Leeds Clubber Survey 2012

Following on from the extremely useful and successful Leeds Clubber Survey 2010, I have just launched the Leeds Clubber Survey 2012. It is my intention from this point onwards to undertake a similar survey every two years targeted towards those who visit nightclubs in the City of Leeds. The results from the survey will be published on this blog and used in educational materials.

This year's survey will be online until 31st July 2012, and intends (amongst other things) to ascertain the following:

• How often and when people go clubbing in Leeds
• What motivates people to go clubbing
• How effective various promotional mediums are towards clubbers
• What the spending habits are of clubbers in Leeds
• What the drinking habits are of clubbers in Leeds
• What the attitudes are of clubbers in Leeds towards alcohol and illegal drugs
• Whether clubbers in Leeds have concerns around safety
• How demographically, the habits and attitudes of clubbers in Leeds differs

The Leeds Clubber Survey 2012 can be found at www.leedsclubbersurvey.co.uk .

Recommendations to club night promoters for smarter use of flyers

This post is based upon findings from the 2010 Leeds Clubber Survey, which had a particular focus upon attitudes towards, and usage of nightclub and club night flyers in Leeds by both promoters and clubbers alike. Along with this a literature review was carried out into best practice flyer design and distribution techniques, the culmination of both have contributed to the recommendations made below.


Club night promoters are largely aware that flyers are not as effective a promotional method as what word of mouth recommendation and social media are (although they don't always want to admit this). Word of mouth and social media come at very little cost, other than ensuring that the people who have visited club nights have had the most enjoyable of times. 

Promoters should capitalise on the fact that the majority of their customers are regular repeat visitors, by continuing to entice them back.  Whether it is the musical repertoire of a particular night, the quality of the venue, the price of drinks or the entry charge, whatever feature or combination of features that a particular club night has that is attractive to its customers should be maintained, and every now and again improved upon to reward those loyal repeat customers who keep coming back.  As many clubbers already know which club nights they are visiting, it is unnecessary to give them another flyer.

With that said, there is still a place for flyers, but their use could be smarter and certainly more efficient.  For mainstream club nights that attract a wider audience of clubbers and particularly student clubbers, on street flyer distribution will never be as efficient as it could be as long as a mass distribution to anyone and everyone is adopted.  Therefore the following recommendations are made:

·     target your existing customers with flyers as they leave the premises (exit flyering), only reward them with something better than a ‘paper’ flyer.  Re-usable flyers made of something that is more longer lasting than paper could further encourage repeat visitation.  For example a plastic credit card sized flyer that upon presentation gave the bearer something that other clubbers did not get in terms of reduced entry or a special offer could be an attractive proposition to customers.  Such a flyer should include clear information about what it entitles the bearer to, as well as terms and conditions;

·     encourage earlier nightclub attendance by providing flyers with special offers for those who arrive earlier;

·     if flyers made of paper and card are to be used, then use them more efficiently by making them last for a prolonged period of time, and making their presentation upon arrival at a club entitle the bearer to a special offer or discount that non-flyer bearers are not entitled to.  Flyers could be collected by door staff, and then exit flyered back to customers as they leave;

·     flyer content needs to adhere closely to what is suggested in this post, and this needs to be more consistently applied by promoters to all of their flyers;

·     capitalise upon the fact that clubbing is a social activity, and allow just one flyer to entitle a group of clubbers to a discount;

·     do not employ people to distribute flyers that are not friendly and chatty, consider the quality of the flyer transaction rather than the quantity of flyers that are given.  Flyers taken by clubbers for the ‘wrong’ reasons (often pity and guilt) are realistically of very little worth;

·     other than special offers consider ways by which flyers might contribute to the atmosphere of a club night, by giving them a purpose for a ‘fun’ activity that takes place during the club night, this might encourage clubbers to keep hold of them and not throw them away;

·     and be conscious of an ageing population, which will mean an increase in older clubbers. Older clubbers are less likely to pick up flyers so promoters should begin to consider alternative ways to promote to them.

Flyers for club nights that feature ‘niche’ and specialist music genres certainly have a place, particularly as their audiences are interested in reading more about them.  Flyers for these type of club nights that are distributed by friendly people who are passionate about the music are likely to have a greater efficiency than flyers that are left static to be collected or are distributed by people who do not represent the ‘scene’.  It is therefore a recommendation that flyers for ‘niche’ and specialist music nights are distributed by fans of the music, in the places that are frequented by their target market, and that conversation forms part of the flyer transaction.

All letterbox flyering should immediately cease, it fuels ill feeling amongst clubbers to flyers, promoters and their club nights.  It is potentially damaging, and risks souring the relationship between clubber and promoter.  The only possible exception to this rule is if flyers are used in a friendly ‘door-knocking’ manner and given by hand along with conversation.  This is what some specialist dub-step promoters do in halls of residence, knock on a door, ask the occupants if they are fans of dub-step music, if they are not, they apologise for bothering them and move on.  If they are fans, they give them a flyer into their hands and tell them about the club night.  For this to be carried out effectively it needs to be done by people who are genuine fans of the music.

