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Page 1: Hill, E. et al. (2003) “The Arts Marketing Environment & Key Issues and Problems for Arts Marketeers.” in id. “Creative Arts Marketing.” New York, 2nd Ed. 8–24.pdf

8 Creative Arts Marketing

cut yourself free from the computer or the telephone, never to get out and seethe public, but take refuge in talking about C1s and C2s, instead of humanbeings. Or worse still, calling customers “punters”, as if they were being connedinto parting with their money on a gamble. We do a lot of mouthing off about“communities”, but we lack the courage to go out and meet them as we should.Arts marketers need to believe in their own power as people. Even something assimple as giving out leaflets, talking to people, telling them direct that they’ll loveit when they come: they’ll remember you, and you build up a greater“evangelism” yourself through it.

‘For a while the vocabulary of arts marketing was redolent with the kind oflanguage you would expect from Littlewoods catalogues. It didn’t contain thegenerosity of the language of art itself. You almost need an “event” culture – a sensethat every performance, every encounter with art, is unique and special. But beingopen 52 weeks of the year means you fall into thinking of it not as one event, eventhough that is how the customer sees it. There needs to be a phenomenal amountof attention to the personal; but unless you take that attitude as your ideal in all yourmarketing you are not reflecting the character of what you are talking about. Youneed to harness the technology, but you must get the balance right. Nobody issaying electricity should never have been invented, but there is a beauty incandlelight.’

Source: Personal interview.

The arts marketing environment

One of the difficulties of analysing the environment for arts marketing is thediversity of activity covered by the arts. A popular and inclusive definition wasprovided by the 89th US Congress, and later endorsed by what was then theEducation, Science and Art Committee of the House of Commons:

The term ‘the arts’ includes, but is not limited to, music (instrumental andvocal), dance, drama, folk art, creative writing, architecture and allied fields,painting, sculpture, photography, graphic and craft arts, industrial design,costume and fashion design, motion pictures, television, radio, tape and soundrecording, the arts related to the presentation, performance, execution andexhibition of such major arts forms, and the study and application of the artsto the human environment. (ACGB, 1993)

Since the 1990s a whole category of computer-based art has been added to thislist with the proliferation of digital technology. Definitions such as this are notjust a case of hair-splitting pedantry. Arguments about how much we shouldspend on the arts, as individual customers or as taxpayers, often depend oncomparisons with other countries. Definitions of culture, art forms, or theboundaries of expenditure, can vary significantly from country to country andeven, within countries, between organizations. For example, a 1998 Arts

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The evolution and context of arts marketing 9

Council of England study into comparative arts funding between countriesexcluded libraries, historical buildings, education and public service broad-casting from its calculations, but included film production, community arts,museums and galleries, and festivals. The message from this is that statistics inthe arts, where they are available at all, need to be used with care.

In this section of the chapter we will follow the ‘STEP’ model of Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic and Political environmental factors inanalysing the peculiarities of the arts marketing environment. This is widelyaccepted as a framework for analysis of the wider environment of anyorganization, and we will return to it in Chapter 8 as a starting point for themarketing planning process. In particular, STEP factor analysis reveals long-term trends and forces which help explain the opportunities and threats facingarts organizations. Of course, like any model, it is meant to be a frameworkrather than a straitjacket. There are, for example, elements which cross overfrom one category of factor to another. This is particularly the case in theEconomic and Political categories, where government policy can have a veryclose bearing on economic conditions. Furthermore, the sheer number of trendsand factors that may have an impact on arts marketing means that we can onlyoffer a very brief selection here to illustrate the scope of each domain. Finally,while the trends chronicled here are centred on the UK, many of them arereplicated elsewhere in the developed world.

