Influencing visitor perceptions of theaters: The role of innovative
visuals in marketing efforts in enhancing perceived
innovativeness of the firm
Salien Lisa Oosterman 6059651
Master of Science in Business Administration
Management and Entrepreneurship in Creative Industries
University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Economics and Business
31st of August 2015
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Abstract
Due to the distinctive nature of the high arts industry, Perceived Firm Innovativeness (PFI) has gained territory in this sector as greatly important for influencing consumer perceptions and behavior. Visual Brand Identity (VBI) is considered a vital factor in conveying perceptions of firms towards consumers. No attention has yet been paid to the use of photographic visuals in VBI for enhancing PFI. This paper seeks to explore the effect of using innovative visuals in marketing efforts on the perceived innovativeness of theaters. Second, it provides insights on the importance of innovative photography in evoking consumer curiosity and attention for the attached product. Lastly, it examines whether an abrupt visual style change is beneficial for enhancing PFI amongst performing arts visitors. A survey was conducted at a theater offering programs in the disciplines of opera and ballet. Findings suggest that innovative visuals in marketing efforts relate positively to perceived innovativeness of a theater. Additionally, evidence was found that perceived innovativeness of visuals helps in evoking visitor curiosity for performances. No effects of an abrupt visual style change on the relation between perceived innovativeness of visuals and the theater were reported in this research.
Key words: Perceived Firm Innovativeness, corporate image, Visual Brand Identity, visuals, marketing and communication practices, consumer curiosity, visual style change.
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Statement of originality
This document is written by Student Salien Lisa Oosterman who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.
The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.
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Acknowledgement
Writing this thesis would simply not have been possible without the support and advice of some key players, which I am very grateful to.
I would like to start by thanking my university supervisor Nachoem Wijnberg, for his critical view and his accurate way of focusing my attention. His guidance at the start of this period and throughout the process has been of great value for the completion of this thesis.
Next, I would like to thank Dutch National Opera & Ballet for providing me access to their database and for their trust in letting me contact their visitors on behalf of the theater. A very special thanks to Gerald van der Wijngaart, who at the start of this period sat down with me over coffee to discuss in what direction to go and was available for questions along the way.
Thank you, Marije Kuijs and Ralph Robert van Mook for your time and energy in reading through my draft and providing me with your feedback and insightful ideas.
I should also thank my roommate Nergis Engin, for jointly covering the living room table in paper this summer and being always up for an inspirational pep talk and some singing.
Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to friends and family for their sincere curiosity, infinite patience and encouraging words in moments of utter panic. It is your love and support that inspires me in pursuing my goals and will always be my raison d’être.
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Table of content
1. Introduction………...7
1.1 Academic relevance………..10
1.2 Structure of the thesis...11
2. Theoretical foundation………...12
Section 1………....12
2.1.1 Innovation and innovativeness………...12
2.1.2 Perceived Firm Innovativeness………..13
2.1.3 Perceived innovativeness as an aspect of corporate image………..15
2.1.4 Corporate image and cultural industries………...18
2.1.5 Perceived innovativeness in the performing arts industry...20
2.1.6 Changeability of corporate image...21
Section 2...23
2.2.1 Conveying perceived innovativeness...23
2.2.2 The importance of visuals...24
2.2.3 Innovative visuals as curiosity trigger...26
Section 3...27
2.3.1 Changing visual identity in case of a merger...27
2.3.2 The degree of difference between new and old visuals...30
3. Research design and methodology...30
3.1 Empirical setting...30
3.1.1 Visual style change...33
3.2 Sampling and data collection procedures...35
3.3 Representativeness and possible biases...37
3.4 Survey design...38
3.5 Variables and reliability...41
3.5.1 Independent variable………..41 3.5.2 Dependent variables………...42 3.5.3 Moderating variables………...44 3.5.4 Control variables………...45 4. Results...46 4.1 Descriptive statistics...46 4.2 Data cleaning...48 4.3 Distribution...49
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4.4 Multicollinearity...50
4.5 Hypothesis testing...51
4.5.1 Correlations...52
4.5.2 Hierarchical multiple regression analyses...53
5. Discussion...58
5.1 Hypotheses...59
5.2 Additional analyses...62
5.3 Theoretical implications...63
5.4 Practical implications...64
5.5 Limitations and recommendations for future research...65
6. Conclusion...72
References...73
Appendix 1 – Survey...82
Appendix 2 – Invitation to participate...95
Appendix 3 – Change of visual style depicted...96
Appendix 4 – Reliability of scales...98
Appendix 5 – Descriptive statistics...101
Appendix 6 – Distribution of variables...103
Appendix 7 – Multicollinearity...106
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1. Introduction
As consumers see their environments change with the quickest pace in history, companies find themselves in a situation of exponentially growing possibilities. This provides both opportunity and threat, since the abundant amount of opportunities makes it ever harder for companies to decide which direction to take and how to position themselves in their
competitive field. The ability to innovate is therefore key to a firm’s success nowadays (Amabile, 1988; Johannessen et al., 2001; Johnson et al., 2001; Kaplan, 2009). Globalization, changing technology, scarcity of resources and changes in consumer demands and preferences, have greatly increased the importance of innovativeness in the business environment over the last decades (Amabile, 1988; Johannessen et al., 2001; Johnson et al., 2001; Kaplan, 2009). It is stated to be a fundamental factor in creating a sustained competitive advantage for companies, and one of the most valuable assets organizations can have (Johannessen et al., 2001; Kaplan, 2009).
The cultural industries provide for a particularly interesting case in interpreting the importance of innovativeness. Firms within the cultural industries are shown to be generally more innovative, than firms in other industries, especially in the Netherlands (Stam et al., 2008). Innovation is considered to be a resource crucial to success for cultural entities (Jones & DeFillippi, 1996; Miller & Shamsie, 1996) and described as a main driver of competition within the cultural sector (Lampel et al., 2000). High uncertainty and dynamism are inevitable characteristics of experiential goods that serve an aesthetic of expressive rather than utilitarian function (Lampet et al., 2000), explaining why these characteristics are typical to the cultural industries. In order to cope with this high uncertainty and dynamism firms are forced to keep reinventing their ways of doing business (Lampel et al., 2000). As a consequence, innovativeness is stated to be a key mechanism in determining the economic performance of cultural firms (Stam et al., 2008).
Consumers of cultural goods seek innovativeness because they have a constant urge for novelty (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). ‘Newness’ can change their consumption
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Additionally, innovations make products and firms superior to their competitors (Lowe & Alpert, 2015).
