Managing Audience Expectations and Satisfaction in Opera and Theatre: Suggestions for Opera North

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Executive SummaryOpera North uses music and opera to present its audience with extraordinary experiences that delight, engage, challenge, and inspire them. The company’s goal is to produce work that is not just innovative and creative, but also ambitious, and to come up with new ways to get the word out about it. A wide variety of performers, artists, and audience members are able to find assistance via Opera North. However, despite its best efforts, Opera North is facing an issue of a declining audience base. In spite of calls for organizations that support the performing arts to pay more attention to the needs of its customers/audiences, only a handful of scholars and academics have tried to measure the level of consumer/audience satisfaction in opera during performances. This information gap will be closed with the development of the first complete model of customer/audience satisfaction in the opera industry, which is the objective of this report. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that marketing opera should place more of an emphasis on the quality of the opera itself as opposed to the quality of the opera’s ancillary services, and have better management of audience expectations and satisfaction through the use of marketing tools. Regarding the research methodology, the report is framed in the constructivist paradigm, suggesting that no universal method exists regarding how to enjoy social production. A qualitative approach is preferred. The thoughts and sentiments of participants in either the target audience or consumers are the primary focus of qualitative research. Instead, people construct their own individual means to enjoy the opera experience. The report adds that marketing campaigns play a significant role in driving consumer/audience expectations. as such, opera consumers attempt to make sense of the opera experience through interactions with the opera, other audience members, and other objects and factors in the context of cultural events in opera and theater.

Table of Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc104185250 h 2Organisational Background PAGEREF _Toc104185251 h 4Aims and Objectives PAGEREF _Toc104185252 h 4Framework Rationale PAGEREF _Toc104185253 h 5Research Question and Methodology PAGEREF _Toc104185254 h 6Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc104185255 h 6Methodological Approach and Rationale PAGEREF _Toc104185256 h 6Research Design PAGEREF _Toc104185257 h 8Participant Selection PAGEREF _Toc104185258 h 8Ethical Considerations PAGEREF _Toc104185259 h 9Process & Internal Responsibilities PAGEREF _Toc104185260 h 9Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc104185261 h 12Reference List PAGEREF _Toc104185262 h 13

Organisational BackgroundEvery day, Opera North (2022) uses music and opera to present its audience with extraordinary experiences that delight, engage, challenge, and inspire them. These experiences are designed to be memorable. Opera North (2022) is a well-known and respected cultural institution in the United Kingdom. It is a national opera company with its headquarters in Leeds. Even though its headquarters are located in the north of England, Opera North (2022) takes a worldwide approach to its business. It is their goal to provide one-of-a-kind experiences on a daily basis as part of their purpose. The work that is produced by Opera North has been recognized with several awards and has been staged in concert halls and theaters all around the Northern Hemisphere and beyond, notably in London and at major international festivals. The Howard Assembly Room plays host to a wide variety of creative gatherings, including live performances of music and spoken word as well as film screenings. The company’s goal is to produce work that is not just innovative and creative, but also ambitious, and to come up with new ways to get the word out about it. A wide variety of performers, artists, and audience members are able to find assistance via Opera North (2022). The company believes that everyone, regardless of background or experience, should be able to enjoy opera and music. Through the participation of individuals of all ages in artistic activities and performances, Opera North Education (2022) hopes to improve the residents’ overall health and quality of life in the communities in which it operates. This is done via engagement with local communities and the presentation of thought-provoking material to successive generations of individuals. Both the Arts Council England and the Leeds City Council continue to be important contributors to the success of the company. It is also able to continue producing award-winning performances because it receives funding from a variety of private sector organizations, trusts, and individuals, as well as a specific sponsorship from the Friends of Opera North and money from its audiences (Opera North, 2022). These sources of funding allow it to continue producing award-winning performances.

Aims and ObjectivesIn spite of calls for organizations that support the performing arts to pay more attention to the needs of its customers, only a handful of scholars and academics have tried to measure the level of consumer/audience satisfaction in opera during performances. This information gap will be closed with the development of the first complete model of customer/audience satisfaction in the opera industry, which is the objective of this report. This approach integrates the lessons from the research published in the literature on service marketing (including performing arts marketing), as well as the research published in the literature on marketing campaigns and their impact on music perception and theater.

