Place Mix

It refers to both the site where the event takes place and the place at which consumers can purchase tickets to the event.

1. Venues

SB2008 is allocated and divided into five venues, which are mainly, City Hall, South Beach Shopping Centre, Raffles City Shopping Centre, and lastly, Marina Bay – three sites- Central Promontory Site, Esplanade Bridge and Singapore Flyer.

South Beach Development

City Hall

2. Where are the tickets sold?

Tickets are sold at the ticketing booths situated in City Hall and South Beach Development. There were no online ticket-booking services.

3. Comparison

A comparison has been made between two venues, City Hall and South Beach Development.

3.1. City Hall

SB2008 has chosen this historical site, the biggest venue among all, as one of the main venues for the exhibition. This building has amenities such as toilets and air-conditioners.

3.2. South Beach development building

A historical site that is located along beach road, however, without air-conditioners and toilets.

Observation

During my field trip over at South Beach Development building, it was in the afternoon about 1P.M. I have observed that the weather was hot and I was perspiring, in addition, I did observe that people were using pamphlets or short guides to ‘fan’ themselves as they stroll along in the building.

City Hall and South Beach Development have totally different ambience and environment, and according to SB2008’s organizer, it was meant to be this way so as to show that the ambience and environment in both venues are poles apart, providing distinct colours to the experience and engagement of the artworks.

Evaluation

Place Mix is deemed as ineffective to a certain extent due to the atmosphere in South Beach Development building that has clashed with the element of having suitable atmosphere to provide customer satisfaction.

Security Issue – Poor Control of Cash

Since the place where the tickets are sold is part of Place mix, there were no online booking services, thus, participants do not have ways to purchase tickets in advance, and they would have to get the tickets from ticketing booths at the venue itself.

Since visitors have to pay at the ticketing booth itself, there might be some form of security problems as there might be too much cash on hand at the ticketing booths, which led to poor control of cash as there was not any secured official cash registers at the booths.

Please Click to have a precise look at the ticketing booths. (South Beach Development)

Recommendation

Paper Fans (as a substitute)

The physical setting is crucial for customer satisfaction; Since the atmosphere over at South Beach Development could not be changed as the concept must match with the atmosphere (as mentioned above), thus, I would like to recommend that SB2008 to come up with alternatives such as providing of paper fans, to substitute air conditioner. SB2008 could seek sponsorships from associations, to provide paper fans for visitors, for example, Ikea. It should be the utmost priority to let visitors feel comfortable when they step into the art exhibitions during a hot, mid afternoon.

Online Ticketing Service

In addition, I would recommend that there should be online ticket-selling services at SB2008’s official website so that there would not be too much cash on hand expected on that day itself as visitors could have paid for the tickets in advance. This would then help to void out financial security disadvantages.