Good Art, Well Marketed

[John Caldwell]

In his book ‘The Art of the Turnaround” Michael M. Kaiser talks in his 10 rules about Marketing and making cuts.

He believes that “you cannot save your way to health”. He notes that most arts organisations already do far more with less than their for-profit peers. Budget cuts might be advisable but where one cuts is crucial

“Organisations focused simply on reducing costs will continue to get smaller and smaller and will never create the economic engine that is required for long-term stability and growth”

It is his experience that while cutting unnecessary costs is a part of any turnaround that too many arts organisations focus on marketing projects that are identified with earned revenue, ie the Box Office. Too few spend any effort on Institutional marketing: the image that gets people excited about supporting the company. This in turn supports ‘contributed income’, ie donations and sponsorship.

Fund-raising must focus on the larger donor, but don’t aim too high. While small contributions are always appreciated, they are not usually sufficient to make a dent in the deficit.

He outlines an interesting technique in this area: the ‘Challenge Grant’. This is where there is a grant available for a modest amount, but only when the organisation matches it from other sources.

I like his mantra of Good Art, Well Marketed as it brings us back to why we are here in the first place.

[Roger Tomlinson]

Given the bizarre contributions from some people proposing that marketing, development and admin. people should be cut, this is a timely intervention to remind us that we need the public to know about us and what we have on if they are ever to attend and in the future gives us financial support as Jeremy Hunt intends. The point about 'Institutional' marketing is well made, since too often arts organisations neglect to relate themselves to the whole community - non-attenders as well as attenders. We need everyone to believe that what we do is good and valuable, best achieved by it being good and valuable and sharing/celebrating it with them.
Roger

[Susan Jones]

I too despair when I hear the kind of advice that Roger's mentioned being doled out. Experience - and consulting the experts - shows that whatever the 'product or service' you're putting out in the subsibised arts, the paring down policy - reducing people hours, training and marketing activity ie 'keeping your head down and waiting for the rain to stop' - results in no lateral thinking, innovation and R&D into changing needs and expectations that are i my mind essential for a resilient cultural organisation (whether non-profit or not). Being 'out there' amongst your communities of interest and immersed in their social networks are common-sense approaches to communicating 'mission' (or instututional brand), and is another way of defining a marketing srategy.