For the purpose of the report, participants will be categorized according to their gender and the number of times they attend events. The focus of the research will mostly concentrate on Opera North discussing what management should take away from opera marketing. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that marketing opera should place more of an emphasis on the quality of the opera itself as opposed to the quality of the opera’s ancillary services. Second, professional opera companies like Opera North are more likely to attract larger audiences if they concentrate on providing an experience for their patrons that satisfies the clients’ psychological requirements (Šimić and Pap, 2019). Third, there is a need for more investigation into the reasons behind the disparate rates of church attendance among men and women.

Framework RationaleSince growing audiences is a top priority in the arts and culture industry, opera house managers and policymakers need to have a good understanding of what makes people enjoy a stage performance. Opera North is curious in what it means to be an opera company in the twenty-first century and wants to learn more about this topic. In order to produce bold and ambitious new work that may be presented in new ways, Opera North unites the many different creative forms and skills that are accessible within the medium of opera. This may be done by always challenging oneself to do new things in a variety of artistic fields. The art form of opera is one that is both revolutionary and all-encompassing (Mich and Peretta, 2017), and the organization’s primary objective is to maintain that feeling of vigor and inventiveness at the forefront of its work even as it extends into other fields such as theater, music, education, and others. However, times are changing. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for cultural events to rethink their strategies in order to attract more income and remain viable in the entertainment industry.

Recently, operas, along with many other types of entertainment, have migrated out of conventional theaters and into virtue theaters all over the globe. This shift has occurred on a global scale. The emphasis has switched from the physical stage to online platforms, and audiences have evolved from small, devoted groups to individuals from all over the globe who can watch online, which has led to operas being a cultural force in the entertainment industry (Cacovean, Peluso, and Plăiaș, 2021). Because of this, contemporary opera houses are able to attract a very large number of people. One live broadcast of Opera North might potentially be seen by as many as one hundred thousand people in different parts of the globe.

Several studies on marketing have demonstrated that people’s interest in theater is not what it used to be (Prodi et al., 2015). This is problematic for theater companies like Opera North. The reduction in popularity of opera houses is mostly due to the fact that there are continuously expanding varieties of cultural artifacts available on the market (Šimić and Pap, 2019). Additionally, opera houses are not appealing to new audience members in an age where those with purchasing power are now younger individuals in the millennials and Gen Z age groups (Mich and Peretta, 2017).  The average age of customers and viewers is increasing, which results in a decrease in the number of visits and, most significantly, in the number of loyal viewers. Additionally, the majority of the funding for conventional theaters comes from the state. These theaters often have a very limited budget that is only becoming smaller, and they almost never have funds set aside for marketing or research. The majority of the time, however, they do have funds available for these activities. Therefore, it is essential to discover what makes audiences of traditional theater happy, both in terms of the gender they identify with and the frequency with which they attend.

Research Question and MethodologyResearch QuestionsThe report will be guided by the following research questions:

Why are people’s interest in theater and operas declining despite the advantages of increased reach?

What is the impact of marketing opera and theater events to younger audiences?

Has audience satisfaction been adequately addressed in marketing campaigns?

How can consumer perceived benefits be integrated into opera and theater marketing activities to increase satisfaction?

Methodological Approach and RationaleBecause of the substantial influence that business strategies, audience categorization, and framing have had on opera audiences, the social base has been eroded, and the barrier imposed by cultural capital has increased. This has made it more difficult to enjoy and appreciate opera (Boerner and Jobst, 2008). Opera companies of today aim to grow their audiences, and they’ve learned that in order to do so, potential operagoers need to overcome cultural restrictions that were set in the 1800s. This is something that opera companies have found. The quality of performances, the reasons people go to operas, the degree to which they are happy with performances, and most recently, the experience of going to an opera have all been aspects of opera audiences that have been the subject of research. A study on performance quality indicated that both specialists and non-experts may be trusted, and that their assessments of performance quality are fairly comparable, despite the fact that professionals understood more about specific elements of an opera performance than non-experts did (Prodi et al., 2015). The various aspects of an opera, in particular how well the music and staging fit together, are the most crucial in determining the quality of the opera, with non-experts giving the musical portion less weight and the staging part more weight. The findings of Cacovean, Peluso, and Plăiaș (2021) research on what audiences interpret as satisfactory in regard to operas and theater include the various aspects of an opera, in particular how well the music and staging fit together. Researchers have investigated the reasons people go to events in attempt to better understand what drives people to participate as audiences and how they interpret satisfaction based on expectations. Social hedonism, intellectual stimulation, or emotional stimulation are the primary reasons.

