Evaluation of Marketing Mix

There are total of 8Ps in the marketing mix of events, namely,
Product ( the service offered )
Place ( the location )
Price
Promotions ( marketing communications )
Packaging and distribution
Programming ( elements and quality of style )
People ( cast, audience, hosts, guests )
Partnership ( stakeholders in producing the event )


These are the variables that will be manipulated by event manager to achieve an event’s objective.

Product of an event is a leisure experience that has been carefully produced to satisfy a target market’s identified needs. The word “product “applies to the production of both tangible goods and intangible services.

Since service is intangible, branding is something that can make the produce tangible. During the product development period, it is important to look at the branding which gives the event a recognisable identity. Singapore biennale was first premiered in 2006, being the city’s largest international contemporary visual arts exhibition Singapore biennale enhanced Singapore prominently as an international centre and regional leader in the fields of contemporary visual arts. Since then, Singapore biennale has its own identity and its own brand.

In the area of tangibility, there are many things in the Biennale that are tangible to us. The art pieces itself are tangible products. There are many sculptures, films, paintings, and also the art pieces in the kid’s biennale, they are all touchable and tangible to us. And it is because of these art pieces that make the biennale successful, as people come from all walks of live, all over the world just to see all these. I still remember how I stand in awe while looking at some of the art pieces, it really intrigued me, someone like me who do not like arts can enjoy myself so much inside.

There are also products for the biennale, such as the T shirt especially designed for biennale by Club21, which is a very artistic shirt. There is also the biennale’s tote bag for sale as well. All these can be seen at the Singapore biennale 2008 official website.

And of course, the website is another product that brings publicity to the world about this event. Internet is a powerful tool in publicity and advertisement, thus the website will be a very tangible product that will help with the promotions.


Place, this is the location of the event held and also the places where they sell their tickets or merchandise. But in the marketing mix it also means the ambience and how the event is designed to attract people. The exhibitions for biennale 2008 were held at 6 different locations, stretching from city hall to Marina Boulevard. The choice of locations for holding the exhibition was good because all of them are in the city area, visitors can easily visit all sites, and some of the locations are within walking distance. One of the locations they made use of the Supreme Court which is not in use now. In my opinion this location itself actually created more values to the biennale. For example, visitor like me, I have never been to the Supreme Court before actually it attracted me more to the biennale because of its location. Setting the place in city hall area is also more convenient for the foreign visitors as it is easy for them to find. Besides that, holding the events at different locations also means tourists can explore other parts of Singapore at the same time. It serves as a bonus to them, not only going for the biennale but also going other attractions of Singapore.

For purchasing of tickets, the tickets only can be purchased at the 2 main exhibition locations. City hall and south beach development. In my point of view, tickets should be sold online as well, so that overseas visitors can purchase their tickets online in advance.

The ambience of the exhibition was considered fantastic. The whole exhibition is artistic; not only because of the artistic art pieces but also the location itself made the exhibition more appealing to the eyes, just like the theme of the biennale- Wonder. I was in a state of wonder when I was inside the Supreme Court, wonder at the art pieces also wonder at the building itself.

Price. When the event planner set for admission fees, he must consider how much he wants to charge, is there any discount for any special group of people. Because, price determines the number of people you want to attract. The organizer also needs to consider if the price is elastic or inelastic. Elastic means lowering the price of the ticket to attract more customers. A good elastic price example for biennale will be the 50% discount price. There is a concession price of 50% discount off admission fee for:

Full time students with valid student pass
Senior citizens aged 60 years and above
Children above 3 years old

And each single entry pass comes with a copy of the exhibition's short guide which is worth $6. A normal ticket will cost $10, plus an exhibition guide which is $6, so the actual price will be $16 to go for biennale 2008. However, student like me who enjoys a 50% discount paid $5 and I get a guide book for free. Thus, people belong to this category actually saved $11 if we go for this event!

In my point of view, I think the biennale organization used an appropriate price strategy to attract people. 1st is the discount for certain market, 2nd is using price to attract new markets.
The first strategy can be seen as above, there’s certain discount to certain market. The 2nd strategy is useful when biennale offers :

30% discount off admissions fee + short guide for: PAssion card holders

20% discount off admissions fee + short guide for:
McCafé customer who purchased McCafé meal
Purchase of 1 set of meal entitles a customer to make 1 discount redemption

These are the new market that they want to attract. In my opinion, if I am a passion card holder I will think like this: I will go this event since it is only held once in two years and the ticket is affordable, moreover, I can enjoy a 20% discount, why not?

All in all, price should be charged depending on the cost of the event, the spending power of the markets that you want to attract, and if the event is value for money. Also, the organizer needs to look at their competitors when setting their price, but in biennale content, there are no competitors, since this is the only big scale art exhibition in Singapore.

Promotion. In marketing content this means the communication mix, which refers to all the communication activities that an event director can use to tell the public or the target market about the event. Promotional mix can be in the form of advertising using different kind of media to advertise. The role of promotion mix is to: create or increase the awareness of the event, create or enhance a positive image, generate demand for the event and also remind the target market details of the event. In my own understanding, promotion mix can simply mean making the public or the target market know/aware that this event is going to happen and at the same time, attract them to come.

