The Korean performing arts is quite flashy as shown in the Korean wave, so-called 'Hanryu',blooming in Northeastern Asia including China and Japan and southeastern Asia. But underneath its dazzling success, a play, classical music or traditional music...
The Korean performing arts is quite flashy as shown in the Korean wave, so-called 'Hanryu',blooming in Northeastern Asia including China and Japan and southeastern Asia. But underneath its dazzling success, a play, classical music or traditional music is struggling with financial difficulties. A good program hardly finds a stage, and even on the stage it rarely leads to a success due to the lack of marketing and advertisement. Consequently, each genre of performing arts such as dance, opera, orchestra or musical has difficulties in attracting audience, though it varies with fame of cast or its scale. Recently, a musical is widely extending its audience among young people, yet it is mostly a translated version of western musicals with massive cast, so the struggle for existence of original musicals in small scale still remains.
This difficulty of performing arts is not all that new. A rapid growth of performing arts from 1990s is merely an expansion in volume and this was not accompanied by a growth in quality of institutional, financial and management aspect in reality. Of course, Ministry of Culture and Tourism made extra efforts to support performing arts as well as fine arts and thus steady supportive policies ensued. The rejuvenation of performing arts, however, cannot be executed by Government support alone. It is now high time to discuss and integrate a concept of marketing.
Some people argue that too much marketing may undermine the identity of performing arts. If performing arts as viewed as art for art's sake, a marketing effort to advertise a product to consumers and sell it more may lead to the fading of artistic value of performing arts. On the other hand, there are those who accept performing arts as a product to sell and try to attract the audience aggressively. It is beyond the scope of this study to assess which one is correct and which one is wrong between these two opposing viewpoints, but no one denies the necessity of marketing or publicity as an irresistible and irrevocable tendency, as long as they preserve artistic value of performing arts.
As spaces for performing arts have expanded and magnified tremendously and its industry has been spotlighted since 1990s, a word of "art business" is no longer strange in Korea . Kotler and Scheff points out the crucial role of marketing in the performing arts. Likewise, in order to bring about a renaissance in the performing arts, marketing approach is no longer a matter of choice or delay. Admittedly, performing arts is not exactly a business venture and have various limitations and difficulties in adopting a marketing approach to the letter. Above all, it is mostly led by the control of government and provincial government, which brings the limit in finance, while the consuming public is also limited in number. Another crucial factor influencing performing arts consumption is time. A totally different marketing approach is needed when you try to mobilize audience who could enjoy some vicarious entertainments at office and home to the live performing arts places. Indeed, performing arts is time/place intensive mode of entertainment.
In addition, most performing arts such as ballet, opera and orchestra are the products of non-profit organization, but today it is becoming harder to emphasize the identity of fine arts any longer since it includes commercial performances such as Broadway musicals. This trend of new thinking is becoming more salient as seen in the subsequent numerous studies of audience development or arts marketing strategy.
In reality, however, we must not overlook the fact that marketing approach of performing arts should be implemented in a different way from the manner a typical business corporation does. The most critical problem facing the executives of performing arts is a budget limit for public relations. The business strategy of advertisement, publicity or marketing through various communication and medias is generally not available to the performing arts management.
Further, just to enhance popularity, one may think of lowering the ticket price of performing arts to level of a movie ticket price. However, this price cut is simply impossible because the artists themselves are prone to spend all the possible production costs in a ceaseless attempt to make perfect, and yet they have to deal with a limited number of educated audiences, not with a popularized audiences at a movie. At the same time, an audience of performing arts tends to pay willingly differentiated high price in general and, thanks to the sponsoring government or corporate institutions, sometimes a ticket price is decided regardless of the number of audience. Thus, marketing or publicity strategy for the performing arts can be effectively set up only when financial conditions and consumption patterns of performing arts are fully taken into account.
Recently noticeable is the effective use of internet as an efficient publicity strategy. In particular, it is of much importance to provide timely information on the web site, which affects the decision of consumers. Internet publicity for performing arts is a natural development and may induce young audiences, particularly, students who use Internet frequently. Internet PR may indeed be able to overcome a variety of limitations mentioned above.
Lately, internet usage is a reality and has been increasing geometrically as a means of publicity for performing arts. Thus, web sites managed by companies of performing arts as well as many portal sites are widely used. This study presumes the profiles of users and web sites in order to prove the utility of web site for the performing arts. Especially, this study focuses on the way how Internet users assess the web sites rather than on the structure of web site itself or its effectiveness. This study takes the perceived interactivity or flow as important profiles that the web site users acknowledge. Other studies have also pointed out these as key factors for evaluating a web site. In addition, information content and the extent of clutter are also viewed as crucial elements for web site evaluation.
Variables such as an attitude towards the designated web site and intention to revisit the web site are viewed in this study as motivating as well as resultant variables. Based on the evaluation by web site users, who are potential audience, this study will focus on whether the satisfaction of users may be a driving force to revisit web sites continuously. Internet-based marketing is now crucial, and yet not many studies have been done. Thus, a study of marketing approach, a specific study of Internet users toward performing arts is timely and much needed.
