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A sense of Place
Culture Segments: a new approach to audiences at The Place
June 2013
 CULTURE SEGMENTS: A NEW APPROACH TO AUDIENCES AT THE PLACE

USING CULTURE SEGMENTS INSIGHT THE PLACE HAS BEEN ABLE TO

TRANSFORM ITS STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESSES, SHAPE ITS OFFER,
DESIGN BESPOKE EXPERIENCES AND TRANSMIT MESSAGES THAT RESONATE
WITH KEY AUDIENCES.
UNDERSTANDING THE VALUES, MOTIVATIONS, NEEDS AND WANTS OF THE
PLACES CURRENT AND POTENTIAL AUDIENCES IS FUELING ORGANISATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT, HELPING CREATE VALUE FOR A WIDER AUDIENCE AND CARVE
OUT A DISTINCT POSITION IN THE MARKET.

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1. Introduction
In 2012 The Place the UKs premier centre for The Place felt it should be able to grow its audiences it
contemporary dance looked to Morris Hargreaves is located in central London, minutes from three large
McIntyre for something that had eluded them in the past: stations and within reach of more than 9 million people.
a plan that would underpin sustained growth in However there were three identified potential obstacles.
audiences, and help them endure the changes in the
1. The challenging nature of the work: the programme is,
market (and staff) that would occur in the future. A plan
for all the right reasons, challenging for audiences:
to end all plans, as it were.
exclusively contemporary dance; most of it brand new,
We identified priority target segments for The Place to risky work in-development.
focus their efforts on. Importantly this has been adopted
2. Budget: with current marketing activity not showing
by everyone in the organisation not just marketing.
increasing returns, there was no prospect in the medium
While The Place is unequivocally vision-led, audiences term of increasing direct promotional spend.
are now also at the heart of the planning process and this
has given teams a whole new way of thinking about and 3. It had to work: this was not the first time The Place had
approaching audiences. decided to grow its audience. It has been, within pretty
much exactly the same framework of opportunities and
The Place did not have the resources for large broadcast
obstacles, a standing ambition for as long as theyve been
campaigns that would stand out in the market place. But
presenting.
previous experience had made it clear that that other
existing market segmentation techniques (those based on
demographics or buying history, for example) were
unlikely to be particularly informative because they didnt
get to the heart of why a particular audience might
engage with their offer.
Using Culture Segments, The Place has developed
informed strategies based on deep audience insight and
understanding of the values and motivations of different
audiences.