Whereas the omnivore paradox explains that consumers need both novelty and familiarity when evaluating products and organizations (Van Trijp & Van Kleef, 2008), innovativeness has gained ground in the evaluation of successful companies and their products. This importance is reinforced in the cultural industries, the high arts in particular, as innovativeness has evolved to the essential criterion in determining the value of a cultural good in these sectors and is considered the “most highly prized product characteristic” (Wijnberg & Gemser, 2000, p. 323). Moreover, the high arts industry is characterized by oversupply and unpredictability of success which necessitates differentiation of products. This necessity intensifies further in the performing arts sector, as this sector often does not operate under increasing returns, as opposed to other sectors of the high arts industry (Peltoniemi, 2015). Moreover, the performing arts sector is characterized by higher purchasing barriers, as tickets for performances are relatively expensive and offer only a one-off experience, as opposed to DVDs or CDs for instance. For these reasons, theaters within performing arts industries are incentivized to actively engage in their search for innovation.
Perceived Firm Innovativeness (PFI) is an important corporate image association (Kunz et al., 2010). Firms that are perceived as innovative can change consumption patterns, are better able to establish consumer-firm relations of commitment and loyalty (Eisingerich & Rubera, 2010; Kunz et al., 2010), and can influence buying behavior through their corporate image (Boyle, 1996). This is why theaters, in addition to continuous innovation of their products and processes, often actively signal their innovativeness through the use of innovative marketing and communication practices.
The changeability of corporate image has been addressed by many researchers (Albert & Whetten, 1985; Gioia, et al. 2000). It is generally accepted that corporate image is conveyed through corporate identity. Whilst corporate identity has traditionally been
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that firms can indeed exert influence on their corporate image has been adopted by many (Gioia et al., 2000). This was illustrated by the numerous initiatives of corporate identity change programs in the 1980s (Boyle, 1996). Firms started to change their names, logos and aspects of design in order to evoke corporate image, or change existing corporate image (Gray & Smeltzer, 1985).
Since perceived innovativeness as a part of corporate image is expected to be a changeable asset, theaters seek to exert influence on it in their attempt to maintain or enhance PFI. To build a consistent image of firm innovativeness, introducing new products, processes and marketing approaches needs to become a stable characteristic of the theater (Gioia, 2000). The way in which theaters are most effectively able to influence perceptions of innovativeness remains a vital topic. As described earlier, marketing and communication practices lend themselves as valuable tools in this respect. More concretely, visual imagery has proven to be a powerful instrument in aiming to influence perceptions, and engage and involve consumers in the cultural industries (Branthwaite, 2002).
The increasing visual orientation of our environment, explains why photography used within marketing and communication efforts is believed to be highly effective in influencing consumer perceptions (Branthwaite, 2002; Schroeder, 2008). Advertisements rely heavily on visual elements like photos, as they are directly related to feelings and unconscious ideas. The use of photography is stated to be especially useful in the cultural industries, as the affective nature of visuals taps into the affective incentives for buying cultural goods and creating perceptions towards these goods (Erevelles, 1998). Building on this, theaters could enhance their PFI by adapting their visual identity to infer innovativeness. They can do so through the use of innovative photos or visual techniques in their marketing and
communication efforts, and by regular renewal of visual strategy. The introduction of these alterations is often spread evenly over time, since shaping corporate image is an ongoing process and not done quickly (Gioia et al., 2010; Kennedy, 1977, p. 154; Lavis,1986). In contrast, when corporate identity and image are altered due to a change in organizational structure like a merger, visual brand identity (VBI) is often changed relatively
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abruptly at one point in time. On occasion, firms even use the moment of change
strategically to obtain free publicity and consumer attention through launching a new visual style and making it a top-of-mind event. Arguably, an obvious change of visual identity could be beneficial to the perceived innovativeness of the firm, since change implies ‘newness’. In this respect witnessing the change of visual identity actively, could send a strong signal of innovativeness, consequently influencing perceptions of innovativeness of the firm.
Following theorizing above, this research focuses on examining the following two research questions:
To what extent does the perceived innovativeness of visuals used in marketing efforts by theaters relate to the perceived innovativeness of those theaters? In what way is this relation influenced by theaters actively changing their visual style?
1.1 Academic relevance
The current research builds on existing literature about visual brand identity (VBI) (Philips et al., 2014) and Perceived Firm Innovativeness (PFI) (Kunz et al., 2010). Although PFI is perceived to be an essential topic in existing literature on firm success, the concept has not been addressed with regard to the distinctive field of the cultural industries. As
innovativeness has become a main criterion in the evaluation of cultural goods and cultural firms, it seems necessary that the meaning of PFI to the cultural industries is elaborated on. This paper contributes through integrating the concept of PFI with the characteristic features of the cultural industries, specifically the performing arts.
Moreover, literature on opportunities for conveying innovativeness through marketing and communication efforts leaves many questions unanswered. In discussing the concept of VBI, it was proposed by Philips (2014) that relatively little is known about how the individual elements of a brand’s visual identity exert influence on perceptions of brands and companies among consumers. This paper highlights the importance of photography in marketing and
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communication efforts for conveying corporate images such as PFI, and in doing so investigates one specific element of VBI.
In addition, the paper proposes a relation between changing visual identity and perceptions of innovativeness and explores whether an abrupt photographic visual style change can be beneficial to conveying perceptions of innovativeness to visitors of theaters. Such a specific relation was not proposed in previous research yet.
Lastly, Lowe & Alpert (2015) suggest that many studies within the field of innovation primarily focus on perceptions of innovativeness as judged by managers or experts. This imbalance stresses the need for research integrating innovativeness as judged by consumers, which approach is adopted in this paper.
1.2 Structure of the thesis
This paper zooms in on the importance of Perceived Firms Innovativeness (PFI) both in influencing consumer behavior and as an aspect of corporate image. More concretely, this paper seeks to examine the relation between the perceived innovativeness of visuals used in marketing campaigns of theaters and the perceived innovativeness of these theaters among their visitors. Furthermore, it aims to explore the possible influence that a change of visual style might have on perceptions of innovativeness of theaters.
It will start with a discussion of the theoretical foundation this research builds upon, explaining important terminology and interpretation of concepts. The theoretical foundation consists of three sections; section 1 zooms in on innovativeness, PFI, corporate image and identity, and the cultural industries; section 2 aims to provide a clear understanding of how PFI is conveyed to consumers, especially through visuals; section 3 introduces the concept of changing VBI and its potential effects on consumer perceptions of innovativeness. After the theoretical foundation, the paper will continue by clarifying the research design and methodology employed for testing the hypotheses set out. Subsequently, results will be discussed, followed by a conclusion and discussion which aim to answer the research questions of this paper.
