Report #14 

Audience Development: National Endowment

for the Arts 

An examination of selected 

Research Division analysis and prediction techniques January 1981 

applied to symphony and theatre attendance 

in four southern cities 
Audience Development: 

An examination of selected 

analysis and prediction techniques 

applied to symphony and theatre attendance 

in four southern cities 

ENDO~v~nNT
 

FOR THE
 

National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C. 
 

This report is published by the Publishing
 

Center for Cultural Resources as part of a
 

pilot project supported by the NationalEndowment for the Arts demonstrating economy
 

and efficiency in nonprofit publishing.
 

The Publishing Center’s planning, production,
 

and distribution services are available to
 

all cultural and educational groups and organizations. For further information, write
 

Publishing Center for Cultural Resources,
 

625 Broadway, New York City 10012 or telephone 212/260-2010.
 

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 

National Endowment for the Arts. Research
 

Division.
 

Audience development.
 

(National Endowment for the Arts Research
 

Division report ; #14)
 

Bibliography: p.
 

i. Theater audiences. 2. Public relations
 

--Performing Arts. I. Title. II. Series:
 

National Endowment for the Arts. Research
 

Division. Research Division report ; #14.
 

PNI590.A9N3 1981 790.2’068’8 80-600125
 

ISBN 0-89062-097-0 (pbk.)
 

Manufactured in the United States of America
 
CONTENTS
 

PREFACE /page 4
 

LIST OF TABLES /page 5
 

LIST OF FIGURES /page5
 

SUMMARY /page 6
 

CHAPTER I
 

METHODOLOGY /page 9
 

CHAPTER II
 

PAST AND FUTURE ATTENDANCE /page ii
 

CHAPTER III
 

ASSOCIATIONAL APPROACH TO FUTURE ATTENDANCE /page 14
 

CHAPTER IV
 

MANIPULATIONS APPROACH TO FUTURE ATTENDANCE /page 29
 

APPENDIX A
 

VARIMAX ROTATED FACTOR MATRIX: CORRELATIONS
 

OF VARIABLES WITH GENERAL LIFE-STYLE FACTORS /page 36
 

APPENDIX B
 

SYMPHONY AND THEATRE ATTENDANCE TELEPHONE
 

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE /page 38
 

REFERENCES /page 45
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY /page 46
 

REPORTS IN THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS RESEARCH DIVISION SERIES /page 47
 
PREFACE
 

Audience Development: An Examination of
 

Selected Analysls and Prediction Techniques, Applied to Symphony and Theatre
 

Attendance in Four Southern Cities is the
 

third publication supported by the Research
 

Division of the National Endowment for the
 

Arts presenting the results of studies of
 

audiences and consumer demand for arts and
 

cultural services. The two previous publications are Research Division Report #4,
 

Arts and Cultural Programs on Radio and
 

Television, and Report #9, Audience Studies
 

of the Performing Arts and Museums: A
 

Critical Review (see list at the back of
 

this report). Report #4 contains useful
 

information about the audience measurement
 

procedures utilized in the media fields of
 

radio and television. Report #9 is a critical review of the quality and utilization
 

of 270 audience studies conducted by performing arts organizations and museums.
 

Both reports bring together the experience
 

of the past to develop guidance and caveats
 

for future audience studies.
 

This research report, #14, summarizes a
 

study conducted in 1977 by Alan R. Andreasen
 

and Russell W. Belk of the College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The
 

full report may be obtained through the
 

Library, National Endowment for the Arts,
 

2401 E Street, N.W., Washington D.C. 20506,
 

202/634-7604. The investigators collected
 

new audience data in a carefully controlled
 

group of surveys in four southern cities,
 

and applied to these data a number of sophisticated measuring and marketing techniques to discover efficient and effective
 

methods for inducing marginal attenders of
 

the performing arts to become frequent patrons. Although no hitherto untried means
 

to this end were uncovered, this publication
 

makes valuable advanced techniques more
 

comprehensible and accessible to arts administrators, who may well use the study
 

as a model in developing future marketing
 

plans. In addition, by analyzing characteristics that move or do not move people
 

to attend performing arts events, and from
 

that analysis deriving strategies capable
 

of altering factors that lead to nonattendance, enough practical conclusions were
 

reached to recommend an extended program of
 

experimentation in the four cities studied.
 

Many performing arts and survey research
 

specialists provided assistance with this
 

study. Among them were Michael Hardy of
 

the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
 

at the University of Illinois; Hugh Southern
 

of the Theater Development Fund; Juana H.
 

McCoy of the Memphis Arts Council, Inc.;
 

Michael Useem of Boston University and the
 

Center for the Study of Public Policy;
 

William D. Wells of Needham, Harper and
 

Steers; and Seymour Sutman of the Survey
 

Research Laboratory of the University of
 

Illinois; the Survey Research Laboratory
 

supervised the fieldwork and prepared the
 

data for analysis. Fieldwork was carried
 

out by Joyner-Hutcheson Research, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia.
 

Research Division
 

National Endowment for the Arts
 

January 1981
 
LIST OF TABLES
 

1 Sample size by city /page 9
 

2 Theatre and symphony attendance in past twelve months /page ii
 

3 Theatre and symphony attendance in past twelve months, by city /page ii
 

4 Planned theatre and symphony attendance, by past attendance /page 12
 

5 Distribution of respondents, by leisure life-style group /page 15
 

6 General life-style factors, by leisure life-style group /page 19
 

7 Family life-cycle stages, by leisure life-style group /page 22
 

8 Demographic differences among leisure life-style groups /page 24
 

9 Early interest in arts and amount of leisure time, by leisure
 

life-style group /page 26
 

i0 Effectiveness index of symphony strategies, by attendance in past
 

twelve months /page 32
 

ii Effectiveness index of theatre strategies, by attendance in past
 

twelve months /page 33
 

LIST OF FIGURES
 

I Activities and interests of Passive Homebody group /page 16
 

II Activities and interests of Active Sports Enthusiast group /page 16
 

III Activities and interests of Inner-directed,Self-sufficient group /page 17
 

IV Activities, interests, and opinions of Culture Patron group /page 17
 

V Activities and interests of Active Homebody group /page 18
 

VI Activities and interests of Socially Active group /page 18
 
SUMMARY
 

This study responds to several specific
 

objectives that have had wide recognition
 

in the arts community: to broaden the audience for the performing arts; to determine the applicability of sophisticated
 

tools of marketing to the problem of generating demand for the arts; to find the
 

best predictors of arts attendance; and
 

to develop strategies that will appeal to
 

those who, by these predictors, are potential attenders. Such a study was needed
 

because little has been known up to the
 

present about why some persons become arts
 

attenders and others do not, and about how
 

the arts can attract greater patronage
 

from nonattenders or infrequent attenders.
 

Also needed were answers to the questions:
 

Who responds to which alterations in arts
 

offerings? Are all respondents presently
 

attendersnwhich would increase an audience
 

without broadening it--or do attenders
 

and nonattenders respond? And, do behavior
 

predictors and strategies apply equally
 

to theatre and symphony, or must different
 

measurements and manipulations be sought
 

for these performing arts?
 

Among the striking findings of the study
 

are the discoveries that the most significant predictors of future attendance are
 

the same for symphony as for theatre, and
 

that interest in the performing arts while
 

growing up is high on the list of predictors
 

of adult attendance. For arts managers,
 

the pinpointing of manipulations of arts
 

offerings that seem to appeal equally to
 

concert and theatre attenders is particularly significant; also significant is
 

the discovery that almost all manipulations
 

effective onnonattenders seem to work as
 

well on attenders, indicating that nonattenders can be appealed to without discouraging the patronage of frequent attenders.
 

The two strategies that appear most promising for broadening both theatre and symphony audiences because of their high impact
 

on nonattenders are offering ticket buyers
 

a second ticket at half price and including
 

well-known performers in the arts events.
 

Symphony attenders also responded well to
 

the offers of half-price tickets on the
 

day of the concert and an introductory talk
 

that would inform them about the program to
 

follow. Theatregoers responded more positively to changes in type of program,
 

specifically to being offered more musical
 

comedies. Some arts managers will gain
 

fresh insights from these findings and
 

others will find scientific confirmation
 

of their practical experience. All should
 

note, however, that the study also suggests
 

that many other commonly used audience development techniques m@y be substantially
 

less effective. The methodology of this
 

study introduces several new elements and
 

techniques. To the traditional approach
 

of examining the relationships between
 

arts attendance and standard demographic
 

and sociometric measures (Marder, 1974;
 

National Research Center of the Arts, 1976;
 

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, 1974), the
 

present study adds complex life-style and
 

attitudinal measurements and simultaneously analyzes the relationships between
 

planned arts attendance and all the predictor variables. Eric Marder’s pioneering work reported probable aggregate gains
 

or losses in arts attendance in response
 

to certain offerings, but did not indicate
 

whose attendance patterns would change.
 

The present study, by examining the effects
 

of a number of marketing strategies on
 

regular attenders, marginal attenders, and
 

nonattenders, is able to report which group
 

changed and the degree of change, thus
 

providing insights into what will or will
 

not broaden the arts audience and showing
 

the relative effectiveness of various strategies on the several attendance groups.
 

Through the use of recent advances in
 

attitude measurement, life-style analysis,
 

market segmentation, and multivariate statistics, the study yields better predictors of future attendance, better explanations of responses to particular changes
 

proposed for arts offerings, and more information about who responds to these
 

changes--in sum, more specific and better
 

ways to develop audiences.
 

To elicit the wide range of data required
 

for these analyses, telephone interviews
 

were conducted with a randomly selected
 

sample of 1,491 respondents fourteen years
 

of age and older identified by a set of
 

screening questions as potential theatre
 

or symphony attenders. The interviews covered such areas as activities, interests,
 

and opinions; attitudes toward theatre and
 

symphony; and a broad spectrum of offering
 

manipulations. Altogether, the questionnaire comprised more than 150 items. In
 

spite of the questionnaire’s length and
 

complexity, almost all respondents gave
 

informative answers to almost all ques-­

tions, demonstrating the feasibility of
 

polling by telephone.
 

From responses to the questionnaire, respondents were grouped by both general and
 

leisure life styles and by the place they
 

occupied in the family life cycle. Further questions probed attitudes toward and
 

expectations of arts performances, the importance of outcomes that would fulfill
 

expectations, and the importance of the
 

opinions of significant other persons
 

concerning the respondents’ attendance at
 

theatre and symphony.
 
Sophisticated techniques of analysis of
 

variance, factor analysis, and multiple
 

regression were applied to the data in
 

an effort to answer these questions:
 

Does the arts audience come from a single
 

life-style group, or from several? What
 

part does interest in the arts while growing up play in adult arts participation?
 

Why do individuals attend or not attend
 

arts events? Which manipulations of product, price, and locale of arts performances will be most persuasive to potential
 

attenders and which least persuasive?
 

Through these analytic tools it was possible to suggest new marketing techniques
 

that may reach groups untapped by present
 

marketing offers.
 

Several important conclusions emerged from
 

the various analyses. First, standard
 

socioeconomic variables such as education,
 

sex, income, and occupation proved relatively unimportant as predictors of arts
 

attendance when the broader set of variables developed in this study were included in the analyses. Also, since different
 

characteristics of the four cities under
 

study did not appear significant in relation to arts attendance, it is reasonable
 

to conclude that the results of such a
 

study of one city can be generalized
 

across several cities of varying sizes and
 

cultural opportunities within a particular region. The associational analysis
 

implied clearly that certain general lifestyle and leisure life-style groups were
 

significantly more responsive than others to


particular proposals to broaden the audience; and the manipulations analysis demonstrated that some changes in arts offerings, especially symphony offerings, are
 

significantly more effective than others
 

in increasing arts attendance.
 

Further concerning the relative values of
 

a number of predictors of future theatre
 

attendance, the study determined that for


theatre the best predictor is attitude
 

toward attending, followed by childhood
 

interest, recent theatre attendance, and
 

membership in the Culture Patron lifestyle group. The very same variables
 

proved the best predictors of symphony attendance, followed by membership in another of the life-style groups, the Socially Active, an interesting comment on
 

the social appeal of symphony events. The
 

absence of significant differences for
 

theatre and symphony analyses indicates
 

that combined studies of other related
 

arts forms, perhaps dance and opera, are
 

feasible projects.
 

Examination of the sample by life style
 

revealed two groups disposed to attend
 

arts events, three not so disposed, and one
 

neutral. Analysis of the sample’s responses
 

to over a dozen proposed alterations in arts
 

offerings clearly showed some strategies
 

to be potentially much more effective than
 

others in increasing attendance, and one
 

strategy that promised to broaden attendance, especially for symphony. That strategy is the offer of second tickets at half
 

price, which leads to what is probably the
 

most important conclusion of this study for
 

arts managers. This offer is particularly
 

effective with members of the Socially Active
 

group, to whom the second ticket represents
 

a social opportunity. The second-tickethalf-off offering should be accompanied by
 

a concentrated media campaign stressing the
 

desirability of regular attenders bringing
 

nonattenders with them on the half-price
 

ticket. This request would not, of course,
 

be enforceable, and admittedly the strategy with its promotion is acostlymeasure.
 

Nonattenders who are brought along would,
 

however, justify the expense if, as the
 

regression analysis indicates, prior attendance is one of the strongest determinants of future attendance; nonattender
 

beneficiaries of an occasional half-price
 

ticket may well enlarge the regular patrons
 

group later.
 

