Essay Theatre Marketing

ADVANCED COURSE THEATRE MARKETING INDIVIDUAL ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

ISABELLE CIJSOUW 2571064 TEST CODE: 25XGAO736A TEACHER: FRANK SLIJPEN

Emotional engagement: how emotions create successful marketing strategies

Play writers, directors, actors and technical professionals share one common objective: creating emotional connections with the audience during the entire theatre experience (Nelson & Nelson, 2010).

Emotions play a prominent role in brand choice and customer retention as well (Menis, 2017). This essay will describe the importance of emotional engagement and explores how it can be implemented in theatre marketing strategies.

Emotion as the main driver The theatre industry used to be behind when it came to marketing. However, more theatres are catching up by acknowledging the importance of customer data and using this in marketing campaigns.

Still, many theatres communicate primarily offer-oriented rather than from a customer perspective. A customer perspective can increase the relevance and effectiveness of a campaign (Verhoeven, 2016). Data are good information sources, but emotions are the biggest drivers behind many acts in consumer behaviour. Customers need to be emotionally engaged to have a meaningful engagement in general.

Additionally, emotional engagement helps to anticipate on approaching customers in the future (Roberts, 2016). Increasing emotional engagement can also lead to higher customer satisfaction and a growth in sales. However, emotions cannot be easily measured and are difficult to implement in engagement-increasing marketing strategies. According to researchers Magids, Zorfas and Leemon, insights in customers’ ‘emotional motivators’ helps to better measure and target feelings that drive their behaviour (Magids, Zorfas & Leemon, 2015). They generally describe ten emotional motivators that significantly affect consumer value, and how organizations should respond to them.

(Magids et al., 2015) Theatre consumers To increase emotional engagement, theatres should determine which emotional motivator(s) are relevant to their most valuable customers (Menis, 2017). This might take some time, because customers may not be aware of their own motivators. Moreover, emotional connections regarding a brand can be different in every customer journey step. The bar chart below shows that, the more customers feel emotionally connected, the more value they attribute to a brand. It also shows that it is more relevant to focus emotional engagement activities on highly satisfied customers to make them fully connected, than to primarily focus on unconnected customers (Magids et al., 2015).

Customers are engaged when they have a cocreative customer experience within a service relationship. The quality of service in theatres is a key in maintaining a long-term customer relationship, and therefore increases the connection with them (Pap, Dlačić & Ham, 2017).

Theatre employees influence consumers’ emotions on various levels: presence, message, content, attractiveness, status and interpersonal relationships with customers (Mattila & Enz, 2005).

Good service even has significantly positive effects on customer satisfaction overall. Moreover, the better quality of the service, the more the customers are open to engage (Pap, Dlačić & Ham, 2017).

(Magids et al., 2015)

(Magids et al., 2015)

Emotional engagement offers benefits, such as more relevant campaigns, higher customer satisfaction and growth in sales. Theatres should be aware of emotional motivators of their most valuable customers and design their marketing strategies accordingly. Service quality is an obvious and general aspect of theatre experiences that can raise customers’ emotional engagement, because it relies on interpersonal communication. Implementing emotional engagement in marketing strategies, and not primarily relying on performances to create emotional connections, can take the theatre industry to a new level marketingwise.

Bibliography

Magids, S., Zorfas, A. & Leemon, D. (2015). The New Science of Customer Emotions. Retrieved on January 7 2018, from https://hbr.org/2015/11/the-new-science-of-customer-emotions Menis, K. (2017). 3 Ways to Ignite the Spark of Emotional Engagement in Your Customers. Retrieved on January 7 2018, from https://www.signal.co/blog/spark-of-emotional-engagement-in-your-customers/ Nelson, K., Nelson, D. (2010). Incidental music: Enhancing the emotional experience of the audience. Retrieved on January 1 2018, from https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=hhrc Pap, A., DlaÄ?ić, J., & Ham, M. (2017. What makes the theatre audience return? The role of engagement in predicting future behaviour. Retrieved on January 8 2018, from https://www.fthm.uniri.hr/files/Kongresi/ ToSEE/2017/papers/31_Pap_Dlacic_Ham.pdf Roberts, S. (2016). What is Emotional Engagement Really About? Retrieved on January 8 2018, from http:// ravingcontent.rantandrave.com/what-is-emotional-engagement-really-about-infographic Verhoeven, B. (2016). De indrukwekkende transformatie van theatermarketing: 5 factoren. Retrieved on January 15 2018, from https://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2016/11/19/de-indrukwekkende-transformatie-van-theatermarketing-5-factoren/