What the Atlanta Opera Learned the Hard Way About Marketing
In 2003, after several decades of consistent and robust growth, the Atlanta Opera decided to move its performances away from the Fox Theatre to the Atlanta Civic Center.
The Fox Theatre is an amazingly beautiful theatre located in one of the most vibrant and exciting neighborhoods in Atlanta. It’s also located on Peachtree Street, arguably one of the most famous streets in the United States.
Atlanta's Fox Theatre is world-renown for its spectacular architecture.
But what made the Fox Theatre such an incredible venue for the Opera was the architecture. It was designed and built in the 1920s and, from the first day it opened, was considered a work of art. The interior gives the impression that you’re watching an event taking place under a desert sky in Morocco. There are parapets, tents, stars (shining through four-inch crystals) and veil-like clouds projected onto the ceiling.
The only problem with the Fox Theatre was that it had a limit on the number of evenings it was available for the Atlanta Opera. So what did the Opera do? They moved from the 4500-seat Fox Theatre to an old municipal theatre called the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. (Side note to Ms. Boisfeuillet Jones, who is one of Atlanta’s most famous and most generous philanthropists — we’re sorry about the whole name thing.)
The Atlanta Civic Center had about the same number of seats as the Fox but it had more available nights for booking. The logic was that, because of the extra available nights, the Atlanta Opera would be able to sell more tickets.
But what did the patrons do when the Opera moved from the Fabulous Fox to the Atlanta Civic Center? They stayed home. In droves.
Why? Because the Atlanta Opera made a classic marketing mistake. They concluded that when people bought their tickets, they were buying tickets to see the Opera. But the truth is (and they found this out the hard way) people don’t buy tickets to the Opera, they buy tickets to an evening out on the town that happens to include an enjoyable evening at the Opera.
In research circles this is called a Hidden Value. A Hidden Value is the underlying reason why someone buys a product rather than the overt reason they buy a product.
So, for example, when a middle-aged man buys a Porsche, he may say he’s buying it for the German engineering and the high-performance characteristics. But everyone knows he’s buying it as a way to make up for his receding hairline and expanding waistline. (Not that we’re speaking from experience or anything.)
The good news in all this is that the Atlanta Opera quickly learned its lesson. The lesson was that people who purchase your product purchase it for a variety of spoken and unspoken reasons. Once the Opera realized that people were buying tickets to a night at the Fox Theatre as much as they were buying tickets to the Opera, they quickly got to work on a beautiful new venue called the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
(Another side note: To all the Opera patrons who are going to disagree with our premise that people don’t buy tickets to the Opera as much as they buy tickets to an evening out on the town, please feel free to disagree with us in comments section below.)
(Still another side note: Our premise is 100% correct and has been proven out time and time again. Just ask Coca-Cola when they changed their formula. They forgot to do research into the unspoken reasons why people buy Coca-Cola and got egg on their face as a result.)
The Cobb Energy Center is the new home of the Atlanta Opera.
The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center is the modern equivalent of the Fox Theatre. Okay, no it’s not. There’s NOTHING like the Fox Theatre. But the Cobb Center is beautiful in its own post-modern way.
So what’s happened? The Atlanta Opera is thriving again. Ticket sales are up and a growing number of Atlantans are enjoying the Opera again.
The Bottom Line for Marketers: When you’re developing your marketing plans, remember that there are spoken reasons people buy your product and there are unspoken reasons people buy your product. The lesson the Atlanta Opera learned was that people don’t buy tickets to the Opera, they buy tickets to an evening out that includes (possibly) a nice dinner, an enjoyable Opera and a beautiful venue.
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March 26th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Your points are well-taken: Marketers above anyone else should always know that in any purchase, the decision is made on several different levels and for a multiple of reasons. One you do not mention, but I’d bet dollars to donuts on is that there was some history of personality or organizational political conflict at play here as well — things that marketers also sometimes fail to take into account, but which are often crucial.
March 27th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Hard to believe that the same people who enjoy an evening at the Fox in midtown would consider an evening in Cobb County a fair trade — no matter how lovely the theatre. But if it’s working for them, who am I to disagree?
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
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