It is hoped that the techniques the study
 

makes accessible to arts managers may
 

serve them in their own future marketing
 

plans. Implications of unmistakable potential arise from the associational approach. The psychometric profiles suggest
 

that, in designing programs and promotions,
 

managers focus on specific life-style
 

groups. The Culture Patron group, for
 

example, can be reached by cross-mailing
 

and cross-advertising from one performing
 

art to another; the Socially Active group,
 

which may be expected to respond to offers
 

and promotions that emphasize the social
 

dimension of arts events, can be recruited
 

to help in such group efforts as fund
 

drives. Other implications of associational findings indicate that managers
 

should focus on the best predictors of
 

likely attendance and use them to single
 

out target audiences and motivate nonattenders. Life styles, attitudes, and
 

childhood interest in the arts should provide the starting point for marketing designs. Youth programs, youth discounts,
 

and in-school programs, for example, promise effectiveness in producing future adult
 

attenders by stimulating young people’s
 

interest in symphony and theatre. For
 

broadening the audience, managers should
 

concentrate on offerings which improve
 

expectations that attenders will like the
 

program, understand it, and be stimulated
 

by it. They should recognize the full importance of pressure to attend exerted by
 

significant others.
 

The usefulness of the present study goes
 

beyond its technical innovations and findings by pointing the way toward further
 
research in audience development. In regard to attitudes, for example, it must be
 

noted that although favorable attitudes
 

are significantly associated with attendance at arts events they do not necessarily cause attendance. Causation, in
 

fact, may move in the reverse direction,
 

with attitudes being the result rather
 

than the cause of attendance; or, attendance may be the result of some other variable. This ambiguity calls for further
 

investigation. Less basic but puzzling
 

is a question arising from the life-style
 

analysis: Why should the dimension of Selfconfidence/Opinion leadership correlate
 

negatively with theatre attendance? It
 

would be useful to understand the reason
 

for this finding before basing strategies
 

on it.
 

There is also a need to find alternative
 

offerings to the second-ticket-half-off
 

which will broaden the audience by exerting a selectively high impact on nonattenders. Until further investigation uncovers such alternatives, arts directors
 

would perhaps be best advised to focus on
 

strategies suggested here which work best
 

on nonattenders but appeal also to attend-.
 

ers. In regard to strategies, it should
 

be noted that the recommendations in this
 

study are based on respondents’ indications of planned behavior in response to
 

hypothetical proposals, not on actual behavior. A follow-up to the present study
 

could usefully explore and evaluate the
 

extent to which planned behavior is realized.
 

It must also be observed that although
 

attitude proved a significant predictor
 

of behavior, tests of the attitude model
 

showed a degree of instability. Here then
 

is another area that may well benefit from
 

further investigation.
 

Total assessment points to the need for
 

experimentation to ascertain the practical
 

value of the suggestions the study makes.
 

Tests could be devised to explore the outcomes of each of the major proposals offered here-- with before-and-after measurements to weigh their effects. This argues
 

strongly for a program of experimentation
 

in the four cities this study examines,
 

because baseline measures for them have
 

already been developed, to further explore
 

the feasibility of broadening the arts
 

audience.
 
CHAPTER I
 

METHODOLOGY
 

In order to achieve its objectives, this
 

study develops basic attitudinal, lifestyle, and socioeconomic data on marginal
 

and regular attenders of two of the performing arts, theatre and symphony concerts. The study was carried out in four
 

southern cities chosen from among several
 

dozen with both a symphony and regular
 

theatre presentations: Atlanta, Georgia;
 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Columbia, South
 

Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee. It assesses responses to twelve different manipulations in the offerings of resident symphony and resident theatre.
 

The sample
 

Data for the analysis were gathered by means
 

of telephone interviews conducted with
 

randomly selected respondents fourteen
 

years of age or older from householdswJth
 

telephones in the four cities. At the
 

outset, it was decided that a study aimed
 

at broadening the audience should focus
 

mainly on marginal attenders-- those who do
 

not now go frequently to theatre or symphony but who might be induced to do so.
 

For this reason, those judged to have virtually zero probability of attending theatre or symphony were screened out; for
 

the same reason, those who are already
 

frequent attenders were intentionally undersampled. Undersampling was accomplished
 

by interviewing only one-half of those who
 

had attended three or more theatre or symphony performances in the previous year.
 

Screening questions defined as potential at-


tenders those who had done one of the following in the last twelve months: went to
 

live popular or rock concerts; listened
 

at least ten times to classical music on
 

radio, television, records, or tapes; visited an art gallery or museum; went to a
 

live classical music performance other
 

than a symphony concert; saw a ballet either live or on television; saw one or
 

two plays; went to a symphony orchestra
 

concert once or twice. Also included were
 

those who met one of the following qualifications: play a musical instrument;
 

ever worked for a theatre, music, or dance
 

production; attended three or more live
 

plays sometime in their lives but not in
 

the past year; attended three or more symphony orchestra concerts sometime in their
 

lives but not in the past year.
 

In all, 3,956 residential telephone numbers were selected for screening. Of these,
 

Table 1 Sample size by city 

Atlanta 357 23.9%
 

Baton Rouge 358 24.0%
 

Columbia 385 25.8%
 

Memphis 391 26.2%
 

Total 1,491 99.9%
 

44 percent were not screened either because the numbers were no longer in service, the residents were not at home after
 

five callbacks, or they refused to participate. Of those screened, 15 percent were
 

frequent attenders; in this group, 77 percent were frequent attenders of theatre
 

only, 5 percent of symphony only, and 14
 

percent of both. One-half of these frequent
 

attenders were dropped from the main sample.
 

Only 14 percent of those screened were dropped because by the above criteria they did
 

not qualify as potential attenders. Screening left 1,733 households designated for
 

complete interviews. In each of these
 

households a random selection procedure
 

was used to pick one individual to be interviewed from among all household members
 

fourteen years of age or older. Of these, 14
 

percent were unavailable or refused to participate in the main interview, yielding
 

a final sample of 1,491, divided by city
 

as shown in Table i.
 

Comparisons with available census data suggest that the sample population is younger,
 

better educated, from ahigher income level,
 

and substantially more often female than
 

the general population of the four cities.
 

These differences are consistent with those
 

found in other studies using telephone interviewing, and are also consistent with the
 

screening out of those with zero probability of attending arts events.
 

The questionnaire
 

Respondents in the study were asked extensive questions about their attitudes and
 

behavior toward theatre and symphony, aspects of their leisure and general life
 

styles, and their socioeconomic characteristics. (Appendix B gives the questionnaire in narrative form.) The questions
 

were developed from other research studies,
 
from introspection, and from several focus-


group interviews with frequent and infrequent arts attenders. The questionnaire
 

was pretested with a sample of thirty respondents in Memphis. Because of the length of
 

the questionnaire, only one-third of the main
 

sample in each city was asked about their
 

attitudes toward attending the theatre,
 

another third was asked about their attitudes toward attending symphony concerts,
 

and the final third was not asked either
 

set of attitude questions.
 

The approaches: associational and manipulations
 

Two approaches to the problem of broadening the audience for theatre and symphony
 

were then explored. The first, the associational approach, considered which characteristics best predicted whether respondents anticipated attending theatre and
 

symphony in the future. The second, the manipulations approach, explored the responses
 

of potential audiences to various modifications in theatre and symphony offerings.
 

To find the best predictors of anticipated
 

future attendance, the associational approach used stepwise regression analysis
 

using a battery of individual traits including demographic characteristics, prior
 

experience with theatre or symphony, a specially developed leisure life-style characterization, genera! life-style traits,
 

attitudes toward theatre or symphony, and
 

stage in the family life cycle. The best
 

predictors of anticipated future attendance for both theatre and symphony were
 

found to be attitudes toward attending
 

these events, prior experiences with the
 

arts (including childhood interests), and
 

belonging to a leisure life-style group
 

called Culture Patrons in this report. For
 

theatre the absence of two general life-style
 

traits referred to here as Traditionalism
 

and Self-confidence/Opinion leadership increased the level of anticipated future
 

attendance beyond that suggested by the
 

predictor variables shared with symphony.
 

These findings, although associational,
 

suggest that leisure life styles are a valuable means for characterizing prospective
 

theatre and symphony attenders, that is,
 

for segmenting the market. In addition, it
 

appears that early childhood socialization
 

in the arts is crucial, and that greater
 

likelihood of attendance is reflected in
 

more detailed attitudes toward theatre and
 

symphony attendance. Finally, in contrast
 

to most other past studies, purely demographic or family life-cycle characteristics were not found to be strong predictors
 

of attendance.
 

The manipulations approach examined reported changes in the likelihood of future
 

i0
 

theatre and symphony attendance if certain
 

alterations were made in these offerings
 

or in the controllable conditions surrounding them. These analyses compared
 

the responses of current attenders and current nonattenders judged potential attenders at each kind of cultural event.
 

Over a dozen different modifications commonly used by arts managers were considered in four basic areas: the event (type of
 

performance, quality of performance, formality, and extent of learning opportunities); the event’s price; the event’s location; and the event, its price, and its
 

location in various combinations.
 

The analysis of these manipulations pinpointed only two strategies that appear to
 

be highly effective with nonattenders:
 

offering second tickets at half price, and
 

including more famous performers in the
 

event. For attracting symphony attenders,
 

the next most important strategies were
 

offering tickets at half price on the day
 

of the program, and introducing the concert with a short informative talk. These
 

strategies, however, appear to have lower
 

impact on theatre nonattenders, who seem
 

more responsive to program changes.
 

All of these strategies were nearly as
 

effective with attenders as with nonattenders. A search for strategies which
 

would be significantly more effective with
 

nonattenders than with attenders revealed
 

none for theatre and for symphony only
 

one--offering choral music. The practical
 

value of this strategy for broadening the
 

audience is probably negligible, however,
 

since it had the lowest effectiveness
 

score of all strategies among nonattenders.
 

Given the paucity of significant selective
 

strategies for increasing attendance at
 

symphony and theatre events, the obvious
 

implication for managers of this analysis
 

is that the major short-term device for
 

broadening the audience is to use such
 

high-impact strategies as occasionally
 

offering second tickets at half price or
 

scheduling more famous performers. It
 

must be recognized, however, that these
 

strategies will increase patronage among
 

present attenders as well as nonattenders.
 

Data from the associational analysis would
 

also encourage the use of the second ticket
 

at half price as a way of influencing present attenders to invite nonattenders at
 

the reduced rate.
 
CHAPTER II
 

PAST AND FUTURE ATTENDANCE
 

Past attendance
 

About 42 percent of all respondents in the
 

study claimed that they had attended the
 

theatre in the past twelve months, and an
 

additional 46 percent said they had not attended theatre in the past year but had
 

attended at least three times in their
 

lives. By contrast, only 14 percent said
 

they had attended a symphony concert in
 

the past twelve months, and 19 percent said
 

they had attended at some previous time.
 

About i0 percent of the respondents said
 

they had attended both symphony and theatre, and 54 percent said they had attended
 

neither in the past twelve months, as the
 

figures in Table 2 indicate. Clearly,
 

those who are concertgoers only are a
 

small, exceptional group; concert attendance is more likely to be combined with
 

theatre attendance. Quite the opposite
 

is true of theatre attendance.
 

Past attendance at theatre is very similar
 

across the four cities in the study, but
 

symphony attendance is not, as shown in
 

Table 3. Columbia has much lower concert
 

attendance and Atlanta has somewhat higher
 

concert attendance than the other two cities. Whether these differences are due to
 

differences in the kinds of people in thu
 

several cities or to differences in their
 

cultural environments, such as quality and
 

availability of performances, is an issue
 

which will ocme up again in later multivariate analyses.
 

Future attendance
 

Even though only individuals judged to be
 

potential attenders based on their answers
 

to questions about past attendance and
 

other behaviors were included in this study,
 

it was not expected that they would all be
 

likely to attend in the next year or two.
 

Clearly, if a respondent was not very
 

likely to attend, questions about attending more or less often if certain changes
 

were made in theatre and symphony offerings were not likely to yield meaningful
 

results. Therefore, respondents were further screened on their anticipated likelihood of attending theatre or symphony
 

concerts "in the next year or two." The
 

proportion saying they were very likely or
 

somewhat likely to attend was 21.2 percent
 

for theatre only, 22.8 percent for theatre
 

and symphony, and 6.0 percent for symphony
 

only. Fifty percent said they were not
 

very or not at all likely to attend either
 

theatre or symphony.
 

Table 2	 Theatre and symphony 

attendance in 

past twelve months 

Theatre	 482 32.0%
 

Theatre and symphony 148 9.1%
 

Symphony	 60 4.0%
 

None
 800 53.1%
 

No answer	 1 --­

Total	 1,491 99.9%
 

Table 3	 Theatre and symphony

attendance in past

twelve months, by city 

Theatre Symphony
 

Atlanta	 42.0%
 18.3%
 

Baton Rouge	 43.4% 14.8%
 

Columbia	 44.5% 9.1%
 

Memphis	 39.4% 13.8%
 

The proportion who anticipated attending
 

symphony only is about the same as the proportion who said they had attended only symphony in the past twelve months. Similarly,
 

the proportion who anticipated attending
 

neither symphony nor theatre is about the
 

same as the proportion who said they had attended neither in the past twelve months.
 