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2. Researching the market
Analysis of Audience Atlas UK of The Places primary
catchment area (91% of bookers are from London, the
South East and East of England) showed substantial
untapped potential. There are more than 2.75million
people having attended a contemporary dance event in
the last three years.
Those in the recent contemporary dance market
compared to the wider culture market are cultural
omnivores. They dont just focus on dance but are keen to
consume the broadest range of arts experiences and are
willing to pay for it. While The Place is a single-artform
venue, its likely audiences view it in context of a much
wider cultural life.
They are more likely to engage with a wider range of
artforms than average audiences.
They attend more often, are more likely to hold arts
memberships, and spend more money on doing so
They are more open-minded, optimistic and
independent than others
They tend to be trendsetters rather than followers
They eschew a quiet home life in favour of eclectic
new experiences
They are more likely to describe the arts are
essential both to their own lives and those of their
children
Comparing the Culture Segments profile of The Places
existing bookers with that of the available market showed
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us in which segments The Place was excelling, and in Those in Expression were most likely to strongly
which they were under penetrating. Almost half of The agree with these statements.
Places bookers were in the Essence segment who are in
While only 12% of The Places current bookers were
little need of marketing. With 12 out of the 14 staff in the in the Affirmation segment, they were the most likely
programming, marketing and front-of-house teams also
of all to be loyal to The Place, agreeing they are
in this segment, had The Place fallen into the trap of
more likely to choose to see things because they are
marketing solely for people like them?
on at The Place, followed closely by Expression.
The contemporary dance market holds significant
untapped potential within the Affirmation segment and
considerable further room to grow in the already well-
represented Expression segment
There is a great deal of cultural provision available to
those able to travel into London. By focusing efforts on
the Affirmation and Expression segments The Place carve
out a distinct position in this market place.
The dominant Essence segment are highly active. They
are programme-driven and visit a wide range of venues
for the range of work they wish to see. Those in the
Stimulation segment are also culturally promiscuous,
over-indexing in the majority of other venues tested.
These segments are not loyal; they attend for the event,
and are less likely to develop a deep, lasting relationship
with The Place.
In contrast those in the Affirmation and Expression
segments are less likely to stray once theyve found the
venue(s) that suits their needs and resonates with their
values.
Our survey also measured peoples responses to a series
of brand statements about The Place, its purpose and
ambitions.
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3. Segment strategies
Tim Wood, Communications Director at The Place,
explains that their plan is now to build audiences within
Affirmation and Expression.
Our marketing activity is diversifying accordingly. It is
too early to point to anything more than anecdotal
evidence of success, though attendance during our spring
season was encouraging As well as experimenting with
different messaging, we are trialling new educational
and contextual events to add to the audience experience
all designed to meet the needs of these segments.
Things like signage, bar opening times and front-of-
house music are now being considered alongside print
and advertising in marketing planning. While some of the
changes we have made as a result of this insight may not
appear on the face of things to be revolutionary (indeed
we might have done some of them anyway), the key
difference has been the approach. Everyone in the
organisation has a full understanding of why we are
doing these things, meaning the way in which things are
delivered is always optimised for our priority segments,
no matter who is responsible for implementing them.
The same extended group of staff is meeting regularly to
monitor the progress of our audience development plans,
and to contribute new ideas.
By focusing efforts on brand-aligned Expression and loyal
Affirmation, The Place has begun to exploit untapped
potential, as well as carve out a distinct position in the
market place. By understanding the needs of Essence,
they can also continue to look after the dominant majority
of their current audience.
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Expression Importantly the community aspect of The Place and its
intimate and friendly nature is now consistently
Strategy:
communicated. The communal nature of particular events
Attract more, community such as such as dinners and discussions is now
Deeper engagement highlighted, and links are made between the theate offer
and dance classes and other participatory programmes
Cultivate ambassadors
Customer service is now designed to provide a more
personal approach with increased opportunties to
Current audiences in the Expression segment are well interact with informative, knowledgeable staff, all now
brand-aligned to The Place. They are open to new ideas, wearing name badges and have profiles on the website.
pursue challenge, debate and intellectual stimulation.
They appreciate that The Place helps artists and Many aspects of The Places offer were already well
enthusiasts fulfil their potential through dance and geared to the needs of Expression, such as evening
shapes new developments in dance. More Expression will classes, Q&As and festival programming. However these
be attracted if this is articulated through features have not always been consistent in their delivery
communications. and need to be better communicated by The Place. The
programming team are now delivering on-stage
Expression enjoy connecting with the craft behind the art introductions for selected performances and more in-
and this is an organisation very much about creation and depth written information is supplied in advance of the
development of work -as well as performance. The Place performance for those who want it.
needs to provide and highlight opportunities to hear from
choreographers, and exploit the unusual feature of the
building allowing passers by to see dancers warming up.
The Place needs to offer Expression community a scene
that they can feel part of at the same time as cultural
and creative stimulation. All teams are now focused on
delivering this.
The caf and bar are now being fully utilised to enhance
the communal atmosphere and on evenings with show
and meal packages the tables are now pushed together
to further encourage conversation.
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Affirmation
Strategy:
Acquisition
Clear communications
Fulfilling experiences
The clear appeal for The Place is the pronounced
opportunity for growth afforded by penetrating much
further into this market. The dual need of social and
learning means Affirmation will bring others with them to
The Place. And once The Place has reached these people
and they know from experience they can meet their
needs, developing loyalty is achievable.
Recent learning opportunities a day of free taster dance
classes, for example have tended to be one-offs. This
programme is now being further developed and the
benefits more consistently communicated.
Opportunities to learn how to watch and appreciate
contemporary dance include publications such as A
Visitors Guide to Planet Dance and Spectator School,
a new audience development programme for participants
learn about the theory and practice of choreography,
attend performances and meet for discussions afterwards
a bit like a contemporary dance version of a book
group.
Among other changes to the physical space, new signage
is now clearly focussed on the needs of new and
occasional visitors. Keen to make Affirmation feel
welcome and confident, signage now makes way-finding
to the theatre, cafe, bar and toilets clearer, while less
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relevant signage (such as to the admin offices) has been Essence
removed.
Marketing has to stand out and grab their attention Strategy:
within a wider mix as well as clearly demonstrating the
benefits of engaging. While they have a spirit of Retention
adventure, what Affirmation lacks is confidence, Leadership
knowledge and guidance. They are committed to
developing their tastes but The Place needs to work
harder to support this
This market is well penetrated, and therefore there may
To this end, all performances now have some sort of
be less room for further growth. Essence are also
contextualising event accompanying them (free to ticket
proactive in finding out what is on, do not need
holders). This might be a post show talk with the
persuading of the benefits of engaging and need little
company and guest presenter or a pre-show discussion
help in finding The Place. Targeting them may therefore
of themes or issues in the work.
be unnecessary.
They will come on their own terms and simply need
access to all the relevant facts and features of the work in
order to make up their own minds to attend.
As such a dominant force within The Places audiences,
Essence have the potential to act as leaders; guiding and
even shaping the behaviour of newer, less experienced
visitors. As well as retaining these bookers, The Place can
seek opportunities to develop positive behaviours; such
as using The Places bar rather than migrating to the
nearby pub; that will be conducive to welcoming new
bookers from other segments.
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4. Culture Segments in action

