Sun, Haiying

English

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Valparaiso University
ValpoScholar
Graduate Academic Symposium Graduate School
Spring 4-30-2015
Taste of Chinese Songs: Planning & Promotion
Haiying Sun
haiying.sun@valpo.edu
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Recommended Citation
Sun, Haiying, "Taste of Chinese Songs: Planning & Promotion" (2015). Graduate Academic Symposium. 56.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/gas/56
Haiying Sun of AE 615 Marketing, Planning, and Promotion 
Mentor: Professor Kari-Anne Innes 
27 April 2015  
 
TASTE OF CHINESE SONGS: PLANNING & PROMOTION 
1. Organization Profile & Audit 
The Taste of Chinese Songs Concert took place in Minneapolis from April 4-
5, 2015. Two performances were sponsored by the Kenwood Retirement 
Community, the Spring House Ministry Center, University of Minnesota: School 
of Music, and Valparaiso University, in collaboration with the Art and 
Entertainment Administration Program.  
The Taste of Chinese Songs included twelve Chinese songs showcasing 
vocal literature form diverse regions, eras, and styles of China. The artists were 
Soprano Haiying Sun, Baritone Lu Zang, and Pianist Yunyue Liu. They are all 
professional Chinese artists who all have experience studying abroad the United 
States.  
The Kenwood Retirement Community is a new high-rise luxury senior 
community. It has a 35 years of history of participating in an “active retirement 
living” business partnership. According to its website, “The Kenwood opened in 
1986 as the premier retirement community in the area. Since that time, The 
Kenwood has been an industry leader, providing a wide variety of high-quality 
services, amenities and programs at reasonable rates . . . The original vision 
continues to this day as The Kenwood is still owned and operated by the same 
group that initially developed the property. While they remain involved in the 
day-to-day operations and provide support to the management staff to ensure that 
The Kenwood remains one of the area’s top-rated retirement communities, they 
also give The Kenwood staff the autonomy and independence to serve the 
community’s seniors in the best manner possible” (The Kenwood Community). 
SpringHouse Ministry Center is a majestic place; there are three church 
partners. According to its website, “In 2011, First Christian entered into a 
partnership with Salem English Lutheran Church and Lyndale United Church of 
Christ. The congregations came together in a unique partnership; common 
ownership of a building sharing space and renovation expenses while 
maintaining their separate congregations” (SpringHouse Ministry Center). The 
center is an amazing place where the three partners worship God and meet with 
the community. 
For this event, I developed and implemented a marketing plan for the Taste 
of Chinese Songs and networked with professionals in the implementation of 
marketing and event planning using what I learned in my arts and entertainment 
courses. Some marketing ideas that my peers suggested included marketing to 
consider traditional arts, Chinese culture, Chinese music, and religious culture. 
We made an invitation to all members from The Kenwood Community and 
SpringHouse Ministry Center as well as audiences from different places and 
Chinese students who are studying in Minneapolis. We printed posters and 
posted them at The Kenwood Community, the SpringHouse Ministry Center, and 
the University of Minnesota: School of Music. We also posted the “Taste of 
Chinese Songs” poster at Valparaiso University to let students from Minneapolis 
know that this concert will be held and that they should recommend their friends 
who lived in Minneapolis to go. We also advertised on the website Ticketriver to 
promote our event and chose social media like Facebook to advertise that 
donations are accepted in the SpringHouse Ministry box office.     
There was no budget established for promotion, which is noted as a very 
common problem in academia in the United States and China. The artists, The 
Kenwood Community, and the SpringHouse Ministry Center will absorb all of 
the expenses associated with the rehearsals and shows. For the Taste of Chinese 
Songs marketing, I contributed a strategy with attention to raising audience 
attendance and attract an audience who is interested in traditional arts, Chinese 
Culture, and Chinese music. 
2. Environmental Analysis 
Demographics 
 According to the 2010 Census, the population of Minneapolis was 283,578. 
54.34 percent of people in Minneapolis identify as religious. Among these, 18.96% 
are Catholic, and 12.85% are Lutheran. The SpringHouse Ministry Center is a 
combination First Christian Salem English Lutheran Church and Lyndale United 
Church of Christ.  
Culture 
 Minneapolis is a northern city in America. There are many glacially 
shaped lakes linked by creeks and feeding in to the region’s extensive river 
system, which is why people call it the “City of Lakes.” As time passes, more 
and more citizens like to spend time enjoying arts and culture in this “City of 
Water.” According to the city’s tourism website “Minneapolis will continually 
grow into a more diverse and vibrant city, ensuring that residents have access to 
rich and meaningful arts and cultural activities that are vital to the city’s quality 
of life and economic success” (minneapolismn.gov). The whole city has a unique 
character: that its citizens love the arts. Arts and Entertainment events are 
showing everywhere in this city. 
3. SWOT Analysis 
Strengths: 
1) Professional Artists from China: this is a unique opportunity to hear real 
professional Chinese music in Minneapolis. The artists are from China, and 
have rich performance experiences with more than 10 years performing on 
the stage.  
2) They all have experience studying in the United States: The artists have 
more than two years experiences living and studying in United States. They 
understand about American Culture and know how to appeal to an 
American audience. 
3) Relationship between The Kenwood Retirement Community, SpringHouse 
Ministry Center, University of Minnesota: School of Music and Valparaiso 
University: Two of the artists, Lu Zang and Yunyue Liu, both study at 
University of Minnesota. Baritone Mr. Zang is a member of the choir of 
First Christian Church, which is part of the SpringHouse Ministry Center; 
and Pianist Yunyue Lu has a good relationship with The Kenwood 
Retirement Community. They also have close, friendly relationships with 
Haiying Sun, who is from Valparaiso University. These organizations 
support the concert. 
4) Free tickets: Totally free admission is given for the audience. This is a good 