There is a marked shift, however, from
 

"theatre only" to joint theatre and symphony attendance. Although this shift does
 

not affect the number who are planning to
 

attend theatre, it has marked effects on
 

the number who are planning to attend symphony concerts in the next year or so.
 

ii
 
Table 4 Planned theatre and symphony attendance, by past attendance 

Past theatre and
 

symphony attendance
 

10.2%
 

8.2%
 

66.0%
 

15.6%
 

100.0%
 

12
 
To see where this shift is coming from,
 

past and planned future attendance are
 

contrasted in Table 4. Here it is evident
 

that the most stable groups are those who
 

go to both art forms or to neither; in each
 

case, about two-thirds say that they will
 

continue their past patterns. The remaining categories are much more volatile.
 

Only 18 percent of the symphony-only patrons and 34 percent of the theatre-only
 

patrons indicate that they will continue
 

exactly the same attendance patterns.
 

Nearly half of the symphony goers say they
 

will add theatre attendance, and nearly a
 

quarter of the theatre attenders say they
 

will add symphony. By contrast, about one-


quarter of the symphony-only attenders and
 

over one-third of the theatre-only attenders will drop out of the market altogether.
 

Put another way, those who attended both
 

theatre and symphony appear more likely to
 

remain loyal to each performing art than
 

those who attended only one of the art
 

forms. Of those who said they had attended
 

only theatre in the past twelve months,
 

58.6 percent said they planned to attend
 

theatre in the next year or two, and 29.7
 

percent said they planned to attend symphony. Of those who reported attending
 

only symphony in the past twelve months,
 

66.7 percent planned to attend symphony
 

again in the next year or two, and 58.3
 

percent planned to attend theatre. Of those
 

who reported attending both theatre and
 

symphony, however, 76.2 percent planned to
 

attend theatre and 74.1 percent planned to
 

attend symphony. This high likelihood of
 

future attendance on the part of those with
 

interest in more than one cultural art is
 

a finding that will be reflected in later
 

analyses.
 

Total
 

21.1%
 

6.0%
 

22.9%
 

50.0%
 

100.0%
 

13
 

The problem of where the "new" symphony at-


tenders come from is not yet resolved. Fully 65 percent of those who say they will
 

go to the symphony in the next year or two
 

did not attend in the past twelve months.
 

On the other hand, only 40 percent of those
 

who say they will go to theatre in the next
 

year or two did not attend in the past
 

twelve months. What is even more surprising is that of these potential "new" at-


tenders, 70 percent have not attended three
 

or more concerts in their entire lives.
 

The comparable figure for theatre is only
 

12 percent. Several explanations of this
 

finding are possible.
 

First, symphony audiences may indeed be growing much faster than theatre audiences. Actual attendance data in the four cities
 

would belie this, suggesting, as seems reasonable, that the "likely" attendance figures are not always good predictors of actual
 

behavior. Second, because they considered
 

symphony attendance more prestigious than
 

theatre attendance, respondents may have
 

tried to impress interviewers by saying
 

that they planned to attend symphony in the
 

future. Some of this response bias is undoubtedly present in the data, but that it
 

applies to 15 to 19 percent of the sample seems
 

unlikely. Finally, it may be that the potential audience for symphony is much larger
 

than past attendance figures would suggest.
 

By saying that they plan to go in the future, recent nonattenders may be merely
 

signaling their interest in attending if
 

the circumstances are right. Such a possibility would predict that this group might
 

be particularly responsive to new offerings.
 

Results of the manipulations approach presented later in this report provide some
 

support for this prediction.
 
CHAPTER III
 

ASSOCIATIONAL APPROACH TO FUTURE ATTENDANCE
 

Predictors of future attendance
 

As noted earlier, one approach to influencing future arts attendance is to ascertain
 

what characteristics are associated with
 

such behavior~ If some members of a particular population segment show a high
 

probability of attendance, it may be assumed that nonattenders or infrequent at-


tenders in that segment will be more disposed to increase future attendance than
 

will nonattenders or infrequent attenders
 

in segments with a low probability of attendance. On this assumption, marketing
 

efforts and dollars directed to the high
 

probability segment should be most productive (DiMaggio, Useem, and Brown, 1977;
 

Smith, 1956).
 

Predictors examined in earlier studies. A
 

large number of audience studies have been
 

conducted in the United States in recent
 

years in the hope of developing such data.
 

A detailed analysis of 270 studies of audiences for museums and the performing arts
 

was made by DiMaggio, Useem, and Brown
 

(1977). They found that educational attainment, occupation, and income were significant variables in the composition of
 

arts audiences, whereas age and gender were
 

not; that minorities were underrepresented
 

in audiences relative to their proportion
 

in the population; and that audience characteristics have not changed significantly
 

over time.
 

These findings led the authors of the study
 

to urge further audience research applying
 

more sophisticated techniques in an effort
 

to answer three questions: Does the arts
 

audience come from a single group or from
 

many groups? How important is early experience in arts-audience participation?
 

Why do individuals attend or not attend
 

arts offerings?
 

This study seeks to answer these questions
 

by dividing the population into life-style
 

groupings according to use of leisure time;
 

by developing a broad array of data on
 

respondents’ general life-style tendencies; by expanding the area of socioeconomic variables with new questions; by
 

taking into account respondents’ stages
 

in the family life cycle; and by probing
 

their attitudes toward and expectations
 

of arts performances. To all these data
 

the study applies advanced analytic techniques, such as analysis of variance, factor analysis, and multiple regression.
 

Life style as predictor
 

In the field of marketing, the study of
 

consumer life styles, or psychographic
 

profiles, has emerged in the past decade
 

as a major part of an effort to provide
 

detailed insight into consumer decision
 

patterns. A description of a consumer’s
 

life style typically notes the activities
 

in which the consumer commonly participates
 

(going to church, camping), the consumer’s interests (liking to eat, liking to


travel), and the consumer’s opinions
 

(everything is changing too fast these
 

days; children are the most important thing
 

in a marriage). Because of the fields of
 

investigation, life-style data are often
 

called activity/interest/opinion (AIO) data. By constructing a broad-based lifestyle profile, the market researcher’s intent is to show how the consumption of a
 

particular product or service fits into
 

the context of the consumer’s way of life.
 

Besides the expanded perspective on consumption given by life-style analysis,
 

these descriptions often provide projections of consumer purchase choices that
 

have greater depth and clarity than those
 

based on simpler demographic information.
 

Among the product and service choices which
 

have benefited from life-style analysis are
 

bank charge cards, department stores,
 

clothing sales, and television programs.
 

The methods used in obtaining psychographic
 

profiles are varied, but they usually involve asking a large number of people, often
 

over one thousand, to respond to a large number of scaled activity/interest!opinion
 

questions, often over one hundred. Questions
 

may involve either general life style, in
 

which case they are often drawn from a
 

pool of more or less standard items, or a
 

life style specific to the consumption
 

area under study, in which case the items
 

must be specially developed.
 

Consumer responses to the AIO questions
 

may be analyzed in several ways. The most
 

direct way is simply to profile the responses of users versus nonusers of a product or service, for example, those with
 

and without bank charge cards. More typically, however, life-style dimensions are
 

developed through such a procedure as R-


type factor analysis in order to combine
 

AIO items into underlying dimensions. It
 

is also common to use a cluster analysis,
 

or Q-type factor analysis, to group respondents into life-style categories. Q-


type analysis measures similarities among
 

people; R-type analysis measures similarities among characteristics. The present
 

study employs both procedures. In either
 

case, the reduced life-style dimensions or
 

groups are then related to the choice or
 

preference behavior of interest in order
 

14
 
to examine the impact of life style on Table 5 Distribution of respondents, these consumption responses.
 by leisure life-style group 

To the marketing practitioner, analysis
 

of consumer life styles offers a means
 

for probing into reasons for consumer
 

choice more deeply than that provided by
 

standard demographic variables such as
 

age, income, and family size. This deeper
 

awareness of how consumer purchases fit
 

into or reflect individual life styles can
 

offer major insights for programs designed
 

to communicate more effectively with these
 

consumers.
 

In the present study, consumer life style
 

is measured at two different levels: the
 

individual’s use of leisure time, or what
 

may be called "going-out behavior," and
 

the individual’s more general activities,
 

interests, and opinions in which the leisure activities are imbedded.
 

Leisure life-style characteristics
 

The first life style analyzed was based on
 

responses to a set of fifty questions about
 

leisure-time activities, interests, and
 

opinions. These data were then used to
 

group respondents into leisure-specific
 

life-style categories. For the leisure
 

life styles, Q-type factor analysis was performed on the answers to these fifty questions to group respondents into unique lei-


sure-time use categories, recognizing that
 

this procedure does some disservice to
 

those respondents with mixed life styles.
 

In developing the leisure life-style groups,
 

a number of different possible groupings
 

from the Q-type factor analysis were examined, and these solutions were tested for
 

stability between two randomly chosen
 

halves of the sample. A solution was selected that partitioned the population
 

into six unique clusters. Names for each
 

group and the distribution of respondents
 

across the groups are given in Table 5.
 

Because of the special nature of the present sample, the proportions in Table 5 are
 

not projectable to the general populations
 

of the cities in this study. Thus, for
 

example, we cannot say that 20 percent of
 

all those over age fourteen in the four
 

cities are Passive Homebodies. Figures
 

I-VI present activities, interests, and
 

opinions that are most and least typical
 

for each group.
 

Passive Homebody 295 19.8%
 

Active Sports Enthusiast 285 19.1%
 

Inner-directed,
 

Self-sufficient 216 14.5%
 

Culture Patron 295 19.8%
 

Active Homebody 190 12.7%
 

Socially Active 210 14.1%
 

Total 1,491 100.0%
 

15
 
Figure I Activities and interests Figure II Activities and interests 

of Passive Homebody of Active Sports

group Enthusiast group 

The six leisure life-style groups may be
 

characterized as follows:
 

Passive Homebody. This group prefers family-


and home-oriented activities. Its members
 

watch a great deal of television, do not
 

care for parties, have essentially negative
 

attitudes toward cultural organizations
 

and activities, and, in fact, tend to avoid
 

nearly any such activity outside the home.
 

These people recognize that they are homebodies, and that their days are routine
 

and filled with unused leisure time.
 

Active Sports Enthusiast. In many ways
 

this group is the antithesis of the previous group. Members take part in many
 

active sports, such as tennis and bowling,
 

and engage in other activities away from
 

home, such as movies, parties, and spectator sports. They strongly deny that
 

they are homebodies or like to spend a
 

quiet evening at home. However, they are
 

like the Passive Homebodies, but more extreme, in their negative attitudes toward
 

theatre, symphony, and other cultural activities.
 

Inner-directed, Self-sufficient. Members
 

of this group are best characterized by
 

their participation in a number of home-­

oriented activities such as gardening,
 

reading, and craft projects. They are
 

family-oriented and prone to undertake outdoor activities such as hikes and picnic.
 

They are inactive concerning cultural activities, although they are not negative
 

toward these activities as are the Passive Homebody and Active Sports Enthusiast
 

groups. They are not overburdened with
 

leisure time as is the Passive Homebody.
 

Instead, it appears that their leisure interests keep their leisure time occupied,
 

either alone or with their families.
 

16
 
Figure III Activities and interests Figure IV Activities, interests, of Inner-directed, and opinions of Self-sufficient group Culture Patron group 

Culture Patron. Members of this group would
 

be expected to be the best market for theatre and symphony, since they report that
 

they are now involved with these activities.
 

This is a reflection of their general cultural orientation, with favorable attitudes
 

toward and patronage of the arts in general. They lack the orientation toward home
 

and family of the Passive Homebody and the
 

Inner-directed, Self-sufficient, and the
 

sports orientation of the Active Sports
 

Enthusiast. They rely very little on television for entertainment or relaxation.
 

Active Homebody. Members of this group
 

resemble the Passive Homebody group in
 

their family- and home-orientation, but replace that group’s nonactive television-


watching with such activities as golf,
 

working on the car, and gardening. They
 

have a generally negative attitude toward
 

the arts and do little reading, partying,
 

17
 

or radio listening. They are not very socially active or media-oriented, but fill
 

their time with what might be called productive "tinkering" activities.
 

Socially Active. This last group is also
 

active, but in a more social vein. They give
 

and attend parties, eat out often, and participate in clubs and other meetings. They
 

are aware of theatre and symphony offerings
 

and have friends who are interested in these
 

activities. Nevertheless, their patronage
 

is not great at present. They are busy and
 

they do not like leisurely pursuits such as
 

reading or spending a quiet evening at home,
 

nor do they participate in sports such as
 

golf or tennis.
 

In the present context, then, the Culture
 

Patron and Socially Active groups have
 

leisure life styles that appear conducive
 

to attending the performing arts. On the
 
Figure V Activities and interests Figure Vl Activities and interests 

of Active Homebody of Socially Active 

group group 

other hand, the Passive Homebody, Active
 

Homebody, and Active Sports Enthusiast
 

groups appear negatively disposed toward
 

attendance. Finally, the Inner-directed,
 

Self-sufficient group appears generally
 

uninformed, and possibly neutral, about
 

the arts. These differences will prove
 

instructive in the analyses of future behavior response to the manipulations to
 

be explained later.
 

General life-style characteristics
 

Differences in leisure life styles are
 

likely to be associated both with socioeconomic characteristics and with the activities, interests, and opinions which
 

constitute general life styles. Descriptions of general life styles were developed through forty-three q~estions asked
 

18
 
in the study. These questions were then
 

factor-analyzed to yield underlying dimensions along which the six groups might be
 

expected to vary. The method used to accomplish this was an R-type factor analysis, which develops a small number of independent dimensions or factors (in this
 

case, six) that are highly correlated
 

with subsets of the original forty-three
 

variables. It is a grouping of characteristics, not of people. The correlation
 

coefficients measurinq the deqree ~f relationship between the original variables
 

and the six new dimensions (factors) are
 

shown in the table in Appendix A. The larger
 

correlation coefficients for each dimension may be used in labeling the factors.
 