Currency Currency evenings create a fun, relaxed
environment for sharing your thoughts and
The Place is now taking entirely new and holistic
ideas about new work. What about it speaks
approach to programming and packaging experiences.
to you? What does it say?
For Affirmation the priority is in providing a supportive
introduction and giving equal emphasis to the enjoyable
social element as the work that takes place on the stage.
It also satisfied Expressions needs to engage with the
For Expression more opportunities are being created to creative process, hear from artists and creatives for
engage in the creative process and to be part of the
shared experiences and to be a part of a bigger
debate.
discussion.
The first major joint programming and marketing

initiative in response to this research was Currency. With
Affirmation and Expression in mind, this was promoted Dance is a vehicle for ideas. Through
as an international exchange of ideas and three performance, ways of seeing and thinking
evenings of performance, dinner and conversation. can cross borders and bridge cultures,
trading in the common currency of a shared
The ticket price included dinner in The Places caf and a experience. Or at least: thats the theory. A
short pre-show discussion in the form of a blind date
series of special evenings at The Place this
between some of the organisations resident Work Place
November put it to the test.
artists and their European peers. This included a
provocation for discussion over dinner and during the
interval and was deliberately crafted to dismantle the Messages were designed to resonate with each of the
code around dance making the whole conversation target segments, articulating a reason to engage for each
more inclusive, helpful and enjoyable. Giving people the of Expression (Food and thought at The Place),
confidence to have their own individual response to the Affirmation (Dinner and a show with a difference)
work. The performance was surrounded by opportunities and Essence (An international exchange of dance
to interact with the artists and other audience members, ideas).
to discuss and reflect on the work.
This was designed to offer a supportive introduction
Affirmation as well as increasing the value of the
experience and ensuring the balance between sociable
fun and gaining new a new perspective.

