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Monday, November 30, 1998 Orchestrating new musical marketing directions
Divas ready to hit high notes with new plan
Jenny Lee They were divas for goodness sake, artistic, temperamental, glamourous, satin-and-brocade creatures of the night. The idea of three opera singers sitting around a kitchen table obsessed with phrases such as "unique selling point" and "key success factor" just didn't sit right. The jargon doesn't yet sit quite right with the divas either, but they are working on it, con brio. Like most performing artists Linda Marie James, Valerie Galvin and Heidi Breier — who market themselves as the Three Divas dream of making it big as performers. Unlike their contemporaries, most of whom weave a haphazard journey toward success on threads of chance and persistence, the trio has plunged into the alien world of spreadsheets and market demographics. "As a performer, you're locked in a practice room for years," Galvin said in an interview. "You get your job, you do your job and the theatre pays you what it wants to. At the end of the job, you go home and you worry until you get another gig. That's the mindset of 95 per cent of performers. "It's always handing your life to somebody else. We didn't want to sit around and wait for an agent to knock on our doors and take over our lives." "We recognized there was a gap between potential and achieving it that was business related, not talent-related. How do we get from point A to point F?" The divas enlisted the help of friend and management consultant Judi Richardson of Richardson Management, who cajoled the three right-brainers through their left-brain paces. It was painful. There was page after page of questionnaires, soul searching, hard nosed talk and drilling down to specifics. "What? Do what? Write out what?" said James, recalling horror still quivering barely beneath the surface. "She had us write and write: Where we wanted to go; what we thought the Divas were; what our individual concept of the Divas was. "It was all in my head. When I tried to translate it on to paper, it didn't come out right." Where the divas saw three singers working on a creative process, Richardson saw three partners in a small business. Murky realities such as depth of individual commitment to the group were brought to the surface, faced and discussed. There was the emotional discomfort of blatantly forming strategy for money, marketing and networking. "You're not supposed to think about those things if you're an artist," Galvin said. "The whole experience of doing this plan is quite humbling, realizing how much the struggling artist is part of our makeup." Richardson orchestrated a brain-storming session with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra resident conductor Clyde Mitchell and Vancouver-based singer Leon Bibb, something "we wouldn't have had the audacity to do," Galvin said. The lively and passionate conversation generated many conflicting ideas on presentation and repertoire. "It was like condensing a year's worth of information you'd gather in a normal way into 2 1/2 hours and we became a lot more solid in our conversation in just who we are and how we wanted to be perceived," Galvin said. After 150 hours, the divas emerged with a full-fledged 20page business plan complete with goals, door-receipt projections, rehearsal-cost projections, target venues and even costume modifications. The divas have decided to target North American symphony pops concerts, corporate work, specific theatre venues and cruise-ship work with a scripted, choreographed show that incorporates opera favorites with musical theatre, tongue-incheek drama and comedy. Where they previously focused exclusively on performance, "they are now more aware of how things they do will affect the Divas as a brand: the package they send to the VSO, their lighting, their clothing. They are working toward greater consistency of image," Richardson said. This includes everything from reworking their video and press package to improving their publicity photo from a stagnant waist and head shot to one that gives a flavour of their show. They were astonished by how methodical marketing could be. "We didn't think you can strategically get your presence out to the type of people who buy tickets to go to the Chan Centre, or the Shadbolt," Galvin said. "You can actually analyze what type of promotion to use." Said James: "What floored me was tapping into different sectors of the community. I had no idea demographics were available to us, that we could see what our audience appeal was." The divas now intend to provide symphonies with not only biographies and a straightforward video of their performance, but a complete prepackaged program with full orchestral parts, demographic information, media interview and advertising suggestions. "We wouldn't have thought to put marketing information in a package," Galvin said. "Now we're looking at everything from the perspective of audience and from the people who would employ us." Vancouver Symphony Society president and general manager Barry McArton said the divas are headed in the right direction. "In launching themselves, it's a novel approach and they should pursue it," he said. While big names such as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet come with a highly sophisticated marketing machine, "one of the biggest problems with securing classical artists are press kits that are woefully lacking," McArton said. "This will be a huge leg up. "Newspapers don't want posed photos. If you understand that and provide us with the right photos, it really helps. [Cellist] Yo-Yo Ma doesn't present a stately head and shoulder portrait. He's walking through the park in an overcoat. "Many of the artists and agents don't get that. They're still sticking with 'I'm at Carnegie Hall in my tux and tails and I'm dignified'.'' Renting and preparing music for the orchestra's 73 musicians is hugely expensive so "a prepackaged show that just rolls out as a part of your offering is attractive," McArton said. McArton said many performers are chosen based on recommendations by other orchestras, but once booked, the ability to self-market is critical. The approach has given the divas control and direction. "We're able to see where we're going and we are able to plot our own goals too," James said. They've resolved any angst over "selling out" and the purity of the struggling artist. "We have a completely different view of that now. We have a product and people need to know about it," Galvin said. "I'm actually less arrogant than I remember myself being even six months ago." If they hadn't written a business plan, James said "We would have been foundering. We probably would have just gone along doing little gigs here and there."
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