For instance, the first factor has high
 

positive correlations (over .30) with
 

church-going, old-fashioned tastes, and
 

wishing for the good old d~ys. These and
 

other high correlations point to variables
 

that the factor most closely resembles (or
 

in the case of negative correlations, resembles the opposite of); they thus aid in
 

naming the factor, as seen in Table 6.
 

This six general life-style dimensions developed in this study are the following:
 

Traditionalism. As noted, this characteristic is associated with church-going, old-


fashioned tastes, a feeling that things
 

are moving too fast, and a wish for the
 

good old days. It is also related to preferences for a traditional child- and family-centered home, where the man is in
 

charge and the woman is home-oriented. Finally, it includes a preference for security and a reluctance to take chances.
 

Hedonism/Optimism. This characteristic
 

encompasses wanting to look attractive and
 

perhaps a little different, wishing to travel around the world or live in London or
 

Paris for a year, and liking to eat. It is
 

associated with the positive view that one’s
 

greatest achievements lie ahead.
 

Defeatism. This characteristic is marked
 

by a depressed outlook due to a belief that
 

things have not turned out well. One’s
 

present life is thought undesirable; if
 

given the chance, one would do things differently. It is also associated with wishing for the good old days, thinking things
 

are changing too fast, spending for today,
 

and dreading the future.
 

Self-confidence/Opinion leadership. Two
 

characteristics seem best to describe this
 

dimension; a feeling of self-confidence
 

and liking to be considered a leader.
 

Cosmopolitanism. This factor includes a
 

preference for big cities and an acceptance of modern liberal ideas, such as
 

women’s liberation.
 

Outdoor interest. This dimension involves
 

going on picnics and hiking.
 

Table 6 General life-style factors, by leisure life-style group 

Passive 

Homebody 

Active 

Sports 

Enthusiast 

Innerdirected, 

Selfsuff’t 

Culture 

Patron 

Active 

Homebody 

Socially 

Active 

Very high 

Very low 

Low 

Average 

Average 

Very high 

Average 

Average 

Low 

Very low 

Very high 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Very high 

Very low 

Very low 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Low 

Average 

Average 

Very low 

Very high 

Average 

Very low 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Average 

High 

19 
 

 

Attitudes toward theatre and symphony as
 

predictors
 

The life-style approach to explaining arts
 

behavior is a general one; it examines how
 

different kinds of arts behavior fit into
 

more general life patterns. Attitude researchers, however, focus on predicting
 

behavior by understanding the nature and
 

value of various outcomes that an individual
 

expects from engaging in a behavior, for
 

example, attending theatre or symphony. 


You would not feel that it was too formal
 

an occasion?
 

You would find the performers excellent?
 

You would not feel you’d spent too much
 

for the occasion, that is, for tickets,
 

travel, food, and the like?
 

You would like the play/program?
 

You would feel you understood what was
 

Behaviors yielding positive outcomes on im- going on?
 

portant dimensions will be chosen; those
 

not yielding positive outcomes or yielding
 

positive outcomes only on unimportant dimensions will not be chosen. This approach,
 

following the work of Fishbein and Ajzen
 

(1975), Rosenberg (1956), and others, has
 

proved useful to marketers in predicting
 

purchase intentions, actual purchases of
 

such products as children’s clothing (Tigert, 1966) and television programs selection (Lehman, 1971).
 

In the present investigation, subsamples
 

of respondents were asked about their attitudes, not toward theatre and symphony,
 

but toward attending them. Attitudes-toward taking an action are generally found
 

to be better predictors of behavior than are
 

attitudes toward an object or event. As
 

explained earlier, because of the length
 

of the full questionnaire, only one-third
 

of the sample was questioned on attitudes
 

about theatre attendance, and only another
 

third was questioned on attitudes about
 

symphony attendance. Each respondent
 

questioned was asked two compound questions. The first was: If you were to go
 

to a live, professional play/symphony concert in the next month or two, how likely
 

would it be that you would experience the
 

following:
 

You could get exactly the seats you wanted?
 

It would not take a long time to get from
 

your home into the theatre/concert hall?
 

You would feel comfortable with the audience?
 

You would not find the play/concert too
 

long?
 

You would feel personally involved with
 

what was going on at the performance?
 

You would find your friends there?
 

Long before the performance day you would
 

feel pleased that you were going?
 

You would find the tickets inexpensive?
 

You would find that those you were with
 

were having a good time?
 

You would learn a lot?
 

You would not feel you were wasting your
 

time?
 

You would feel stimulated?
 

Respondents were asked concerning each experience whether it would be "very likely,"
 

"somewhat likely, .... somewhat unlikely,"
 

or "very unlikely."
 

The next question read as follows: We’ve
 

just talked about how likely it would be
 

to experience certain things when going
 

to a live play/symphony concert. If you
 

were to go to a live professional play/
 

symphony concert in the next month or two,
 

how important would it be that you would
 

experience these things?
 

Respondents were then given the same seventeen items as in the preceding question and
 

asked whether each outcome would be "very
 

important," "somewhat important," "somewhat unimportant," or "very unimportant."
 

Respondents gave highest importance, when
 

attending theatre, to play and performing
 

characteristics, and to understanding what
 

is going on. Finding friends there, havving the occasion informal, and having
 

the theatre nearby appear to be the least
 

important.
 

There are differences across the four cities
 

with respect to expectations about attending the theatre. These differences appear
 

to be greatest for Memphis. Respondents
 

there are particularly likely to expect
 

plays to be not too long, personally involving, performed well, anticipated with
 

pleasure, pleasing to those going with them,
 

stimulating, and not wasteful of their time.
 

Memphis respondents are also likely to indicate that several of these attributes are
 

not only more expected but also more important to them. Atlanta respondents less often expect to find their friends at the
 

theatre, and more respondents in Columbia
 

2O
 
 

than in other cities expect to find the The resulting attitude model is:
 plays long. In Baton Rouge, as in Memphis,
 

respondents expected those going with them 17
 

to have a good time. With respect to sym-
 Ljk = Z +
 phony concerts, the respondents again in- i=l Iik Bijk Njk
 

dicate that the performers, the program,
 

and their understanding of what is going
 Ljk = likelihood of respondent k attend-
 on are most important factors, while find- ing performing art j
 

ing friends there, having the occasion informal, and having the hall nearby are
 Iik = the importance weight given to
 least important. consequence i by respondent k
 There are fewer differences in expectations Bijk =
 

and outcome importance across the four cities for symphony than for theatre, but some
 

of the differences are significant. Among
 

respondents in the four cities, those in
 

Baton Rouge more than other cities believe
 

that it is hard to get the exact seats one
 

wants and that one is more likely to waste
 

one’s time and less likely to feel stimulated. On the other hand, Memphis and Atlanta respondents are less likely to expect
 

that attending the symphony would be a waste
 

of time. Atlanta respondents are also less
 

likely than those of other cities to expect to find their friends at the symphony,
 

but they place little importance on it.
 

Memphis respondents place less importance
 

than others on having the hall nearby.
 

In the regression analyses which will be
 

the respondent k’s belief about the
 

extent to which attending performing art j will result in consequence
 

i
 

= normative belief--the extent to
 Njk
 which respondent k perceives that
 

significant others believe he or
 

she should attend performing art j.
 

Analyses of alternative decision rules as
 

well as tests of the reliability of the
 

attitude models indicate that for the present data the "extended model" does well
 

relative to alternatives, and that correlations of all measures with future attendance vary considerably across independently drawn samples. Variation suggests instability in the attitude models, but the
 

attitude component as a whole turned out
 

discussed later, the expectation and impor- to be a significant predictor of behavior
 

tance scores were combined to yield an over- in the multiple regression analysis to be
 

all score for attitude toward the act of
 

going to the theatre or to a symphony concert. Each individual’s expectation score
 

on each of the seventeen dimensions was
 

multiplied by the corresponding importance
 

score. These seventeen products were then
 

summed to yield the overall individual attitude score. This method of computation
 

assumes that consumers permit high expectation scores on some important dimensions
 

to compensate for low expectation scores on
 

other important dimensions. Alternative
 

combinational rules have been suggested
 

and are summarized by Wright (1973), but
 

their predictive power has not been proven
 

any greater. This model also takes account
 

of a more recent advance in attitude research. Fishbein (1975) has argued that
 

the likelihood of engaging in a behavior
 

is not only a function of the individual’s
 

own attitude toward that behavior but de-


mends also on what the individual thinks
 

he is expected to do by persons important
 

to him, called "significant others." Respondents were therefore asked to indicate
 

how much they agreed or disagreed with the
 

following statement:
 

People who are important to me think I
 

should go to classical symphony concerts/
 

plays.
 

described later.
 

Stage in family life cycle as predictor
 

Social demographers offer a major alternative to the life-style and attitude
 

theorists’ approach. Social demographers
 

argue that behaviors can be predicted by
 

socioeconomic characteristics (such as
 

education), which predispose one to engage
 

in the behavior, or which (as with income)
 

remove constraints that bar the carrying
 

out of predispositions. These socioeconomic characteristics can be seen, then,
 

as potential determinants of life styles
 

and attitudes which may determine behavior,
 

and perhaps, in conjunction with life styles
 

and attitudes, as codeterminants.
 

The present study includes a wide range of
 

socioeconomic measures. One combined index developed from several of these measures is a family life cycle (FLC) index,
 

based on behavioral patterns that are affected by the chronological stage a person
 

occupies in the life cycle. Age in years
 

only approximates this chronology; a better measure is one that takes into account
 

the significant points of change in a
 

traditional life cycle that radically alter
 

values (Lansinq and Kish, 1957; Wells and
 

Gubar, 1966). These stages, by groups, are
 

seen in Table 7. These changes and the
 

21
 
life cycle that they imply are the following:
 

Young single. This is the first stage of
 

the traditional pattern. The individual is
 

under forty years of age and has never been
 

married.
 

Younq married. The first important change
 

in the individual’s life (and life style)
 

is marriage. The individualisunder forty
 

and has no children.
 

Younq parent. The next major event is the
 

arrival of children. In this stage the individual is married and has one or more
 

children under six. This stage can last a
 

considerable period of time.
 

Parent of school children. The next important event is when the children are all old
 

enough to be in school and both parents can
 

be free for more activities outside the home.
 

Empty nest. Eventually the children leave
 

home and the older married couple is again
 

alone. In this analysis, the classification also includes married couples over
 

forty who never had children.
 

Widowhood. The final stage arrives when
 

one of the partners dies.
 

It was expected that families in the middle
 

stages of the family life cycle would be
 

significantly less likely to be arts at-


tenders owing to the inhibiting presence
 

of children and the accompanying lack of
 

time and money.
 

Predicting by regression analysis
 

The question this study now considers is
 

whether these new variables are important
 

predictors in multiple regression analyses
 

of likely future symphony and theatre attendance. (The deficiencies in this approach will be taken up later, particularly emphasizing that the correlations do
 

not necessarily mean causation.) In these
 

analyses, fifty-six variables were used
 

to predict the likelihood of theatre and
 

symphony attendance.
 

Regarding a total prediction from these
 

correlations between the variables and the
 

likelihood of art attendance, one problem
 

is that many of the variables are related.
 

For example, as income increases, so does
 

the likelihood that the spouse is employed
 

and so do the number of cars in the family.
 

The problem, then, is to conduct an analysis that makes it possible to assess the
 

importance of several variables in explaining the likelihood of attendance while
 

taking account of these variables’ interrelationships. One useful technique for
 

doing this is stepwise regression. In this
 

technique, predictors are selected one at
 

a time, starting with the single best predictor and adding at each "step" the one
 

variable that most increases predictive
 

Table 7 Family life-cycle stages, by leisure life-style group 

22
 
accuracy. The examination process continues until, finally, the best remaining predictor that could be added produces no significant improvement in total predictive
 

accuracy.
 

Theatre. Of the fifty-six variables examined, six were found to add to the prediction of theatre attendance likelihood at
 

the .05 level of significance. These six
 

predictors jointly predicted 28 percent of
 

the variance in the reported likelihoods
 

of theatre attendance. Although this leaves
 

the majority of the variance in these likelihoods "unexplained" (and potentially related to factors not examined in the study),
 

explaining 28 percent of the variance is
 

relatively high for a marketing study.
 

The variables that aided this prediction
 

are, in descending order of usefulness:
 

attitude toward attending theatre; Culture
 

Patron; interest in live theatre when growing up; theatre attendance during past year;
 

Traditionalism; Self-confidence/Opinion
 

leadership.
 

Attitude toward going to the theatre is,
 

by a substantial margin, the best predictor of anticipated future attendance. Not
 

surprisingly, the more favorable one thinks
 

the outcomes of attendance will be, the more
 

important these outcomes are, and the more
 

that significant others are seen as favoring attendance, the more one will report
 

likely future attendance.
 