Socio-cultural factorsLeisure trendsArts customers and their motivations, consumption occasions, and art formsthemselves are almost infinitely variable. The arts tend to spread outwardsand, as with many activities with a strong social dimension, they cross-fertilizewith other areas and programmes. This was well illustrated in the UK’sVoluntary Arts Network (VAN) report Strengthening Foundations (1994), whichemphasized individual motivations for arts participation or arts attendance:‘People go out “to sing”, “to paint” or “to play football”. They do not go out“to participate in local cultural activity”.’

The complex question of audience motivation is addressed more fully inChapter 2 but, as Table 1.1 suggests, the arts are just one part of a widerportfolio of leisure choices in people’s lives. In addition to the more activepursuits listed, we watch, on average, about 25 hours of television a week inthe UK (Euromonitor, 2000). Perhaps arts marketers can take heart from the factthat drama is the single most popular genre. A taste for fiction, which mightalso indicate a susceptibility to other forms of artistic expression, is evidentfrom the fact that 58 per cent of men and 71 per cent of women read at least onebook a month (Office for National Statistics, 1997).

The popular stereotype of socially egalitarian ‘sport’ set against the elitist‘arts’ is laid to rest by figures which suggest that participation rates for music,painting and drawing are as high as, or even exceed, those for pursuits such asdarts or golf (VAN, 1994). Indeed, the UK’s Theatrical Management Associa-tion claims that live theatre is more popular than soccer as a live spectacle,claiming 30 million attendances in 1998 in comparison with professional

From: Creative Arts Marketing, Hill, E. et al, Copyright © 2003 Butterworth-Heinemann, reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK.

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10 Creative Arts Marketing

football’s 26 million. At an average ticket price of £11.80 rather than the £14.60paid by the average football fan, theatre claims to offer better value for money(ArtsBusiness, 1998).

Market potential?

Survey research in 2000/1 revealed that 15 per cent of the adult population in theUK described themselves as attending plays or art exhibitions ‘these days’, while 8per cent admitted to going to classical music concerts. This proportion hasremained relatively stable for over a decade. That there is potential in the market forthe performing arts, however, can be argued from the experience of cinemaattendances. These reached 137 million in the UK at the millennium, a figure morethan double that of 15 years earlier. A number of factors may be related to this: thedevelopment of multiscreen cinemas around the country (which has accompanieda decline in traditional cinemas), and the increased number of films with a PG rating(which clearly increases the available audience). Having said that, however, cinemaattendance in the UK is still a far cry from its peak of over 1 billion in the early1950s.

Other recent UK marketing success stories in the arts include the British Museumand the National Gallery, both of which practically doubled their admission numbersin the two decades to the millennium. And, in spite of a persistent cloud of negativepublicity hanging over it, the infamous Millennium Dome in London’s Greenwich setnew standards for an exhibition by attracting more than 6.5 million paying visitorsin its one year of being open. This suggests that there is potential in the visual artsand exhibitions market just as there is in the performing arts.

Source: TGI/BMRB International, cited in Social Trends 32, 2002.

Table 1.1 Leisure activities in the UK

Activity Percentage of population (16+)

1 Visiting a public house 732 Meal in a restaurant (not fast food) 683 Meal in a fast-food restaurant 474 Library 395 Cinema 336 Historic building 317 Short holiday break 308 Disco or nightclub 269 Museum or art gallery 24

10 Funfair 2111 Theatre 1812 Theme park 1613 Camping/caravanning 1614 Bingo 1015 Betting 8

Source: National Statistics/Euromonitor, 2000.

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The evolution and context of arts marketing 11

Shifting demographics: age, gender and ethnicity

Age is a factor in what people choose to do. Because of a steady decline in birthrate, the developed world has an ageing population – and the age profile of artsattenders is a source of concern to many organizations.

Age shall not wither them . . .

‘I never lay awake nights worrying about the age of the audience – I just wanted toget an audience . . . I figured some would be young, some middle-aged, some old.People have been worrying about the ageing of the audience for 40 years – and it’sstill about the same age it always was.’

