The Power of a Venue Pull Marketing Strategy

 

You may be surprised to learn that all of the ads you encounter each day aren’t just to get YOU to purchase products. While this is a majority of the brand’s intent, there is an additional hidden agenda and it comes in the form of a pull marketing strategy.

 

According to the Corporate Finance Institute. “In a pull marketing strategy, the goal is to make a consumer actively seek a product and get retailers to stock the product due to direct consumer demand.” For instance, if Doritos intends to launch a new flavor of chip. Retailers may be apprehensive of allocating valuable shelf space to the product. To mitigate this risk and get them to stock their new offering, Frito-Lay may introduce a pull marketing strategy to build awareness of the new flavor, increase demand, and pull consumers to the new product, forcing retailers to place orders for the flavor.

 

The same can happen in the concert venue world in various strategic ways. One approach is the fan perspective where the venue establishes its brand in a way that pulls specific consumers through the doors to experience the ambiance and /or notoriety. This is the case with legacy spaces such as The Greek Theater, Red Rocks, The Ryman, Madison Square Garden, and The Gorge. Another is to focus on a specific segment. The Bowery Presents does this with their chain of venues that focus on indie and up-and-coming rockers.

 

There is also a pull strategy that can be established by homing in on the talent. In this method, management focuses on enhancing the act’s experience to pull them towards their stage over other routing options.

 

Ryan Murphy did just that with St. Augustine’s The Amp by crafting a positive environment for acts that visited the out-of-the-way outdoor venue. His efforts soon paid off when legend Tony Bennett’s positive experience was relayed to Stevie Nick’s team. This led to a one-off solo show for the Fleetwood Mac star. Soon, The Amp was playing host to names much larger than its capacity.  Kacey Musgraves, who packs the 20,000 seat Bridgestone Arena, legends such as Robert Plant, OAR, Willie Nelson, and Kendrick Lamar made their way to St. Augustine, FL. Helping push The Amp to the #2 amphitheater spot in Pollstar Magazine’s 2019 Mid-Year report.

 

Not too shabby for a venue with a capacity of under 5,000 and well off the routing path.

 

Murphy’s pull strategy circumvented outside variables by going direct to the source of the commodity – the artist. Their handlers very likely were pushing for larger capacity venues that could provide more revenue, more wiggle room on deal points, more efficient routing, etc. Unfortunately, many venue leaders do not understand the rigors of the road and how it impacts artists of every level and, perhaps more importantly, their crew. Giving them a special spot that has a unique vibe, history, and a feel of home can have much more power than we think. It’s not just a pull marketing strategy… it’s a compassion for the artist strategy and it can pay large dividends as Murphy and The Amp proved.

Why You Should Avoid Physical Press Kits.

 

Jeremy Larochelle offers up two reasons why he thinks it’s a bad idea to use physical press kits when selling your live entertainment services.

 

If you need help building your presskit, check out these online services that make life a bit easier.

Sonicbids: https://www.sonicbids.com/electronic-press-kit/

ReverbNation: https://www.reverbnation.com/band-promotion/press_kit

Bandzoogle: https://bandzoogle.com

Using Venue Math to Find Your Baseline

I wanted to demonstrate how data, research, and math can help venue managers and marketers book concerts.

 

 

To do that, I took research on music adoption from The Verge and consumer behavior experts. Then, applied some rudimentary math skills to demonstrate how one could likely pinpoint eras of music that would better align with a concert venue’s marketing strategy.

 

Works Cited:

Ong, T. (2018, February 12). Our musical tastes peak as teens, says study. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/12/17003076/spotify-data-shows-songs-teens-adult-taste-music

Solomon, M. R. (2019). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being (12th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.

 

 

The Psychological Importance of Brand Parity

Differentiating your product, service, or brand is not only good.  It is imperative.  However, the marketer should not overlook the psychological importance of establishing brand parity before engaging in this practice.