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2. Theoretical Foundation
Section 1 will clarify important concepts that serve as the theoretical basis for this research. First, the existing literature on the concepts of innovation, Perceived Firm Innovativeness (PFI) and corporate image and identity will be discussed. Special attention will be paid to the meaning of these concepts within the cultural industries, after which the importance of perceived innovativeness within performing arts industries is further elaborated on. Section 2 will go on to describe ways in which firms aim to evoke corporate image, during which the importance of visual elements in marketing and communication efforts are highlighted. Hypothesis 1 and 2 are presented at the end of this section. In section 3 the subject of
changing a theater’s visual style will be introduced, and possible effects emanating from such an event are discussed. At the end of this section hypothesis 3 and 4 are proposed.
Section 1
2.1.1 Innovation and innovativeness
A multitude of definitions have been suggested to describe the concept of innovation. Across these, there is consensus that novelty or newness embodies the most essential part of innovativeness (Johannessen, 2001; Kline & Rosenberg, 1986). This is illustrated by one of the earliest definitions of the concept provided by Schumpeter (1934), who says that
innovation is about ‘some form of new combination’ either in the product, process, market, input or organization (Kaplan, 2009). Accordingly, Zaltman et al. (1973, p. 10) offer a valuable definition of innovation that illustrates this importance of newness, stating that innovation is “any idea, practice, or material artifact perceived to be new by the relevant unit of adoption”. The contribution of ‘the relevant unit of adoption’ is especially important, since the operationalization of ‘ newness’ is often a stumbling block in deciding what exactly is innovation and what is not.
Another notion particularly important to this research is the distinction between innovation and innovativeness, an innovation being the end result of a process at a certain point in time, and innovativeness being the extent to which a product or a producer is
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innovative. Crawford and Di Benedetto (2003) state that where “‘innovation’ focuses on an outcome of firm activity, ’innovativeness’ refers to a firm’s openness for new ideas and its capability to work on new solutions” (Crawford & Di Benedetto, as cited in Kunz et al., 2010, p.5). The researchers view innovativeness as an enduring characteristic rather than a success at one point in time. Within this research this approach to innovativeness will be adopted.
Innovativeness is highly important for firms as it has proven to both attract new customers and maintain existing ones (Kunz et al., 2010). Consumers value innovativeness as new products can offer them new benefits and often bring improved features compared to other products (Lowe & Alpert, 2015). Moreover, newness can change consumer’s
consumption experience and potentially provide for products that fit their lifestyle in a better manner (Kunz. et al, 2010). Since people in general have a desire for variation and change and are attracted by ‘the new’, innovativeness is expected to influence consumer evaluations positively (Baumgartner, 1996).
2.1.2 Perceived Firm Innovativeness
Besides genuinely being innovative as a company, it becomes all the more important to integrate this capability into the firms’ corporate identity, and to communicate innovativeness toward the outside world. The concept of corporate identity and corporate image,
and innovativeness as an aspect of corporate image, will be discussed more thoroughly in the subsequent section. In their paper, Kunz et al. (2010) introduce the concept of Perceived Firm Innovativeness (PFI), being “the consumer’s perception and attribution of an enduring firm capability that results in novel, creative, and impactful ideas and solutions” (p.1). They mention that an innovative firm may for instance be associated with creativity and dynamism, and whether the firm is seen as a leader in market changing concepts. PFI is not objective, but a subjective assessment based on consumer perceptions and attribution from consumer information, knowledge and experience (Kunz et al., 2010). It is a consumer judgment of innovativeness based on what they have seen from and experienced with an organization
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over a certain period. Kunz et al. (2010) argue that PFI influences consumer behavior, and consequently plays a vital role in determining a firm’s success.
Many findings support the role perceived innovativeness plays in positively
influencing consumer emotions and behavior. For instance, Kaplan (2009) argues that when perceived innovativeness of product design is high, emotional reactions of consumers will be more positive. Moreover, it has been proposed that perceived newness of brands and
organizations, similar to perceived innovativeness, is an antecedent of brand commitment (Eisingerich & Rubera, 2010), which is highly beneficial to firms. Adding to that, perceived innovativeness is said to have an important impact on customer loyalty (Kunz et al., 2010) and acts as a catalyst of affect (Lowe & Alpert, 2015), resulting in emotional consumer satisfaction (Oliver, 1997). Satisfaction in turn plays an important role in consumer-firm relationship evaluations made by consumers. Findings of Erevelles (1998) even describe affect as a primary motivator of consumption. Additionally, Taylor et al. (2007) found
perceived brand uniqueness to be positively linked to behavioral intentions. These results are interesting because they directly illustrate how PFI can benefit firm performance.
As being perceived as innovative is highly important to firms, it is their challenge to maintain or even enhance PFI. Firms can aim to do so using a variety of strategies, often including new product development (Van Trijp & Van Kleef, 2008), innovation of services (Zolfgharian, 2009), Research and Development efforts and state-of-the-art technology employment (Gürhan-Canli & Batra, 2004). However, whilst innovativeness is commonly associated with technology, its existence in other business elements should not be
overlooked. Kline and Rosenberg (1986) build a bridge between the technological and the commercial aspect of innovativeness by stating that innovation involves both the creation and the marketing of the new.
When signaling innovativeness to enhance PFI, innovative marketing and
communication practices indeed seem particularly important. More concretely, Kunz et al. (2010) state that other characteristics and behaviors that actively aim to enhance PFI are surprising marketing offers, overall creativity and dynamic market behavior, and marketing
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innovations. Examples of marketing innovations include new communication campaigns or a renewing website (Kunz et al., 2010), as long as practices distinguish themselves from previous expressions. These types of innovations are of great importance in conveying a firm’s innovativeness, since communication efforts are the main touch points of connection between company and consumer. Signals of innovativeness integrated in marketing and communications expressions could therefore lead to perceptions of innovativeness of the overall organization. Sections 2.1.5 and 2.1.6 will elaborate further on ways in which firms can attempt to change consumer perceptions, in particular perceptions of innovativeness. While innovativeness has shown to be important throughout all industries, the characteristics of the cultural industry force us to take on a different perspective in this regard. As described earlier, the nature of this industry provides for an interesting case to interpret innovativeness in a different light. Especially within the contemporary high art industries, innovativeness has become evidently important. This perspective will be further clarified in section 2.1.4 and 2.1.5.
2.1.3 Perceived innovativeness as an aspect of corporate image
As explained in the previous section, innovativeness offers organizations the opportunity to yield a successful business. Two other important, and related, concepts that are considered a crucial means to this end are a company’s corporate identity and corporate image. These concepts have gained much interest with both researchers and managers over the last decades, as they have proven to be a strategic resource for creating competitive advantage and effective management of corporate image can play an important role in stakeholder management (Allessandri, 2001; Balmer, 1995; Gioia et al.,2010; Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). Perceived innovativeness is closely related to the concepts of corporate image and identity, as it could be seen as an aspect of corporate image. Gürhan-Canli and Batra (2004) support this idea by emphasizing that innovativeness is an important corporate image association that affects consumer evaluations. Corporate image and identity are believed to be
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However, before explaining how firms can attempt to change corporate image to their
benefit, it is necessary to briefly turn to the interpretation of the concepts in existing literature on corporate identity and corporate image and specify terminology used.
