Traditionally marketing is
market focused; aiming a product to the market and promoting it in a way that
customers feel that they need or want this product. Marketing is constantly in
our faces, TV adverts, computers, magazines are full of them; Spotify adverts,
posters around university or work and in the local supermarket. They all
require you to want something that you didn’t have before or the need to
upgrade.
Arts can be thought of as
older people going to view the opera through their small magnifying glasses up
high in boxes (Pretty Woman, may spring to mind). Or watching the pantomime with
your 7 year old siblings shouting, “he’s behind you!!!”
But arts is much more than
these examples, the younger generation (such as mine) may have long forgotten
the arts as being fun, unique and expressive events. Or even forgotten how
broad the arts’ world actually is and that we actually love the arts but never
thought of it as something we would actually consider going to without Simon
Cowell making money of us.
Marketing within the current
market is more constant and with
technology becoming more and more advanced; marketing has had to change with
the lifestyle shifts. Arts, has had to change too and with it, more studies
into what is the ‘arts’ exactly, why people should still attend and how to
market the arts successfully.
This blog is going to delve
into the world of arts marketing and how marketing has to be adapted to
complement the arts entirety to make sure beautiful performances such as
ballet, opera, dance and theatre are buzzing with atmosphere and experiences
that will last in customers minds.
But can arts marketing influence the
way we see and understand marketing itself?
One could argue that arts
marketing looks at concepts of how
different sectors can manipulate the traditional views on marketing to create
newer, more efficient methods to attract more customers.
Additionally, to take a step
further and produce an entirely new outlook on marketing, just for arts
organisations.
Another view could be that
arts are essentially within the business sector and therefore, traditional
marketing methods should be transferrable for all business types. But is this
view too simple for the large vast of art events?
All three different views on
marketing the arts give an insight into the different kinds of literature there
has been throughout the years.
Marketing
The one main significance of
the traditional marketing is that it is market focused. Marketing consists of
creating a product for a sector of potential customers who have a particular
need or a want for said product, and through using the marketing mix effectively
will help to aim at the selected market (Baines et al, 2008).
The traditional marketing
method is:
1.
Market
2.
Market research
3.
Creating the product
needed
4.
Marketing mix
for the market
The marketing mix consists
of 4 or 7 P’s: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical
evidence. This is no different in either traditional or arts marketing however,
the elements within the P’s should be adapted to work within the chosen
organisations.
Arts
It has been difficult to
define the arts’ as it is a broad area made up of many components such as
theatre, museums, film, music, art pieces, opera and dance. However artists
that create such art for the different components can be described as Buck
(2004, p.22) said, “Artists can be seen
as highly efficient micro businesses, which, often on the slenderest of means,
are able to convert creative value into commercial worth.”
There are many great
advantages of arts marketing, the main one being to create experiences with
customers and to help people have a better understanding of the arts through
their experience at an event. A quote from Kotler and Scheff (1996) stated that “If the essence
of art is the relationship between the artist and the audience, the arts
organization must be vigilant in pursuing both the artists' and the audiences'
best interests.”
Whether it’s an anticipated
ballet performance or an interactive family Christmas show, having the customer’s
experience creates a value-in-experience. It depends on the customer to be able
to co-create this kind of experience of an event (Prahalad and Ramaswamy,
2004).
Definitions of Arts Marketing
The arts are
‘production-led’ because they provide a service. The original marketing models
need to be adjusted to focus more on the services and customers than on the
market itself. Mokwa et al. (1980) stated that the marketing of arts have to
match the artist’s creations to an appropriate audience, which is in itself, is
a special case of marketing as it doesn’t follow most marketing tools.
Traditional marketing has to be moulded and re-evaluated to be able to fit in
with arts.
One definition of arts
marketing from Hill et al. (2003, p.1): “an
integrated management process which sees mutually satisfying exchange
relationships with customers as the route to achieving organisations and
artistic objectives.”
This aims to build a
relationship with current and potential arts customers to create a arts
experience as well as, integrating all organisation objectives around the
customer to constantly learn and evolve with the arts.
A personal definition of
arts marketing is: re-adjusting and re-creating the marketing models to produce
a more definite and accurate process to effectively encourage customers to
experience the world of art.
This signifies how arts/ culture organisations can take the original methods and make them their
own to achieve more effectiveness and efficiency. Nevertheless, throughout this
blog there are constantly different versions of what makes arts marketing and
so, this personal definition needs improvement as my personal development of
arts marketing increases.