Club night promoters need to acknowledge that clubbers are overall an environmentally aware group, and that needless waste created by flyers enforces a negative perception of the promoter and club night.  In addition to what has already been stated above about reusable flyers, the following initiatives should be considered:

·     promoters should be seen to be more active in picking up discarded flyers;

·     have clearly marked ‘flyer bins’ along the street where distributors are so that those who do not want to keep flyers dispose of them in a way that allows them to be used again;

·     make greater use of posters and lesser use of paper flyers;

·     produce fewer flyers that are valid for more people, thereby encouraging group visits;

·     concentrate more on social media and online promotions.  It would be relatively simple for promoters to distribute a link to their customers that took them to a page of flyers that contained special offers that could be printed by clubbers or even saved onto mobile smart phones and shown upon entry to gain a discount.

It is a recommendation to all club night promoters to be honest with themselves about the use of flyers, do they really represent true value as a promotional medium? To really be able to gauge this, promoters should attempt to survey those entering clubs (particularly in queues) to gain a clearer understanding of the impact that flyers really have upon their customers choice of club night. Promoters should consider experimenting with club nights that are not promoted at all by flyers - and if any of you are 'brave' enough to do this, I'd be very interested to hear your results!

Nightclub Promotion and Competition

Promotion is the sum of ‘activities that communicate the product or service and its merits to target customers and persuade them to buy’ (Kotler, 1994, p.1007).  Hackley and Tiwaskul (2006) discuss the concept of entertainment marketing and promotion as being one that leads to experiential consumption.  Nightclub promotion may be carried out by venues themselves, or by specialist third-party organisations and individuals who are brought in to promote themed nights within the nightclub to potential consumers.  Themed nights are known as club nights, and the organisations and individuals that undertake the task of promoting them to potential consumers are known as promoters (Moss, S, 2009).  KBA (1994) stated that promoters were a very important entity in the nightclub scene, they often set trends and are responsible for generating ideas for events, usually involving some form of entertainment, and often at their own expense.  Moss (2009) identified that promoters were often used where competition between nightclubs was fierce.  So called ‘student-cities’ (those cities that experience a boost in population during ‘term-time’ from college and university students), are one such example where a large demographic of residents of nightclub age are often heavily promoted to by nightclub promoters keen to attract custom.

The nightclub industry is a saturated and highly competitive marketplace (Skinner, Moss, G and Parfitt , 2005), effective target market segmentation, is therefore very important (Dibb, Stern and Wensley, 2002).  Within student cities competition is the most fierce at the beginning of the academic year (in the UK this is usually September), and at the beginning of new terms after vacation periods such as Christmas and Easter.  During this time, promoters are highly active, with many forms of visible promotion in key locations around student cities, such as: outside universities; within halls of residence; and on footpath areas where there are a large number of students passing by.  Such promotion is designed to entice new customers, and to reinforce brand awareness amongst existing customers (Moss, S, 2009).

When promoting products, organisations and events to students, it is important to target new students when they first arrive (Fakharzadeh and Todd, 2010).  This gives the opportunity to develop brand awareness before students form relationships with rival entities.  Useful locations to target students with flyers include ‘dorm halls, dining halls…and next to vending machines’ (Campion Devney, 1991, p.59).  Hayden (2006) additionally suggests student resource centres such as libraries, and university literature racks.

Nightclubs often portray a fun and ‘sexy’ image, which has been capitalised upon by nightclub promoters in their promotional materials, this is demonstrated in the figure below.  This has also been capitalised upon by third party companies who have used nightclubs to showcase their products, some examples include Applebelly and Lycos, who went in to partnership to promote the online dating service Love@Lycos within nightclubs (Anon, 2001).  Sepe, Ling and Glantz (2002) concur, and in their research into tobacco promotions in nightclubs, they found that promoters used ‘very attractive’ dancing girls, and ‘provocative games’ designed to entice young potential smokers, (p.415).  In research by Moss, G, Parfitt and Skinner (2008) into gender and nightclub visitation ‘men identified the opposite sex as the critical factor in the decision to select a venue…in this research one male focus group respondent suggested that the number of women…was important ‘for single lads definitely’’ (p.69).  Shapiro (2006) identified that nightclubs were promiscuous venues where young people would often meet to form sexual unions.  Haralambos and Holborn (2004) identified that the demographic of young people who visit nightclubs as being at an experimental stage in their lives, where risk-taking and adventure form a central part of their behaviour.

Examples of nightclub promotional materials that use sexual imagery.  Source: Santana, (2010).

Nightclubs compete against their rivals on a number of levels, any of the products they have may form the basis of competition.  Refurbishment and reinvention of popular nightclubs is commonplace, this is to maintain interest amongst client groups whose tastes change over time (Haussman, 2008). Keeping repeat customers is especially challenging for nightclubs, particularly with their young adult target market (Nancarrow, Nancarrow and Page, 2002), although continual re-invention is not realistic for many venues, and therefore other means of competing including those related to pricing and promotion are the norm (Moss, G, Parfitt and Skinner, 2008).  However, it has also been found that regular nightclub patrons who are highly involved with a particular club, brand or organisation are less likely to be swayed into visiting competitor venues on the basis of price or drinks promotions (Beatty and Kahle, 1988).  Nightclubs are a service industry, and there is a great deal of service industry marketing literature on the importance of service quality (Skinner, Moss, G and Parfitt , 2005).