Although the concept of corporate identity has been discussed to great extent in grounded literature, researchers are still collectively working on creating consistency with regard to what the concept entails exactly (Ind, 1990). Van Riel and Balmer (1997) propose three different streams with regard to the literature concerning corporate identity; the graphic design paradigm, the integrated communication paradigm, and the interdisciplinary
paradigm. They state that the term corporate identity was originally used to refer to organizational nomenclature, logos, company house style and visual identification; the graphic design paradigm. The second stream focuses on corporate identity as the
consistency in formal corporate communication (Bernstein, 1986; Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). The third stream takes on a broader view by integrating the organization’s behavior,
communications as well as symbolism to both internal and external audiences (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
According to Alessandri (2001) definitions now range from tangible and intangible aspects to tactical and strategic dimensions of corporate identity. However, he introduces the common theme that corporate identity is very closely related to how a firm presents itself to the public. This notion is in agreement with the first two streams discussed by Van Riel and Balmer (1997). Alessandri (2001) states that the graphic design body of literature tends to focus on the visual arrangement of elements, like name, logo and tagline. This is in accordance with Van Riel and Balmer’s (1997) definition of the graphic design paradigm. However, this seems to be a pretty limited description of all the ways in which a firm is able to present itself to the public. Lambert (1989, as cited in Alessandri, p. 174) sheds an
interesting light on this issue by noting that corporate identity entails “all those manifestations of an organization that enable it to be distinctive” and “projecting who you are, what you do and how you do it”, which seems to be more valuable in capturing the broadness of the concept.
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For the purpose of this research, interpretations provided by Alessandri (2001) seem particularly interesting. Alessandri (2001) proposes two definitions for corporate identity, an operational one and a conceptual one. The operational definition is as follows: “All of the observable and measurable elements of a firm’s identity manifest in its comprehensive visual presentation of itself, including – but not limited to – its name, logo, tagline, color palette and architecture” (p. 177). The conceptual definition is “A firm’s strategically planned and
purposeful presentation of itself in order to gain a positive corporate image in the minds of the public” (p. 177). As this research is interested in how firms can convey corporate image by presenting themselves through of visual elements, both these definitions are valuable. More important here though, is this distinction between corporate identity and corporate image. This distinction has become widely accepted by researchers and practitioners (Alessandri, 2001; Lambert, 1989; Nandan, 2005), but can be confusing in practice. Easily put, corporate identity refers to what the firm is, whilst the corporate image entails what the firm is perceived to be. These perceptions of the firm, referred to with corporate image, exist even when there is not an obvious meaning of the corporate identity available (Alessandri, 2001). Corporate identity concerns the part that the firm is able to exert influence on, whilst corporate image cannot directly be influenced by the firm’s efforts
(Alessandri, 2001; Meenaghan, 1995; Nandan, 2005). More specifically, corporate identity concerns the firm’s presentation of itself – through visual presentation and outward behavior (Lambert, 1989; Topalian, 1984), whereas corporate image refers to perceptions consumers hold about organizations they are exposed to or have a connection with in any way.
According to Messner (1963) literally each individual that comes into contact with a company possesses a mental picture of it, which stresses that all touch points with stakeholder should be considered carefully.
Corporate image is a rather subjective concept, originating from a totality of perceptions of a specific audience. Spector (1961) states that people develop attitudes toward a manufacturer, and perceive it to have certain characteristics, some of which they admire and appreciate. It is possible that others may see this same manufacturer in a
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different light, perceiving the same characteristics as negative. In both events, the image of the manufacturer affects selection or rejections of its products.
Although this paper concerns corporate identity and image, the concepts brand identity and image should be briefly addressed here. Within existing literature corporate identity and image are closely related to the concepts of brand identity and image, and these terms are sometimes used to refer to the same phenomenon. Brand identity is defined as the “total sum of impressions that consumers receive from many sources, all of which combine to form a brand personality” (Herzog, as cited in Nandan, 2005, p. 266). Which is similar to the concept of corporate identity, except for that it applies to a specific brand instead of the complete organization. Within this research the terms corporate identity and corporate image will be used, because this paper looks at the identity and image of theaters as a whole, and not at certain brands specifically.
The literature surrounding brand image provides for some interesting perspectives to interpret the concept of image in general. Low and Lamb (2000) propose several dimensions of brand image presented on a semantic scale; friendly/unfriendly, modern/outdated,
useful/not useful, popular/unpopular, gentle/harsh and artificial/natural. Ismail and Spinelli (2012) use different characteristics to describe aspects of brand image, being fashionability, sophisitication, reputation for quality and prestigiousness. Other examples of brand image dimensions are quality, reliability, popularity and attractiveness (Cho et al., 2015). More importantly, many authors keep coming back to the importance of innovativeness as a corporate image association (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Keller, 2003, p. 546).
As shown here, there are many interesting dimensions of a company’s corporate image that are worth looking into, however both due to the scope of this research and the evident importance of innovativeness for companies nowadays, this paper will only focus on perceived innovativeness as a dimension of corporate image. The following sections will go on to explain the importance of corporate image and perceived innovativeness in cultural industries.
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2.1.4 Corporate image and cultural industries
Developing a corporate image that creates a sustained competitive advantage and will protect the existence of the firm is especially important and challenging for organizations within the cultural industries. According to Peltoniemi (2015) there are two features specific to cultural industries that illustrate this notion.
Firstly, within the cultural industries there is a persistent oversupply of artistic goods (Menger, 1999). The amount of creatives and creative products is abundant, and even when the artist proves to be specifically talented or the created product is genuinely interesting, the oversupply makes it highly likely parties will be surpassed by their competitors. Besides this, cultural goods do not only compete with products of their own category (e.g. books, or tickets to an exhibition) but with all other products meant for leisure time.
Secondly, extreme uncertainty exists within these industries regarding the success potential of products created. Goldman (1983) refers to this as ‘nobody knows anything’. This statement illustrates the highly subjective and unpredictable nature of how creative products are received by the public. Cultural goods generally offer low utilitarian value and are
consumed for their high level of aesthetic and symbolic value (Peltoniemi, 2015).
Furthermore, cultural goods are expected to satisfy consumers’ needs for entertainment and identity building. Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) emphasize the experiential nature of cultural goods by saying that cultural goods are judged on their ability to offer fun, enjoyment and pleasure. Experiencing enjoyment is a highly subjective notion of which judgments can differ greatly per person. This makes it hard to predict the success of a creative product prior to consumption, both from the perspective of the creator and the consumer (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). Because of this uncertainty, consumers often search for complementary cues that can strengthen their confidence in engaging in purchase decisions. A favorable corporate image can help to great extent in these situations, because it creates a relationship of trust with consumers (Lin & Lu, 2010), which makes consumers feel more secure about their buying decision. In summary, both the oversupply and unpredictability that
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that creates a sustainable advantage.