Three variables of approximately equal importance are the next best predictors. All
 

three are measures of positive past experiences with the arts. Interest in live
 

theatre when growing up seems to have a
 

strong and lasting effect on anticipated
 

future attendance independent of whether
 

one presently has favorable attitudes toward attendance. Another of the best predictors is theatre attendance during the past
 

year, past behavior being a good although
 

not perfect predictor of likely future behavior. The third of the most important
 

predictors is membership in the Culture Patron leisure life-style group. Knowledge
 

of past attendance at several arts institutions in addition to theatre, plus other
 

interests and opinions reflecting an arts-


centered leisure life style, significantly
 

increases the investigator’s capacity to
 

predict likely future attendance. This
 

finding lends support to the study’s contention that performing arts attendance
 

can profitably be seen from its perspective
 

within particular life styles. It also
 

supports the contention of DiMaggio, Useem,
 

and Brown that "aficionados of one arts
 

form also attend others" (1977, page 176).
 

Following these three positively correlated
 

experience variables are two general lifestyle dimensions, both negatively related
 

to future attendance. The negative relation of traditionalism indicates that those
 

with old-fashioned tastes and a preference
 

for a traditional family role structure
 

and a slow-moving life are not likely to
 

attend the theatre. This suggests that overcoming the inertia of traditional patterns
 

may be a major task of future promotors
 

anxious to broaden theatre audiences. The
 

Self-confidence/Opinion leadership dimension is also negatively correlated with
 

likely attendance, suggesting that, to a
 

significant number of respondents who like
 

to b~ considered leaders, theatre attendance, for some reason, is seen detracting
 

from their self-esteem.
 

Symphony. The five variables that explain
 

about 29 percent of the variance in likely
 

attendance at symphony concerts are: Culture Patron leisure life-style group membership; symphony attendance during past
 

year; interest in classical music when growing up; and Socially Active leisure lifestyle group membership. It is striking
 

that although an entirely different sample
 

was used from that in the theatre analysis,
 

the first four variables--those with the
 

most weight in this equation--are precisely
 

the same four variables that are the most
 

important in the theatre analysis. Again,
 

attitudes are a significant factor, although
 

not the most important variable as in the
 

theatre equation. Also, the three experience dimensions--past attendance, interest in the art form when growing up, and
 

23
 
membership in the Culture Patron lifestyle group--are again present in this set
 

of most important predictors.
 

The single new variable in this equation
 

is membership in the Socially Active leisure life-style group. It will be recalled
 

that this was the second group witha life
 

style positively predisposed toward the
 

arts. This finding may lend force to the
 

conjecture that symphony attendance for
 

some patrons serves social needs beyond
 

any cultural needs it may fulfill.
 

Nonuseful predictors. The important variables in the multiple regression analysis
 

are not always identical with those in
 

simple correlations. This is because, in
 

the regression analysis, information supplied by variables introduced at ene point
 

may be highly correlated with information
 

supplied by variables introduced at earlier points. The variables introduced
 

later thus do not appear as important as
 

they would have by themselves. It is interesting to consider which variables did
 

not enter the equations.
 

First, none of the standard socioeconomic
 

variablesneducation, sex, income, occupation, and so forthnturns out to be a significant predictor of likely attendance
 

when attitudes and life-style factors are
 

considered. Where other studies find these
 

socioeconomic variables significant, it is
 

probably because the broader set of variables added here is not included. The second factor that does not appear is demographic variation, outlined in Table 8,
 

and specifically, variations across cities.
 

Table 8 Demographic differences among leisure life-style groups 

24 
Although figures indicate that Columbia
 

had been only half as responsive to the
 

symphony as Atlanta at the time this study
 

was made, the analysis determined that
 

this difference is not strong enough to
 

produce a significant effect on likely
 

future attendance. This gives some confidence that the results reported here are
 

generalizable across cities of different
 

sizes and different cultural opportunities
 

in the South, and possibly in other regions as well.
 

Implications of the associational approach
 

The associational approach to segmentation
 

has clear implications for building arts
 

audiences. It suggests that one should
 

concentrate on the factors now leading to
 

likely attendance and use them to identify
 

target audiences. Where there is some opportunity to modify these factors, they
 

should be used in programs to motivate attendance by present nonattenders. In the
 

present analysis, three factors show through
 

for both symphony and theatre: attitudes,
 

life styles, and childhood interest in the
 

arts. These three should be the starting
 

point for any marketing approach based on
 

this analysis.
 

Attitudes. How positive one expects the
 

outcome to be clearly affects whether one
 

will attend theatre or symphony. It will
 

be recalled that these attitude measures
 

had three components: expectations regarding the likelihood of obtaining particular benefits; the importance of those
 

benefits; and the perception of whether
 

significant others expect one to attend.
 

Thus, one can deduce that future attendance may be increased and arts audiences
 

broadened by any of the following three
 

approaches: improving expectations about
 

important outcomes; increasing the importance weights for outcomes where expectations are highly positive; or increasing
 

the perceived pressure to attend brought
 

by significant others.
 

Improving expectations. The study found that
 

there are twelve expectation dimensions
 

on which nonattenders are significantly
 

less positive than attenders about outcomes from going to the theatre, and nine
 

such dimensions for symphony. Further, it
 

indicated that there are seven attributes
 

with average importance scores above 3.15
 

for nonattenders for both theatre and symphony. If the intersection of these two
 

groups is considered--those attributes where
 

expectations are significantly low while
 

the importance weight is high--four dimensions are found for theatre and five for
 

symphony that merit attention. Improved
 

attendance for both theatre and symphony
 

may result if nonattenders become more
 

positive about the following: the likelihood that they will like the particular
 

program; the likelihood that they will
 

understand what is going on; the likelihood that those with whom they attend will
 

have a good time; and the likelihood that
 

the evening will prove stimulating.
 

In addition, theatre attendance might be
 

enhanced if nonattenders felt that the cast
 

would include better performers, and symphony attendance might be increased if
 

nonattenders were persuaded that they were
 

not going to waste their time.
 

Increasing importances. In marketing in
 

general, increasing importance weights is
 

a much more difficult task than changing
 

perceptions, and often takes many years.
 

The analysis suggests that the problem
 

25
 
in the arts is even more difficult
 

because there are only two cases where
 

nonattenders report significantly lower
 

importances than do attenders, and where
 

expectations are also relatively high
 

(above 3.00). Both of these cases apply
 

to theatre: understanding what is going on
 

and feeling that one’s companions are having a good time. That these are both dimensions where expectations are also significantly lower for nonattenders suggests
 

that they may be areas particularly ripe
 

for promotional focus.
 

Increasing the impact of significant others. Attenders are substantially more
 

likely than nonattenders to agree that
 

significant others expect them to attend
 

theatre and symphony. The scores for the
 

two groups are as follows:
 

Theatre Symphony 

Attenders 2.29 2.54 

Nonattenders 1.99 2.04 

This factor may potentially be used to induce more attendance through promotions
 

aimed at stimulating personal influence.
 

Promotions might show the different types
 

of present attenders, or might encourage
 

present attenders to bring nonattenders to
 

performances. The latter is a suggestion
 

that will be discussed more fully later.
 

Focus on specific leisure life-style groups
 

As any arts administrator knows, Culture
 

Patrons are excellent prospects for attendance at arts events. The use of mailing
 

lists, programs, and billboards for one
 

performing art to encourage attendance at
 

another should be common practice in the
 

arts, although reluctance to share mailing lists seems surprisingly high among
 

administrators in this field. What is new
 

and striking is the indication that likely attendance at symphony concerts is high
 

in the Socially Active group. This finding suggests that promotions emphasizing
 

the social dimensions of symphony attendance may bear considerable fruit among
 

this group.
 

To focus a strategy on members of a specific leisure life-style group, such as the
 

5ocially Active, it is useful to have such
 

information as their socioeconomic characteristics, media habits, and general
 

life-style tendencies. No significant differences emerged across the six groups in
 

media habits. Tables 6-9 report those factors that were significantly different
 

across leisure life-style groups. These
 

differences yield the following additional
 

insights:
 

The Passive Homebodies tend to be older,
 

with a high proportion being retired
 

or widowed. They are less educated and
 

Table 9 Early interest in arts and amount of leisure time, by leisure life-style group 

26 
lower in socioeconomic status than other
 

groups. Slightly over one-fourth of them
 

are nonwhite, which is quite hiqh compared
 

with the other five groups. They are highly traditional and see themselves as opinion leaders. They have had greater than
 

average interest in theatre and classical
 

music as children.
 

The Active Sports Enthusiasts as also seen
 

from Table 6 tend more often to be teenagers, single adults, or young marrieds,
 

with highly educated parents. They are
 

more likely than the overall sample to be
 

nonwhite, to comprise a high proportion of
 

two-worker households, and to work full-


time at moderate-status jobs. They feel
 

more defeated in life and have more automobiles than the sample average.
 

The Inner-directed, Self-sufficients tend
 

tQ be married, to have both young and older
 

children, to have the highest income level
 

of all six groups, and to have the lowest
 

percentage of nonwhites of the groups.
 

They tend neither to feel defeated nor to
 

see themselves as opinion leaders.
 

The Culture Patrons are members of a highly distinctive group heavily represented
 

in the earliest life-cycle stages. They
 

are optimistic, city-oriented, and highly
 

educated, with high-status occupations but
 

moderate incomes. As children, they had
 

a great deal of interest in theatre and
 

classical music.
 

The Active Homebodies tend to be older married couples. Although they represent a
 

low proportion of two-worker households,
 

they tend to be high-income families, and
 

they often report that they have more than
 

average leisure time.
 

The Socially Actives tend to have children
 

six and over. Socially Actives are also
 

more likely to be retired and nonwhite.
 

They have more leisure time than the sample
 

average, and hadavery high interest in classical music and theatre as children.
 

These profiles suggest that if symphony
 

marketers wish to promote to Socially Active respondents, they should aim their
 

messages toward older and retired people who
 

are active in giving and going to dinners
 

and parties, possibly portraying a visit to
 

the symphony with other mature, socially
 

active people as a natural complement to
 

their active, social life style. The study’s
 

discovery that this group has more leisure
 

time and presumably fewer family responsibilities than most other groups leads to
 

the speculation that they may be enlisted
 

as workers as well as attenders at the symphony if taking part in a fund drive or
 

related activity can be envisioned as carried out in the company of other mature
 

adults and as part of an active social
 

life style.
 

Importance of childhood interest in
 

performing arts
 

It seems clear from the information presentented ih Table 9 that early interest
 

is a predictor of likely arts attendance
 

as it is of many other leisure behaviors.
 

It appears reasonable, therefore, to suggest that if theatre and symphony organizations have not already done so, they
 

should develop such offerings as active
 

youth programs, young people’s concerts or
 

plays, in-school programs, and youth discounts. At a conference on planning for
 

the arts held at the University of Illinois, Urbana in January 1978, Bradley Morison , marketing consultant to many arts
 

organizations, stated his belief that the
 

development of an active children’s theatre program at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis was largely responsible for a
 

drop of five years in the average age of
 

theatre attenders at the Guthrie between
 

1963 and 1973. This infusion of youthful
 

attenders, Morison argues, is a source of
 

continuing vitality to such established
 

organizations. Constant measurement of
 

the effects of youth programs therefore
 

seems advisable. It should also be routine for performing arts organizations to
 

develop mailings lists of participants in
 

school or youth programs if this early exposure is to be turned into active adult
 

patronage of symphony and theatre. It
 

27
 
may also be useful to consider longer-term
 

series discount programs, perhaps billed
 

as "learners’ discounts," to encourage
 

adult as well as youth patronage.
 

Weaknesses in the associational approach
 

One weakness in the associational approach
 

is that it measures association, which is
 

not the same as causation. The implications drawn above assume causation, but it
 

is entirely possible that the causation
 

may be in the other direction or due to some
 

third variable. Attendance at theatre and
 

symphony may, for example, plausibly lead
 

to favorable attitudes toward them, and
 

not the other way around. Further, attendance at theatre or symphony may have led
 

to attendance at other cultural institutions, not the reverse. This is somewhat
 

less plausible, but as Ryans and Weinberg
 

(1977) point out, very little is known about
 

how people "learn" to attend arts events
 

over time. The problem with this causation/association ambiguity is that it
 

leaves unanswered the question: Will a
 

particular change in marketing strategy
 

cause the desired result simply because
 

it is associated with the desired result?
 

A second weakness in the associational approach is that it is based on a measure of
 

likely future attendance that may be a poor
 

predictor of actual future attendance.
 

A third weakness is that this approach in
 

some instances does not directly relate to
 

the marketing-mix elements that an arts administrator can manipulate. Associational
 

analysis has indicated, for example, that
 

if specific attitude elements were changed,
 

a general increase in arts attendance could
 

occur; but it has not said how to make such
 

changes. As a consequence, there is no
 

certainty that a particular message strategy developed by an administrator will lead
 

to the desired changes in the attitude elements and hence to the desired behavior
 

change.
 

28 
CHAPTER IV
 

MANIPULATIONS APPROACH TO
 

FUTURE ATTENDANCE
 

A principal concern in this study was to
 

assess the sample’s responsiveness to proposed changes in offerings made by the
 

performing arts in the communities under
 

study. To do this, a series of "what if"
 

statements was constructed, embodying new
 

offerings that had been tried in certain
 

communities and that could be explained
 

to respondents in telephone interviews.
 

It is essential to point out at this juncture that "what if" questions are biased
 

predicators of actual short-run behavior.
 

Respondents are speculating on their future behavior with respect to hypothetical
 

alternatives. The likelihood of their
 

carrying through their speculation should
 

the alternative be introduced is low. For
 

this reason, the responses reported in the
 

following discussion cannot be considered
 

good predictors of absolute response levels.
 