Many studies have looked at the performing arts from different angles. The inequality of consumption patterns according to the social class, the meaning of performing arts as a product of non-profit organization and a managerial or administrative point of view towards performing arts are some examples. There was an argument that the performing arts be considered as public asset organized mainly by non-profit organizations. But, the problem is that this approach and other similar ones cannot give any clue to solve the problems facing the art industry right now. Besides, a view or controversy of relating consumption of performing arts with the social class is something from the old school and irrelevant in a modern era of general culture consumption.
Recent studies of performing arts have emphasized marketing aspects, which amply reflect a desire of performing arts society to seek an innovative solution. In addition, the assertion of "art for art's sake" or "artistic Puritanism" in existing studies and a dispute concerning fine arts versus popular arts have lost its appeal or significance, as the marketing approach is needed in whatever type of performing arts.
The above-mentioned studies, however, deal mainly with the internal problems of institutional and financial efforts and solutions or rationalization in planning or administration of performing arts organizations. These studies have highlighted the management or institutional issues of the performing arts organizations and now we need to look at the marketing approach from a more business-like angle, the angle of consumer behavior and the viewpoints of receiving audience.
Thus, this study regards internet as a powerfully positive publicity tool andtakes a group of colleges students as a case group. College students are viewed as the most frequent user group of internet, and they can become a potentially big group of audience. This group of college students is preferred to a group of working people in their 30s and plus, which is currently a main audience of performing arts, because the latter group is known to have a preconceived set of rigid preferences. These college students are observed while they actually explore the web sites of performing arts, and this study attempts to verify how these web sites and what specific profiles of these web sites do induce the students' revisiting them eventually.
Major study questions are as follows:
1. What kind of effects does the frequency of using Internet have on the flow?
2. What kind of effects does the flow have on the evaluation of web sites by users?
2-1. What kind of effects does the flow have on the perceived cluster of web sites by users?
2-2. What kind of effects does the flow have on the perceived interactivity of web sites by users?
2-3. What kind of effects does the flow have on the information quality of web sites by users?
3. What kind of effects do the perceived profiles of the web site by users have on the attitude towards the web site?
3-1. What kind of effects does the perceived cluster of web site by users have on the attitude towards the web site?
3-2. What kind of effects does the perceived interactivity of web site by users have on the attitude towards the web site?
3-3. What kind of effects does the perceived information quality of web site by users have on the attitude towards the web site?
4. What kind of effects does the attitude towards the web site have on the intention to revisit that web site?
To verify these questions, this study has conducted a three-step experimentation. First, a group of 330 college students was chosen and they were asked to answer a given questionnaire on their understanding of performing arts. Second, they were then asked to surf the internet freely; while surfing, they were encouraged to visit some performing arts related web sites as well. Third and lastly, these students were induced to answer another questionnaire on the web sites they visited.
As a result of this experimentation, a meaningful model is derived for the web sites of performing arts as Sejong Culture Center, Seoul Arts Center and LG Arts Center. This model shows that the perceived flow of Internet users before visiting performing arts web sites has little impact on the users' subsequent behavior. But, the current profiles of web sites, namely, a perceived cluster, perceived interactivity and perceived information quality, turned out to be a a crucial explanatory variable in the model to explain the internet users' attitude towards the web sites and their intention to revisit the web sites.
In summary, the study concludes that it is the web site profiles, not the web site users' profiles, are a more determinant factor influencing the internet users'intention to revisit. Therefore, in order to utilize the web site as an efficient means of marketing and publicity, these web sites should be equipped with better organized formats and the continuous better feedback with customer and information quality. In particular, for better interactivity and information quality of a given web site, the present individual web site system of each performing arts center, should be drastically improved and enhanced to be a new integrating system that should embed more hyperlinks and other internet-unique advantageous features.
Current web sites of performing arts centers have no interconnection between and among various genres within the center, which makes it rather difficult for a potential audience to find what they need conveniently. Under these circumstances, even the web sites of well-known performance venues failed to arouse the interest of Internet users, let alone drawing a potential audience. In fact, the consumer-audience mostly obtain the necessary information and make reservations on the portal site of ticketing (Ticketlink, Interpark, etc.), not via the performance venue web sites.
As a solution, this study suggests to build an integrated portal site of performing arts. This portal site will integrate or interconnect the various web sites currently that are fragmented and isolated. This effort is indispensable to induce the young Internet users as a potential audience and to develop this potential audience. The young people today will become a main audience of performing arts in the future. Thus, establishing a grand new integral portal site of performing arts in collaboration between the government and private organizations will serve and function not only as a basic infrastructure to rejuvenate the performing arts but also as a vehicle to provide the potential audience with useful information and to awaken their interest in the performing arts.