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5. Impacts
This insight is now helping The Place prioritise and plan agree that they would consider attending similar events
developments based on how well theyre meeting the in the future. Existing customers have also responded
needs of their priority target segments a virtuous circle positively: 78% definitely agree or mostly agree that
of improvement. The Place should try new things to attract new audiences,
and 94% said that they would recommend The Place to
Most new activity has been relatively low cost and
other people.
achieved with minor reallocation of resources. Marketing
messages are now more confidently shaped to reflect the Already the organisation is benefiting a more strategic
priorities of Expression and Affirmation who are targeted approach and a revolution of how the organisation thinks
through list swaps with a wider range of venues, but about its contextual programme.
marketing budgets have not increased. The new
There is a renewed enthusiasm for reaching out to and
approach has made increased demands on staff time for targeted audiences across the organisations different
both planning and delivery of discreet activity for different
departments. Culture Segments has provided a common
target segments.
language for talking about audiences and has been
The Place is seeing this as a three-year strategy and with particularly helpful in identifying needs that are not
a view to see audiences increase from 66% to 75% necessary the same as the staffs own (who are
capacity in that time. predominantly Essence).
Early indicators show that initiatives have succeeded in
bringing new audiences to The Place 44% of Currency
bookers were new to The Place (compared to previous
seasons of international work which saw new bookers
representing an average of below 20% of the audience.
While newer audiences are yielding a lower income (new
bookers across the autumn 2012 programme yielded on
average 15% less per ticket than returning audiences),
this is a long term strategy in engaging audiences who
will be aligned to The Places offer and will be more pre-
disposed to return and become loyal.
Customer feedback has been strongly positive. 89% of
new attenders for Currency rated their overall impression
of the evening as Excellent or Good; 67% definitely

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MHM Relationships
The Place is Morris Hargreaves McIntyres first UK client
to implement the MHM Relationships online app, This
will provide The Place the capacity to direct bookers to a
small, quick number of key questions including the
Culture Segments Golden Questions.
This enables The Place to segment bookers at a record
level, monitoring what works best, where the greatest
return on investment lies, who is responding, which
messages resonate with which audience segments via
which platforms. This means strategies can be adjusted
and messaging changed dynamically. A campaign
designed to reach Expression can be evaluated by
whether an increased number of Expression are
subsequently booking.
The answers given by each individual booker are
analysed and processed by Morris Hargreaves McIntyres
algorithms which, as well as Culture Segment, scores
audience members relative level of brand equity in The
Place, their willingness to follow The Places
recommendation and their propensity to donate. This will
allow for sophisticated targeting with differentiated
campaigns and messages.

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Culture Segments Morris Hargreaves McIntyre

Morris Hargreaves McIntyre is an international strategic
research consultancy working within the culture,
heritage, leisure, media and charities sectors. Our
specialism is in helping organisations develop enhanced
consumer focus.
Our company was born out of a desire to help cultural
organisations become more creative in the way in which
Culture they are managed, more audience focused, more
Segments is a new, sector-specific segmentation system engaging, able to deliver greater impact and, as a result,
for culture and heritage organisations that has been more successful and sustainable. This founding ethos
devised by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in consultation remains at the core of all our activity today.
with key sector organisations, including the British
Museum. The principle objective for Culture Segments is Research is a means to an end in our world. We believe
to provide the sector with a shared language for that knowledge and insight are the key to sustainable
understanding the audience, with a view to targeting change and a successful sector.
them more accurately, engaging them more deeply and To find out more about Morris Hargreaves McIntyre and
building lasting relationships. the work we do please visit www.lateralthinkers.com
Culture Segments is designed to be more subtle, granular
and sophisticated than other non-sector specific
segmentation systems. This is because it is based on
peoples cultural values and motivations. These cultural
values define the person and frame their attitudes,
lifestyle choices and behaviour.
The segments are distinguished from one another by
deeply held beliefs about the role that art and culture
play in their lives, enabling sector professionals to get to
the heart of what motivates them to engage with culture
and to develop strategies to engage them more deeply.
An introductory video and pen portraits for each of the
eight Culture Segments are freely available at
www.lateralthinkers.com/seethesegments.html

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