This concerns all cultural sectors, but arguably even more so the contemporary high art industries, like the performing arts industry. This industry differs from other cultural industries in the sense that sustaining financial resources is a huge challenge because firms within it often do not operate under increasing returns (Peltoniemi, 2015). It is highlighted that the production of a film is highly expensive, however once the film has been produced, further copies can be made at a reasonable cost. This is different for performing arts, like theater, musicals, opera or ballet; because in those cases it is the live experience itself that is paid for. This means that once a production is created, ‘copying’ it is relatively expensive as location, artists, crew etcetera are needed for any single performance after the first one (Peltoniemi, 2015).
Furthermore, from a consumer perspective the decision to buy tickets for
performances brings higher barriers than for buying a DVD or CD; Firstly, because tickets for performances are relatively expensive, partially because of the high costs addressed above; Secondly, because a performance can only be enjoyed once, whereas consumers can keep playing movies or CDs repeatedly. These barriers could prevent consumers from actually engaging in buying tickets for the performing arts, which all the more supports the
importance of a favorable corporate image that could help consumers evaluate whether they want to make this decision or not.
Perceived innovativeness is a particularly good example of such a favorable corporate image that consumers would use as information to make judgments of (new) products in high arts industries. The next section will elaborate briefly on this statement.
2.1.5 Perceived innovativeness in the performing arts industry
Due to the features of high art industries set out above, innovativeness is highly important for theaters within this sector. Oversupply intensifies competition and the uncertainty cultural industries cope with increases the need for heterogeneous products. Theaters increasingly need to position themselves as being innovative to gain consumers interest. As Holbrook and
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Hirschman (1982) pointed out, consumers nowadays have a desire for novelty. Moreover, innovativeness in itself has gained ground as a criterion in evaluating the value of cultural goods. Especially in high art industries innovativeness has become a vital criterion for success and the “most highly prized product characteristic” (Wijnberg & Gemser, 2000, p 323). Consumers value product differentiations more and more positively, and have even come to assign it a decisive factor in determining their judgments of cultural products. Hsu et al. (2012) stress that indeed the most successful cultural products tend to be highly
innovative.
Additionally, theaters have become more and more dependent on subsidies
(Rentschler, 1998). Unfortunately, financial resources of subsidy-providers have diminished and competition between applicants in the cultural field has grown. Since innovativeness and uniqueness have become important criteria for being considered for subsidies and maintain support, theaters within the cultural industries have extra reason to engage in innovation and enhance PFI.
Innovation beholds a slightly different connotation for cultural industries than other industries though. Within cultural industries innovation does not necessarily mean to improve performance or functionality of a product, rather it seeks to constantly come up with different types of goods to satisfy diverse tastes and entice people’s curiosity (Aksoy & Robins, 1992; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982; Power & Scott, 2004). Castaner & Campos (2002) look at artistic innovation and use Cloake’s (1997) definition of it, being the introduction of something new in the field (or market). They state that the referent in evaluating the ‘newness’ of a product within the cultural industries is often ambiguous. Cultural goods often originate from mixing existing styles and materials or are inspired by existing products and develop
gradually, which makes it harder to determine the origin of the ‘newness’.
2.1.6 Changeability of corporate image
To enhance perceived innovativeness as an aspect of corporate image, the changeability of such an image should be assessed. Alessandri (2001) emphasizes that corporate image is
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created by interaction or an experience with a corporate identity. This notion is valuable, because it emphasizes once again that firms do not have direct control over their corporate image – what the public perceives them to be, but can influence it indirectly through their corporate identity – how they present themselves (Alessandri, 2001; Topalian, 1984). This makes it very important for theaters to reflect on the way in which they present themselves frequently.
There has been some debate going on concerning the changeability of corporate image. Gioia et al. (2000) emphasize that in existing literature, corporate identity is usually portrayed as “that which is central, enduring and distinctive about an organization’s
character” (Albert & Whetten, 1985). According to them, this implies that it is a stable and rather unchangeable concept, where corporate image is derived from. Lavis (1986) adds to this, by mentioning that image is “sticky and difficult to dispel or change” (p. 201) and the process aiming to do so is “complex; it is expensive and it is something that cannot be handled on a piecemeal basis” (Kennedy, 1977, p. 154). This is a viable idea since organizations are often dealing with strong internal and external inertia, which inhibits the development of a deviating corporate identity and image (Gioia et al., 2000). Moreover, companies carry “multiple identities in multiple contexts with multiple audiences” (Gioia et al., p. 74) which illustrates that neither identity nor image changes in a uniform way and stresses the ambiguity of the process.
However, Gioia et al. (2000) propose the concept of corporate identity is better seen as relatively fluid and unstable, and can be used in bringing about change. This idea has been adopted by many researchers and practitioners nowadays, illustrated by the numerous corporate identity change programs that were introduced in the 1980s (Boyle, 1996). In seeking to change or strengthen their corporate images, firms started using new logos, changed their names and used design to differentiate identities from previous ones (Gray & Smeltzer, 1985). In her paper, Boyle (1996) presents controllable sources of corporate image that can be utilized to actively change a firm’s corporate image; “its corporate social conduct, corporate contributions conduct, corporate employees conduct, corporate business conduct”.
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And more specifically, “product, prices, support, services, distribution channels, sales force and communications” (Barich & Kortler, 1991, p. 97, as cited in Boyle, 1996) can be effective means of changing corporate image. However, the complexity of the process should not be underestimated, as creation of a single, strong corporate image is considered very difficult (Boyle , 1996).
Section 2
This section aims to provide a deeper understanding of what firms can do to enhance PFI. It sheds light on the importance of marketing and communication efforts in such processes and introduces the use of visuals in these efforts as a powerful tool in influencing consumer perceptions of innovativeness. At the end of in this section hypothesis 1 and 2 are presented.
2.2.1 Conveying perceived innovativeness
As suggested by Barich and Kortler (1991) in the previous section, marketing and communication efforts are an effective tool in influencing corporate image. According to Alessandri (2001) influencing corporate image is indeed often done through mass
communications, like advertising and public relation efforts. Marketing and communication expressions have long been accepted as powerful and important, if not the most important, tools in creating corporate image. This is because they provide for clear touch points
between producer and consumer, where consumer perceptions are defined and developed, both consciously and unconsciously. This gives companies a direct chance to present themselves in a favorable way. Keller (1993) and Nandan (2005) agree, pointing out that the marketing communication efforts indeed provide for an effective tool of shaping consumer perceptions. In order to influence or enhance perceived innovativeness, theaters could therefore use marketing and communication practices to stress innovativeness. Two ways of doing this seem particularly viable; First, theaters could actively use marketing and
communication channels to communicate increased innovativeness of products, processes and other aspects of their organization; Second, they could seek for ways to constantly
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innovate their marketing and communication strategies as such, for instance by using different campaigns over time, by delivering their messages through new channels or by trying to distinguish themselves from marketing and communication strategies of their competitors.