It is still useful to ask about hypothetical offers, however, because it may be
 

assumed that whatever bias is found in the
 

answers is constant across the hypothetical offers. That is, if the response to hypothetical offering X is greater than the
 

response to hypothetical offering Y, then
 

the response to real offering X would be
 

greater than the response to real offering Y, although the responses to the real
 

offerings may be lower than the responses
 

to the hypothetical offerings. This reasonable assumption permits investigators to
 

compare similarly biased offerings. This
 

is, indeed, the objective: to discover
 

which offerings promise relatively more
 

effectiveness in broadening the audience
 

for the performing arts.
 

The marketing strategies of major business
 

organizations revolve around manipulations
 

of what one author has called "the four
 

P’s" (McCarthy, 1971) :
 

Product: what products and services are
 

offered 

Price: what level and conditions of retail cost are established 

Place: where and how the products and 

services are offered
 

Promotion:	 where and how information and
 

attitude-change messages
 

about the offerings are communicated
 

In the context of telephone interviews, it
 

was not possible to manipulate the promotion element of the mix of marketing variables. However, the following variables
 

were manipulated: product variables,
 

which were type of performance, quality
 

of performance, formality of atmosphere,
 

and extent of learning opportunities;
 

price variables, which were price of multiple tickets for single performances, cost
 

and effort of securing tickets at regular
 

prices, and special reduced ticket prices;
 

and place variables, through changing the
 

location of the performance. Some of the
 

variables were offered individually; some
 

were introduced in combinations either to
 

assess interactions or to make particular
 

offerings more realistic.
 

Manipulatin~ the product
 

Respondents were asked to state their likely reaction to each of the five product
 

variables listed above.
 

Type of performance. It has been argued
 

that a major vehicle for broadening audiences is to offer programs that would
 

better meet the needs of infrequent at-


tenders or nonattenders. Thus, in this
 

study, respondents were asked whether they
 

would go "much more often," "somewhat more
 

often, .... as often," or "less often" if
 

more of the following were offered.
 

Symphony: Symphonies by classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven; symphonies by romantic composers such as Brahms
 

and Tchaikovsky; music by contemporary
 

composers such as Stravinsky; concertos
 

with soloists; choral music.
 

Theatre: Musical comedies such as South
 

Pacific or Showboat; classical plays such
 

as Hamlet or Macbeth; we!l-known American
 

dramas such as Death of a Salesman or A
 

Streetcar Named Desire; modern comedie~
 

such as The Sunshine Boys; original plays
 

that have never been done before.
 

Quality of performance. Again, it has been
 

argued that new audiences can be attracted
 

by the appearance of well-known performers.
 

Respondents were asked if they would change
 

their frequency of attendance in the following cases.
 

Symphony: If guest conductors and famous
 

soloists appeared with the orchestra more
 

frequently.
 

Theatre: If famous actors and actresses
 

appeared with the company more frequently.
 

Formality of atmosphere. Manynonattenders
 

seem intimidated by what they think is the
 

formality of arts performances, particularly at symphony concerts were respondents
 

29
 
 

asked whether they would go more or less
 

often "if you knew that people were dressing more informally."
 

Extent of learninq opportunities. Many of


those who rarely or never go to arts events
 

say they don’t attend because they "would
 

not understand what was going on." Respondents therefore were asked whether
 

they would attend more often in the following cases.
 

Symphony: If there was a short introductory talk about the music by the conductor
 

before the performance.
 

Theatre: If there was a short discussion
 

of the play by the director after the performance.
 

Manipulating price
 

Economists argue strongly that the demand
 

for most goods and services is determined
 

largely by price. A series of questions
 

was asked to test this proposition by finding out if infrequent attenders and nonattenders might be responsive to price
 

manipulations.
 

Price of multiple tickets for sinqle performances. Businesses often stimulate
 

sales by offering price reductions when
 

customers buy second or third items. Thus,
 

respondents were asked:
 

Would you go more often, much more often,
 

somewhat more often, or less often than
 

you do now if after purchasing one ticket
 

at regular price you could get a second
 

ticket at 50 percent off?
 

Cost and effort of securing tickets at reqular prices. Businesses have long recognized that the cost of a purchase to a
 

consumer is more than the price of the
 

product itself. The purchasing act involves seeking information beforehand,
 

going to the selected outlet, paying for
 

the item, and carrying it home. To reduce such effort costs, merchants permit
 

telephone and credit sales and offer home
 

delivery. Such options are not always
 

available for the performing arts; although,
 

of the cities studied, Atlanta offers telephone and credit card purchases. Thus,
 

respondents were asked whether they would
 

go more often "if tickets could be purchased by telephone and charged to a national or department store credit card."
 

Manipulating location
 

Businesses have recognized that a cost of
 

purchasing by consumers in old, downtown
 

stores is the effort to get there and, in
 

some cases, uneasiness and fear because
 

such stores are in what is perceived as
 

an increasingly "foreign" environment.
 

This is also a problem for many arts centers and theatres located in central-city
 

areas. Many of them are seeking to overcome the problem by bringing performances
 

to the people in neighborhood schools, auditoriums, and theatres. The study encompassed this alternative by asking about
 

neighborhood performances. In most communities, however, neighborhood performances
 

are given in performing spaces that are
 

less adequate than downtown theatres or
 

concert halls, and that may therefore deter many would-be patrons. To compensate
 

for this and to add an extra incentive,
 

most touring companies offer some price
 

discounts. To encompass all features, the
 

following alternative was presented: "Suppose that. . performances were given five
 

times a year in a location nearer your home.
 

The performing space wouldn’t be as nice as
 

[name of major theatre or concert hall in
 

city], but the prices would be 20 percent
 

lower. Would you go much more often, some-.
 

what more often, as often, or less often
 

than you do now?"
 

Combined manipulations
 

Several major cities are experimenting with
 

discounts for tickets unsold on the day of
 

the performance. While this represents a
 

price saving for consumers, it usually involves poorer seating. To determine the
 

sample’s response to such amarketing strategy, respondents were asked about their
 

likely patronage under the following circumstances: "Suppose that next year unsold
 

tickets. . . could be obtained at regular
 

ticket outlets for 50 percent off on the
 

day of the performance. The seats usually
 

would not be as good as those bought in
 

advance. Would you go much more often,
 

somewhat more often, as often, or less often than you do now?"
 

Results of manipulations
 

All who indicated some likelihood of attending theatre or symphony in the next
 

year or two were asked whether their attendance would change if several changes
 

were made in the offerings of these performing arts. Two questions are of interest
 

here: Are some manipulations more effective than others in increasing arts attendance? Are some manipulations more effective than others in broadening the audience?
 

Effect of manipulations on audience size.
 

The answer to the first question is clearly
 

"yes." Indices of relative effectiveness
 

were computed for twelve manipulations for
 

symphony and twelve for theatre as follows:
 

Respondents saying they would go "much more
 

often"as a result of a manipulation were
 

counted as two additional attendances; respondents saying "more often" were counted
 

3O
 
as one. Respondents saying they would go
 

"less often" were counted as one fewer
 

future attendance.
 

The resulting number of net new attendances was divided by the number of respondents to yield an effectiveness score for
 

the manipulation.
 

Each effectiveness score was divided by
 

the average effectiveness score for all
 

twelve manipulations and multiplied by
 

one hundred to yield the indices reported
 

below.
 

These calculations make reasonable and conservative assumptions that allow comparisons of the relative effectiveness of
 

each manipulation. The resulting indices,
 

broken down separately for those who did
 

and did not attend in the past year, are
 

in Tables 10 and ii. The indices presented
 

for nonattenders show two obviously superior strategies for drawing more members
 

of this group to the theatre and symphony:
 

introducing more "star" performers, and
 

offering second tickets for half price.
 

Equally potent for theatre nonattenders is
 

the presentation of more musical comedies.
 

Of somewhat lesser effect for concert nonattenders are the offer of tickets at half
 

off on the day of the performance, and the
 

presentation of a short discussion of the
 

work before the performance.
 

Effect of manipulations on audience composition. The above strategies broaden
 

the audience in the sense that they have
 

high impact on nonattenders, but many also
 

have high impact on attenders. To ascertain whether some of the strategies just
 

discussed have different effects on each
 

group, direct comparisons were made of responses of those who attended symphony or
 

theatre in the past year and those who did
 

not. The comparisons show that four strategies were more significantly effective


with symphony nonattenders than with at-


tenders: offering choral music; assuring
 

that people were dressing more informally;
 

offering symphony performances five times


a year nearer home, in inferior performing space but at prices 20 percent lower;
 

and including more famous performers.
 

These findings present two problems. First,
 

it should be noted that according to Table
 

i0, offering choral music had the lowest
 

total effectiveness of all the strategies,
 

and nearer locations and greater informality drew only average responses among recent nonattenders. A second and more critical problem is ambiguity regarding the
 

differences mean that recent nonattenders
 

responded positively, or that recent at-


tenders responded negatively. Indeed, more
 

detailed analyses of responses within lifestyle groups indicate that the latter may
 

31
 

be the case, at least for the "dressing
 

informally" manipulation.
 

For theatre, there was no strategy that
 

was significantly more effective with recent nonattenders than with recent attenders.
 

Responses to manipulations across lifestyle groups. As this analysis has emphasized throughout, a key to people’s
 

responses to arts opportunities is an understanding of their leisure life styles.
 

Since these life styles reflect general
 

orientations toward leisure, one might expect that responsiveness to the manipulations employed would also vary by lifestyle group, and, indeed, the study showed
 

substantial variation.
 

In two cases each for symphony and theatre,
 

the differences across these groups in
 

response to the manipulations are significant. For symphony, the significant differences were in the effects of introducing
 

more choral music and of moving the performance nearer to the respondent’s home
 

combined with offering a 20 percent ticket discount. More choral music was most
 

attractive to Active Homebodies and least
 

attractive to Culture Patrons. A nearer
 

location appealed to Active Sports Enthusiasts but not to Passive Homebodies.
 

Responses to manipulations within lifestyle groups. Of critical interest to the
 

issue of broadening the audience is whether there are also differential effects on
 

attenders and nonattenders within each
 

life-style group. To investigate this
 

question, a series of cross tabulations
 

was constructed comparing the responses of
 

recent attenders and recent nonattenders
 

within each life-style group. In four cases
 

for symphony and two for theatre, manipulations yielded different effects for at-


tenders than for nonattenders within specific life-style groups.
 

For symphony, each of the four manipulations had more positive effects on nonattenders than on attenders, as seen in
 

Table i0. However, closer examination of
 

the data permits an assessment of whether
 

these differences are due to the nonattenders responding positively to the manipulation or to the attenders responding
 

negatively. Such an assessment is possible
 

by comparing the responses of attenders
 

and nonattenders within each of the significant life-style groups with the average responses of the remaining sample responding to the manipulation.
 

This analysis revealed that for three of
 

the four manipulations the differences are
 

due to a below-average response to the offering on the part of attenders, rather
 
Table 10 Effectiveness index of symphony strategies,

by attendance in past twelve months 

Non-


Attenders attenders
 

107
 

90
 

54
 

57
 

49
 

166
 

i00
 

121
 

180
 

81
 

121
 

112
 

32
 
Table 11	 Effectiveness index of theatre strategies,

by attendance in past twelve months 

Non-


Attenders attenders
 

150
 

15
 

115
 

104
 

30
 

160
 

83
 

63
 

157
 

60
 

95
 

81
 

33
 
than to a significantly above-average response on the part of nonattenders. Only
 

for the choral music manipulation were the
 

nonattenders in the significant life-style
 

group, the Passive Homebodies, positively
 

affected by the offering, which Table i0
 

shows as the weakest of the product manipulations. The manipulations of more informal dress, more famous performers, and
 

more contemporary music had slightly but
 

not significantly greater appeal to nonattenders than to attenders in the Culture
 

Patron and Socially Active groups.
 

Thus, the life-style analysis is useful on
 

two counts. It indicates not only which
 

groups are affected by the manipulation
 

but also whether it has differential impact because of its attractiveness or lack
 

of attractiveness to the attenders versus
 

the nonattenders in a particular segment.
 

The findings suggest that a differential
 

strategy for symphony, except perhaps for
 

Passive Homebodies, is not likely to be
 

warranted.
 

Of the two theatre manipulations for which
 

attender and nonattender differences emerged within life-style groups as seen in
 

Table ii, none offers the opportunity to
 

broaden the audience. Analysis shows that
 

offering the opportunity to buy theatre
 

tickets by telephone on credit appeals more
 

to attenders than to nonattenders among
 

both the Socially Active and Inner-directed, Self-sufficient life-style groups.
 

The same is true of offering more modern
 

comedies, which appealed more to the present attenders among the Socially Actives.
 

It would appear, therefore, that for both
 

symphony and theatre it is not possible,
 

except in one instance, to develop strategies that selectively broaden the audience-that is, strategies that positively
 

affect nonattenders while not discouraging
 

attenders. The preferred strategy for bringing in more past nonattenders is clearly
 

to offer alternatives, such as second tickets at half price, that have a high impact
 

on past nonattenders and also attract more
 

patronage from recent attenders.
 

