Baltimore has officially decided to “save” the Senator Theatre in Belvedere Square and sometime in the near future will issue Requests For Proposals (RFPs) from organizations with an aim of operating the newly-designated historic landmark.

However, someone could still buy it at auction for a winning bid of more than $950,000 and keep Baltimore from taking over. Either way, this post is meant to provide some strategic direction to the new owners — whoever they may be.

It’s been said that the city would be looking to keep The Senator as a single-screen theater or a community arts location — both ideas have worked for other theaters in different locations but won’t work for The Senator.

The Senator is a Challenger Brand in many ways and can’t just follow the status quo. If it becomes an historic single-screen theater that shows first-run movies, it won’t be doing anything different than what the previous owners intended and will face stiff competition from other theatres such as The Charles Theatre and the Landmark Theaters in Harbor East.

If it becomes a community arts location chances are it won’t see the same level of success as The Creative Alliance did with transforming The Patterson on Eastern Ave. There are already a number of destinations for community theaters in Baltimore and with Towson University just a short drive north on York Road, The Senator would most likely be a fourth- or fifth-tier destination for community arts enthusiasts. There are a number of reasons I don’t believe this city can sustain multiple arts districts spread out on every street corner, but I won’t go into them here.

The Senator should concentrate on the second and third tenets of the Challenger Brand Philosophy — Emotional Connection and Sacrifice — in order to save itself and compete with other attractions in the city.

Emotional Connection - Create an emotional connection to the consumer, a sense of relevance, understanding and common ground that the category leader cannot match.

As a historic landmark in an up-and-coming area, The Senator could create an emotional connection by appealing to families so parents can show their children Baltimore’s connection to history and what that has meant to The Senator in recent years.

One idea to draw more families to the theater is to offer membership opportunities just as other “edutainment” Baltimore destinations do that entertain as well as educate their audience, such as Port Discovery or the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The memberships are more than just donations to offset overhead and will offer discounts or special promotions and events for members. People interested in keeping these “edutainment” destinations up and running will most likely donate/join.

Sacrifice - Sacrifice the pursuit of secondary communications objectives until your primary objective has been achieved.

There are going to be some significant sacrifices that need to be made if The Senator is going to become a viable business opportunity as well as a premier destination with the community. As one such sacrifice, I feel The Senator should sacrifice first-run movies and daily show times for special features at select show times, run family-friendly movies as matinees during a few weekdays and select second-run movies for adults on the weekends. Others include leasing lobby space for pop-up retail or local artisans to showcase their products.

To appeal to a greater overall Baltimore audience, the proud new owner of this historic theater may consider adding more seating to potentially increase revenue, however would be better served by sacrificing seating to allow for table space and the offering of food and alcohol service.

The tribulation facing The Senator is indicative of a larger threat facing our area. Marylanders and Baltimoreans in particular are at risk of losing a lot of what makes this area unique. There has been talk recently about the waning interest level in The Preakness and I’ve noticed there is only a handful of duckpin bowling lanes open anymore. Point is, let’s not lose the last remaining single-screen theater in Baltimore which also happens to be an icon of our city’s history.

Contact me for further insights on what you feel can be done with the theatre and how the Challenger Brand Philosophy can help save The Senator. I have a lot of ideas and as a member of that community I have a lot of interest in seeing The Senator succeed.