EVENTS MANAGEMENT - ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT TASK 1

Liz Owen, John Perry Benjamin Sheppard 18005467

Arts and Entertainment Motivations and Influences behind Arts and Entertainment Experiences Between the dates 29th September and 7th December the author has attended many events of different types, with many different reasons behind why the author was influenced to attend. Events the writer has attended range from major sports events to small social gatherings and have been held in different locations throughout the country. Being influenced to attend an event can be due to many things, motivation can affect decisions whether to attend an event as can the type of event or occasion is. All events have different impacts such as social and cultural impacts, which Hall (1989, cited in Bowdin 2006) says can be a shared experience, build community pride and introducing new and challenging ideas. An event with this type of impact may encourage people to attend due to the sense of belonging. Arts audiences are most likely to emerge from particular age groups, social classes and educational backgrounds (Jermyn et.al 2001, quoted in Hill et.al 2003 pg.43). This suggests that a customers demographics will affect a customers interests in events and will be influenced to attend certain events. According to Hill (2003) there are three influences on the decision to attend an event, these being, social, personal and psychological factors. The author has attended multiple social events, most of which have been nights out to several venues in Sheffield. Examples of these nights out include attending events such as Vodka Nationwide, with a live performance from music artist N-Trance at the Carling Academy, Sheffield. The writer was influenced to attend this event due to the amount of marketing and advertising done in the local area to promote it. The author was also motivated to attend due to the nature of the event and the involvement of friends and the social aspect of the occasion. This is explored by Hill (2003) who explains that one of the social factors is reference groups, i.e. family, friends or work associates, and how they affect behaviour or values. This is reflected in why the author decided to attend the event in order to embrace the behaviour and values of friends. The Carling Academy also hosted the student event Freshers Ball this event was a gathering of students that were new to Sheffield Hallam University, The author attended due to the fact that it was an event that included many people of the authors age and in the same situation the author was, the event gave the writer a chance to have fun and meet new people. The event also had live music performances from Taio Cruz, Booty Luv and Fun Time Frankies. These type of events fit well into the belonging stage of Maslows hierarchy of needs of motivation, as the events allowed the writer to socialize and get involved in activities. Maslow (1943) says, after the first two stages of the hierarchy have been achieved then love and belonging needs will emerge and the person will feel an absence of possibly friends, a wife or children. Another social factor explored by Hill (2003) is social class; Hill explains that people with similar ranks in society take up similar attitudes and interests towards Art and Entertainment events. This is reflected in the people that the author attended the numerous social events with, with all of them in a similar social class rank. Decisions to attend events can also be influenced by personal factors; these are age, gender, income and education. Events that show personal factors in the decision made by the author to attend, are two sporting events these being a Champions League football match between Liverpool FC and Athletico De Madrid at Anfield, Liverpool, and an NFL game between the San Diego Chargers and the New Orleans Saints at Wembley Stadium, London. Both these events showed clear personal factors with the attendees with the majority of the audience falling into similar groups. Age was not an evident factor within the crowds for these events as both events attract a diverse age range due to the size of the interest in the sports, however at both events gender had obviously played a part in

