Event Marketing Mix

(c) 8Ps in marketing SWF

The marketing mix is mainly divided into two components: experiential and facilitating components. The experiential component is the main item itself that allows customers to see and feel the event. The facilitating component is the supporting tool which aids in the smooth flow of the experiential component. Experiential components are product, place, programming and people. Facilitating components are partnerships, promotion, packaging and price.

Product

The 'product' of an event is the set of intangible leisure experiences and tangible goods designed to satisfy the needs of the event market. The product is mostly a service where its quality is essential. In this case, our product is the Singapore Writers' Festival (SWF) itself. In a service product experience, there are 3 elements to it.

1. The core service and benefits that the customer experience

In SWF, the workshops, seminar sessions and lectures are examples of the core service. Customer experience in terms of learning while guest speakers are sharing. In one of the workshops, "It's not about you- writing a First Novel", the instructor teaches how to get your book published and tips for food for thought to help new writers get a headstart. Personally, an experiential component for me was coming to a realisation that SWF was not just about books, but the skills and meaning behind a writer's story. It is more than just a plot of a story, but evoking in your readers emotions after reading your book.

2. Supplementary features/augmented services that differentiate an event from its competitors

In SWF, they feature world's literary talents such as renowned international authors like Michael Cunningham and even our former president, S R Nathan will attract people to come for SWF instead of any other book festivals with only lecturers from Singapore.

3. The delivery process

This will be the role of customer in the experience, the length of event, level and style of event. SWF is hosted from 2 to 11 November 2012. It is an event with many international writers from different parts of the world. Most of the customers whom I reckoned would be avid readers, would go to SWF wanting to learn more about writing skills and the inspiration which comes to it. Personally, I went there as a role of a student, thus I was looking out for operations and how the event was run more than the learning of writing skills.

Place

Place refers to the physical location site of where the event takes place and how it is created through design and programming. The choice of a single venue or multiple sites should be made in the context of the event's overall strategy. The physical setting is crucial to the satisfaction of the event consumer as certain destinations have certain unique features which gives an atmosphere. In the example of SWF, they collaborate with their partners from National Museum of Singapore, National Library, Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore Art Museum, Peranakan Museum and School of the Arts. Their choices of the institution and places to host SWF is related to education, culture and arts. Thus, it is an appropriate place to host the SWF.

Singapore Management University

There is also a facilitating component of place. It is the distribution of event products and how they are sold to customers. If done poorly, this will negatively affect the customer's enjoyment. In SWF, they have a ticketing guide website which states the methods of how to go about purchasing the tickets. Advance tickets are available online via SISTIC websites, by phones and SISTIC outlets.

Partnerships

Partnerships are critical in attracting the resources to plan, manage and evaluate the event's marketing strategies. In partnership, joint marketing can occur as stakeholders play a part in producing the event. The most common partners will be government agencies. In SWF, their main partner is National Arts Council as they are the organisers as well. They have other key programme and venue partners differing in the control of the event. Examples are The Arts House and SMU.

When packages are jointly marketed, event managers might have to modify their price and even their products to make the packages more attractive. This is because their joint partners will seek to look for business opportunities and benefits that they can gain from your product.

Promotion

Promotion refers to the full range of "communication mix" including advertising, public relations and sales promotion. The communication mix requires ongoing management and relationship building, not just one-off efforts. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a key part of it, where it delivers messages through channels which are sources of contact of customer, and makes use of communication methods that are relevant to customers. The platform for creating IMC strategies for events and festicals is knowledge about the visitors. How an event manages its customer relationships drives its brand value and event image.

For SWF, they have hosted a Media Launch on 27 August 2012 where all the writers are invited and updates are posted on Facebook. They also have an early-bird incentive where the first 10 to show up for the panel Comic Artists Capture Singapore stand a chance to get an ilovebooks.com voucher. In their official website as well, they advertise the event with this year's theme origin. I also came across several advertisements outdoor such as posters on bus stops about the opening of the event. 

Packaging & Distribution

Packaging avenues include different types of entertainment, food and beverage, and merchandise as a service bundle, and the opportunity to package the event with accomodation, transport and other attractions in the region. Destination can either provide these packages on their own, or combine with attractions and services. Good relationships must be cultivated with packaging partners and intermediaries. In SWF, their sponsors are given incentives such as access to tickets for events and hospitality opportunities such as lodging and accomodation. Volunteers and guest speakers are given complimentary festival passes.

Programming

Programming within the event is a marketing design, especially by way of creating targeted benefits. Organisers need to balance the personal or artistic vision of event directors with the realities of market success criteria and the costs involved. The event programme may also reflect media broadcasting requirements , the availability of desired performers and the practicalities of staging the event concept. Programming should value add to the environment as it will increase the success rate of the event.

In SWF, the event itself has a comparative advantage as it definitely value add to the environment being a platform of learning literature and writing. There are also a variety of programmes that cater to different target markets. For example, the Little Lit! Programmes which has many hands-on activities and games such as treasure hunting which would attract young children to participate in the events. On the other hand, they have cocktail sessions and talks such as "Gender Bender: Love in the age of sexual confusion" which is only for adults.

People

The interactions between customers, the setting, and the staff/volunteers constitute a large part of the event expense. People in an event includes the "cast", audience, hosts and guests. Events need ambassadors internally and externally to fully capitalise on their competitive potential. For example in SWF, there are many guest speakers who conduct the seminar sessions and volunteers who help to facilitate the flow of operations of the event as well as mascots which adds in to the atmosphere of the event. In the photo below, is Chin Yi and I who have taken a photo with the ilovebook mascot.

Price

Price is the cost of attending the event for the customers. Even events that are free comes with a price tag. For example, time, travel cost and lost opportunities. With the diversity of leisure experiences offered to consumers, price can be a key influence on event demand. Contrasts in pricing strategy exist according to the type of event and its target market. 

In establishing the price strategy for an event, an organiser will account for two cost categories: fixed costs and variable costs. Fixed costs are costs that does not vary with the volume of visitors. For example, venue rental, interests charged on loan, lighting and power costs. Variable costs vary with the number of visitors. For example, the cost of plastic wine glass at a festival, catering cost at a product launch.

In SWF, there are varying prices according to the event. Some require a ticket cost, some require a festival pass, and others are free. For example, the literary meals comes at a cost of $20 to $80 and the literary cocktails comes at a price of $25. The festival pass comes at a cost of $15 which includes many other panel discussions and meet-the-author conversations. Of course, there are events which are free, which was the ones that I was able to attend.

Fifteen per cent more passes to the Singapore Writers Festival were sold this year compared with last year. Total attendance also went up this year, with 16,200 people attending ticketed and free events from Nov 2 up to last Sunday. Last year, the attendance figure was 13,500. The festival director, Paul Tan, attributes the success of this year's SWF to the combination of programmes. This year, there are more genres of topics and more events for a given genre as compared to last year's. An example is the Little Lit! Programme as there are more interactive games and activities such as treasure hunt and a sing-along session whereas last year's was the usual storytelling and meet-the-author sessions.

References:
Glenn Bowdin, J.A. Events Management. ELSEVIER
SWF Ticketing guide