The methods by which promoters communicate with potential customers varies from traditional paper based media such as posters and flyers, to electronic media such as social networking websites and email (Moss, S, 2009).  In 2006, London nightclub owner Mint Group shifted its promotional focus from traditional flyers to email marketing, and in doing so appointed a specialist e-marketing company to be responsible for sending out 60,000 emails per week to the Mint group’s customer database (Anon, 2006).  ‘Brand management and communication are evolving at lightning speed’ (Lehu, 2007, p.3), this is exemplified by the relatively recent uptake of online social media (particularly Facebook) by club promoters to build brands based around their club nights and to use social media as a cost-effective and relatively easy way to reach a potential audience with a promotional message.  Those aged 35 and under are the primary target segment of social media marketers (Tiltman, 2009), many of this demographic are also the primary target segment of club promoters, making online social media an ideal promotional medium.  The adoption of such technological marketing mediums gives a modern image, and can lead to increased sales (Anon, 1996).  ‘Kids are interested in the same things they’ve always been interested in, they’re just expressing it via different channels.  Chances are that if you don’t understand today’s consumer, you didn’t really understand yesterday’s’ (Tiltman, 2009).

It is clear that in a highly competitive marketplace a strong promotional strategy is essential for the survival of both nightclubs and club nights, in what has become a buyers-market, where consumers are presented with many choices, by which to spend their leisure pound.  Not only do nightclubs need to compete as physical venues against other venues, promoters need to compete against other promoters in promoting their particular club nights.  Promotional materials are often the primary means by which potential customers may learn of club nights, so therefore adopting a strategy that targets the correct people, using appropriate promotional media is an essential aspect in the business of nightclub and club night promotion.

Bibliography

Anon.  (1996) Tech marketing increases sales for two companies.  Marketing News.  14^th March, 1996, p.2.

Anon.  (2001) Marketing latest.  Marketing.  5^th March, 2001, p.10.

Anon.  (2006) Mint group to ditch flyers for email strategy.  Precision Marketing.  27^th January, 2006, p.3.

Campion Devney, D.  (1991) Organizing special events and conferences: A practical guide for busy volunteers and staff.  Sarasota, Florida, Pineapple Press.

Dibb, S., Stern, P.  and Wensley, R.  (2002) Marketing knowledge and the value of segmentation.  Marketing Intelligence and Planning.  Volume 20, Issue 2, pp.  113 – 119.

Fakharzadeh, C.  and Todd, M.  (2010) Student organization leadership.  Infinity Publications.

Hackley, C.  and Tiwaskul, R.  (2006) Entertainment marketing and experiential consumption.  Journal of Marketing Communications.  Volume 12, Issue 1, pp.  63 – 75.

Haralambos, M.  and Holborn, M.  (2004) Sociology themes and perspectives.  6^th ed.  London, Collins.

Haussman, G.  (2008) New Vegas nightlife: The hottest of the hot spots.  TravelAgent.  27^th October, 2008, pp.50 -  52.

Hayden, C.J.  (2006) Get clients now: A 28 day marketing program for professionals, consultants and coaches.  New York, AMACOM.

KBA.  Trend influence marketing program.  April 14, 1994.  cited in Sepe, E., Ling, P.  and Glantz, S.  (2002) Smooth moves: Bar and nightclub tobacco promotions that target young adults.  American Journal of Public Health.  March 2002, Vol.  92, No.3, pp.  414 – 419.

Kotler, P.  (1994) Marketing management: Analysis, planning, implementation and control.  8^th Edition.  Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Lehu, J.M.  (2007) Branded entertainment.  London, Kogan Page.

Moss, G., Parfitt, S.  and Skinner, H.  (2008) Men and women: Do they value the same things in mainstream nightclubs and bars? Tourism and Hospitality Research.  Volume 9, Issue 1, pp.  61 – 79.

Moss, S.  ed.  (2009) The entertainment industry: An introduction.  Wallingford, CAB International.

Nancarrow, C., Nancarrow, J.  and Page, J.  (2002) An analysis of the concept of cool and its marketing implications.  Journal of Consumer Behaviour.  Volume 1, Issue 4, pp.  311 – 322.

Santana, D.  (2010) DJ Emir design services.  [Internet] Englewood, Colorado, DJ Emir.  URL available from: Accessed 20^th August, 2010.

Sepe, E., Ling, P.  and Glantz, S.  (2002) Smooth moves: Bar and nightclub tobacco promotions that target young adults.  American Journal of Public Health.  March 2002, Vol.  92, No.3, pp.  414 – 419.

Shapiro, P.  (2005) Turn the beat around: The secret history of disco.  New York, Faber and Faber.

Skinner, H., Moss, G.  and Parfitt, S.  (2005) Nightclubs and bars: What do customers really want?.  International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.  Vol.  17, Issue 2, pp.  114 – 124.

Tiltman, D.  (2009) Why there’s more to digital than skinny jeans and trips to nightclubs.  Media.  19^th November, 2009, p.7.