the desire to attend the event. The attendees at both the football match and NFL game were mostly male by high majority. Hill (2003) explains that patterns across arts form are clear with women purchasing tickets for theatre and dance more than men and more men attending things such as jazz performances. The author feels that a pattern is evident at the sports events he attended. Another personal factor that can influence whether or not a customer may attend an event is income; it has been found that there is a link between level of income and arts events attended. The events that the author attended had high ticket prices; therefore it can be assumed that attendees were on medium to high income levels. Education is another personal factor that influences decisions to attend events. It has been found that around half the visitors to The Victoria and Albert Museum did not finish education until they were at least 20, however 60% of the visitors to The National Railway Museum had completed education by the age of 16 (Hall, et.al, 2003). This shows that education can heavily influence decisions and interest within arts and entertainment. Although the author agrees that education is a huge impact on the attendees of an event did not feel that it was an evidential factor at the events he attended. Psychological factors such as beliefs, perception, motivation, personalities and attitudes all affect the decision a customer makes to attend an event. This is an important factor in the arts as a lot of it depends on personal taste or interest. Perception is they way in which people interpret and take in information. This means that information about events can be absorbed or dismissed depending on the customers perception this means that it can be hard to market certain events to certain people. The author attended two events at The Sheffield Arena, these being two concerts, Oasis and Clubland Live 2! The authors perception allowed him to take notice of these events and make the decision to attend. Personality is the internal traits and behaviors that make a person unique and arises from both heredity and personal experience. (Hill, 2003, pg49) The link between a persons personality and attendance to arts events cannot be measured; however it is clear that it has major influences on a decision made by the customer. Motivation is another of the social factors that plays a part in a persons decision to, or not to attend an event. Customers with similar motivation patterns will generally attend similar art and entertainment events; this is due to the nature in which they are motivated by the arts. Motivation can cause customers to want different things from events, groups have been devised to categorize peoples motivation trends. such as entertainment seekers who want amusement and curiosity, who differ from inspiration seekers who are looking for emotional stimulation (NOP, 1991 cited in, Hall, 2003). With all of the social, personal and psychological factors affecting the decision making process but the decision is still to be made. This can be understood with a model called the PIECE acronym. This explores problem recognition, information search, evaluation of selection, purchase and post-event experience. (Bowdin et.al, 2006) These stages show from when a customer shows a desire to attend an event, the searching for a specific event and finding out information, evaluation of that event choice with that leading to a possible purchase, the final stage, post-event evaluation, will aid decision making in the future. The author has made many decisions to attend events and can understand how the theories and models influenced decisions made. The three factors that influence are attributes of a person that cannot be controlled this means that these factors can only influence and cannot be part of the decision made. The PIECE model is where the decision is made and allows the customer to think and evaluate choice. The author feels that the events he has attended show evidence of these theories not only in himself but in others that attended. Many people in the crowds and audiences could be easily categorized and showed similar traits. This

shows the author that the social, personal and psychological factors had influenced people to attend. People with the same demographics, similar personalities and motivations all attended similar events. This shows that they have been influenced by the factor then subconsciously followed the PIECE model to attend the event. All thought the author attended a diverse spectrum of events he can spot attributes with his demographics and personal factor that will have developed in each event that he attended.

Appendix A September 15th Pounded at the Hubs September 18th Student Night at Liverpool September 20th Played in the G.M Edwards Junior Golf Final at Bromborough Golf Club September 21st Freshers Fest at the Hubs September 23rd Headphone Disco and The Plug September 24th Leadmill September 25th Foam Party at Walkabout September 26th Flirt, School fancy dress at Hubs September 27th Sheff 1 at the Hubs September 28th Billionaire at Crystal October 1st Vodka Nationwide with N-Trance Live at Carling Academy October 3rd Flirt at the Hubs October 5th Freshers Ball at Carling Academy feat. Taio Cruz and Booty Luv October 6th Pounded at the Hubs October 10th Oasis at Sheffield Arena Headphone Disco at The Plug October 11th Sheff 1 at the Hubs October 20th Pounded at the Hubs October 26th NFL San Diego Chargers v New Orleans Saint at Wembley Stadium October 29th Halloween Vodka Nationwide at Carling Academy October 31st Flirt at the Hubs November 4th Liverpool FC v Atheltico De Madrid at Anfield November 7th Flirt at the Hubs November 14th Headphone Disco at The Plug November 19th Vodka Nationwide with Wiley live at Carling Academy November 21st Antics at Leadmill

November 30th Flirt at the Hubs December 1st Leadmill December 2nd Clubland Live 2! At Sheffield Arena December 3rd Boing Boing at Embrace December 5th Headphone Disco at The Plug.

Reference List Bowdin, G, et.al (2006) Events Management. Oxford, Butterworth and Heinemann Hill, L, OSullivan, C and OSullivan, T (2003) Creative Arts Marketing. Oxford, Butterworth and Heinemann Maslow, A (1947) A Theory of Human Motivation [online] Psychological Review. 50 (4) last accessed on 7/12/2008 on www.ahpweb.org