34 
 

APPENDICES
 

APPENDIX A
 

VARIMAX ROTATED FACTOR MATRIX: CORRELATIONS
 

OF VARIABLES WITH GENERAL LIFE-STYLE FACTORS
 

APPENDIX B
 

SYMPHONY AND THEATRE ATTENDANCE TELEPHONE
 

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
 
APPENDIX A 

VARIMAX ROTATED FACTOR MATRIX: CORRELATIONS 

OF VARIABLES WITH GENERAL LIFE-STYLE FACTORS 

Tradition- Hedonism/ 

Optimism Defeatism 

Self 

confidence/ 

Opinion 

leadership 

Cosmopoli- Outdoor 

tanism interest 

04
 

O8
 

19
 

12
 

23
 

- 03
 

2O
 

.15
 

.01
 

36
 
 

APPENDIX A (continued)
 

SelfTraditionalism 

Hedonism/ 

Optimism Defeatism 

confidence/ 

Opinion 

leadership 

Cosmopolitanism 

Outdoor 

interest 

-.04 .39 -.02 .10 -.09 .08 

.07 .01 -.09 .17 .01 .01 

.35 .08 .18 .04 -.03 .00 

-.09 .21 .20 .27 .12 .i0 

.26 .16 -.07 .ii .i0 -.08 

.04 .14 .05 .46 .06 .04 

.36 .00 .00 -.08 -.01 .08 

.03 .04 .31 .03 .03 .08 

.19 -.19 .35 .03 .16 .00 

.07 .13 .ii .12 .18 .16 

-.10 .46 .07 .19 .05 .04 

-.03 .12 .07 .06 .34 -.19 

.14 .23 .03 .27 .ii .25 

-.18 .03 .25 .24 .25 -.01 

.09 .ii .47 -.03 -.01 .01 

.03 .32 .i0 .07 .14 .17 

-.19 .20 .13 .04 .45 .03 

-.09 .53 .18 .03 .26 -.05 

.07 .39 .01 .04 -.03 .08 

.35 -.10 .08 -.07 .06 -.08 

.45 -.23 -.03 -.01 -.02 .07 

37
 
 

APPENDIX B
 

SYMPHONY AND THEATRE ATTENDANCE
 

TELEPHONE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
 

The telephone interview is summarized here
 

in a narrative form. The full report with
 

responses may be consulted at the Arts Endowment Research Division Library.
 

Hello, my name is , and I am
 

calling from the (organization) in (citz) .
 

We are doing a study for the University of
 

Illinois of how people in this area spend
 

their leisure time. People fourteen years of
 

age or older will be interviewed in several southern communities.
 

A.	 How many people, fourteen years of age
 

or older, are currently living in this
 

household?
 

B.	 So that we can randomly choose which
 

household member to interview, could
 

you please tell me, starting with the
 

head of the household, the sex and age


of each person fourteen years of age
 

or older, and their relation to the head?
 

(A series of coded response frequencies
 

here and at certain other points in the
 

questionnaire allows the interviewer to
 

summarize and group answers.)
 

i. Im~the past twelve months, how many times
 

did you: go to a live popular or rock
 

concert; listen to classical music on
 

radio, TV, records, or tape; visit an
 

art gallery or museum; go to a live
 

classical music performance other than
 

a symphony concert; see a ballet either live or on TV?
 

2.	 Can you play a musical instrument?
 

3.	 Have you ever worked for a theatre,
 

music, or dance production?
 

4. a. In the past twelve months, how many
 

times did you go to see a play?
 

(Unless answer is none, skip to Question 5)
 

b.	 Have you attended three or more live
 

plays some time in your life?
 

(If no, skip to Question 6a; if yes,
 

skip to Question 7)
 

5.	 In the past twelve months, how many
 

times did you go to a symphony orchestra concert?
 

(If none, skip to Question 7)
 

6. a. In the past twelve months, how many
 

times did you go to a symphony orchestra concert?
 

(Unless none, skip to Question 8)
 

b.	 Have you attended three or more symphony concerts some time in your life?
 

(If yes, skip to Question 9)
 

(End interview if all zeros, otherwise skip to
 

Question 9; also end interview if any answer
 

is three or more and last digit of phone
 

number is even.)
 

7. Now I would like you to think about
 

the last time you went to a play.
 

a. How much did one ticket cost? (Obtain amount or allow don’t know)
 

b. Did you or anyone in your household pay for that ticket? (Yes or no)
 

c.	 Besides the ticket, how much would
 

you say the occasion cost your
 

household? Please include items
 

such as babysitters, travel, parking, food, drinks, etc. (Obtain
 

amount, or allow nothing or don’t
 

know; if nothing, skip to Question 9)
 

d. How many people’s expenses did
 

this cover?
 

8. Now I would like you to think about
 

the last time you went to a symphony
 

concert.
 

a. How much did one ticket cost? (Obtain amount or allow don’t know)
 

b. Did you or anyone in your household pay for that ticket? (Yes or no)
 

c.	 Besides the ticket, how much would
 

you say the occasion cost’your
 

household? Please include items
 

such as babysitters, travel, parking, food, drinks, etc. (Obtain
 

amount, or allow nothing or don’t
 

know; if nothing, skip to Question 9)
 

d. How many people’s expenses did
 

this cover?
 

(Ask everyone):
 

9. For each of the following activities,
 

please tell me how often you do it:
 

go bowling, travel by airplane other
 

than for business, go to a sports
 

event, watch a sports event on TV,
 

give or attend a party, go out to
 

dinner at a restaurant, go to a
 

meeting of a social or service club,
 

38
 
play tennis, go on a picnic, work on
 

an arts or crafts project of your own,
 

go to church or synagogue, read a book
 

for pleasure, see a movie in a movie
 

theatre, do yard work or gardening
 

outdoors, play golf, work on your car,
 

watch TV other than sports events, go
 

hiking. (Indicate often, sometimes,
 

seldom, never, or don’t know)
 

i0. a. If you were making plans to go out
 

in the next month, from what sources
 

would you get information about what
 

entertainment was available: newspaper ads, radio, TV, friends, newspaper articles, mail material, posters and leaflets, other sources
 

that you can specify? (Circle as
 

many as apply)
 

b. Which newspapers, if any, do you
 

read regularly? (Obtain names or
 

allow none)
 

Ii. a. How interested were you in live
 

theatre when you were growing up?
 

b. How interested were your parents
 

in live theatre when you were growing up?
 

c.	 How interested were you in classical music when you were growing up?
 

d. How interested were your parents
 

in classical music when you were
 

growing up?
 

(For Ii a, b, c, and d,indicate very
 

interested, somewhat interested, not
 

very interested, not at all interested,
 

or don’t know)
 

12.	 How much leisure time would you say
 

you have compared to other people you
 

know? (Indicate much more, a little more,
 

about the same, a little less, a lot
 

less, or don’t know)
 

13.	 If you were to go to a live, professional play in the next month or two,
 

how likely would it be that you would
 

experience the following: you could
 

get exactly the seats you wanted; it
 

would not take a long time to get from
 

your home into the theatre; you would
 

feel comfortable with the audience;
 

you would not find the play too long;
 

you would feel personally involved
 

with what was going on at the performance; you would find your friends there;
 

you would feel pleased long before the
 

performance day that you were going;
 

you would find the tickets inexpensive;
 

you would not feel that it was too formal an occasion; you would find the
 

performers excellent; you would not
 

feel you’d spent too much for the occasion, that is, for tickets, travel,
 

food, and the like; you would like the
 

play; you would feel you understood
 

what was going on; you would find that
 

those you were with were having a good
 

time; you would learn a lot; you would
 

not feel you were wasting your time;
 

you would feel stimulated? (Indicate
 

very likely, somewhat ].ikely, somewhat unlikely, very unlikely, or don’t
 

know)
 

14.	 We’ve just talked about how likely it
 

would be to experience certain things
 

when going to a live play. If you
 

were to go to a live, professional
 

play in the next month or two, how
 

important would it be that you would
 

experience these same things? What
 

about: being able to get exactly the
 

seats you want; not taking a long time
 

to get from home into the theatre;
 

feeling comfortable with the audience;
 

not finding the play too long; feeling
 

personally involved in what’s going on
 

at the performance; finding your friends
 

there; feeling pleased long before the
 

performance day that you were going;
 

finding the tickets inexpensive; not
 

feeling that it was too formal an occasion; finding the performers excellent; not feeling you had spent too
 

much for tickets, trave!, food, and the
 

like; liking the play; feeling you
 

understood what was going on; finding
 

that those you were with were having
 

a good time; learning a lot; not feeling that you were wasting your time;
 

feeling stimulated?(Indicate very important, somewhat important, somewhat unimportant, very unimportant, neutral,
 

or don’t know)
 

15.	 If you were to go to a symphony concert in the next month or two, how
 

likely would it be that you would experience the following: you could get
 

exactly the seats you wanted; it would
 

not take a long time to get from your
 

home into the concert hall; you would
 

fee! comfortable with the audience;
 

you would not find the concert too long;
 

you would feel personally involved with
 

what was going on at the performance;
 

you would find your friends there;
 

you would feel pleased long before the
 

performance day that you were going;
 

you would find the tickets inexpensive;
 

you would not feel it was too formal
 

an occasion; you would find the performers excellent; you would not feel
 

you’d spent too much for the occasion,
 

that is, for tickets, travel, food,and
 

the like; you would like the program;
 

you would feel you understood what was
 

going on; you would find that those
 

39
 
 

you were with were having a good time;
 

you would learn a lot; you would not
 

feel you were wasting your time; you
 

would feel stimulated? (Indicate very
 

likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely, very unlikely, or don’t know)
 

16.	 We’ve just talked about how likely it
 

would be to experience certain things
 

when going to a symphony concert. If
 

you were to go to a symphony concert
 

in the next month or two, how important would it be that you would experience these same things? What about:
 

being able to get exactly the seats
 

you want; not taking a long time to
 

get from home into the concert hall;
 

feeling comfortable with the audience;
 

not finding the concert too long; feeling personally involved in what’s going
 

on at the performance; finding your
 

friends there; feeling pleased long
 

before the performance day that you
 

were going; finding the tickets inexpensive; not feeling that it was too
 

formal an occasion; finding the performers excellent; not feeling you had
 

spent too much for the occasion, that
 

is, for tickets, travel, food, and the
 

like; liking the program; feeling you
 

understood what was going on; finding
 

that those you were with were having a
 

good time; learning a lot; not feeling
 

that you were wasting your time; feeling stimulated?(Indicate veryimportant,
 

somewhat important, somewhat unimportant, very unimportant, neutral, or
 

don’t know)
 

17. a. How likely do you think you are to
 

attend a symphony concert in the
 

next year or two? (Indicate very likely, somewhat likely, not very likely, or not at all likely; if not
 

very likely or not at all likely,
 

skip to Question 25)
 

b. About how much would you expect to
 

pay for a ticket to a symphony orchestra concert? (Obtain amount or
 

allow don’t know)
 

c.	 How would you describe the quality
 

of a typical concert?(Indicate excellent, good, fair, poor, or don’t
 

know)
 

d. About how many minutes does it take
 

to get from your home to [name of
 

concert hall]? (Obtain time,or allow
 

don’t know)
 

18.	 Now I’m going to suggest some different
 

kinds of symphony offerings for you to
 

react to. If these offerings were made,
 

would it affect how often you go to
 

symphony?
 

a.	 Suppose that next year unsold tickets for performances of the __
 

Symphony could be obtained at regular ticket outlets for 50 percent
 

off on the day of the performance.
 

The seats usually would not be as
 

good as those bought in advance.
 

b.	 Suppose that symphony performances
 

were given five times a year in a
 

location nearer your home. The
 

performing space wouldn’t be as nice
 

as [name of concert
 

hall] but the prices would be 20
 

percent lower.
 

(Indicate would go much more often,
 

somewhat more often, as often, less
 

often, or don’t know)
 

19.	 Now, how would the following offerings
 

affect the frequency of your attendance at s~rmphony:
 

a.	 if tickets could be purchased by
 

telephone and charged to anational
 

or department store credit card;
 

b. if there was a short introductory
 

talk about the music by the conductor before the performance;
 

c.	 if after purchasing one ticket at
 

regular price you could get a second ticket at 50 percent off;
 

d.	 if you knew that people were dressing more informally at the concert;
 

e.	 if guest conductors and famous soloists appeared with the orchestra
 

more frequently?
 

(Indicate would go much more often,
 

somewhat more often, as often, less
 

often, or don’t know)
 

20. a. Do you currently subscribe to series tickets for symphony performances? (Indicate yes or no; if yes,
 

skip to Question 20c)
 

b.	 If you could get series tickets
 

guaranteeing good seats for several
 

symphony performances, would you
 

purchase such a series if there
 

was a 10 percent discount; 20 percent discount; 30 percent discount?
 

(Indicate yes, no, or don’t know;
 

when yes, circle accepted offering)
 

c.	 If you could get series tickets
 

which guaranteed good seats for
 

several symphony performances but
 

there was no price discount, would
 

you purchase such a series ticket?
 

(Indicate yes, no, or don’t know)
 

4O
 
21. a. Would you attend more symphony concerts than you do now if individual
 

ticket prices were reduced by $i;
 

reduced by $2; reduced by $3? (Indicate yes, no, or don’t know; when
 

yes, circle accepted offering)
 

b. Would you attend fewer concerts
 

than you do now if individual ticket prices were increased by $i;
 

increased by $2; increased by $3?
 