for benefit to people who would love to enjoy the music, and taste a new 
type of Chinese songs in America. The concert was open to the public.  
5) Organization audiences: There are three audiences from the organizations, 
which are the Kenwood Retirement Community, SpringHouse Ministry 
Center and the University of Minnesota. 
Weaknesses: 
1) Chinese folk song as a Univocal of Chinese culture: Local people have less 
knowledge about Chinese Songs. It is only one of the types of Chinese 
music.   
2) Religion: Minneapolis is a religious city, but the Chinese music does not 
belong to any religion. The Chinese Songs are not as popular as music 
which may be religious. 
3) International students: The artists are all international students studying in 
United States. However, they can still be perceived as culturally different 
and as outsiders by potential audience members because of their status as 
visiting professionals from China.  
Opportunities: 
1) Music lovers: This city has many music lovers. 
2) Chinese culture: This is a good opportunity for people to get a taste for very 
traditional Chinese Music. They will also learn about Chinese Songs, and 
about different voice techniques for singing.  
3) Chinese students’ participation: Chinese students study in Minneapolis; they 
have a good opportunity to hear the music from their home country. 
4) Cooperation: Two of the artists, Lu Zang and Yunyue Liu, both study at the 
University of Minnesota. Baritone Mr. Zang is a member choir of Frist 
Christian Church Building Coordinator SpringHouse Ministry Center, and 
Pianist Yunyue Lu has a good relationship with The Kenwood Retirement 
Community. They also have close, friendly relationship with Haiying Sun 
from Valparaiso University.  
5) Valparaiso University: People who live in Minneapolis get more 
information about Valparaiso University.    
Threats: 
1) International Students and Chinese folk songs: The whole event is held by 
international students, including the artists. People do not know who they 
are. Even though the performers are professionals and they are from China, 
most of the audience will be coming from Minneapolis and are not familiar 
with the performers.   
2) Religious culture and weekend: We worried having the concert on the 
weekend. People use the weekend to spend time with family and to attend 
church. Minneapolis is a religious city, so many people are more interested 
in church music. 
3) Bad weather: Minneapolis is northern city in United States. The weather 
between April 4th and 5th will likely be strong snow, rain, and wind. It will 
be a barrier that will hold the crowd back. 
4. Objectives 
The purpose of “Taste of Chinese Songs” is to spread appreciation of the 
Chinese Art Song and Chinese Traditional Folk Song, and to foster increased 
cultural exchange between China and the United States. The artists bring 
beautiful Chinese Songs with pure voices. One of the performances held at 
SpringHouse Ministry Center is a fundraising event.  The main purpose of the 
event is for making some donations for the First Christ Church. Another 
performance was to   enrich life of the people who live in The Kenwood 
Community.  
5. Market Strategy 
Target Markets: 
1) Primary Target Audience: Audiences from The Kenwood Retirement 
Community and SpringHouse Ministry Center.  
2) Secondary Target Audience: Students from Minneapolis and other people 
who know this event from the website or their friends. 
Positioning:  
The performance is fresh style, and it will not be repeated again. The Taste of 
Chinese Songs is rare performance. It is unique because of its cultural offerings; 
it isn’t very often that such culturally-broadening events are held. Being a one-
time cultural event separates us from other concerts. It will be held in The 
Kenwood Retirement Community, the second floor Entertainment Room, 
SpringHouse Ministry Center. The community members who live in TKRC and 
have a good relationship with SHMC, and they would like to attend the events.   
Price: 
 We chose to make admission free for one of the performances at The 
Kenwood R Community. At the other performance we accepted donations. The 
donations would be given to the SpringHouse Ministry Center.    
Distribution: 
 For this free event, the tickets will be distributed three ways. The audiences 
can get ticket from the Ticket River website; or contact with manager from The 
Kenwood Retirement Community and SpringHouse Ministry Center. Tickets 
will be mailed and held at will call.    
Sales forces: 
 Student volunteers from University of Minnesota, and staffs from TKRC and 
SHMC will staff the concert Taste of Chinese Songs.  
Service: 
 Before the concerts of Taste of Chinese Songs e-mailed invitations, created a 
donation box collection, Chinese lyrics translation, Survey Report, Upcoming 
Event announcements, and thank you cards. We prepared multiple promotions to 
the concert Taste of Chinese Songs. The time was 7:00p.m. April 4, 2015 at The 
Kenwood Retirement Community, and 3:30 p.m. April 5, 2015 at SpringHouse 
Ministry Center. The staff and student volunteers will helped audiences get 
program and Chinese lyric translations.     
Promotion: 
 From the course materials in AE 615 Planning & Promotion, we made a plan 
for promotion.  
1) Poster and grogram design. Haiying Sun invited her friend to design the 
poster and program to introduce the event to the public. There will be 
artists bringing more information about Taste of Chinese Songs. AE 
students will translate all of the Chinese songs to English.   
2) Make a unique Facebook Event page to promote this event. Renew and 
update the information. 
3) Build an event at Ticket River to sell tickets on website. The audiences 
will search any event from this website and Ticket River will show the 
whole detailed and local place map.  
4) Sent this event information on Wechat, Weblog. The wechat and weblog 
is popular that Chinese people used. Chinese people will see the event 
from wechat moment, and resend this event let other friends to know. 
5) Put all the posters in and off The Kenwood Retirement Community, 
SpringHouse Ministry Center, University of Minnesota, and Valparaiso 
University campuses.  
6. Marketing Process 
During the class AE 680 and AE 615, we learned how to build a Critical Path 
and timetable for events. We practice what we learned for Taste of Chinese 
Songs. Kevin Steele is a teacher who teaches Technology Training at Valparaiso 
University. He recommended a tool Ticket River to help us with running 
business work on website. It is the first time that this event will be held in 
Minneapolis. For our goal, we hope to develop events like this in the future. The 
Critical Path, Timetable and Ticket River can be used for other events. 
 