Nightclub Products

According to Kotler et al (1999) a product is ‘anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.  It includes objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas’ (p.11).  Kotler’s definition and theories of product are widely accepted and referred to in a variety of texts including Lancaster and Reynolds (2004); Morgan and Pritchard (2001) and Swarbrooke (1995) who also applies theories from Kotler (1994) to his own research.  In his work Swarbrooke (1995) applies Kotler’s theories, which were principally aimed at manufacturing industries to visitor attractions and service industries with regards to ‘levels of product’, identifying three distinct product levels, these are:

· core products – the main benefits that a consumer derives from purchasing a product, i.e.  what they truly seek from the product;

· tangible products – this is what the consumer is actually buying into, and from this will gain the core product, and;

· augmented products – these are ancillary goods and services that the consumer is also buying into, which influence their decision as to whether to buy into a product, but they are typically not perceived to be the ‘main’ product by the consumer.

(Swarbrooke, 1995, pp.  39-41).

Through application of the above theory about product levels to nightclubs, the following figure has been created to demonstrate what nightclub consumers are actually buying into, in terms of product levels.

Levels of product for a nightclub.  Source: Author, based upon Swarbrooke (1995, figure 3.2, p.40).

From the above figure, it is clearly demonstrated that the core product, which clubbers are buying into, is the atmosphere within the venues that they are visiting, and the emotions that they will experience during their visit.  The atmosphere within a nightclub directly affects the emotions that clubbers experience during their visit, and for the vast majority of clubbers the emotions that they seek are typically ‘light-hearted’ and positive, including enjoyment, happiness, excitement, lust and love (Moss, S, 2009).

Club nights are typically given a theme, which will include the type of music on offer, who the DJs playing the music are, internal club décor, external promotional branding (including flyers) and other entertainment including dancers and performers from artists such as singers and fire-breathers.  Themes are designed to appeal to a particular market segment and contribute to the tangible and augmented products on offer as perceived by consumers.  Besides the theme of a given club night, other tangible products such as the physical club infrastructure will also play a part in the decision making process of consumers in their choice of venue.  This may include the dimensions and layout of a club or a part of a club, such as the dancefloor and bars, other augmented products such as toilets and cloak room facilities may also play a part in the decision making process. 

Skinner, Moss, G and Parfitt (2005) carried out a study in which they examined customer attitudes to a variety of aspects of nightclub service offerings, in this study they carried out focus groups and a questionnaire, their findings indicated that nightclub visitors were looking for originality, unique features, and value within the product offering.  In this research, 49% of male students stated that alcohol pricing was important to encourage repeat visitation to nightclubs, and 52% of female students stated that music and entertainment was an important factor when deciding upon a choice of venue.

Bibliography

Kotler, P.  (1994) Marketing management: Analysis, planning, implementation and control.  8^th  Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Edition.

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J.  and Wong, V.  (1999) Principles of marketing.  2^nd European Edition.  London, Prentice Hall.

Lancaster, G.  and Reynolds, P.  (2004) Marketing.  Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan.

Morgan, N.  and Pritchard, A. (2001) Advertising in tourism and leisure.  Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Moss, S.  ed.  (2009) The entertainment industry: An introduction.  Wallingford, CAB International.

Skinner, H., Moss, G.  and Parfitt, S.  (2005) Nightclubs and bars: What do customers really want?.  International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.  Vol.  17, Issue 2, pp.  114 – 124.

Swarbrooke, J.  (1995) The development and management of visitor attractions.  Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann.

A Brief History of Nightclubs

Venues that would now be classified as nightclubs first began to appear in the early 20^th Century, in both Europe and the USA.  These venues sold alcohol (sometimes illegally) and promoted entertainment in the form of: live music and song (jazz and swing was popular in the 1920s and 1930s); dancing girls often performing burlesque routines; and various other small stage performers including magicians, freak shows and comedy, which often came under the term ‘vaudeville’ (Trav, 2005) and today would be considered ‘variety’ sketches (Walmsley, 2009).

Throughout the 20^th Century nightclubs grew in number and variety, with a rapid growth from the 1950s (post second world war austerity) as emergent youth cultures flourished along with their desire to consume and showcase products including fashion and music associated with their image and lifestyle (Laughey, 2006).  The 1960s saw many young people gathering in venues to listen and dance to rock and roll music, both from live bands and played by disc jockeys, these venues became known as discotheques (Wald, 2009).  The 1970s heralded a new era of rapid growth for nightclubs as discotheques and new rhythmic music forms for dancing to, developed a new emergent popular culture – that of disco.  The term discotheque was abbreviated to disco, disc jockeys became known as DJs and musically disco moved away from it’s original rock and roll influences and bread new dance crazes, fashions and trends including bright colours, garish sequined outfits and even roller skating.  Discos began to theme their venues around their fashionability, and included light effects such as strobes and moving / flashing coloured lights, and later dry ice for smoke effects (Broughton and Brewster, 2006).  New technologies allowed DJs to play records to audiences without interruption to the music flow through the use of mixers, disco music that was made for dancing was a popular new genre, and the integration of electronica and ‘black’ music influences such as funk, soul and reggae lead to new hybrid music forms emerging, the most successful arising in the late 1970s – hip hop (Broughton and Brewster, 2006; Shapiro, 2005). Hip hop became popular in discos due to it’s association with the very flamboyant breakdancing, allowing the audience and customers to become a recognised part of the entertainment offering. 

