The Marketing Mix and How AI Enhances It

Live or die by the ‘The marketing mix’, commonly referred to as the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion), a foundational tool in creating and delivering a strong marketing strategy. Traditionally, it helps businesses identify the best approach to reaching their target audiences. However, with the rise of Ai, the marketing mix is entering a new era where automation, prediction, and personalised customer interactions can take centre stage, amplifying the effectiveness of marketing strategies.

AI's capabilities to analyse data, predict trends, and automate tasks provide theatres with the ability to fine-tune each element of the marketing mix. Here’s how:

1. Product: Ai enables theatres to anticipate customer needs by analysing vast data sets, predicting product demand, and suggesting potential innovations. By integrating Ai, companies can adjust their product offerings more accurately, ensuring they meet market demands.
2. Price: Ai-driven pricing models can predict optimal price points based on real-time market data, competitor behaviour, and customer purchasing habits. This helps maintain competitive pricing (I emphasise up and down pricing) while maximising profitability and sold inventory.
3. Place: Ai assists in identifying the most effective distribution channels. For example, predictive algorithms analyse customer buying patterns to suggest the best places to market and sell products, both physically and online.
4. Promotion: Ai revolutionises how promotions are delivered, creating hyper-personalised marketing messages. With Ai, theatres can target customers at the right time with the right offer, using platforms like social media, emails, Google ads and more.

Ai and Customer Segmentation: Connecting with 'Tips and Treats,' 'Dormitory Dependables,' 'Up Our Street,' and 'Home and Heritage' (more found here)

Ai has the power to transform how businesses connect with distinct customer segments by providing deep insights into behaviour and preferences. These four customer segments represent unique demographic and psychographic groups that can be targeted with precision:

• Tips and Treats: This segment loves discovering new experiences and indulgent moments. Ai can analyse past behaviour to identify which promotions would most likely resonate with them, offering curated experiences like theatre bundles or exclusive backstage tours.
• Dormitory Dependables: Families and residents who look for steady, reliable entertainment options. Ai can tailor offers that fit into their routine, such as family-friendly shows, repeat customer discounts, or advance booking perks - great for membership development.
• Up Our Street: This segment values local community connection and convenience. Ai can use geolocation data and local trends to promote shows, events, or special deals that are highly relevant to their neighbourhood, reinforcing the idea that your theatre is a cultural hub for the community.
• Home and Heritage: These individuals value tradition and have a deep connection to the historical and cultural aspects of entertainment. Ai could suggest content that ties into your rich theatre history, such as special anniversary performances, heritage-themed shows, or VIP events celebrating the theatre’s legacy.

Blackpool Grand Theatre: AI, Activity Stream, and TRG Arts

Blackpool Grand Theatre has already begun leveraging Ai through platforms like Activity Stream, a tool designed to enhance audience engagement by analysing behavioural data and making data-driven decisions. By using Activity Stream, the theatre can anticipate audience preferences, allowing them to optimise promotions and personalise customer engagements and experiences.

Additionally, the theatre’s collaboration with TRG Arts has provided valuable insights into building stronger, more meaningful relationships with audiences. Through data analysis, segmentation, and predictive modelling, TRG Arts has helped Blackpool Grand Theatre identify which audiences are most engaged, when they are likely to return, and what kind of messaging best resonates with different groups.

This strategic use of Ai has allowed Blackpool Grand Theatre to shift from traditional marketing to more audience-focused approaches, creating deeper connections that translate into loyalty and repeat attendance.

Five Top Tips for Theatres to Use AI for Audience Development

1. Start with Audience Segmentation: If you’re not, you should be… Use Ai to segment your audience based on behaviour, demographics, and purchasing patterns. Understanding these segments can lead to more personalised marketing campaigns that resonate with different types of theatregoers making them more likely to book. It can also allow you to see new trends that you may have missed.
2. Personalise Communications: We all do that don’t we…? Ai allows you to create personalised content, whether through emails, social media, or targeted ads. By tailoring your message to different customer profiles, your promotional efforts can become more relevant and engaging, leading to higher returns.
3. Predict Demand: Ai-driven data can help you predict which shows or events are likely to sell out and which may need extra promotion (a great tool for this is Purple 7). Use this information to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly and optimise ticket sales and check if you’re on track, or trending above or below the line.
4. Automate Customer Interaction: We know nothing beats face-to-face… however implementing Ai chatbots or customer service systems to streamline interaction on those quick answers or repetitive enquiries (show start and finish times, are my seats together, pre-orders etc.) can be a great time saver for both parties. This allows you to answer queries, recommend shows, and facilitate bookings in real-time, enhancing the customer experience.
5. Monitor and Adapt: Continuously analyse the data Ai provides. Audience behaviour can shift, and Ai enables real-time tracking of these changes, allowing you to tweak your marketing mix to stay relevant, effective and achieve great ROI.

By integrating Ai into the marketing mix, theatres like Blackpool Grand Theatre can unlock new opportunities for growth, personalisation, and deeper audience engagement, ensuring they stay at the forefront of cultural entertainment in the digital age.

#TheatreMarketing #AIRevolution #BlackpoolGrandTheatre #DigitalTransformation #EmotionalStorytelling #chatbots

Andrew Howard | Head of Audiences, Marketing, and Sales Blackpool Grand Theatre.