Source: Danny Newman, author of Subscribe Now (1977) quoted by Scher,2002 in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

However, people do not define themselves by their chronological age, but asbelonging to a particular cohort with shared experiences. In general, activitiessuch as listening to recorded music are more popular with younger people,gardening more popular with older people. Weather and the number ofdaylight hours affect the attractiveness of leisure alternatives, introducing anote of seasonality to people’s availability as attenders. This is particularly thecase with older people. Improved levels of health in many developed countrieshave led to increased expectations of longer active lives for retired people. Thishas created a number of opportunities for arts organizations.

Case 1.1 Making Hey

The West Yorkshire Playhouse opened in 1990 with an artistic policy aimed at a widespectrum of audiences. One example of this in practice is Heydays, its innovativeprogramme for people aged 55 and over. Devised in consultation with Age Concern andthe University of the Third Age (UK organizations which campaign for older people),Heydays meets every Wednesday at the Playhouse and offers its 600 subscribingmembers a wide selection of activities connected with the theatre. The activities – suchas talks, practical sessions and courses – offer the participants a stimulating social spacewhere they can meet and share their interests in a relaxed social atmosphere. Membersget discount on tickets, as well as reduced prices for food and refreshments at thevenue.

The programme of activities is planned and presented by the Playhouse using a wideteam of artists, tutors and Playhouse staff, as well as some of the Heydays membersthemselves. The whole project is overseen by a steering group of 14 members. It iswidely admired as an example of the proactive involvement of older people with an artsorganization, and in 1999 it was chosen to launch the Yorkshire celebration of theInternational Year of the Older Person.

Source: Meeks, 2000.

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12 Creative Arts Marketing

Gender roles and the family

Gender roles are another area where long-term trends are having a sig-nificant effect on marketing in general and the arts in particular because oftheir impact on family life and discretionary time. The number of UKwomen in paid work has increased from 10.0 million in 1971 to 13.2 millionin 2001, even though much of this increase has been in the part-time sector(Social Trends 32, 2002). However, taking on the new role of paid worker hasnot led to an immediate relinquishing of other roles as mother or house-keeper for the majority of women. Men’s roles are changing too. Permanentwork, which used to be an important source of male identity, is now lessreliable with the growth of ‘portfolio careers’. As with changes in women’sroles, this has had a liberating effect for those in a position to benefit fromthe flexibility it brings, but it has also helped erode traditional institutions.Marriage, for example, has become more fluid. While there were 159 000divorces in the UK in 1999, there were also 110 000 remarriages (Social Trends32, 2002). This suggests that people still have faith in the institution ofmarriage – but not in its permanence. The complications this causes forfamily life are considerable, with well over a million children living instepfamilies in the UK alone.

Again, this creates opportunities for arts organizations. Family timetogether, whatever the precise details of the affiliations involved, is increas-ingly precious. The arts can provide quality time, allowing family membersto have memorable experiences with one another and to develop theirrelationships. On the other hand, traditional venues may have to work hardto adapt themselves successfully to the requirements of the family market,particularly in developing their portfolio of activity to include participatoryevents (O’Sullivan, 1999).

Ethnicity

Britain has always been the product of a mixture of cultures, but the explicitlymulticultural nature of contemporary society in the UK has been somethingwhich commercial marketers have been slow to pick up on. This is an areawhere arts and non-profit marketing have made significant inroads, but thereis still a long way to go. The UK’s 3 million-plus ‘ethnic minority’ communityis young, urban, well educated and has an estimated disposable income of £12billion (Khan, 2001). Yet Asian and Black audiences continue to be under-represented in arts venues – in spite of the fact that one in five is a universitygraduate (compared to one in four of the white population). There is evidencethat marketing approaches which may have worked well in the past fortraditional theatre audiences are ineffective, or even counter-productive, whentargeting the Asian community (Bhuchar, 1999; Wilson, 2001). Word-of-mouth,personal recommendation and informality of presentation are key to reachingthis growing segment. Marketing to ethnic-minority audiences involvesbuilding and accessing networks, and showing consistency of purpose inprogramming and outreach work. While these observations are specific to theUK, the principle can be extended elsewhere.