Other researchers have looked at the reasons why people don’t go to the opera or the ballet and found that the top reasons are a fear of being bored, a lack of expertise, and a lack of interest in opera or ballet (Šimić and Pap, 2019). The concept of customer satisfaction has also garnered a lot of interest due to the fact that it not only evaluates the amount of value that is provided to consumers but also projects how they will act in the near future. The difference between what the audience actually saw and what they had anticipated is what is meant to be referred to as the audience reaction (Prodi et al., 2015). The bulk of the time, the satisfaction that one gets from a performance comes from a combination of the performance itself as well as the activities that take place around it. On the other hand, the data imply that these two aspects were more beneficial to the audience than they were pleasurable. The difference between what an individual expects and what they actually receive is what is referred to as value. Different levels of anticipation/expectation from the audience members produce variable degrees of pleasure or satisfaction.

Research DesignRegarding the research methodology, the report is framed in the constructivist paradigm, suggesting that no universal method exists regarding how to enjoy social production. A qualitative approach is preferred. The thoughts and sentiments of participants in either the target audience or consumers are the primary focus of qualitative research. Instead, people construct their own individual means to enjoy the opera experience. The report adds that marketing campaigns play a significant role in driving consumer/audience expectations. as such, opera consumers attempt to make sense of the opera experience through interactions with the opera, other audience members, and other objects and factors in the context of cultural events in opera and theater.

Because the research goal is as presented above, the report chooses to explain the results in terms of symbolic interactionism instead of any of the other possible theories (Carter and Fuller, 2015). Symbolic interactionism says that people interact with things and other people based on the meanings they have given them in the past and on the cultural norms of consumers. These meanings come from how people have interacted with each other in the past (Carter and Montes Alvarado, 2019). So, a person’s experience at the opera is made up of the meanings that opera productions have for them. These meanings are made by the person’s symbolic interactions with other people and objects before, during, and after the opera experience. These interactions are then interpreted according to the person’s cultural norms.

Participant SelectionThe first thing that needed to be done for the research was to locate clients of Opera North who had seen at least one of the company’s operas. In order to get a greater number of followers, a tactic known as “snowballing” is used. This indicates that the individuals who joined the group brought in additional individuals who had previously attended an opera. The method of theoretical sampling served as a guidance throughout the screening of potential new informants. The final sample consisted of 12 patrons of the opera who varied in age, gender, and occupation but were comparable in social class (the occupation served as a proxy for social class) and degree of education.

Three artistic directors from Opera North also joined these individuals in the discussion. Everyone there had some experience in the field of music and the opera. As part of the investigation, in-depth conversations with 12 opera-goers will be conducted in a range of different environments. The author will devise a strategy of conducting interviews that is flexible enough to be adapted to the many topics and tales that emerge as a result of the research. The approach and procedure of the study will investigate the sociocultural backgrounds of the respondents as well as the social and personal aspects of attending an opera before, during, and after the performance.

