Marketplace orchestration of taste: insights from the Bridgewater Hall

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore how a concert hall can orchestrate and shape individuals' classical music tastes. The paper is based on an eight-month ethnography at the Bridgewater Hall concert venue in Manchester. Our emergent findings illustrate how classical music tastes are influenced via the spatial meanings of the concert hall. These meanings include various physical, historical and socio-cultural aspects that are revealed in the context of the Bridgewater Hall. Our study contributes to various streams of consumer culture theory (CCT) research and opens up avenues for future research on the interrelationships of space and place with taste. Summary statement of contributionOur study focuses on spatial taste orchestration, and provides valuable insights for CCT research into taste and space and place. More specifically, we provide a phenomenological approach to the study of place that moves away from conventional approaches and captures the totality of the meanings captured in the concert hall. Our study also positions the concert hall as an emplaced taste regime that shapes attendees' classical music tastes and their consumption practices within the classical music field. Finally, we illustrate how particular places acquire significance within individuals' everyday lives in the context of classical music consumption. KeywordsClassical music, consumer culture theory, experiential consumption, place, taste, concert halls Word count: 8,031 (excluding references) Introduction'Identity is worked and power is wielded within the spaces of musical experience, and few who enter its rarified atmosphere exit unchanged'. (DeChaine, 2002, p. 91) This study explores the shaping qualities of the places of musical experience, along with their ability to orchestrate musical tastes. In particular, we explore the shaping of individuals' tastes in a concert hall setting within the field of classical music consumption.The logic of this paper broadly concerns an exploration of the interrelationships between space and place with taste. Both space and place and taste have been studied extensively across the humanities and social sciences. However, there is little empirical research that brings together these two theoretical constructs, and investigates how particular places tend to orchestrate and shape taste. Phenomenologically-oriented philosophical thought sees place as the primary basis of our experience with the world (cf. Creswell, 2004). Such philosophers have long argued for a revitalisation of the place construct in contemporary scientific thought.Consumer culture theory (CCT) research (cf. Arnould and Thompson, 2005) has illustrated the importance of space and place in a diversity of ways (e.g. Arnould, 2005; Debenedetti, Oppewal, & Arsel, 2014;Maclaran & Brown, 2005). We argue that connecting taste with place can provide novel insights for those fields of marketing theory and practice that deal with the socio-cultural aspects of consumption.We position our paper within the field of CCT research and bo...

Spatial taste formation as a place marketing tool: the case of live music consumption

“…In the broader marketing literature, place has been predominantly conceptualised as a marketing mix element; a product of social interactions and more recently, as a constituent of consumption practices ( cf . Skandalis et al ., 2016a). In other words, place has been understood more as something that is subsumed to existing categories rather than as an active locus of meanings.…”

“…To these ends, we introduced the concept of spatial taste formation as a useful place marketing tool that captures this messy and complex reality of places which arises through users’ lived experiences in different spaces. In the context of live music consumption, we explored the interrelationships between place and taste in different music fields such as those of indie and classical music (Skandalis et al ., 2016a; 2016b). For Bourdieu (1984), taste is achieved when individuals acquire different forms of capital (economic, social, cultural) through primary socialisation and their later participation and continuous involvement in various social fields that structure the social sphere (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992).…”

“…For Bourdieu (1984), taste is achieved when individuals acquire different forms of capital (economic, social, cultural) through primary socialisation and their later participation and continuous involvement in various social fields that structure the social sphere (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). By bringing together Bourdieu’s theory of taste and phenomenological perspectives on space and place, we aimed to provide a more nuanced understanding of how consumers spatially enact, perform and further develop and shape their musical tastes in a given music field through their multi-sensory experiences in specific musical spaces such as the music festival (Skandalis et al ., 2016b) or the concert hall (Skandalis et al ., 2016a).…”

“…The aim of this comment piece is to contribute to these emerging lines of research into place, by illustrating how study of the interrelationships between place and taste and the development of theories of spatial taste formation (Skandalis et al ., 2015; 2016a; 2016b) can further inform contemporary place management and marketing strategies, opening up new avenues for future research. Our own previous research in the context of live music consumption demonstrated how musical taste formation in different musical places such as festivals and concert halls can be relevant and/or act as a place marketing tool for city/town authorities, place marketers and/or tourism professionals.…”

Marketing, art and voices of dissent

“…In the realm of shopping and marketing environments, spatial aesthetics and cultural production of retail spaces have been explored in spectacular marketplace sites such as the Nike Town (Penaloza, 1998; Sherry, 1998), a festival shopping mall in Dublin (Maclaran and Brown, 2005) and a menswear fashion house in the Netherlands (van Marrewijk and Broos, 2012). Likewise, in artistic and specific cultural contexts, consumers’ and visitors’ multisensory and aesthetic experiences towards places have been examined in museums (Goulding, 2001; Joy and Sherry, 2003), concert halls (Debenedetti et al, 2014; Skandalis et al, 2016), Disney World’s EPCOT Center (Houston and Meamber, 2011) and anti-market festivals (Kozinets, 2002). These studies, among others, have provided novel insights as to how the spatial dimensions of contemporary marketplaces, arts venues and festivals, create and shape consumers’ experiences and their emotional bonds with specific places.…”