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Alien nation

‘If you manage to get Asian audiences into the theatre, they discover British theatreconventions are alien to many of them. For instance, the idea that a performancewill start at the time stated on the tickets needs to be constantly drummed home.They can cope with that idea when going to the cinema, but no Asian has ever seena “live” event start on time. Asian audiences are also noisy . . . they like to expressthemselves when they are enjoying themselves . . . This is, of course, anathema tothe British way of enjoying entertainment. Asians are more into the free-flowingspontaneous methods of having a good time. Maybe British audiences should beless po-faced and become more involved with productions.’

Source: Bhuchar, 1999

Technological environmentWhile the arts themselves will always be a heavily people-dependent business,with limited opportunity to substitute capital equipment for human labour,developments in information and communication technology have caused arevolution in arts marketing in the years around the millennium. Computersand telephones, including mobiles with text-messaging facilities, have openedup new forms of audience contact and sales channels. The rapid diffusion ofthe internet has presented arts organizations with a powerful new tool, thewebsite – as shop window, selling tool and delivery platform. As we will seein Chapters 2 and 3, computers have given even small arts organizations thepower to process and manipulate data about their customers in a way whichhas made their marketing more focused and productive. Virtual reality (thecreation of vivid three-dimensional renderings of buildings and environmentsin a digital format) offers venues the possibility of showing ticket purchasersthe different view of the auditorium available from different seats. Sophisti-cated telephone management systems can inform callers of the length of thequeue they are in – and perhaps convey promotional messages about futureevents and attractions. Furthermore, digital technology is also making animpact in areas such as photography, reprographics, print production andnews coverage – all of which are key to the work of arts marketers. The natureof technological change makes any attempt to write about particulartechnologies or applications liable to rapid dating.

We have already seen how the wider availability of computers has driven theevolution of arts marketing through the stages of direct mail and databasemarketing to more sophisticated conceptions of relationship marketing. Wewill examine some more of the opportunities it presents arts marketing indifferent functional areas in the following chapters. Overall, what technologicalchange means for arts marketers is a new imperative to keep in touch with ashifting landscape, plan for the acquisition of new skills on a regular basis, andexplore collaboration with other organizations in order to minimize the drainon resources, and maximize the potential benefits, of emerging technologies. It

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14 Creative Arts Marketing

also introduces new responsibilities, in particular compliance with legislationaimed at protecting the privacy of data on customers (a theme to which we willreturn in Chapter 8).

Technology also gives arts customers the opportunity to experience theperforming arts via broadcast and packaged media such as CD and DVD. Theadvent of subscription-funded specialist TV channels has provided those whocan afford it with continuous access to opera, concerts and specialist artsprogramming. One effect of this is to leave some customers very well informedand with extremely high expectations of live performance. A less desirableoutcome is that the place of the arts in general broadcast programmingbecomes more vulnerable, as schedulers can point to their availability onminority channels. The challenge for arts marketers is to stress the uniqueadvantages of live performance in terms of warmth, immediacy and socialbenefits.

Love music, hate concerts

The majority of American adults are interested in classical music, a third listen toit regularly, yet only 5 per cent go to concerts. A study of 13 500 respondents bythe US research group Audience Insight revealed that 18 per cent listen to classicalmusic on the radio several times a week, and 14 per cent regularly listen to recordedmusic at home. The survey also revealed that, in spite of the popularity ofsubscription marketing as a way of developing regular audiences for classical musicon both sides of the Atlantic, potential concert-goers prefer buying single ticketsrather than subscriptions.

Source: Mattison, 2002.

