I was recently involved in a conversation in which the topic of shoes came up. (Yes, shoes.) Someone said they had read an article that the first thing people notice about someone else was their shoes. Shoes. Really? To be honest, I don't remember ever noticing someone's shoes, unless it was a clown with giant floppy ones. Years ago I had a friend who had said that was true of them but I sort of wrote that off as an odd idiosyncrasy. But … [Read more...]
Air Fryers: II
Last time (Air Fryers: I) I discussed the difficulty (and time-consuming nature) of "selling" things (whether air fryers or the arts) to people who did not understand the need for them or appreciate their value. This time I'd like to address a related but potentially uncomfortable topic. How much more difficult is it to sell things when the consumer's view of the maker/seller of the product is negative? There are people who, because of their … [Read more...]
Air Fryers: I
Bear with me. I'll explain this. :-) There are some things that we don't need to learn more about to know that we need. Refrigerators, for instance. When we need one, we know it and don't have to be convinced of the fact. Other things are either new or unfamiliar and it takes some explanation and experience to see why we would want them. As but one example . . . the air fryer. Several years ago my children were raving about them. I … [Read more...]
Marketing and Engagement
It has been some time since I have had the courage to discuss marketing here. When I first did so many years ago I quickly learned that my view was hopelessly colored by the unfortunate marketing habits of many arts organizations–self focus, ignorance (sometimes willful) of the interests of the people they were trying to reach, and an elitist use of "inside baseball" language in promotional materials. I think I've learned a lot since then about … [Read more...]
Cruise Ships Turning?
From 2015 to 2019 the Wallace Foundation funded a $52 million program involving 25 large budget arts organizations called Building Audiences for Sustainability. It was designed to develop "practical insights into how arts organizations can successfully expand their audiences." Recently Francie Ostrower of the University of Texas completed an evaluation of the program. A brief on that study "Why Is It Important That We Continue? Some Nonprofit … [Read more...]
No Mystery!
When dealing with new communities, staff and board members of nonprofit arts organizations are sometimes puzzled when things they thought would work crash and burn. Often, there is really no mystery. We offered free tickets but no one came!We performed at the community center but no one came!We invited people to our offices to discuss how we can work together, but no one came!We sponsored a town hall meeting to present our new ideas but no one … [Read more...]
Radical Empathy
I have a hard time doing new, unfamiliar things. I wish that were not the case, but . . . . Traveling in Europe, for instance, I often go to the train station the day before I'm catching a train to see what it's going to be like. If I don't I lose sleep imagining how any things could go wrong. I'm not Mr. Spontaneity. Last December I was in Seattle visiting family and in one day I did two things I'd never done before. I survived, but it took a … [Read more...]
Planting Vineyards
A community engagement mindset can yield immediate results if the selected "community" is people not too unlike current patrons. You can reach thirty-year-old accountants by crafting marketing materials that are focused on them rather than on the organization. That should be a simple and effective switch as Aubrey Bergauer demonstrated at the California Symphony has demonstrated. (Although experience shows that arts organizations have a tough … [Read more...]
New Year’s Manifesto
The New Year seems to be a good time to try to set down some of my basic thoughts about the need for and the path to effective community engagement. As often happens on this blog, this is a very rough first draft. Refinements will follow. Whereas The environment that nurtured the development of the nonprofit arts industry has changed radically. The sum of these changes create an existential threat to the future of that … [Read more...]
The Long Road
Several months ago Joe Patti of Butts In Seats blogging fame posted a reflection on advice from Seth Godin about why businesses might not be connecting with customers. While I've not met Mr. Patti, it seems that we not infrequently seem to be channeling each other on topics related to community engagement. He pulled out, from Mr. Godin's article, a list of problems that sounded way too familiar to me in my work attempting to get arts … [Read more...]