Getting started with arts marketing

Why is marketing important?

Marketing is important to any organisation - commercial, not-for-profit, public sector, large or small - because:

• It creates and manages the relationship between your organisation and its audiences
• It helps define the culture of your organisation
• It reduces risk
• It enables efficient use of resources

To manage the development and delivery of your organisation's marketing, an holistic view of your organisation and its customers/audiences must be established and maintained.

To do this, it must be understood that:

• Marketing is the responsibility of everyone associated with an organisation
• Everyone's role is vital - from the chief executive to the front line staff
• Marketing needs to be managed, reviewed and resourced

Successful marketing also requires an approach that places the customer/audience at the centre of the organisation and makes every effort to understand their needs and engage with them, and would be defined as:

• Customer focused (services and delivery mechanisms are designed for the customer's benefit not the organisation)
• Relevant (understanding your potential audience and communicating to the right people)
• Equally concerned with 'demand' as well as 'supply' (understanding the needs of your audience through, for example, research, customer panels, feedback mechanisms, complaint processes, etc is critical to ensure your product suits your audiences

Successful marketing can be defined as a successful organisation that fulfils its defined goals and the needs of its stakeholders.

Branding

Branding is the foundation of marketing. It is a process that defines the values and position of an organisation.

To be valuable it must:

• Resonate with its audiences
• Be sustainable
• Be easily communicated
• Differentiate an organisation from its competitors

To be successful it must:

• Be the responsibility of (and should be championed by) the CEO
• Receive buy-in from the whole organisation
• Be defined by research
• Be seen as a commitment to audiences
• Be monitored regularly

Download the guide to read more