Identification Gender Age Education Background Music Background/Knowledge Occupation

Participant 1 M >40 University None Employed

Participant 2 F <40 University/Post-Graduate Guitar Research consultant

Participant 3 M >40 University Ukelele/Piano Nurse

Participant 4 M >40 University Singing Music school teacher

Participant 5 F <40 High School Diploma None Entrepreneur

Participant 6 F >40 University Composition Choir Director

Participant 7 F >40 University Theater University Professor

Participant 8 M <40 University/Post-Graduate Piano Employed

Participant 9 F <40 University Guitar Band manager

Participant 10 F >40 University/Post-Graduate Percussions Music label owner

Participant 11 M >40 University None Basketball Coach

Participant 12 M >40 University None Artistic director

Participant 13 F >40 University Guitar Artistic director Opera North

Participant 14 M >40 University/Post-graduate Guitar Artistic director Opera North

Participant 15 F >40 University/Post-Graduate Piano Artistic director North

Ethical ConsiderationsThe respondents’ right to remain anonymous will be upheld, and they will be informed of the objective of the research as well as the fact that they are free to discontinue recording at any moment. The artistic directors of Opera North will be questioned to kick off the interview, and their responses will be used to compare and contrast the information obtained from opera and theatrical enthusiasts with that obtained from industry professionals. The purpose of this endeavor is to collect supporting evidence, which may include news items, reports, pieces from specialist publications, and information about performances and audiences gleaned from the websites of opera houses.

Process & Internal ResponsibilitiesResearch on an audience is essentially any study carried out on a certain group of individuals (the audience!) with the purpose of gaining knowledge about the audience’s beliefs, activities, and routines or of better understanding the audience (Fausti and Farina, 2000). Inclusion in the sample is open to any particular group of interest. It may be intended to be representative of the whole country, or it may be intended to comprise just people of a given age, gender, area, race, and so on. Both of these possibilities are possible. Although the meaning of the word “audience” is crucial, it may change throughout the course of time. According to Rubio Arostegui and Rius-Ulldemolins (2021), the purpose of doing research on a group of people or audiences is to find answers to a variety of problems that they face. These questions might be about which parts of the audience are interesting to them, who motivates them, what obstacles they face, what they think about current items, or how they feel about the branding and customer service of a certain firm (Cacovean, Peluso, and Plăiaș, 2021). When businesses do research with a specific audience in mind, they are better able to interact with that audience and integrate the customers’ ideas and views into the products and services they provide.

Research on an audience’s demographics, interests, and purchasing propensities aims to answer questions regarding how many people there are in a group, what they are like, and are they likely to buy a product or service (Jones, 2016). It is essential to emphasize the fact that the people and organizations that will constitute the target audience are the primary focal point of an audience study (Trubnikova and Tsagareyshvili, 2021). Research on target audiences is conducted with the intention of unearthing information about consumers that may be of assistance to a company in the accomplishment of its marketing or business goals. Because the goal of a digital marketing strategy is to have an impact on the buyer’s journey, marketers have an obligation to interact with the people they are trying to sell to by gaining an understanding of the things they do, the things they believe, and the way they live their lives (Jobst and Boerner, 2011). In order to fulfill the expectations of its customers and make them happy, Opera North must first get familiar with those customers.

Conducting research on the demographics of the ideal customers may help a firm to uncover potential roadblocks, which is one of the most significant benefits of such an endeavor. It answers questions such as whether or whether other businesses are striving to connect with their target demographic but are failing to do so, as well as the reasons why this is the case (Boerner and Jobst, 2008). It’s possible that Opera North will be able to provide its audience material that is acceptable, well-suited, and more necessary to them when it becomes aware of its problems and works to overcome them. In order for the company to meet the requirements of the customers, it must also design methods for getting one step ahead of those customers and offering solutions that anticipate what those customers could want in the near future. Customer research provides businesses with the opportunity to learn more about the people that make up their customer base (Jobst and Boerner, 2011). This provides them with a deeper comprehension of what it is that their customers want, which in turn enables them to build improved marketing strategies to cater to those requirements.

The different ways the research informants have of having fun show how many different kinds of things they perceive as important, their expectations, and how these factors play together with other background issues to create an opera experience. Because of this, there is no single right way to enjoy opera (Shepperd, Sweeny, and Cherry, 2007). Having fun can be done in a few different ways, and each one has its own set of benefits. Each person who goes to an opera has a different experience because they can choose how they will get ready for the next one. But before a potential audience member can find a way to have fun, they must first meet a basic requirement: they must enter the world of opera. Only then can the person who might watch start to figure out how to have fun. If you can enjoy an opera, it means that the methods of marketing, categorizing, and framing that were used during the nineteenth century worked. In the answers, people say that the audience needs to learn more about opera in order to develop a better appreciation for it. This is true no matter what method is used to get ready for a performance.