Throughout the 1980s dozens of new musical genres and sub-genres emerged, as identified by Moss (2009), these included garage, goth, house, indie, raga and techno (p.40). For each of these genres, hordes of fans actively sought out specialist musical nights.  From hip hop and electro various offshoots of new music emerged, but in terms of nightclub culture the most renowned of these came from Chicago in the mid 1980s – house music.  This was purely electronic, highly rhythmic, and uncomplicated music, often with minimal vocals that was made for dancing (Saunders, 2007).  It was first embraced by gay audiences amongst whom electro was already popular, but soon took a hold in discos in major urban centres in Europe and the USA (Norris, 2008). Discos began to re-image themselves as trendy dance venues.  The term disco was eventually dropped and venue promoters began to refer to their venues as nightclubs.  Laser light effects began to be used by venues to demonstrate their modern image and ability to create ambience and atmosphere within the venues.

Students were not considered a significant customer segment by nightclubs until the 1980s.  Up until this era students may have attended specialist music nights in relatively small numbers (in comparison to today), but (using the UK as an example) students would often mainly frequent their own university’s Student Union venues.  In the UK, the 1980s saw the emergence of ‘student nights’ at town centre nightclubs in student towns and cities.  These were typically held midweek on a weekly basis, and would include cheap drink offers to attract custom, and customers having to show some form of identification that proved they were students.  Student nights were generally used by nightclub owners to take-up unused club capacity during the mid-week lull when venues would have otherwise been closed, and therefore not making money (MINTEL, 2008a).

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise of house music hybrids with faster heavier beats and bass, the most popular of which became known as techno.  The popularity of techno amongst club patrons, lead to the rise of the rave scene, and from this many new musical sub-genres that fused techno with other musical forms emerged.  Nightclubs offered an increasing range of specialist music nights, often attracting dedicated followers from afar.  Around this era, the term nightclub was abbreviated to club, by those venues and club promoters who saw themselves as being generally more stylish than ‘mainstream’ high street venues.  The term club was then often associated with nightclubs that offered specialist dance music, and their patrons became known as ‘clubbers’ (Chatterton and Hollands, 2003).

New musical forms prove most popular amongst young people (Laughey, 2006), students began to be recognised as a growth customer segment during the 1990s (MINTEL, 2008b).  In many UK student cities, clubs were being increasingly frequented by students at weekends and on nights not specifically aimed at students, as students began to satisfy a demand to consume new dance music forms.  A greater integration of students and ‘locals’ began to take place in the nightclub environment.  This was further exacerbated during the late 1990s, when changes were made to student funding in the UK by governments, meaning that student grants were replaced by student loans.  This lead to an increasing number of university students living at home, and studying at their local university, rather than traveling to other towns and cities (MINTEL, 2008b), with a knock-on effect being an even greater integration of students and locals within the nightclub environment.

The 1990s heralded an era of growth for club brands associated with specialist dance music genres.  A number of ‘mega-brands’ emerged from what were somewhat humble beginnings, such as Ministry of Sound, Gatecrasher and Cream (Broughton and Brewster, 2006; MINTEL, 2008a; Norris, 2008).  These brands spawned branches throughout the UK and even globally.  In towns and cities around the UK, many local entrepreneurs emerged, keen to take on these clubbing giants with their own imitation nights in club venues.  This was particularly apparent in student cities, where a newly recognised market of young people who were keen to visit nightclubs during the midweek period, were beginning to abandon their traditional Student Unions for something more trendy (MINTEL, 2008b).  By the turn of the Millennium the traditional ‘student nights’ at nightclubs had all but disappeared, and many nightclubs began to open almost every night, promoting different musically themed nights on various nights of the week, to audiences who were mostly (but not entirely) made up of students.  A typical venue may have offered several different musically themed nights with mainstream chart and pop, house and techno, rock and heavy metal, and indie / alternative music on different nights of the week.  Some venues became renowned for being specialists in particular music genres only (Moss, S, 2009).

In the 2000s, new music forms such as basslines, dub-step, RnB and electro (a new version of the music using an old name) have gained mass appeal amongst young audiences.  In student cities, entrepreneurs who are keen to cash in on this are in competition with like minded individuals, to promote and fill nights at venues across the city (Moss, S, 2009).  This promotion takes many forms, and will be further discussed later in this study. 

‘Having peaked with an estimated value of more than £1.6bn in 2003, the UK nightclub industry hasn’t reached the same heights in recent years’ (Anon, 2008, p.14).  This is primarily due to changes in the licensing act, which allowed pubs and bars to stay open later into the night.  Owens (2006) states that the change to the Licensing Act (2003) (which came into force in November 2005) that allowed pubs and bars to stay open later than 11:00pm, and for nightclubs to potentially go on until the following day, has changed the habits of clubbers with 25% not leaving home before 11:00pm, (prior to the Licensing Act (2003) coming into force only 4% of clubbers came out after 10:00pm).  Just over 40% of clubbers now leave home between 9:00pm and 10:00pm.  This has seen the number of regular nightclub visitors decline, although students remain an important demographic (Moss, G, Parfitt and Skinner, 2008).  May and Chaplin (2007) noted that nightclubs were popular amongst undergraduate students and those of student age, who would stay out later than older adults who instead preferred bars.  Due to increasing competition from nightclubs and other leisure-time service providers, nightclub venues often have an increasingly short life cycle, with a life expectancy of less than five years (Haussman, 2008).  Nightclubs face a continual need to evolve, the average age in the UK is 40, by 2025, more than a third of Britons will be over 55, nightclubs will need to adapt to this or face an uncertain future (Anon, 2008).

