Hong kong philharmonic star wars

Case Study

Hong Kong Philharmonic: A New Hope?

mini-case 1-430-466 December 7, 2015

Published by WDI Publishing, a division of the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at the University of Michigan.

©2015 John Branch. This case was written by John Branch, Lecturer of Marketing and Strategy, at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. This case was created to be a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either the effective or ineffective handling of a situation.

Scenario:

Like many orchestras and other cultural organizations around the world, the Hong Kong Philharmonic (HKP) has been suffering financially. Attendance is down, especially from its core customer segment — people 48 and older. Hong Kong, however, is a relatively young country, with an average age of 41.7 years in its population of nearly 7 million (see Table 1 for a breakdown of the population by age). Its growth rate is also among the lowest in the world, with fewer than 0.9 births per woman of child-bearing age, far below the replacement rate of 2.1.

In response, Rob Seto, who is working at the HKP as a summer marketing intern, has suggested that a re-focusing of marketing efforts on younger people holds the key to the future of the HKP. Since then, several very creative ideas have been floating around the marketing department — having the orchestra play the score of Star Wars, for example, while the film is playing on a large screen, or offering a series of concerts featuring soundtracks of popular video games such as Mortal Kombat or World of Warcraft. Tickets for a typical HKP performance, however, range from 120 to 300 HK$ (approximately 15 to 40 USD). And Hong Kong is rife with entertainment options.

Table 1 Population by Age

Age Range Percentage of Population

0-14 years 13.5

15-24 years 13.1

25-34 years 15.3

35-44 years 18.1

45-54 years 17.5

55-64 years 10.0

65 and over 12.5 Source: Created by the author of the case.

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