(Indicate yes, no,or don’t know;when
 

yes, circle accepted offering)
 

22.	 If the symphony concerts were to include more of the following kinds of
 

music, would that affect how often
 

you would go? What about: symphonies
 

by classical composers like Mozart
 

and Beethoven; symphonies by romantic
 

composers like Brahms and Tchaikovsky;
 

music by contemporary composers like
 

Stravinsky; concertos with soloists;
 

choral music? (Indicate would go much
 

more often, somewhat more often, as
 

often, less often, or don’t know)
 

23.	 Of these five types of music, which
 

one is your favorite: classical symphonies; romantic symphonies; contemporary classical music; concertos;
 

choral music; or some other type of
 

music that you can specify? (Circle
 

preferred type; if don’t know, skip
 

to Question 25)
 

24.	 Let’s suppose that your favorite kind
 

of music was presented more often
 

during the year, but ticket prices
 

were raised. Would you go to the symphony less frequently than you do now
 

if ticket prices were increased by $i;
 

increased by $2; increased by $3?
 

(Indicate yes, no, or don’t know;
 

when yes, circle offering)
 

25.	 Please tell me the extent to which you
 

agree or disagree with the following
 

statements: I have more spare time
 

than I need; if cultural organizations
 

cannot pay their own way, they should
 

go out of business; I like to attend
 

sporting events; I have somewhat old-


fashioned tastes and habits; I like
 

to be considered a leader; many of my
 

friends are interested in the theatre;
 

I wish I could leave my present life
 

and do something entirely different;
 

our family is a close-knit group; my
 

days seem to follow a definite routine, such as eating meals at the same
 

time each day; shopping is no fun; the
 

schools in this area provide adequate
 

opportunity for children to participate
 

in the arts and cultural activities; I
 

often wish for the good old days; I
 

usually know which plays are being
 

performed around here; I work under a
 

great deal of pressure most of the
 

time; I watch TV in order to relax
 

quietly; everything is changing too
 

fast these days; people tell me I
 

am good looking; every home with
 

children should have a complete set
 

of encyclopedias; a woman’s place
 

is in the home; I enjoy jazz music;
 

I’d rather read a good book than a
 

newspaper; American-made is the best
 

made; the father should be the boss
 

in the house; I enjoy many foreign
 

films; I am interested in the cultures of other countries; I will
 

probably have more money to spend
 

next year than I do now; people who
 

are important to me think I should
 

go to classical symphony concerts;
 

most of my friends have graduated
 

from college; I will probably move
 

at least once in the next five years;
 

I would like to take a trip around
 

the world; I’d pay extra for high
 

quality television programming;
 

children are the most important
 

thing in a marriage; my greatest
 

achievements are ahead of me; we
 

have more to spend on extras than
 

most of our neighbors; on a vacation,
 

I just want to rest and relax; the
 

arts are more important to me than
 

to most other people; I am the kind
 

of person who would try anything
 

once. (Indicate strongly agree,
 

agree, disagree, strongly disagree,
 

or don’t know)
 

26.	 a. How likely do you think you are to
 

attend a live professional theatre
 

performance in the next year or
 

two? (Indicate very likely, somewhat likely, not very likely, or
 

not at all likely; if not very
 

likely or not at all likely, skip
 

to Question 34)
 

b. About how much would you expect to
 

pay for a ticket to a theatre performance at [name of theatre]?
 

(Obtain amount or allow don’t know)
 

c.	 How would you describe the quality
 

of a typical performance there?
 

(Indicate excellent, good, fair,
 

poor, or don’t know)
 

d. About how many minutes does it
 

take to get from your home to [name
 

of theatre]? (Obtain time, or allow don’t know)
 

27.	 Now I’m going to suggest some different kinds of theatre offerings for
 

you to react to. If these offerings
 

were made, would it affect how often
 

you go to theatre?
 

41
 
 

a.	 Suppose that next year unsold
 

tickets for theatre performances
 

could be obtained at regular ticket
 

outlets for 50 percent off on the
 

day of the performance. The seats
 

usually would not be as good as
 

those bought in advance.
 

b.	 Suppose that theatre performances
 

were given five times a year in a
 

location nearer your home. The
 

performing space wouldn’t be as
 

nice as [name of theatre] but the prices would be 20
 

percent lower.
 

(Indicate would go much more often,
 

somewhat more often, as often, less
 

often, or don’t know)
 

28.	 Now, how would the following offerings
 

a~fect your attendance at theatre:
 

a.	 if theatre tickets could be purchased by telephone and charged to
 

a national or department store
 

credit card;
 

b. if there was a short discussion of
 

the play by the director after the
 

performance;
 

c.	 if after purchasing one ticket at
 

regular price you could get a second ticket at 50 percent off;
 

d. if you knew that people were dressing more informally at the theatre;
 

e.	 if famous actors and actresses appeared with the company more frequently?
 

(Indicate would go much more often,
 

somewhat more often, as often, less
 

often, or don’t know)
 

29. a. Do you currently subscribe to series tickets for the theatre? (In­

.dicate yes, no, or don’t know; if
 

yes, skip to Question 29c)
 

b.	 If you could get series tickets
 

guaranteeing good seats for several
 

plays, would you purchase such a
 

series if there was a 10 percent
 

discount; 20 percent discount; 30
 

percent discount?(Indicate yes,no,
 

or don’t know; when yes, circle
 

offering)
 

c.	 If you could get series tickets
 

which guaranteed good seats for
 

several plays but there was no
 

price discount, would you purchase
 

such a series ticket?(Indicate yes,
 

no, or don’t know)
 

30. a. Would you attend more plays than
 

you do now if ticket prices were
 

reduced by $1; reduced by $2; reduced by $3?(Indicate yes, no, or
 

don’t know; when yes, circle offering)
 

b. Would you attend fewer plays than
 

you do now if ticket prices were
 

increased by $i; increased by $2;
 

increased by $3?(Indicate yes, no,
 

or don’t know; when yes, circle
 

offering)
 

31.	 If the theatre offerings were to include more of the following kinds of
 

plays, would that affect how often
 

you would go? What about: musica!
 

comedies like South Pacific or Show
 

Boat; classical plays like Hamlet or
 

Macbeth; well-known American dramas
 

like Death of a Salesman or A Streetcar Named Desire; modern comedies
 

like The Sunshine Boys; original plays
 

that have never been done before?
 

(Indicate would go much more often,
 

somewhat more often, as often, less
 

often, or don’t know)
 

32.	 Of these five types of theatre offerings, which one is your favorite:
 

musical comedies; classical plays;
 

well-known American dramas; modern
 

comedies; original plays, or some
 

other type of theatre offering that
 

you can specify? (Circle preferred
 

type; if don’t know, skip to Question 34)
 

33.	 Let’s suppose that your favorite kind
 

of play was presented more often during the year, but ticket prices were
 

raised. Would you go to the theatre
 

less frequently than you do now if
 

prices were increased by $i; increased
 

by $2; increased by $3? (Indicate
 

yes, no, or don’t know; when yes,
 

circle offering)
 

34.	 For each of the following statements,
 

please tell me the extent to which
 

you agree or disagree: television is
 

my primary source of entertainment;
 

a college education is very important
 

for success in today’s world; I would
 

rather spend a quiet evening at home
 

than go to a party; I like adventure
 

movies; I am more self-confident than
 

most of my friends are; most of the
 

arts and cultural activities in this
 

area are not for someone like me; I
 

am a homebody; on a job, security is
 

more important than money; my major
 

hobby is my family; I pretty much
 

spend for today and let tomorrow take
 

care of itself; I do more things socially than most of my friends do; I
 

dread the future; I like to read nonfiction books; many of my friends are
 

interested in symphony concerts; I
 

42
 
 

don’t often listen to the radio; I
 

usually know which symphony concerts
 

are being performed around here; I am
 

usually among the first to try new
 

products; people who are important to
 

me think I should go to live plays;
 

I like to feel attractive to people
 

of the opposite sex; I can’t see myself going to an opera; I often seek
 

out the advice of my friends regarding brands and products; I would rather live near a big city than in or
 

near a small town; my friends and
 

neighbors often come to me for advice;
 

I glance at most of the pages of the
 

daily newspaper; a drink or two at
 

the end of a long day is a good way
 

to relax; if I had my life to live
 

over I would do things differently;
 

I want to look a little different from
 

others; I go to some movies to see
 

certain actors or actresses; I think
 

women’s liberation is a good thing;
 

I would like to spend a year in London
 

or Paris; I like to eat; I don’t like
 

to take chances; I would be content to
 

live in the same town the rest of my
 

life.(Indicate strongly agree, agree,
 

disagree, strongly disagree, or don’t
 

know)
 

Now, I’d like to ask you a few background
 

questions.
 

35.	 For how many years have you lived in
 

the [city] area? (Obtain
 

number of years or allow don’t know;
 

note if not applicable)
 

36. a. Are there any children under the
 

age of fourteen living in this household? (Indicate yes, no, or don’t
 

know; if no, skip to Question 37;
 

also, note if not applicable)
 

b. How many are under six years of age?
 

c. How many are six to thirteen years?
 

(Obtain numbers, or allow don’t know;
 

note if not applicable)
 

37.	 How many automobiles does your household own?
 

38.	 What is the highest grade or year of
 

school you have completed: none, elementary, high school, college, some
 

graduate study, graduate or professional degree. (Allow also don’t know)
 

39. a. Are you presently employed full-


time, employed part-time, temporrarily out of work, retired, not
 

usually employed (skip to Question
 

40), keeping house/homemaker (skip
 

to Question 40), or working at some
 

other occupation you can name (skip
 

43
 

to Question 40)? (Indicate also
 

don’t know; note if not applicable;
 

if retired or temporarily out of
 

work, ask about last occupation)
 

b. What is or was your main occupation


or job title?
 

c. What kind of work do or did you do;
 

that is, what are or were your duties on this job?
 

d. In what type of business or industry is or was this; that is, what
 

product is or was made or what service given?
 

40. Are you the head of this household?
 

(If yes, skip to Question 43a; allow
 

also no or don’t know, and note if
 

not applicable)
 

41.	 What is the highest grade or year of
 

school completed by the head of this
 

household: none, elementary, high
 

school, college, some graduate study,
 

graduate or professional degree. (Also allow don’t know)
 

42. a. Is the head of the household presently employed full-time, employed
 

part-time, temporarily out of work,
 

retired, not usually employed (skip
 

to Question 43a), keeping house/
 

homemaker (skip to Question 43a),
 

or working at some other occupation
 

that you can name (skip to Question 43a). (Allow also don’t know;
 

note if not applicable; if retired
 

or temporarily out of work, ask
 

about last occupation)
 

b. What is or was the main occupation
 

or job title of the head of the
 

household?
 

c. What kind of work does or did he/
 

she do; that is, what are or were
 

his/her duties on this job?
 

d. In what type of business or industry is or was this; that is, what
 

product is or was made or what service given?
 

43. a. What is the highest grade or year
 

of school your father completed:
 

none, elementary, high school,
 

college, some graduate study, graduate or professional degree. (Allow also don’t know; note if father
 

is head, or if not applicable)
 

b. What is the highest grade or year
 

of school your mother completed:
 

none, elementary, high school,
 

college, some graduate study, graduate or professional degree. (AI­
low also don’t know; note if mother
 

is head, or if not applicable)
 

44. a. What is your marital status? Are
 

you married, separated, divorced,
 

widowed, or never married? (Unless
 

married, skip to Question 45; allow also don’t know and note if
 

not applicable)
 

b. Is your spouse employed? (Allow
 

yes, no, or don’t know; note if
 

not applicable)
 

45.	 What is your racial background? (White/
 

Caucasian, Black/Negro/African-American, Oriental/Asian-American, Mexican-American/Puerto Rican/LatinAmerican, American Indian/NativeAmerican,
 

or other that you can specify; don’t
 

read categories unless respondent
 

does not understand; note also if not
 

applicable.
 

46.	 Considering all of the income from
 

employment and from all other sources
 

of everyone in your household, was
 

your total household income before
 

taxes last year: more than $7,000;
 

more than $i0,000; more than $12,000;
 

more than $15,000; more than $20,000;
 

more than $25,000; more than $50,000?
 

(Indicate yes, no, or don’t know;
 

when no, circle amount; note also
 

would not state income)
 

Thank you for your cooperation.
 

44 
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i. DiMaggio, Paul; Unseem, Michael; and
 

Brown, Paula. The American Arts and
 

Behavior: Its Study and Its Character. Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the
 

Study of Public Policy, 1977.
 

2. Fishbein, Martin, and Ajzen, Icek.
 

Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and
 

Research. Reading, Mass.: Addison-


Wesley, 1975.
 

3. Lansing, John B., and Kish, Leslie.
 

"Family Life Cycle as an Independent
 

Variable." American Sociological Review, 22 (October 1957): 512-19.
 

4. Lehmann, Donald K. "Television Show
 

Preference: Application of a Choice
 

Model." Journal of Marketing Research,
 

8 (February 1971): 47-55.
 

5. Eric Marder Associates, Inc. The Finances of the Performing Arts. New
 

York: Ford Foundation, 1974.
 

6. McCarthy, E. Jerome. Basic Marketing:
 

A Managerial Approach. 4th ed. Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1971.
 

7. National Research Center of the Arts,
 

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York: National Committee for Cultural
 

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8. Rosenberg, Milton J. "Cognitive
 

Structure and Attitudinal Affect."
 

Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 53 (November 1956): 367-72.
 

9. Ryans, Adrian B., and Weinberg, Charles
 

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46
 
 

REPORTS IN THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE
 

ARTS RESEARCH DIVISION SERIES
 

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studying matters of interest to the arts
 

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#i Employment and Unemployment of Artists:
 

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#3 Understanding the Employment of Actors.
 

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