Taste of Chinese Songs 2015 
Critical Path Chart 
 
Mar 
10 
Prepare the concert Taste of Chinese Songs 
E-mail to Deb make sure the date 
All 
Mar 
11 
Feedback the email from Deb 
Write Event Vision 
Haiying 
Deb 
Mar 
13 
Write Event Design 
Draft Chinese lyrics translation 
Haiying 
Mar 
17 
Email to Deb and Yunyue Liu, give them the artists’ 
information and Event Vision and Design. 
Haiying 
Mar 
18 
Draft Critical Path 
Draft Poster 
Haiying 
Mar 
19 
Draft critical path 
Poster and program design 
Booking airline ticket to Minneapolis 
Haiying 
Mar 
20 
Draft costing sheet 
E-mail Lu Zang and Yunyue Liu make sure the time of schedule 
Haiying 
 
Mar 
22 
Draft guest list 
Draft contact sheet 
Make sure the poster and program 
Haiying 
Deb 
Mar 
24 
Compose email for e-invite for The Kenwood Retirement 
Community, SpringHouse Ministry Center and students form 
UM 
Draft function sheet 
Program printer at Adwork VU 
Haiying 
Deb 
Lu 
Yunyue 
Haiying 
Mar 
25 
Draft emergency procedures 
Email the poster to TKRC and SHMC, UM 
Haiying 
Mar 
26 
Draft program 
Chinese Lyrics translation 
Haiying 
Mar 
31 
Start compiling welcome pack 
Upcoming Events 
Haying 
Yunyue 
Apr 
2 
Updated function sheet 
Updated emergency procedures 
Updated critical path 
Updated cost sheet 
Updated guest list 
Updated contact list 
Compose email for e-invite for the guests on guest list, approved 
Haiying 
 
