engleski

The Effectiveness of Unconventional Marketing in Theaters: Top Management Theaters Perspective

Cultural institutions in the Republic of Croatia, specifically theaters, which are in focus of this research paper, are struggling to find the best way to approach and attract audiences, in particular the young audience (Generation Y). Unconventional marketing is not unidirectional, but multi directional and the proof is that it cannot only be beneficial for theaters, but also for other cultural institutions. By using unconventional marketing, theaters and other cultural institutions can build an audience and, in general, raise the awareness of the role cultural institutions play in the economic development of the country. The aim of the paper is to identify those theaters that are successful in applying unconventional marketing in their business activities. For this purpose, research was conducted on national and city theaters of the Republic of Croatia. After the online data collection process, bi variate statistical methods were applied to test for differences between theatres with and without experience in performing unconventional marketing. An online questionnaire was filled out by theatre management. Theatres are divided into groups of those who have (n = 11) and do not have (n = 30) experience applying unconventional marketing methods in business. Mann-Whitney test results show that those theaters that implement unconventional marketing methods in their promotional activities are more capable of tailoring promotional activities to target groups, especially Generation Y, which is designated as a target group. A statistical difference was also found in the rating of high innovation application (U = 86.5, p <0.05) and the conduct of research (U = 42.5, p <0.001) of those theaters using unconventional methods. The use of innovation in promotion, as well as continuous investment in audience development, are prerequisites for the development of a theater program for Generation Y and Z.

Audience development, unconventional marketing, non-parametric statistics, theatres, research methodology.

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