 

In his book Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely discusses the consumer behavior of herding. His theory is built upon decades of research which reinforces that, when making decisions, buyers need a point of reference from which to weigh their options. We rarely blindly pick that new car or cup of coffee.  Rather, when considering a purchase, our subconscious is weighing the opportunity in front of us against our history with, and what we have learned about, the choice in question. Inexperienced marketers will forget that regardless of how new or radically different the product is, the customer needs to weigh it against like options to complete their decision. This is where brand parity comes in.

 

Brand parity is the attributes that all products of a specific classification share. Soda comes in 12oz cans.  Cellphones include a charger and loaves of bread come with a twist-tie.  These elements are of strategic importance for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most vital is that they set-up your product for proper differentiation. I will borrow Ariely Starbucks’ example to explain.

 

Anyone who has visited both a Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks knows that the two differ on many levels. Dunkin’ is a transactional business. Stores are designed for the customer to get a cup of Joe and get out. Sizes are easily labeled as Small, Medium, Large, and Extra-large. The ambiance is bright. The chairs uncomfortable and there is an overall “cafeteria” vibe throughout.  Starbucks is designed for customers to hang out. Their stores are characterized by deeper-earthy tones. Lighting is soft and subtle. Customers are surrounded by expensive cups, grinders, and coffees they can buy to take home. Even the product sizes are labeled uniquely as Short, Tall, Grande, and Venti.

 

Regardless of these differences, the core product of both of these brands – the coffee remains similar. Both organizations serve theirs fresh, extremely hot, and provide basic accouterments to enhance the taste such as cream, sugar, and sweetener. Both serve their java with lids and offer drive-through service.  It is this brand parity that helped Starbucks slip into the coffee game and then initiate the power of its product differentiation genius.

 

It may be hard to remember the first time you visited a Starbucks. If you can, you would probably recall it as a little overwhelming. I still have trouble remembering which size coffee I get. Is it the venti or the grande? However, when faced with that initial decision. You likely (even if you didn’t realize it) weighed the Starbucks’ option in front of you against something you knew. As an East-Coaster myself, that was Dunkin’. Since the Starbuck’s option was close enough. I mean it’s still just coffee, right? You were probably like me and gave them a shot.

 

Now that Starbucks’ brand parity with Dunkin’ has done its job to get you through the door it is time for the company to separate themselves with cohesive differentiation. This is when a company aligns all of their branding, packaging, and overall feel in a way that places them in a certain price range relative to their competition. For Starbucks, that position is “premium,” so they have aligned their brand pieces in a way to promote that ideal. The ordering process is refined and “classy.” Patrons ask for a “Venti” as opposed to an “Extra Large.” Customers are placed in a nicer atmosphere that encourages them to hang-out and pen their next screenplay. (This consequently increases the feeling that one needs to “pay rent” to stay longer and contributes to increased revenue per visit). When seated, patrons are surrounded by expensive cups, grinders, and coffees.

 

All of these elements work together to shift the consumer’s perception of where Starbucks sits in relation to other options such as Dunkin’. You still know that both Starbucks and Dunkin sell coffee and can give you that morning pick me up. However, the cohesive elevated experience you found at Starbucks has pushed it further away from your relative experience at Dunkin. It has now become harder for you to see them as similar and you lean towards one or the other moving forward.

 

The thing to keep in mind is that none of this differentiation would work without first establish brand parity. Your prospects need a reason to “jump ship” and check out your option. If you present yourself as too different… too radical, you will confuse them and they are more prone to stick with what is known. However, if you can find that unique balance between brand parity and differentiation. You too could become the Venti of your product world.

 

 

Incremental Changes in Marketing Your Venue

Even in today’s fast-paced world, slow and steady still wins the race when it comes to retaining, attracting, and motivating your entertainment customers to buy. Jeremy discusses how incremental changes reduce sales friction and increase accountability in operational changes.

 

Demographics Aren’t a Catch-All

 

Too many entertainment managers misuse the phrase demographics as an excuse to sound marketing-savvy when they don’t understand entertainment strategy. Jeremy discusses how to properly use this marketing term for your venue.