2.2.2 The importance of visuals
“Seeing comes before words” (Berger, 1972, p 33.)
When discussing marketing and communication expressions, there is a wide variety of tools that could be used, some of which are set out in the section above. Businesses generally use a combination of channels, like radio and television commercials, social media pages, and posters and billboards to get their messages across. One very important theme, within the field of marketing however, is the visual aspect of these tools. Visual imagery has become a vital part of marketing instruments nowadays (Branthwaite, 2002; Schroeder, 2008). Reasons for this shift proposed by Branthwaite (2002) include; The increasing “drive for global marketing and development of international brands”, which necessitates a medium that is “able to transcend languages and cultures”; Intensifying competition, which makes it important for companies to distinguish themselves in other ways; Consumers that have grown more marketing-literate, and even cynical toward brand claims and messages, and so relations depend increasingly on “non-rational implicit communication” like photos (p. 164). Increasing legal restriction makes it risky for companies to design their language in an
effective way. This makes the alternative of appealing photos attractive, since photos “cannot be held to be true or false” (Schroeder, 2008, p.2).
Academics have picked up on this development and an extensive body of literature now supports the superiority of visuals in marketing campaigns. Not surprisingly, since photography is believed to shape how consumers think about identity (Cotton, 2004;
Sobieszek, 1999). As Branthwaite (2002) argues, images have direct connection to feelings and unconscious ideas and have immediate effect because they are perceived holistically.
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Imagery has shown to be a powerful instrument for changing the state of mind and body, and to engage and involve consumers (Branthwaite, 2002). The importance of visuals in
marketing campaigns is backed by Rossiter (2001), which notes that when it comes to learning, pictures have a clear superiority over words. Page (2006) agrees on this and explains that photographs have a function of creating meaning without words, carrying the primary role of idea expression in the visual. Schroeder (2008) adds that many battles between brands are fought in the visual domain.
As Branthwaite (2002) states, images and symbols are very important vehicles for communicating impressions and brand personalities, and advertising relies heavily on visual devices nowadays. Meenaghan (1995) expands on this, by noting that at all levels marketing imagery advertising is seen as one of the most essential components of image creation. Derbaix (1995) takes this a step further by stressing that attitudes and perceptions toward advertisements and photos in them are able to serve as significant predictors of attitudes and perceptions toward the brand. This means that perceptions of photos are used to create perceptions of the brand or organization attached. For these reasons, photos or visuals provide the perfect means of conveying corporate identity and creating corporate image. Within this paper the term visuals will henceforth be used to refer to photography used in marketing campaigns.
Especially for the performing arts industry visuals seem a fitting marketing-tool in evoking consumer perceptions. Messages are expected to be most effective when their nature (cognitive or affective) suits the nature of the product (cognitive or affective). As performances are experiential goods, the decision to visit a theater is affective rather than cognitive. As touched upon earlier, visuals have direct connection to feelings and
unconscious ideas, making them an affective appeal especially fitting for influencing perceptions and affective decision-making as used in performing arts (Erevelles, 1998). In aiming to convey innovativeness, theaters can either use cues that infer innovativeness in their visuals, for instance through the use of specific techniques or photography styles, or they can try to communicate their innovativeness through renewing
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their visuals regularly and experimenting with different styles. It should be borne in mind that changing visual identity too much, could have a negative effect on consumer perceptions (Philips, 2014).
2.2.3 Innovative visuals as curiosity trigger
Before hypothesizing the specific relation between perceptions of visuals and perceptions of corporate image, it would be interesting to test the importance of perceived innovativeness of visuals in predicting consumer behavior. From literature discussed, it is clear that signaling innovativeness is highly important for theaters, and can be done through the use of
marketing and communication tools. More concretely, the use of visuals within these tools provides an interesting opportunity for conveying a theater’s innovativeness. Besides signaling corporate image, however, visuals in marketing campaigns (advertisements specifically) generally aim to influence consumer behavior. Advertisements fundamentally seek to get consumers curious for the product offered. Curiosity is defined by Collins et al. (2004, p.75) as “a desire to acquire new knowledge and new sensory experience that motivates exploratory behavior”. Curiosity, however not sufficient, is necessary for
consumers to even consider buying products or services. According to Smith and Swinyard (1998), evoking consumer curiosity can turn the consumer from passive information
processor into active seeker of brand information, and makes them include products in their consideration set (Hauser and Wernerfelt, 1990; Nedungadi, 1990, as cited in Kuijken et al. 2014). As people generally seek to satisfy their curiosity by engaging in activities of gaining knowledge and experience, curiosity could be a viable first predictor of buying decisions. A logical connection can be observed between innovativeness and curiosity, in the sense that curiosity is directed towards anything that is ‘new’, and innovativeness has ‘newness’ as one of its main components. In this sense, innovativeness elicits excitement and curiosity and hints to features of the product that are not seen or experienced before. Innovative visuals for performances presented by theaters, could hint the degree of
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be argued that the more innovative visuals are perceived to be, the more visitors become curious for the performances produced by the theater. To test this, the first hypothesis is as follows:
H1: The more innovative visitors perceive a theater’s visuals to be, the more curious they are to see performances attached to those visuals.
Former sections discussed the importance of signaling innovativeness as a part of corporate image through visuals extensively. From theorizing above it is expected that innovative visuals used for marketing campaigns of theaters are related to perceptions of
innovativeness of these theaters. From this reasoning, the following hypothesis is derived:
H2: The more innovative visitors perceive visuals used by theaters in marketing and communication efforts to be, the more innovative they perceive the attached theater to be.
Section 3
The following section introduces the topic of visual brand identity (VBI) change. It will discuss the potential benefit of an abrupt change of visual style on signaling PFI. Furthermore, it suggests that the degree of difference between the new and old visuals used can have an effect on how innovativeness of the firm is conveyed. Hypothesis 3 and 4 are presented in this section.
