Management summary

This research has been designed for EELT Theatercollectief. EELT makes poetic theatre productions
about the things in life that hurt our soul a little bit. The aim of the research was to understand more
about EELTs identity and image among clients: Monique Zijp, artistic leader at EELT, is not sure how
her clients think of EELT. At the same time, Monique Zijp wants to know if her employees look at EELT
the way she does. She wants to know if there is a difference between the identity and image of EELT.
Therefore the main question of this research is:
To what extent does the identity of EELT Theatercollectief correspond to the image among its clients?
To answer this question, desk research has been conducted first. Information about identity and image
has been obtained, and it became clear that there is a link between identity and image: good identity
management leads to a good image. To analyse EELTs identity and image, the gap-analysis can be
used. This information that has been obtained from desk research formed the basis for the field
research.
The field research has been conducted by interviews. To determine what EELTs identity is, Monique
Zijp has been interviewed. The results of that interviews form the desired identity from EELT. Also,
employees of EELT have been interviewed to find out if they look at EELT in the same way Monique Zijp
does. This is called the real identity. The researcher has looked into EELTs physical identity to
conclude if EELTs communication means fit into the desired identity from Monique Zijp. Finally,
clients of EELT have been interviewed to find out what EELTs image among these clients is. These
results have also been compared to EELTs desired identity.
With the gap-analysis, it was possible to conclude if EELTs real identity, physical identity and image
match with EELTs desired identity. The results proved that there is no significant gap, which means
that EELT is doing a good job with her identity management. Also, the clients see EELT as EELT actually
is, and they have good experiences with EELT. However, there are a few small improvements EELT can
work on for her image among clients. Results showed that clients think its important to have an
evaluation after a project and that it would be nice if EELT would keep in touch after or in between
projects. Also, not all clients see EELT as reliable.
The advice for EELT is mainly to keep it up because they are doing really well when it comes to identity
management, and clients know EELT and are happy with the collaboration. To work on the
improvements, which are the evaluations, keeping in touch and be more reliable, a concept has been
developed. This concept is called EELT connects, which makes it possible to tackle all three
improvements. Part of the concept is a meeting, where Monique Zijp and the employees of EELT meet
with a certain clients a few weeks after they finished a project together. During this meeting, there is the
possibility of an evaluation and to look into the future and see if there are new opportunities for
collaboration.