Marketing approaches of administrators of Southeastern universities with a major in dance

This study examines the status of marketing practices currently used among southeastern dance administrators. Its purpose is to determine the marketing approaches used to promote dance programs and performance activities at universities and colleges offering a major in dance. A questionnaire was sent to dance administrators of 31 southeastern universities and colleges. Twenty-three of the 31 administrators responded, producing a 74% response rate. The data was analyzed using the Windows SPSS package version ten resulting in descriptive statistics such as means, percentages, frequencies and cross-tabulations. This study answers the following research questions 1) what types of programs are attracting the most students for university study? 2) does the administrator of the dance program have specific training or background in marketing? 3) what marketing methods are used to promote dance performances? 4) what marketing methods are used to promote dance programs offering a major in dance? and 5) do universities and colleges offering a dance major have specific target markets for their programs and performance activities? The findings of this study provide dance administrators with a profile of the dance programs with the highest enrollments. The effectiveness of various techniques for marketing dance programs and performances are revealed. The results of this study also indicates that marketing is not being used to its fullest potential due to limited engagement in activities such as marketing research, planning and evaluating.