2.3.1 Changing visual identity in the case of a merger
The changeability of corporate identity was addressed in section 2.1.6. Whilst some firms choose to change their identity for the purpose of influencing corporate image as such (Gioia & Thomas, 1996), others are forced to reconsider corporate identity due to a change in organizational structure (Corley & Gioia, 2004). One explicit case in which this happens is when companies undergo a merger (Balmer & Dinnie, 1999). In these situations companies actively, and sometimes drastically, change their overall communication style and marketing
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tools in order to convey their new specific corporate image. These events frequently go hand in hand with a launch of a new visual brand identity (VBI), which can be defined as “the holistic visual style that identifies a brand” or organization (Philips, 2014). Such an event often includes a change in the use of photography as well (Balmer, 1995; Balmer & Dinnie, 1999). Balmer (1995) states that “visual changes are massive catalysts for changes of every kind” (p. 39). Different from gradually seeking to adjust corporate image through subtle changes in corporate identity, with mergers the change often takes place in a more abrupt fashion, at least in the eye of the consumer (Balmer, 1999). Some firms even use the
moment of change cleverly for redirecting consumer attention and enhancing Public Relation campaigns (Zaheer et al., 2003; Yang, Davis & Robertson, 2011).
Changing visual brand identity (VBI) in case of a merger is a necessary but tricky practice, in the sense that it could lead to both positive and negative responses of the target audience (Balmer & Dinnie, 1999). People in general are considered to be resistant to change (Lewin, 1947; Jansen, 2000). Furthermore, quite some research exists on the benefits of carrying a consistent VBI over time. It is stated that advertisements with a consistent VBI are more positively received, than advertisements that undergo changes in VBI, even if the change in itself would be considered a positive one (Philips, 2014).
This contradicts the notion that people generally have a desire for variety and change, and a curiosity for ‘the new’ (Baumgartner, 1996). Additionally, changing visual identity also serves as an opportunity to attract new audiences. Concluding on these contradictory views, Lampel et al. (2000) state that consumers within cultural industries need familiarity to
understand what they are offered, but need novelty to enjoy it (p. 264). Theaters would therefore be best advised to offer novelty which is accessible and somehow familiar (Lampel et al., 2000).
It could be argued that mergers in which an evident change takes place which is clearly visible for consumers, provide for an interesting case in seeking to enhance perceived innovativeness of a theater. In this respect a obvious change in VBI might make it easier for the theater to convey perceived innovativeness to its visitors, as change signals ‘newness’
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and this in turn implies innovativeness of the firm. Additionally, a change in the use of photography, within this paper referred to as ‘visual style change’, accompanying a merger makes it all the more easy for visitors to comprehend that the theater is diverging from the status quo, which adds to its overall perceived innovativeness.
When a theater changes her visual style more abruptly, as often happens with mergers, a division is created between visitors that were attached before the point of visual style change, and visitors that started visiting after this change took place. Within this paper the first group is referred to as existing visitors and the second group as new visitors. It is expected that visitors who started visiting the theater before the visual style was changed, witnessed this change more actively than visitors who started visiting the theater after this change. An important assumption here is that within the performing arts industry, visitors tend to return on a regular basis once they have decided to get involved with a theater (Johnson & Garbarino, 2001). Clearly, this is particularly true for subscribers of performing arts disciplines. It is therefore imaginable that existing visitors would be more familiar with both the old and new visual style, whereas new visitors would likely be more familiar with only the new visual style. Since the change of visual style in itself could be a sign of innovativeness, in this case a stronger signal of innovativeness would be sent to existing visitors that did witness the visual style change, compared to new visitors who did not. Derived from theorizing above, it is suggested that actively witnessing the change of visual style strengthens the relation between perceived innovativeness of the visuals and perceived innovativeness of the theater. To test this, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H3: After a change of visual style, the relation between perceived innovativeness of the theater’s visuals and perceived innovativeness of the theater is moderated by witnessing the visual style change, so that it will be stronger for visitors who did witness the change, than for visitors who did not witness the change.
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2.3.2 The degree of difference between new and old visuals
The degree to which visual identity is changed differs per situation. Some companies change their visual style more drastically than others, generally because they are aiming for a more drastic effect on corporate image than others. The style can be “incrementally new, really new of radically new” (Lowe & Alpert, 2015, p. 2). It is generally believed that the extent to which consumers perceive products and other elements to be innovative, depends on the level of ‘newness. Lowe & Alpert (2015) state that only radical innovations can “generate a Wow! response” (p. 4). It is therefore suggested that the extent to which visuals are changed has an effect on the strength of perceptions of innovativeness. When a more drastic change is made in the visual style, this is expected to send a stronger signal of innovativeness, than when smaller adjustments are made. Consequently, it is expected that when a more drastic change is made in the visual style, the relation between perceived innovativeness of the visuals and perceived innovativeness of the theater will be stronger. This effect is hypothesized as follows:
H4: If the new visuals are strongly different from the old, the relationship between perceived innovativeness of the visuals and perceived innovativeness of the theater will be stronger, than if the new visuals are less different from the old visuals.
It is important to note that hypothesis 4 is only tested for visitors who are expected to have witnessed the change more actively, being existing visitors. New visitors are not included in this hypothesis. The characteristic of the sample, the methodology and strategic analyses are clarified in the subsequent section. The paper will then go on to discuss the results of the analyses.
3. Research design and methodology
3.1 Empirical setting
For the purpose of this research data was collected on the visitors of Dutch National Opera & Ballet (Nationale Opera & Ballet, NO&B) in Amsterdam. NO&B is known to be one of the
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most prestigious theaters both within The Netherlands and internationally, and offers a home to Dutch National Opera (De Nationale Opera, DNO) and Dutch National Ballet (Het
Nationale Ballet, HNB), which makes it an organization operating within the performing arts industry. The theater offers opera productions, ballet productions and guest-repertoires during the entire cultural season. Although the theater has been well-known for its edgy programming and refreshing approaches for years, it is developing increasingly with regard to new initiatives and collaborations. Due to external factors like diminishing financial support from third parties and intensifying competitive initiatives within the field, innovativeness has become one of the fundamental pillars of the theater’s strategy. The merger the theater engaged in recently illustrates this notion. To grasp the relevance of NO&B’s case for testing the hypotheses of this research, the situation will be described briefly below.
The theater NO&B originates from a merger of the three separate institutions Dutch National Opera, Dutch National Ballet and The Amsterdam Musictheater. Until recently, these institutions operated individually, carrying their own programming, specific target audiences, corporate identity and communication style. However on the 17th of February 2014 the companies merged and continued as an umbrella institution under the name of Dutch National Opera & Ballet. With this merger corporate identity was reconsidered completely. The three separate brands were integrated and communication styles were redesigned accordingly to represent the theater as a whole, without losing the identity of the separate brands and without undermining target audiences. Visuals used within marketing campaigns embodied a particularly important means to this end.
It was the aim of the theater to unite visual styles to represent the new corporate identity of the theater as a whole, with innovativeness as one of the fundamentals of this identity. Because corporate identity and communication expressions were changed, it seems inevitable that corporate image has changed as well. As signaling innovativeness was one of the main purposes of the new visual style, NO&B’s situation serves as an interesting
environment for testing the hypotheses set out in this research. Since the change of visual style took place approximately one and a half year ago, it is expected that the effect of the
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visuals on corporate image has already kicked in.
