The Ballet Industry Online By Neza Azali Tom

The Ballet Industry Online By Neza Azali Tom Chang Yuan Chen Ljubomir Cvetkovic

Major Players within ballet industry

Basics • Customers go online to find information – Schedule of performances – Dancers information – Educational information (classes) – Information about seating • Customers go online to buy – Ticket purchasing – Merchandise (souvenirs, CD’s, T-shirts, etc. )

Basics • Customers go online to become members – Sites usually have a guest book • Customers go online to donate – Different levels of donation – To find out how the donated money is used – To find out how to become volunteers

Who Are The Customers • Performance goers – High, or high middle class – Professionals (35 and above) – College students • Online users – People who are looking for general information – Donors (mostly performance goers) – Members

Current Strategies To Attract Customers • Membership benefits – Priority seating – Opportunity to go behind the stage after the performance – Watching the rehearsal – Meeting the dancers • Ticket giveaway – Offering free tickets in exchange for personal information (Boston ballet) – Discounts to students (NYC Ballet)

How They Lock The Customers • Keeping the customers informed – Emailing the customer once they have their personal information – Sending them a newsletter • Educating people about the organization – Giving a back stage tour – Opportunity to interact with performers – School outreach programs

How They Add Value • Value added from website – Online Merchandising – Online ticket purchasing – Seating charts – Schedule – Educational programs offered

Current Problems • Artistically beautiful sites with bad user interfaces Links done With list boxes

Current Problems • Horribly designed forms with too much information and small buttons

Strategy Recommendation • Web site needs to be designed for easy use and navigation • Currently, organizations are doing well with ticket sales • Strategy will be needed in the following areas – Donations (because ticket sales only covers 50% of costs) – Increasing membership (same reason as above) – Increasing traffic to site (to increase interest)

Strategy Recommendation (Increase donations) • Allow customization software at the website to develop one to one relationships with donors and potential donors – Important because increased interactions typically tends to increase donation amount • New and innovative solutions such as New York City Ballet’s initiative in converting beneficiary of life insurance and retirement assets to NYC Ballet

Strategy Recommendation (Increase membership) • Chat rooms at website to bring ballet enthusiasts together • Affinity programs such as credit cards where spending will benefit both member and the organization (ie frequent flyer miles) • Customization software to provide targeted information about ballet, performances, dancers, and shows • Online Auctions of costumes or other props that are no longer needed

Strategy Recommendation (Increase site traffic) • • Video clips of performances Live interview of performers Interlinking with other ballet sites Using meta tags to allow higher hit rate from search engines • Educational text about history, performances, and composer of ballets