The Demand And Scope Of Events

Demand And Scope Of Events

Historically, the demand for events has been determined largely by social factors. These factors were the need for social integration, interaction between individuals and communities, the need for public celebration, promoting community cohesiveness, group activities, social norms and social structure. Religious, civic, trade and community rituals, and ceremonies also lead to the demand for such events.

These historical determinants still hold true in the modern societies, where despite technological innovations, events are driven primarily by social needs. But events today also address economic, organizational, political, marketing, philanthropic, fundraising and charitable needs.

Many of us must have had the experience of organizing small birthday parties, anniversaries and similar such events. Today these events are no more just family affaire, rather are extended affairs, and mostly organized by event managers as their expertise is required. Events such as concerts, fund-raisers, product launches, conferences, exhibitions, entertainment events, festivals and fairs, and sports championships need a great degree of involvement by experts from outside. Big events like these are managed as projects by EMCs.

The emergence of EMCs and the coming into prominence of the field – Event Management, as a separate industry, also indicates the increasing demand for event activities. This has led to a felt need for professionalizing the field. The creation of events is also due to economic factors, an increasing standard of living, urbanization, changing demographics, exposure to media and increasing literacy rates. Much as in the European Union, India in the wake of globalization and liberalization is seeing the growth of the event industry as a contributor to the Indian economy through events ranging from small scale private events to large scale international ones. Be it hospitality, tourism, business, entertainment, festive, social and cultural events, the demand for events continue. Same is true for commercial events where the demand has led to an increase in trade fairs, conferences, exhibitions, product launches etc.

Events are also driven by motivations. For example, the primary motive for holding an athletic competition may be to provide an opportunity for local athletes, to display their abilities, and the secondary motives may be to provide an opportunity for people having same interests to interact with each other.

Getz underlines the motivational aspect for participating in events, which might be physical, social or personal, and also organizational. The primary need for attending a Nokia cellular phone launch may have nothing to do with personal needs, but everything to do with your organization that sent you there for organizational purpose.

People therefore participate or attend events based on several motives, not just one. These could be: fulfillment of personal expectations; for competition/achievement; to make or break a record; for educational, tourism, entertainment or recreational support for other participants in the event and so on. Ticketed events are an activity where the ability and willingness to pay the price becomes an issue, and the secondary cost implications in terms of transport, travel costs, time, distance and effort, or some other personal priority like looking after children at home becomes an issue.

Although an event may be a single activity [ such as a wedding ] with one homogeneous group of people attending [ one market segment ], certain types of events comprise a range of activities that are attended by different groups or segments of people, with different motives of being there.

Shone and Parry quote four kinds of potential demands for events – ‘Current Demand‘ [ that demand which our event satisfies at the moment ], ‘Future Demand‘ [ that demand which our event could satisfy in the future, over a normal growth period ], ‘Latent Demand‘ [ that demand which is sleeping until you provide an event for it ], and ‘Suppressed Demand‘ [ that demand which exists for our event, but cannot get to it due to being suppressed by price, time, availability, lack of disposable income or other reasons ]. A new event might tap a demand that is latent or suppressed in some way.

The scope of an event can be understood in terms of its market demand. An event organizer has to first find out about the demand for an event, because without this knowledge, it is impossible to provide what the target market wants. Different events that are held in a city or town will attract different target groups. Those who attend the annual ‘Dastkar Mela’ [ Artisans’ Fair ] might not be the same people who attend the annual painting exhibition. Over time, some events become popular than the others, some may be new while some may be not, all these depending on reasons like costs, extent of popularity or shortage of volunteer expertise. The planning and execution of an event not just depends on the market demand, but also on the availability and kind of expertise, funding and support.

Many times the objective is to create a new market and then expand on it. In this context, the scope of an event expands for the event organizer. For instance it can be seen that there is further potential and less exploited demand for North-East Indian Dance Festival or a Tribal Dance Festival, and by organizing this event repeatedly, it becomes successful and grows over years. A successful example is the North Sea Jazz Festival, which began in 1975 with less than 300 musicians, few venues and visitors. The level of demand at that time was small, but over the years the number of visitors and musicians increased to 1,50,000 and 1,200 respectively. One could not have foreseen the level of demand to visit and participate in the event 25 years ago, because in those days, jazz was a latent demand. It is possible that jazz might have further potential and unexploited demand, which is not being tapped for a variety of reasons. This happens for many events.

