is an essential tool well worth reading from beginning to end (2 hours well invested!),
but it’s also a good reminder for those with a bit more experience.
The most useful sections include a) being reminded that market research is not always necessary,
appropriate, or the magic solution; b) the importance of identifying the research problems, specifying
the decisions which the research will help you make; c) a step-by-step guide to writing a clear and
comprehensive brief; and d) very useful tips and advice on how to evaluate a research report when
you’re not an expert. And if you want to hold your own with researchers, don’t miss the appendices on
sampling principles and data collection methods. This book should really be called “what you’ve always
wanted to know before undertaking market research, but were too embarrassed to ask”! Your advert could
Marion Bourbouze, The Audience Business
go in here
Data Protection – By Roger Tomlinson
a guide to the data protection acts and their implications for managers in the
arts and entertainment industry
call Angela at Baker
(Arts Marketing Association and TMA, 2000, ISBN 1 903315 00 X, Hastings
£7.50 AMA members, £10 non-members, plus p&p) on 01379 651900
As an arts manager who has always felt deeply inadequate about her knowledge of and, importantly,
adherence to the Data Protection legislation, I was gripped by abject terror when I learned of the
implications of the 1998 Act (in force from 1 March 2000). Roger Tomlinson’s guide provides long-
awaited clarity, guidance and reassurance. It stresses, crucially, that responsibility for the interpretation
and implementation of the legislation lies firmly with us, as “Data Controllers”. Equally essential, it
reminds us for whom and what the legislation exists: our customers and their best interests.
In eight short sections, the guide demystifies the (real or perceived) complexities and ambiguities of
the new Data Protection Act and related Regulations. It spells out clear action points for organisations
to proceed in the implementation process. The section “Frequently Asked Questions” collates various
concerns and relates them back to the legislation in a useful, relevant way. What the guide outlined for
me is that good practice in Data Protection could, if we are clear enough about the process in our own
organisations, benefit us as well as our customers (rather than create a rod for our backs!)
Fiona Sturgeon, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
These books are available from SAMs Books on 01883-345011 or at www.sam-arts.demon.co.uk

24 JAM 01