One important note for the comprehension of this research is that comparing the new to the former visual style, visuals of DNO were changed more drastically than visuals of HNB. How this assumption was assessed will be clarified and illustrated in section 3.1.1. Furthermore it should be stressed that although the merger took place and communication style (including visuals) was changed severely, other factors like
programming, location, the building itself, procedures and planning, remained constant. Another noteworthy piece of information, is that before the merger communications were sent from either of the brands separately. Visuals were presented in the content of either DNO, HNB or The Amsterdam Musictheater. After the merger all communications were designed as sent from the overall theater NO&B. However, the sub brand (DNO or HNB) for which the communication was meant particularly is always specified very clearly through including the separate logo of this brand as well. This means not much has changed in this respect either.
Visitors of NO&B consist of members (‘Vrienden van’), donors, subscribers (abonnementhouders) and single ticket buyers. While NO&B represents the theater as a whole, programming is still separate for DNO and HNB. One of the aims of the merger was to enhance crossovers between visitors for the two disciplines; however the actual
percentage of crossovers is still relatively low. Still, within the data crossovers are taken into account when relevant for testing hypotheses. According to information provided by the marketing team of NO&B at the start of this research, the following demographic
characteristics apply to audience of NO&B. Opera visitors are divided in 54% male versus 46% female; 40% is 65 years or older; they are generally highly educated; have an average visiting frequency of three visits a year; and approximately 10 % of the visitors per season are new visitors. Ballet visitors count 29% male and 71% female; 19% is 65 years or older; they are generally highly educated; have an average visiting frequency of 1,4; and
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3.1.1 Visual style change
The difference between DNO and HNB in visual style change was assessed in consultation with the marketing team of NO&B. The assumption that DNO’s visual style was changed more drastically was discussed with marketers and perceived to be rather obvious. It was the aim of the theater to create an integrated visual style for both DNO and HNB. An important factor shaping this visual style was the emphasis on the human aspect. People are believed to pay greater attention to emotional stimuli, like facial expressions and other facets that they can easily relate to (Murphy et al., 2010). It was decided by the theater to work with visuals presenting people at the center of attention. This was enhanced by the simplicity of the environment surrounding the persons in the visuals. All visuals have a quiet background, and not many props are used. Moreover, costumes and the combination of colors were kept very basic. The visual style change is visualized in the figures below. A larger depiction of the visuals can be found in Appendix 3.
Dutch National Ballet
The old visuals of HNB differ from the new visuals, in the sense that they do contain the human aspect, but it was not staged as obviously as in the new visual style. Faces were not specifically visible, whereas in the new style, faces were very apparent. Furthermore, in the old visual style often graphical experiments were used that utilized the boundaries of
‘realistic’ and ‘unrealistic’ to create an interesting effect. However, the simplicity with regard to the use of colors, props and costumes was embraced in the old visual style as well.
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Figure 2 - Examples of visuals in the new visual style
Dutch National Opera
The biggest difference between the old and new visual style of DNO concerns the human aspect of the visuals. The old visual style did not contain such an aspect. Rather, graphical drawings and abstract shapes were used. Besides this, the old visuals did not aim for simplicity in colors and shapes, and no obvious center of attention was depicted by them.
Figure 3 - Examples of visuals in the old visual style
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3.2 Sampling and data collection procedures
For the purpose of this research a quantitative method was employed, using a survey for primary data collection. This decision was made for several reasons; Surveys provide for an interesting tool to measure perceptions; they allow collection of a large amount of data; and they make it possible to make valuable comparisons, since responses are standardized. The population of this research is visitors of the theater NO&B, more specifically visitors of the disciplines opera and ballet. Visitors were approached by e-mail, asking to participate in the survey. This means the availability of e-mail addresses was a condition for inviting visitors to take part.
The sampling frame used is the database of all ticket buyers at NO&B, which were registered during the last ten years. The information in this database was collected during ticket sales. It cannot be guaranteed that literally all visitors who ever bought tickets for a NO&B performance were recorded and represented in the database. However, since five years, leaving an e-mail address is a prerequisite for subscription and during single ticket sales a visitor’s e-mail address is requested as well. During the merger, visitor details of the three separate companies were integrated and transferred into a new database for further usage.
Visitors were selected using a stratified (random) sampling technique with four strata: DNO subscribers (1), DNO single ticket buyers (2), HNB subscribers (3) and HNB single ticket buyers (4). The subscriber groups contain only visitors who subscribed before the merger, which means they were attached to the theater before the visual style was changed. The groups of single ticket buyers contain solely new visitors of NO&B after the merger and change of visuals. This distinction provides for one group that is familiar with the old visuals used in marketing campaigns, and one group that has a higher chance of only being familiar with the new visuals. Further pre-selection was made by the database specialist of NO&B. This pre-selection excluded inactive subscribers from the database. Double e-mail addresses were filtered by randomly assigning them to each of the groups they belonged to.
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subscribers, 1330 HNB subscribers, 6578 single ticket buyer of DNO and 14.279 single ticket buyers of HNB. For HNB subscribers, 600 visitors were asked to take part in the survey. For the other groups it was decided to approach 3000 visitors for participation, resulting in a total amount of 9600 visitors of NO&B that were asked to participate. Instead of asking all visitors available, a random selection was made from the database for all groups. This was decided because NO&B is very careful with sending out surveys and does not want to over ask its visitors. Surveys are sent out regularly and NO&B keeps track of which visitors are asked to participate, in order to avoid an overload of NO&B e-mails and surveys, which eventually could lead to both negative reactions and could decrease response-rates.
Data was collected digitally via Qualtrics Online Survey Software and invitations to take part in the survey were sent to visitors per e-mail. This means surveys were self-completed and internet-mediated. The e-mail was sent to visitors using the general e-mail account of NO&B, accompanied by a formal request to participate on behalf of the theater and its staff. Within the e-mail the importance of taking part in the survey was explained and emphasized to enhance response-rates (for details see the e-mail in Appendix 2). Visitors could fill out the survey only one time, to avoid respondents from invalidating the response rate. Invitations to participate were sent to visitors only once; no reminders were sent afterwards. This was decided because of the same reason that NO&B does not want to burden visitors with too many e-mails. At the same time reminders did not seem necessary since the size of the database and the response rate already provided for sufficient data to work with.
In total, surveys were fully completed by 1180 visitors, resulting in a response rate of 12,29%. It was decided to exclude the non-completed surveys from the data file by excluding missing values listwise. Because of the relatively large sample size, this decision could be made without reducing the effective sample size severely. Effective response rates for the subcategories were 13.97% for subscribers DNO, 21,83% for subscribers HNB, 11.93% for single ticket buyers DNO and 9.07% for single ticket buyers HNB. The moderate response rates can be explained by the regular basis on which visitors of the theater are approached