The event market today is very diverse, is changing and cannot be seen as a homogeneous whole. It is difficult to quantify a particular type of event in a particular town, city or state. This is because the range of events activity is from small personal events to large scale events. And within each type of event there are variations. Information and data collected on any type of event will enable event managers to estimate the size and scope of that event. In order to understand the market demand of events, one should first analyze a particular event in terms of the given time, effort and the cooperation of the organizers. Once this is done, the market for the event can be analyzed too, in terms of what kind of people are likely to attend or have attended in the past, their motives of going to the event and the benefits of their attending or participating in the event.

To understand how events can be planned and marketed and how market information should be recorded, continuous monitoring and recording has to be done in the following areas – visitor numbers, visitor spending, visitor activity and participation, advertising effectiveness, and visitor satisfaction. There are a number of events for which the potential market will be just an estimate. But for some events, the potential market is known and fixed, as in the case of weddings, birthdays and anniversaries. Then there are events that, while retaining their uniqueness, recur at intervals, such as annually or biannually, and in this case, market is relatively well known from previous experience. For example if 50,00,000 people came to the International Book Fair last year, it is very likely that 50,00,000 people will come this year. Some events become perishable. A one day event, for example, an open air musical concert or a one day hockey match, may either be very exciting or may suffer from an unexpected weather condition, traffic or a clash with another similar event equally exciting.

The unique feature of events is that they break through the clutter of thousands of commercial communications or advertisements that consumers encounter every day. Events bring in customized and innovative, first hand experiences and reinforce the brand image of the product or service. As critical marketing tools for direct communication, events have started featuring as large parts of a marketing budget for any organization, and feature equally alongside advertising spends and internet marketing. Apart from creating brand awareness, events allow an independent platform for the product to be uniquely showcased, and registers in the audience’s mind instantly. Many brands get rejuvenated or re-launched at various stages of their product life cycle through innovative events to gain back their market shares. Events also provide a critical ‘Touch And Feel‘ experience to the consumer through interactive mode. Events enable the implementation of marketing plans of many companies which include:

• • Test Marketing.
  • Focused Sales To A Captive Audience.
  • Increasing Customer Attendance In Stores, And Enabling Sales Promotions.
  • Enabling Relationship Building And PR Activities.

Marketing research also gains significantly by events as they help in market database collection, updating of data on a regular frequency and creation of consumer panels. Events usually provide instant and accurate feedback on products and services. Over and above the marketing aspect, the economic benefits to the region holding the event is significant. Large scale events tend to give a facelift to the resources and infrastructure of a place, and generate positive employment. For example, the Commonwealth Games changed the face of Delhi’s National Capital Region territory in terms of roads, bus and metro services and infrastructure.

The demand for event managers is growing exponentially with corporate, cultural and personal occasions needing professionals to manage them. Opportunities for people who want to enter the industry are expanding. One of the most profitable aspects of the field of event management is the need for creativity, which provides a major opportunity for earning. Events such as theme parties, birthday celebrations, anniversaries and other family celebrations have become glitzy events today as people are focusing on themes, décor, colors, interiors, buffet spreads, foods and beverages, and celebrity appearances. These are handled by a team in event management and offer enormous scope. This also reflects the ability and willingness of the consumer to spend for events.

The Indian Events Industry today broadly has the following types of services, namely Intellectual Properties (IPs), Managed Events, Activations and Digital Events. These include MICE Events [ Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions ], Sporting Events, Rural Events, Field Marketing, Contests, Awards, Brand Launches, Personal Events including Weddings, events seen by a large audience at one time with the help of internet etc. The number of business opportunities offers great career prospects for the youth. Managed events, i.e. corporate events or personal events provide the largest revenues to the event business and hence the enormous scope. The demand for events has grown to such an extent that print and radio companies have started activation services, which are event activities of small size that help to promote or sell a product/services, in some cities across India. Thus event management encompasses a range of profiles that offer opportunities in different areas.

 

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