There is no official industry sanctioned typology of nightclubs.  Owens (2006) generally categorises nightclubs by their capacity, including Superclubs with capacities of 1,500 and above, Mid market clubs with capacities from 600 to 1,500, small clubs with capacities of less than 600, and chameleon clubs which may also operate as bars and pubs.  Moss (2009) takes an alternative approach instead classifying nightclubs by their physical environment, theming and product offering, these include: gay clubs (with a largely gay customer base and gay iconographic theming); live music venues (where bands and artists rather than DJs are the main providers of music); mainstream clubs (commercial ‘high street’ venues); niche music clubs (that specialise in particular music genres); strip clubs (adult entertainment venues); superclubs (extremely large venues with many different themed rooms and DJs); supperclubs (that provide food as part of the core product offering); ultra lounges (dark venues with a relaxed ambience, neon lighting and music played at lesser volumes); and warehouse / rave venues (venues that are used periodically for very large scale club events) (pp.67-68).

Bibliography

Anon.  (2008) It’ll never fly nightclubs.  Management Today.  August, 2008, p.14.

Broughton, F.  and Brewster, B.  (2006) Last night a DJ saved my life: 100 years of the disc jockey.  London, Headline.

Chatterton, P.  and Hollands, R.  (2003) Urban nightscapes.  London, Routledge.

 

Haussman, G.  (2008) New Vegas nightlife: The hottest of the hot spots.  TravelAgent.  27^th October, 2008, pp.50 -  52.

Laughey, D.  (2006) Music and youth culture.  Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.

May, R.  and Chaplin, K.  (2007) Cracking the code: Race, class and access to nightclubs in urban America.  Qual Sociol.  Number 31, pp.  57 – 72.

 

MINTEL.  (2008a) Nightclubs – UK.  London, MINTEL International Group.

MINTEL.  (2008b) Student lifestyles – UK.  London, MINTEL International Group.

 

Moss, G., Parfitt, S.  and Skinner, H.  (2008) Men and women: Do they value the same things in mainstream nightclubs and bars? Tourism and Hospitality Research.  Volume 9, Issue 1, pp.  61 – 79.

 

Moss, S.  ed.  (2009) The entertainment industry: An introduction.  Wallingford, CAB International.

Norris, R.  (2008) Paul Oakenfold: The authorised biography.  London, Corgi Books.

Owens, S.  (2006) Pubs, clubs and restaurants: The impact of the new Licensing Act together with a difficult trading environment and other new legislation on capital and rental values of UK nightclubs.  Journal of Retail and Leisure Property.  Vol.  5, No.  4, pp.  341 – 353.

Saunders, J.  (2007) House music: The real story.  Milton Keynes, PublishAmerica.

 

Shapiro, P.  (2005) Turn the beat around: The secret history of disco.  New York, Faber and Faber.

 

Trav.  D.S.  (2005) No applause – just throw money: The book that made vaudeville famous.  London, Faber and Faber.

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Ibiza: A Small Island Cultural Battleground

Culture is a key motivator in many tourism journeys. The desire to be an audience to a particular cultural entertainment offering can persuade potential visitors to become actual visitors to a destination, be that if the cultural offering is a long established visitor attraction with well-documented ancient origins, or whether the cultural offering is much more contemporary such as a modern day music festival or superclub. Ibiza is one such destination where a varied cultural entertainment offering attracts a wide range of visitors (from mainly Spain, Italy and Northern Europe), who wish to combine culture with the hot and sunny weather that Ibiza experiences during the Summer months. Ibiza is one of the three 'main' islands (those with international airports) in the Spanish Balearic archipelago, and has a smaller ‘sister’ island called Formentera.

Both Ibiza and Formentera are known as the ‘Pine Islands’ due to their native pine forests, and Ibiza (like all other islands in the Balearics) has a rich cultural history, having been conquered and ‘owned’ by ancient empires, and scarred by wars as the next civilization of conquerors moved in. Historically these have included Phoenicians, Romans, Carthaginians, Moors and Catalans, and Ibiza has been left with several remnants from these empires, most notably D’ Alt Villa a part of Ibiza town’s ‘old town’, an ancient high-walled settlement placed strategically at the top of a hill. The ruins of D' Alt Villa's medieval walls were originally built by the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC, and were later extended by the Moors. They are a highly visible and impressive site on the headland upon which they sit, and attract thousands of visitors each year who wish to explore and engage with this culturally rich and unique setting, this along with several archaeological sites on the island are also UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Above: D'Alt Villa nestled on the headland above Ibiza Town

