What Is Arts Marketing?

I am not a marketer. I have never been a marketer. And I don’t play one on TV. I have never had the weight of an arts organization’s mission-related income resting on my shoulders.  I am (or have been) an artist (composer), arts administration educator, and consultant (occasionally dealing with marketing). I do not have the arrogance to believe that I have definitive answers when it comes to arts marketing.

That said, as an academic, I have had the luxury of developing ideas on the subject without having the day-to-day pressures of producing results. (Yes, I understand the snickering I hear in the background. Nevertheless, here goes.) First, for-profit marketing is different from not-for-profit marketing. The former *is* about sales because the enterprise is FOR PROFIT. The latter is (or should be) about mission. At the point where not-for-profit marketing becomes primarily about sales (transactions of time and/or money for service) it runs counter to its responsibility to the public good. Second (and related to the first), marketing in the not-for-profit world may be properly understood as communicating with external constituencies about the work of the organization. The purposes of that communication are varied, but essentially, communication is the task. Third, there is a tradition, growing out of the mission I’ll admit (albeit to me a skewed view of the mission), that arts marketing amounts to the artistic director handing the marketer the product and telling him or her to “sell it.” This is a transaction with little or no input representing community interests. This exclusively arts-centered approach leads to narrowly focused programming that inhibits (or at best does not encourage) community engagement. Fourth,  “butts in seats” or “eyes on walls” as the essential metrics for arts marketing make “sales” the core task. (See First point.)

There is a view of arts marketing that takes the canonic arts product as a given (slightly imprinted by an artistic director’s vision) and sees target populations as “butts” or “eyes.” This is an “If we perform/exhibit it, they will come” approach to organizational sustainability. That worked in Field of Dreams. It is not sustainable in the real world. All marketing is about building relationships. Given the potential the arts have for contributing to richer, fuller lives, arts marketing should be a leader (among all industries–for-profit and not-for-profit) in relationship-based marketing. Arts marketing for the 21st Century should be a partner–along with programming, fundraising, and advocacy–in trailblazing community engagement possibilities.

And as an aside, arts marketing “techniques” fill me with unease. The word implies “tricks” and a focus on the butts/eyes approach that does not see attendees as people or potential partners. (I know this need not always be the case, but I have developed a Pavlovian reaction to the word.) To me, advances in marketing need to flow from systemic approaches to relationship building

If we are ever to get serious about engagement (or if we are to get serious about the long-term sustainability of arts organizations), arts marketing has to be in dialogue with arts programming about the needs and interests of the community being served. Together, they must engage their communities.

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While we are on this topic, I recently received communication (marketing) from Charlotte Chamber Music with the header “Creating Connections and Community.” (You can imagine my pleasure in reading that!) Here is an excerpt:

A Vision for 2020

With the challenges we face today as a city, indeed as a nation, Charlotte Chamber Music envisions a new way of approaching the arts to enhance our community.

Imagine a city that is lauded nationally. A city that is seen as a cultural center because of an exciting vibrancy and engagement of its citizens. People who are intimately connected to their humanity, their history and to each other.

Chamber Music is Intimate and Personal

Chamber Music, as an art form, is the epitome of connecting people and engaging them – it is intimate and personal. At Charlotte Chamber Music we believe we can have a profound impact on our city: helping to solve the challenges it faces and working to create a dynamic city.

While the jury is still out on the depth of this commitment (and some evidence exists that it is serious), the group clearly sees community involvement as part of its identity. (There does seem to be a sense that an active chamber music scene in and of itself makes that city better. Perhaps marginally so, but that’s not the soapbox from which I pontificate here.) I’d love to work with them to deepen their community involvement, but the commitment is a great beginning.

Engage!

Doug

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