Arts Marketing Processes
Arts Marketing Model
Re-creating the traditional
marketing model for the arts consists of more steps to building a successful
arts marketing plan. Being that the arts is not market-led and more product/
services based, the arts marketing model starts with the company or the product
(which would be a play, opera or ballet performance) as its first step. Steps
two and three is the research into the market and finalising which market is
the correct one to aim to. After, more research into the market and the start
of marketing. The company will then look into the objectives, planning,
customer experience and other elements in hopes of being able to co-create with
the customer. At last, the marketing mix is implemented into the process and
the final step is getting the product out to the chosen market (Colbert, 2007).
The steps of the new Arts
marketing model, therefore will be:
1.
Company/ Product
2.
Research
3.
Market
4.
Research
5.
Company
6.
Marketing mix
7.
Market
Maslow’s Hierarchy and the Arts
Another example, the
well-known Maslow Hierarchy (1943) and his pyramid of motivation have been
adapted to fit the motivation to attend the arts.
Maslow’s hierarchy sees
people wanting to satisfy basic needs instead of the marketing norm of creating
needs and wants. Through this arts related hierarchy, there is explanation that
arts can indeed satisfy on all levels contributing to the overall arts
experience.
5.
Physiological – The facility brings comfort, warmth and refreshments
4. Safety – Having confident staff with knowledge
into the attraction
3. Social – Conversational and participation
opportunities with others
2. Esteem – Enhancement/ self-image
1. Self-Actualisation – Knowledge/ education
Criticism
Butler (2000) critiques that
popular textbooks such as Colbert (2007) and Hill et al (2003), identify why
arts marketing is so different however, uses the traditional textbook marketing
highlighting the marketing mix and planning processes. This is the assumption
that all marketing can be transferrable throughout many different sectors as
stated earlier in this blog. Butler also states that since there is not a full
understanding of the arts as a marketing context then all previous literature
is untrue. Having said this, he mentions that arts overlap with services,
non-profit and public service contexts.
Which would somehow
contradict his previous statement as this would question why couldn’t
traditional marketing methods overlap with arts too?
In contrast to this, the
arts marketing incorporating Maslow’s theory is very interesting within the
four levels of product in arts experience because it highlights that a customer
can be satisfied on each level. Equally, it emphasises that re-adjusting
traditional marketing does indeed work and can be quite effective.
Conclusion
All authors from Hill et al. (2003),
Baines et al. (2008) and Colbert (2007) make good conclusions on why arts’ marketing is
unique to traditional marketing. In spite of this, Butler makes a good argument
that arts’ marketing does need more than re-modelling traditional methods. However,
marketing has always been about evolving the standardised meaning of marketing
and making something new and more exciting out of it to attract new customers
and to engage them. One could argue that this is what arts’ marketing does too.
This blog has focused on
adjusting the traditional methods to create useful newer models for arts
marketing and arts organisations. There has been criticism of these methods
however, it seems to be successful for organisations as it looks at arts
experiences and customers needs and wants too. Therefore, combining arts within
marketing should be used for now until there is a more unique way to sum up
arts as a marketing context.
(1536)
References
·
Baines,
P., Fill, C. and Page, K., 2008. Marketing. USA: Oxford University Press.
·
Butler, P., 2000. By Popular Demand:
Marketing the Arts. Journal Of Marketing
Management [online], 16 (4), 343-364.
·
Bucks, L., 2004. Market
Matters: the dynamics of the contemporary art market [online]. London:
Arts Council England.
·
Colbert, F., 2007. Marketing Culture and
the Arts. 3rd ed. Montreal: Presses HEC.
·
Hill E., O’Sullivan C. and O’Sullivan,
T., 2003. Creative Arts Marketing. 2nd ed. Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
·
Kotler, P., and Scheff, J., 1996. Crisis
in the arts: The Marketing response, California
Management Review [online], 39 (1), 28-52.
·
Maslow, A., 1943. A theory of human
motivation, Psychological Review [online],
50 (4), 370-396.
·
Mokwa,
M.P, Dawson, W.M. and Prieve, E.A., 1980. In Hill E., O’Sullivan C. and O’Sullivan,
T., 2003. Creative Arts Marketing. 2nd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
·
Prahalad,
C. K. and Ramaswamy, V., 2004. Co-creating unique value with customers. Strategy
and Leadership [online],
32 (3), 4-9.