Ibiza’s more contemporary culture is around the nightclub industry and the hedonistic behaviour participated in by many clubbers including casual sex, alcohol consumption, and illegal drug use. Ibiza has had a bit of a ‘hippy’ reputation since the early 1970s, it along with it’s sister island of Formentera have several nudist beaches, and the spirit of ‘freedom’ is something that in recent years has shaped the perception of Ibiza to holidaymakers as a more hedonistic retreat than the Balearic islands of Menorca and Mallorca, which also have distinct identities of their own. Menorca has always been considered to be a peaceful and relaxing destination, whilst Mallorca has everything from the drunken rowdiness of Magaluf, to the traditional Soller Railway, and exclusive luxury villas around the North of the island. During the early 1980s Mallorca gained a bloody reputation as a holiday destination as gangs of mostly British males rampaged on the streets of Magaluf, resulting in at least one death, and the introduction of the paramilitary style tourist police. Despite its inclusion in the Club 18-30 brochures, Ibiza managed to escape much of this wave of British lager fuelled carnage, and at the time was a cosmopolitan destination where British tourists lagged in numbers behind German and Scandinavian ones.

The venue that is now Amnesia was in the 1970s a hangout for hippies, and those who lead ‘alternative’ and ‘new age’ lifestyles (as later was Café Del Mar, which was founded in 1980). The musical repertoire in the early 80s included hip hop, 80s electro, soul, reggae, disco, punk, europop, indie, and industrial genres. Resident Amensia DJ Alfredo Fiorito, and Café Del Mar DJ Carlos often mixed tracks together to fuse musical genres into new hybrids. The development of house music in the mid 1980s had a profound impact, as this was adopted in a number of Ibizan clubs as the main music style, although it was still often fused with other kinds of music to create a distinctive and contemporary sound that became unique to Ibiza. Bands like ‘The Woodentops’, ‘Fini Tribe’, and ‘Front 242’ would be played alongside and mixed with Chicago house, to an audience of musical hedonists, who were keen to engage with such original experimentation.

According to Norris (2007) it was the likes of Trevor Fung and Nicky Holloway who saw the potential for Ibiza to become a clubbing holiday destination and actively promoted the island within their networks to bring groups of clubbers from the UK to the island. It wasn’t until 1983 that Ibiza gained widespread notoriety in the British media. ‘Wham’ filmed their ‘Club Tropicana’ video on the island, and in 1985 Ibiza made the front page of ‘hip’ culture magazine ‘The Face’ as ‘the place to be’. Round about this time the drug Ecstasy (or E) also began to appear in Ibiza and was immediately adopted by clubbers for the euphoric ‘colourful and shiny’ effect that it had upon their altered state of consciousness. In 1986 Paul Oakenfold visited the island, and in 1987 he returned with Danny Rampling. The clubs, the music, the E took hold, particularly in Sant Antoni de Portmany (San Antonio), and the house scene became faster paced, blending with indie-dance, techno and trance mixes until eventually the rave scene emerged as the islands musical champion of the late 80s and early 90s. Ibiza’s modern day clubbing identity was born, and legendary Superclub venues including Privilege (the world’s largest club), Space, Eden, DC10 and Pacha thrived. San Antonio, Ibiza town and the nearby Playa D’en Bossa became the destinations of choice for pleasure-seeking club tourists. Today the Ibiza sound is much more stylish and often chilled out with trance and techno remaining popular house music derivatives within the island’s clubs.

The importance of Ibiza’s climate in attracting visitors should not be underestimated, from October until around Easter time, tourism to the island plummets as unsettled, and often stormy grey skies replace the Summer’s clear blue skies and Mediterranean sunshine. In January, average temperatures drop as low as 8 degrees Celsius and in August, they rise as high as 30 degrees Celsius. Without the more or less guarantee of good weather, culture alone does not bring large enough numbers of visitors to the island to sustain many of the islands goods and services, so seasonality is the norm. One of the most primitive entertainment pastimes – sunbathing is also the most popular amongst the island’s visitors (yes sunbathing IS entertaining, as the sun’s rays stimulate the skin’s senses leading to an emotional response such as feeling ‘relaxed’ – as well as of course a physical outcome in terms of a suntan). Most of Ibiza’s large clubs close on the first weekend in October, and do not re-open again until June, and many of the islands bars, pubs, hotels, and restaurants follow suit.

In the European Union cultural tourism’s contribution to ‘GDP is estimated to be around 11% and it provides employment to more than 12% of the labour force (24 million jobs)’ (New Europe, 2008). All inbound tourism brings Ibiza (and any other tourist destinations) wealth. Whether or not tourists visiting Ibiza for traditional cultural tourism bring a higher spend per capita to the island than those seeking more contemporary club culture tourism is debatable. Many traditional culture seekers spend money on car hire, food in good restaurants, and on entry and souvenirs at the attractions, which they are visiting. At the same time clubbers spend Euros to gain entry into the top night-spots (a 60 Euro entry charge is not uncommon), as well as on the drinks inside (a beer can cost 10 Euros). There is a positive financial knock-on from all in-bound tourism – whatever the motivation behind it in terms of goods and services purchased on the island, with everything from supermarket to hotel expenditure benefiting the local economy. However, what club tourism also brings to Ibiza in greater numbers than traditional cultural tourism does, is drunkenness, anti social behaviour, crime, illegal drugs, sexually transmitted diseases, and a higher cost per tourist capita in terms of law enforcement, street cleaning, damage repairs, and healthcare, than what the more traditional cultural tourist brings with them. Clubs and bars on Ibiza (many of which are foreign owned) employ a higher proportion of ‘foreign’ (non-Ibizan) workers than what more traditional cultural attractions do. For clubs and bars such jobs are either on premises e.g. bar staff, or out and about e.g. ‘PRs’ (the annoying people with flyers), so the direct financial benefit to Ibizan residents of club tourism is lessened by this (although if foreign workers are living on Ibiza, they have to spend money to live, which does of course benefit the island’s economy).

