Marketing for a Theatre (External Factors)

I am currently interning for the Madame Walker Theatre here in Indianapolis. I assist with the Marketing and Public Relations affairs for the theatre. The theatre is largely used for its stage where they host various events such as plays, concerts, and other events involving the performing arts.

The Madame Walker Theatre is a not for profit organization and being that it is the theatre is highly dependent on donations and fund raising to keep the business going. Since this is the case, there are not a lot of resources that can be spent on Marketing for the theatre’s events.

Considering the amount of money the theatre’s competitors are probably spending on Marketing, you can see how this would be a disadvantage. Other external factors to consider in strategic planning for the business besides using marketing resources that would be at a low cost would be hoe the latest competitive trends used to gain marketing attention and how quickly changes are occurring in the external environment.

Factors affecting the external environment are a huge part of what’s going into the marketing strategies now. Since it is holiday season, the theatre has been capitalizing on the holiday market and putting on family oriented events. This has bought in a diverse audience from school age children to seniors wanting to see the shows.

The mission at the theatre is definitely consumer focused. I am always asked my opinion on certain show ideas and whether or not I’d think people would come out to particular events and if it would be entertaining to people in my age range. I think consumer focused marketing is the best and most effective because you are making the customer the center of your marketing strategy. This is essential because they are the ones who are bringing in the money to keep your business going.

The company does have a mission and that is to continue the dream of Madame C.J. Walker, which was doing events for the community and being financially independent. The theatre puts on programming that is dignified events and is family oriented. They do not compromise this at all and it is good that they are sticking to ideology.

A change in the external environment that could play a huge impact on the Madame Walker Theatre Center and its marketing strategies is the growth and popularity of social media. This is a free tool and something that can be used to promote events at no cost. Social Media strategies can be developed and carried out to produce measurable results. They can see who came to the theatre based from their promotions on social media by utilizing their customer satisfaction survey to see if the marketing strategy is working.

The product/service distributed by the theatre is the performances that are put on for the community. The needs the shows give is providing the customer with a satisfying and entertaining performance. The income received by the company can be improved with careful and well-planned marketing strategies.