In this year’s biennale, I didn’t see a lot of advertisement being put up, or any commercials that are being broadcasted often. However, in my own experience, the chance that I got to know biennale is through an art piece call Fantasmas by Issac Montoya, a Spain artist his work is being displayed at Raffles City Shopping Centre. This art piece is a visual art, where the public can view the art through either a red or a blue glass and the image appear in front of you will be different. I think maybe biennale didn’t use this art to be a promotion strategy to attract people, but this unintentional art piece that being displayed actually tells a lot of people there will be a biennale coming up.

But, I think in the area of promotion the Singapore biennale could do much better. They should put up more advertisements to publicize about this big scale event. I suggest they should use tools like television to create awareness in the public, and also put up advertisements in schools so that students will also know about it. Because biennale not only attracting foreign tourists but they also want to attract locals, they can even use this as an educational opportunity for the art students to understand arts and expose more to the international standard arts.

Packaging and distribution. A package is a combination of any elements in the event, a package aims to attract customers providing “value added” in the form of extra features that cannot be obtained elsewhere. It also lowers the price and maximizes the convenience in a packaging mix.

The Singapore biennale’s packaging is the Singapore Flyer Promo. It is an exclusive offer, allowing one-time entry to the main biennale sites and a ride on the Singapore Flyer to listen to Spell#7 and Evan Tan’s audio artwork, Sky Duet. To enjoy this exclusive offer, the visitors simply need to add another $21 to their entrance ticket for biennale to hop on the Flyer. However, visitors of the Singapore flyer also enjoy a Singapore biennale ticket, but a guide book is not included.

In order for this promotion to work, I think the most important thing is for the Singapore biennale committee and Singapore flyer committee to work together, so that both parties have everything to gain but nothing to lose. Also in my opinion, I think this promotion actually works for both locals and visitors that came from overseas, because Singapore Flyer is an icon to Singapore, tourists that come will most likely hop on the biggest fairy’s wheel in the world. In this biennale season, they can simply add another $21 and enjoy Flyer and also enjoy exclusive audio art in the sky!

Programming, programming is the schedule and the guide provided by Singapore Biennale. The schedule of biennale started off with an open ceremony, with only invited guests; Senior Minister Goh was one of the invited guests. Though the public by then might not know that the biennale well, but following after the opening of biennale is an visual art piece displayed in Raffles City Shopping Centre which has brought up curiosity in people.

This year Singapore Biennale was held at different locations namely City Hall, Raffles City, South Beach Development, Marina Bay, Esplanade and Singapore Flyer. The biennale website as well as the guide book provided maps for the different locations. This will give the visitors a clear view on where and what is happening in the different locations. There are also scheduled tours for visitors on Saturday and Sunday. Scheduled Tours are conducted at City Hall and South Beach Development. Visitors who join in these tours will gain a better understanding of the artworks, artists, and how the artworks relate to the theme of Wonder.

However, I think they guide book should also provide information on how to get to different locations as not all the visitors are locals and they might not know how to go. But overall, the programming of biennale is successful in my point of view, as there are many guides scheduled for visitors to understand the biennale better.

People. People in the marketing mix referred to the visitors as well as staff in the event. Staff in the event play a very important role. It is their warmth and their passion to serve that makes a wonderful experience for the visitors.

Staffs in the biennale generally are very friendly and cheerful. I had an wonderful experience at the ticket booth as the staffs serving are smiley and they helped my friends and I to keep 10 over balloons as we will had inconvenience carry them around in the exhibition. I think the staffs mending the ticketing are really important, can you imagine if the ticketing staffs pulled a long face when you haven’t even stepped inside the exhibition? It will surely affect your mood. Thus, biennale has used this mix to hire friendly staffs and putting more cheerful and more enthusiastic staffs at the ticketing counters so that when the moment visitors come in they will feel welcomed.

Besides the staffs, visitors are equally important in the marketing mix. Many people go for such event because they heard from their friends that it is good, if I see a lot of people in the exhibition I will have a feeling that the exhibition is interesting. Same goes to if the exhibitions are empty; people would feel uninterested and unenthusiastic to go.

Partnership. There are many partners and sponsors for this year biennale. Some of them are, Club21, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), IKEA, Singapore Flyers and the National Library Board.

By having Singapore Tourism Board (STB) as a partner will definitely expose Singapore Biennale to the other countries, as STB is a government body and Singapore biennale committee do not need to worry much about advertising the places outside of Singapore, as STB is an official tourism board.

Take Club21 for example, it designed T-shirt especially for the Singapore biennale, as Club21 is a world renowned company, a limited edition T shirt will surely be shown on the website of Club21, thus this provide with free advertisement for Singapore Biennale, as people would want to know why is the Singapore Biennale so special, that Club21 designed a shirt for it. Also, people who attended Biennale and saw the shirt they will be curious to find out what exactly is Club21, this provide free publicity for Club21 also. So, this is a win-win situation and thses are the benefits of having partners and sponsors in an event.

A family portrait

this is my "family's "portrait.

this is a map of singapore, the white stuff are papers visitors write and they paste it on the map.

take a closer look, this where TP is !

this is a painting, use only paints to create the volume.

here is a closer look !

the kid's biennale

reference from website : http://www.singaporebiennale.org

WONDER 2008 !