In recent years the Ibizan authorities have begun to clamp down upon the nightclub industry on the island, and have now brought in a 6am closure rule for clubs. NME (2009) reported that ‘Spain's tourist board has decided that, after a decade of the debauched UK clubbing featured in TV documentaries like 'Ibiza Uncovered', the island must clean up its image. They want the island to appeal to families and a smarter, international clubbing set’. In the same article Privilege manager Juan Medero is quoted as saying that they want to attract more German and Italian tourists, and that British clubbers do still behave like hooligans. Juan Medero’s comments are echoed by many Ibizan residents. On a recent visit to the island I asked a taxi driver from the airport about the now ended 2009 season. His comments were that business had been good – particularly from British clubbers, but that their rowdy behaviour at all times of day often lead him to turn down fares. This kind of reputation can only do harm to Ibiza as a destination, so it is little surprise that the authorities want to do something about it. The demographic of the average ‘rowdy drunk’ on the island is in the 18-25 age group, and many of these tourists are there for the club scene. There are many positives that the club scene has brought to the island, not least economically but also aesthetically, many hotels and apartments have redecorated, rebranded and refurbished along a ‘cool’ clubbing image to attract an increasingly stylish clubbing clientele (as in the photo below).

Above: You could be forgiven for thinking these images are from a club, they are actually from the very stylish Hotel Club Garbi in Playa D'en Bossa

In Britain, it seems that a large proportion of youngsters have grown into young adults believing that Ibiza is ‘the ONLY place to be’ and that if they haven’t secured the bragging rights about going on holiday to Ibiza that they have missed out on something. This is a sad indictment upon British society and the youth who grow up believing that they need to conform to a ‘trendy’ scene otherwise they will lose out, or be seen to be different and ostracised by ‘the beautiful people’ who they often look up to. This might partially be due to the bombardment of ‘IIbiza’ promotion, and the trendy branding of ‘IIbiza’ in the British media. Firstly let’s tackle the ‘IIbiza’ issue, this is an incorrect pronunciation of the island’s name that is both ridiculous, and bemusing to the average Ibizan (Ibiza is actually called Eivissa in it’s pure Catalan form). Ibiza is the popularised Spanish name of the island, and it should be pronounced with a ‘soft’ European ‘I’ as is the case with the words ‘igloo’ and ‘ink’ in phonetic terms this looks like ‘iˈβiθa’ and sounds like what Pedro Vidal indicates upon this page. Brand ‘IIbiza’ pronounced using a ‘hard’ American ‘I’ as in ‘idle’ and ‘ice’, which looks phonetically like ‘ɪˈbiːzə’ was coined in the early 2000s, and very sadly picked up by the British media, which has lead to equally sad Radio One DJs (and affected others) ‘educating’ Britain’s youth to call the island by the wrong name. I was disappointed that even the Captain and flight crew on board the Jet2 flight that I took to Ibiza also referred to the island as ‘IIbiza’ during their announcements. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a directive ‘from the top’ to try and promote their destination as being something that in reality it wasn’t and isn’t, considering that this was mid-October and that the majority of those on the flight were at least middle-aged and definitely NOT clubbers.

How would the British like it if visitors to England constantly referred to it as ‘EEngland’, and how would Americans like it if America was referred to as ‘AYmerica’? Whilst it may seem like a trivial thing to some, this mispronunciation is a metaphor for the culture gap that exists between a significant number of (particularly British) clubbers and Ibizans, as well as other visitors to the island, and the brand ‘IIbiza’ is something that the island’s authorities are not surprisingly keen to lose, although undoubtedly its associated revenue streams WOULD be missed.

The questions for Ibizan authorities is whether a reduction in rowdy British clubbers will definitely lead to an increase in better behaved (and possibly lower spending) clubbers from other countries, as well as an increase in more traditional cultural tourists, and whether the combined income from both of these groups would still balance the books of the islands economy. This is a difficult time for Ibiza in terms of cultural identity and in which direction the authorities and the island’s marketers should go for the 2010 season, but potentially for Ibiza, in the words of ‘Rusty’ everything is gonna change.


References

New Europe. (2008) Employment up 11% thanks to cultural tourism. [Internet] Diegem, The Media Company. URL available at:

New Musical Express. (2009) Is this the end of Ibiza as we know it?. [Internet] London, New Musical Express. URL available from:

Norris, R. (2007) Paul Oakenfold the authorised biography of the world’s most successful DJ. London, Corgi Books.