Marketing in a Recession

My feeling is that the sense of panic is partially to do with reality, but a lot more to do with fear. Many orchestras are reporting sales holding steady, or even slight increases over last year. But remember that we are still dealing with a year in which a large proportion of ticket sales were made many months ago. The economic situation has become very much worse just in the last months, and whilst reacting to something that may not have happened yet might appear to be over-cautious, we can hardly blame ourselves for being defensive as we contemplate this year’s highly unpredictable subscription roll-over. It’s a very fine line to walk, though: be sympathetic to the economic predicament of the ticket buyer and put your best offer out, but don’t give the impression of desperation otherwise it will be self-fulfilling…