Potency of Hair Clippers

On a recent vacation I was driving around with my brother in law and we were passing through a new development that looked to be influenced by the New Urbanist movement which tries to locate shopping and social needs within walking distance of residences. The place appeared to be designed with a Victorian feel from the building and street lamp design I saw emerging. There were signs in the windows announcing the imminent arrival of Starbucks and some soup company.

I was thinking about how nice it would be for these folks to have so much of what they need within walking distance since there was a shopping center with a supermarket right across the two lane road from this new development.

But then I remember why I was there and I realized there was no guarantee that people would necessarily patronize the stores closest to them. In fact, my situation made me realize why you can drive yourself crazy trying to predict trends in customer behavior. And if you are like me, you do indeed go crazy trying to discern why, all things appearing generally equal, one performance sold so much better or faster than another performance.

You see, my brother in law and I were going to get our haircut. I was 4,500 miles away from home and was going to get my haircut at the same salon chain I frequent at home because I wasn’t happy with the cuts I was getting at the many locations I tried at home. The fact I am frequenting a chain should be evidence enough that I am not terribly vain about my looks and so should also attest to how dissatisfied I was with my hair that I was getting it cut on vacation.

My brother in law on the other hand drove me past two other branches of this hair salon chain located much closer to his house to get to this one. After we passed the second one, I asked where the heck we were going. He told me the woman at this branch used to work in the one closest to his house and he hadn’t been happy with the job those who replaced her did so we were going to this place.

The thing is, because this salon is located in a largely undeveloped area there is only this one woman working at the branch. When we arrived she was out getting lunch for her son and herself. So we waited outside the door until she came back and then waited while she ate lunch and then waited while she cut the hair of the guy who had signed in before she took her lunch break.

I have to say we are both happy with our hair these days.

Obviously I am not going to be flying that far to get my hair cut nor am I going to wait until I return to visit my sister to get my next cut. What my little story is meant to illustrate is that even in areas a customer rates as unimportant to them there is a point that quality can fall below that suddenly makes it important enough to base a decision upon. The problem for anyone trying to sell a good or service is that the point is completely subjective and difficult to predict without some complex mathematical formulae. A situation where all things appear generally equal to you probably doesn’t to someone else.

In fact, sometimes the customer doesn’t quite know why they are making a decision. I can identify why I do my grocery shopping at a store miles from my house but on the way home from work and not the location the same chain two blocks from my house. (younger, cleaner building with own bakery vs. driving past my house and potentially hitting 4 traffic lights).

What I don’t know is why I have never had a problem with my haircuts until the last two years. I am sure in the time since my mother stopped cutting my hair I have had some pretty bad cuts. I couldn’t tell you why it bothers me now.

This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder if surveying audiences is of any value at all. We already know people often say they are interested in attending certain types of events and then never translate their stated interest into practice. Add motivations patrons aren’t consciously aware of influencing them and you start getting ready to tear your hair out.

Unless you are concerned about your coif, of course.

Finally A Captain At The Helm

As a denizen of Honolulu, I have been monitoring the leadership situation at the Honolulu Symphony off and on over the past few years. Up until the last week or so they have been without an executive director and a music director and suffered some tension on the board of directors. This past Saturday an article in the local newspaper announced that Tom Gulick has been apppointed executive director.

Gulick, who counts the Detroit Symphony in his background, was recently executive director of Ballet Pacifica which has had some tough times of its own. In March Gulick left his position there for personal reasons. The ballet’s development director left around the same time. A few weeks later, artistic director Ethan Stiefel also departed barely a year after his loudly trumpeted assumption of that position citing the cancellation of the 06-07 season due to lack of funds as his reason for leaving.

There is some good news as Gulick takes up the symphony’s reins. Just last month the state allocated a $4 million grant to the organization contingent on matching funds being raised. The state also gave the symphony $150,000 for education programs. The symphony has a new board president and has recruited 13 new board members.

Gulick will need all the backing he can as he leads the largest professional performing arts company in the state. Not only does the organization need to hire a music director, it is also in contract negotiations with the musicians union who agreed to a fairly significant paycut a few years ago.

Gulick also faces some public relations problems for the symphony. In an interview on Hawaii Public Radio (mp3 format), Gulick acknowledged that he would be making a “save the symphony” appeal to the same people who gave to save the organization a few years ago and a few years before that. Among his plans to gain the trust of the community is to have fiscal transparency.

He may also want to focus on the use of the symphony web site to reassure the public about the symphony’s strength and successes. Despite the articles and radio interviews that have occurred, as of this writing there is no mention on the website that Tom Gulick is executive director or even that the symphony was preparing to announce someone soon.

There has been some grumbling among season ticket holders over the past month. Editorials in the newspaper have been complaining about a new pricing scheme in the balcony. Two couples wrote that their balcony seats have tripled in price since last year and are on par with the cost of the most expensive orchestra seating. Both decided to pass on subscribing this year, but one couple reconsidered and renewed their seats, although it was for fewer performances. Another single ticket buyer wrote to say she tried to buy balcony seats but was told they wouldn’t be sold until the orchestra seating filled up. Faced with only $60 remaining, she walked away. Two of the writers noted that given the symphony needed to match the state grant, they were surprised the symphony would risk alienating them.

While I might question the amount of the increase and the timing of some decisions, for me this just underscores just how important box office policies are in audience relations. There are some situations when communicated clearly with patrons that earn understanding and tolerance. It is just difficult to make a compelling case in a subscription brochure or train box office people to effectively do it.

I have been approached by symphony musicians with proposals to have both chamber performances and full symphony concerts in my theatre as part of an outreach to my side of the island. It will be interesting to see if any sort of momentum in that direction will develop in the next 5 years or so. Alot of new housing is popping up out here so there is a potential for new audiences as well.

Young Board, Old Board, Your Board

I saw a very interesting article on board composition in Arts Presenter’s online version of Inside Arts Magazine. (Have to provide email address to read.)

The piece essentially tackled the idealism vs. practicality issue in relation to age of board members. While everyone strives to have younger people on their board, the reality is that the young folks often aren’t far enough along in their lives to offer a non-profit board the time and money (or social contacts with money) that more..seasoned..members of the community can.

Despite some ancedotes which support the idea that older people more easily meet the board requirements of many non-profits the article stresses the importance of making the effort to attract younger members. Their involvement in the board would have to recognize that they need time to raise families and aren’t able to meet the Give, Get or Get Off criteria at this stage in their lives.

Certainly it is just as important to recruit the right young members as it is older members and not just bring them on board because of their age. The article mentions quite a few benefits younger members can bring as well as pointing out some erroneous assumptions.

Give it a read.

Ball Thrown Round The World

I don’t know if anyone caught this Guardian article on Artsjournal.com in the last day or so. The story covers, Play on Earth, an effort by performance groups on three continents to create and interactively perform with one another with the help of technology. I had previously mentioned a related effort by MIT in an entry a couple years ago.

The Guardian article presents what may be a preview of the format the performing arts may take in the future. It seems quite ripe with possibility. It could be exciting to see how directors might exploit the real time chronological differences in clever ways.

The danger element inherent to having separate directors and casts who have never met each other might provide a draw to audiences as an alternative to the well-edited movie or television show. We often talk about one of the appeals of live performance being that anything can happen and this certainly reintroduces that concept. The irony is, it is the instability of network connection that contributes to this sense that catastrophe may be imminent. As technology improves, performances may have to up the ante in other areas to maintain the ambiance.