Nicely choreographed

Editor's note: Laura Bayzle is vice president in the Durham, N.C., office of research firm The Link Group.

Ballet uses movement, music, creativity and emotion to tell a story entirely without words. Ever since I was a young child, ballet has captivated my imagination and heart – from donning a tutu at age 5 for my first recital to attending performances by a professional ballet company as I grew older. And so, 10 years ago I approached the ballet company in our state about the prospect of conducting pro bono marketing research for them. 

My motivation in working with the ballet company was twofold: to offer expertise to an organization that might not otherwise have access to marketing research resources and to research a topic where I had a personal passion. And perhaps I secretly hoped for the chance to meet the dancers (or try on one of the principal ballerina’s tutus)! Over our decade-long partnership with the ballet company, our firm has provided access to resources that have enabled the ballet to make more informed decisions about how to better target and talk to its audiences. 

For us, as marketing researchers, it can be exciting to take the steps that we know very well within marketing research and choreograph them to a different beat. In looking back over the different projects we’ve conducted for the ballet, I’ve realized that these projects can teach us a lot about how we conduct marketing research for our for-profit clients, as well as for those outside of the performing arts space. By thinking about different audiences and targets, designing research on a zero-dollar budget or working with clients who are stretched in many different directions, we can use these experiences to re-center and think more creatively in our day-to-day projects.

So, what have we learned from working with the ballet?

Look beyond the stage. Watching a ballet on stage is an emotional experience. The movements of the dancers are precise, yet fluid. The costumes and scenery help to tell the story and set the feeling of the piece. The music is an integral part of performance. You can feel the emotion radiate from the dancers and feel the audience’s response. 

This combination of the rational and the emotional came together in a survey that we conducted, where the ballet wanted to measure satisfaction with each of the seven performances during a season. The ballet was interested in knowing what impacted overall satisfaction so it could find ways to increase satisfaction with performances. We conducted a series of post-performance surveys in which we measured aspects of the performance like choreography, music, costume design and staging as well as overall satisfaction. We found that overall satisfaction was very high. But when we conducted a driver analysis, we found that satisfaction was impacted very little, if at all, by the specific aspects that we measured. So, what was driving up overall satisfaction, if not these specific performance attributes? 

We looked beyond the stage. In qualitative interviews, we found that the intrinsic love of the art and motivation to support the ballet may be more important to patrons than the performance itself. While patrons may have lower satisfaction with the music for a particular performance (i.e., disappointed that live music wasn’t offered for a performance), their overall satisfaction was still very high because of their love for the ballet itself. 

With this insight, the ballet stopped doing the satisfaction surveys and funneled its time and energy into other research opportunities. It found that focusing on the overall connection that patrons and the community have with the ballet has a bigger impact on satisfaction than any particular aspect of a performance.

It’s a good reminder that there are rational and emotional components that play into satisfaction. While we were measuring very tangible – and rational – aspects of the ballet performance, what was really driving satisfaction was the emotional connection patrons have with the ballet. While those don’t always feel like “industry standard” measures, it is the love of the arts and an engagement with those in the community that ultimately drive performance satisfaction. Sometimes what we are measuring can be very narrow, but by thinking more holistically, and beyond the initial focus of a study, we may be able to uncover areas that were not originally considered and yet have a big impact on outcomes.

Step away from the barre. As researchers our job is to ask the right questions, both of respondents and clients, in order to better answer the marketing questions at hand. We can add value for our clients by using these skills outside of the traditional research setting. For example, during our partnership with the ballet, we’ve been asked to be an extra voice when its representatives met with the county school administration or moderate many different voices and viewpoints during a brainstorming session for the annual gala.

In these situations, our job was to listen and to ask the questions that perhaps the ballet could not ask or may not have thought to ask because it was so close to the project. By thinking strategically about the ballet’s objectives and coming in with an objective perspective (one of our most important skills as marketing researchers) we helped the ballet and school board think more strategically about their partnership and made sure all voices were heard during the gala brainstorming. 

So, too, when it comes to our day-to-day clients. We can step away from our traditional roles and use our skill sets to help a client lead a cross-functional workshop or be a strategic and objective voice in a key marketing meeting. When there are differences of opinions, we can moderate the room to create consensus or ensure that everyone is heard equally. It’s a good reminder that our skills can add value for our clients in unexpected ways. 

Give the apprentice the solo. As we’ve gotten to know the ballet dancers over the years, it is delightful to see our favorite principals performing in lead roles. They move gracefully and powerfully; it is clear why they have been promoted to lead dancer within the ballet company. But a ballet company needs more than just principals to be successful: the soloists and corps de ballet are an integral part of the company and also have a lot of talent. And so it can be very exciting to see these dancers shine when they are given a solo by the artistic director or dance a pas de deux during a performance.

During our projects with the ballet, we’ve had the opportunity to have our firm’s principals, soloists and corps de ballet researchers work with the client. It has allowed the ballet to hear different viewpoints and benefit from the different strengths that each of our researchers bring, while also allowing the more junior members of our firm to gain experience in moderating, working with clients and thinking through objectives. In most cases, it has been a pas de deux: the senior researcher sets the vision and remains a key contributor, while allowing the junior researcher to showcase their talents and steal the spotlight for a while.

As we think about the personal and professional development of the researchers in our firm, we can find specific areas that our junior researchers can own and give them the tools to help them develop their talents. There will always be the principals but giving opportunities, even small ones, to our soloists and corps will help develop future principals that will continue the tradition of great marketing research.

Plié. Pirouette. Relevé. Many of the projects we’ve conducted for the ballet have been on a zero-dollar budget. We were donating our time and services but the marketing department didn’t have extra funds for recruiting, honoraria costs or facility fees. Even if they did, their target was usually very narrow (i.e., patrons, subscribers or donors) and was likely not a target that usually participated in marketing research or was in recruiter databases.

So we had to be creative in how we recruited respondents for focus groups or telephone interviews: during slower selling periods, the ballet box office made calls to patrons to recruit them for research; the ballet posted marketing research opportunities on its social media pages; and we, personally, made calls to some donors. 

We scheduled sessions during times that were convenient for the respondents, rather than what fit into our day (this sometimes meant after-hours IDIs or groups). We offered free performance tickets or a raffle in lieu of traditional honoraria. And we offered use of our office space for focus groups, rather than using a traditional facility. This meant no one-way mirrors and our client sat in the corner of the conference room, which respondents were receptive to.

It’s a good reminder that, as researchers, we need to stay flexible and creative. Even though there are tried-and-true solutions, it may not always work from client to client. Knowing when to bend or spin or stand on our toes doesn’t just make us good researchers, it also makes us good partners.

A new lens

What started out as a way to give back to the community has turned into a partnership that has benefitted both the ballet and our firm. Our experiences with the ballet have given us a new lens through which to view our partnerships with other clients as well as our own organizational practices.
While we are in different industries, the mission of both the ballet and our firm overlap: theirs is to create world-class ballet in our state, while ours is to create world-class marketing research for our clients. By working together, we can help one another achieve that mission. 

I’m happy to say that my secret hope of meeting the dancers was fulfilled: I’ve had the chance to get to know many of the dancers from the company very well. Still no luck on the tutu, though.