Consumer Behavior: Determinants of consumer expectations and satisfaction

(Source: Adapted from Druckman, 2021)

It seems like the effect of framing achieved through opera marketing campaigns would be to plan a future trip to the opera as if it were a day to remember. As shown in the figure above, management of consumer expectations is a series of choices and decisions made on a variety of elements in order to dictate satisfaction. It shouldn’t be a surprise that experts and non-experts agree on a lot when it comes to judging the quality of performances, since it seems like one needs some sort of cultural background to understand the genre (Cooil et al., 2007). The results of research on what motivates an audience are in line with the places, strategies, and experiences of an audience member. To be more specific, there is an interest in a certain performance and genre, as well as the act of going out with friends or family, the emotional, intellectual, and social experience, and feelings of inclusion and participation (Anderson, Pearo, and Widener, 2008). There seems to be a link between the framing strategy’s result of “sacralizing” the opera category and the two audience techniques that were made to promote the upcoming opera performance through marketing. These strategies all apply and play out in creating audience expectations and the ultimate satisfaction. The strategy of making the day of the performance a special day seems to show that opera is seen as a sacred cultural form (a key consequence and result of marketing using a framing approach), but the cultural experience strategy sees opera as something that is common, even though it is complicated (Perse and Rubin, 1988). As a result, it emerges that human values interact with the conditions to sacralize, given the conditions aforementioned, to appreciate a cultural form like the case of an opera. The meaning of this is that not everyone who goes to the opera feels “sacralized” by the performance. These methods also generalize the information about how opera fans get ready for a performance they are looking forward to.

Adapted from: (Druckman, 2021)

Post-crisis expectations, following the COVID-19 pandemic, is likely to help consumers in expanding their expectations. People may lower their expectations in preparation for receiving feedback in an effort to exert more control over how they feel about the results of the activities they participate in. This should not come as a surprise considering the close connection that exists between expectations and feelings about the results (Eikhof and Haunschild, 2007). People should always be prepared for the possibility that things may not go according to their plans. In the minutes running up to an opera or a theatrical production, people’s expectations may fluctuate from being accurate to being pessimistic (Šimić and Pap, 2019). If they did this, the disappointment they felt as a result of the results falling short of their expectations would be diminished or removed entirely. This would be the case because they would be more likely to achieve the desired objective. People are keenly aware of the way in which their expectations affect how they feel about the results of their actions, and as a result, they will lower their expectations in order to change how they feel about the results of their acts. As a direct result of this, the viewpoints of a target audience on the results that are significant to them are likely to shift as a direct result of marketing activities.

ConclusionThere have been very few attempts to gauge how satisfied consumers and audiences are with opera performances, despite appeals for performing arts organizations to pay greater attention to their customers’ and audiences’ requirements. This information gap will be filled by the development of the first comprehensive model of customer/audience satisfaction in the opera industry, which is the goal of this study. We hope that the findings of this study will help us better understand how marketing opera can help us better understand how to better manage audience expectations and satisfaction by using marketing techniques.

Overall, fewer people are attending to operas as a result of a variety of factors, including shifting demographics, shifting patterns of leisure, and a reduction in the amount of time that is available for engaging in leisure activities. The final effect is going to be an increase in the amount of competition for the money spent by customers on various forms of entertainment. Because of this, there is an immediate need to make fresh attempts to boost audiences, and this may be accomplished in two ways: first, by encouraging an increased number of people to watch the program, and second, by recruiting new viewers.

It seems like a smart method for performing arts organizations to get more people to attend to their performances would be to employ marketing techniques that appeal to expectations in order to make those expectations come true. This seems like it would be a good approach to attract more people to the events. When a customer’s perceptions of how a product or service performs match well to what they anticipated, we call this level of satisfaction “satisfied customer” (based on past experiences, media reviews and user generated content, word of mouth, advertising, and so on). The report shows that making this contrast would result in satisfied customers/audiences for opera enthusiasts.

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