Apr 
3 
Arrive Minneapolis 
Lunch time 
Rehearsal at music school UM 
All 
Apr 
4 
Rehearsal at music school UM 
Lunch time 
PERFORMANCE Show time 
All 
 
Apr 
5 
Lunch time 
Rehearsal at SpringHouse 
Show time 
All 
 
7. Survey Report & Recommendations 
Survey Report 
In Arts Marketing Insights, Bernstein writes, “Focusing on the customer 
experience requires marketers to think holistically about every single customer 
touch point and every stage in the customer life cycle” (249). We made a survey 
after the concert. Based on the audiences’ age, schedule, feeling about this event, 
and so on. 
According to the survey, there are 30 percent of the audiences’ age is around 
25 years old, 30 percent is 30 years old, around 50 years old is 10 percent, and the 
age over 70 years old is 30 percent. About the survey question, “ Do you like this 
event?” the audiences all like this event, and would like to invite their friends join 
it. Among 89 percent of audiences feel this event can help them learn more about 
Chinese Traditional Songs. From the Survey Report, even though the concert 
Taste of Chinese Songs s is all Chinese song, there still were 10 percent of 
Chinese audiences that never heard some pieces before. However, not all of the 
survey report is showing good news. Some recommendations they gave us 
include: A few of the audiences felt the event was not scheduled well. Finally, we 
get 10 dollars contribution in the box, and we donate it to SpringHouse Ministry 
Center.  
Recommendation  
According to our market research and survey report, we have several 
recommendations for the future.  
We would recommend Chinese Student and Scholars Association of 
University of Minnesota join us. For this event, we have sponsors that are The 
Kenwood Retirement Community and SpingHouse Ministry Center. However, 
this event is like a Chinese Culture and music. There are more than 1500 Chinese 
Students that study at UM. We think about CSSAUM can give us more help.  
The last recommendation would be to pay more attention to the culture and 
the schedule. Before preparing an event, managers have to think more about the 
culture. The performances at The Kenwood Retirement Community and 
SpringHouse Ministry Center had some loyal consumers from those communities. 
However, for the performance we chose April 4th and 5th, not considering that this 
this weekend was Ester. There was a decrease in the number of audiences 
attending event. 
 
 
 
Works Cited 
Preston, Chris Leonard H. Hoyle, Jr. Event marketing: How to successfully Promote 
Events, Festival, Convections and Expositions. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, 
Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey, 2012. United States of American Printing. 
 
Allen Judy, Event planning: the ultimate guide to successful meetings, corporate 
events, fund-raising galas, conferences, conventions, incentives and other 
special events. Printer: Tri-Graphic Printing Ltd. Mississauga, Ontario, 2008. 
Printed in the United States.  
 
University of Minnesota: School of Music. Music.umn.edu. Web Page. April 17, 
2015. < https://music.umn.edu/>. 
 
The Kenwood Retirement Community. Thekenwood.net. Web Page. March 25, 
2015. < http://www.thekenwood.net/>. 
 
SpringHouse Ministry Center. Springhousemn.org. Web Page. March 25, 2015. < 
http://www.springhousemn.org/>. 
 
Valparaiso University. valpo.edu. Web Page. March 24, 2015. < 
http://www.valpo.edu/>. 
 
Ticket River, Browse Local Events or Create an Event Page and Sell Tickets Online. 
Ticketriver.com. Web Page. March 20, 2015. < 
https://www.ticketriver.com/>. 
 
Facebook Event Page - Taste of Chinese Songs. Facebook.com/events. Web Page. 
March 2, 2015. < https://www.facebook.com/events/870323403028067/>. 
 
Art and Culture. City of Minneapolis City Council Adoped. 10/02/2009, Web page, 
April 14, 2015. 
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/www/groups/public/@cped/documents/we
bcontent/convert_267776.pdf . 
 
The Minneapolis Plan. Minneapolismu,gov. Web Page. April 15, 2015. 
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@cped/documents/web
content/convert_275218.pdf. 
 
Religion in Minneapolis. Sperlings Best Places. March 9, 2012. Web Page. April 20, 
2015. < http://www.bestplaces.net/religion/city/minnesota/minneapolis >. 
 
Office of Institutional Research, University of Minnesota. Oir.umn.edu. Fall 2014, 
Webpage. April 26, 2015. < 
http://www.oir.umn.edu/student/enrollment_map/report >. 
 
  
 


Taste of Chinese Songs: Planning & Promotion

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Taste of Chinese Songs: Planning & Promotion

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