Economic environmentThe arts are a mixed economy. In the UK, for example, there is a strongcommercial sector concentrated in London. This is complemented by a largesubsidized sector with a predominantly regional presence, but with nationalflagship organizations housed both in the capital and in larger regionalcentres. There is considerable mobility between the subsidized and commer-cial sectors and other media (for example, broadcasting, advertising and filmwork). This is not just a case of the individual career trajectories of artists,managers and marketers. It also concerns the flow of investment. The artsare closely allied to some of the larger industries of modern Britain: thebroadcast media, publishing and recording, sport and leisure, and tourism.Commercial productions play in subsidized venues, work which is devel-oped in the subsidized sector is taken up by commercial producers, there areco-productions and joint projects – many of them international. The per-forming arts themselves employ something like 75 000 people in the UK.Less than half are directly employed by organizations, with the others

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self-employed. Generating ticket sales and sponsorship income of £662million in 1999, the performing arts are a significant economic force in theUK (DCMS, 2001).

General economic conditions affect both production and consumption in thearts. For commercial theatre producers, for example, the importance of creatinga spectacular experience which offers audiences something unique to the liveevent has meant an increased reliance on special-effects technology or big-name stars. Neither comes cheap, making the industry highly capital-intensive.Fluctuations in interest rates, which effectively dictate the ‘price’ of money, aretherefore an important constraint on commercial producers. Another effect ofthe spiralling cost of productions is the trend towards maximizing financialreturn on existing creative assets. Stage adaptations of novels or film stories area familiar staple of theatrical programming, but a more recent internationaltrend has seen the Disney Corporation diversifying into musical theatreproductions which play in major cities around the world, extending theprofitable life of its animated films. The internationalization of commercialproductions, and the importance of the arts to international tourism, makes thesector vulnerable to fluctuations in exchange rates – the relative values ofdifferent national currencies. The advent of a single currency in Europe shouldhave a stabilizing effect at least within the member states of the EU but, withthe number of North American visitors to many European destinationsdepending on the strength of the dollar, the single currency may well amplifytourist attendance trends across the continent as a whole.

Inflation is another important part of the economic environment for artsmarketing. The question of cost inflation in the arts was examined in the late1960s in a pioneering article by the American economist W.J. Baumol. Heargued that production costs for performing-arts organizations inevitably risefaster than those for the economy as a whole, because the arts do not haveaccess to the benefits of scale economies in the way that other industries do(Baumol, 1967). Labour costs, usually the largest single item of expenditure forarts organizations, cannot be reduced beyond the minimum necessary tomount a play or a concert. A symphony orchestra, for example, needs aspecified minimum number of players beneath which it cannot perform aparticular work. In practice this means that, while the rest of the economybecomes more efficient through mechanization, the arts are limited in theiraccess to productivity gains. Costs therefore rise faster in the arts than in therest of the economy – and the more efficient the rest of the economy becomes,the wider yawns the gap. Baumol concluded that in order to pay wages thatmatched those outside the sector, arts organizations would have to increasetheir incomes (for example, by raising the price of tickets) at more than theaverage level of inflation. Of course his argument, based on US data, does nottake into account the effect of public subsidies, or the technological advanceswhich have reduced costs in some elements of artistic production (for example,computerized stage lighting systems). However, it does provide clues as towhy wages in the arts inevitably lag behind those elsewhere, and perhapsgives an economic reason for the increased presentation of smaller-scaleperformances, for example pared-down ensembles presenting authenticbaroque music or small-cast plays.

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16 Creative Arts Marketing

While costs (as we will see in Chapter 5) are one influence on ticket prices,the most important influence is the customer’s willingness to pay. The arts fallinto the category of discretionary purchases – what people spend their leftovermoney on. This is a highly subjective category, hence the importance to the artsof consumer confidence or the ‘feel-good factor’ beloved of politicians. Somestudies argue that, while lowering price has little effect on increasingattendance, raising it beyond an upper threshold becomes a deterrent (FordFoundation, 1974). Talking to arts managers suggests that when mortgageinterest rates increase, or people are worried about job security, one of the firstcasualties is paid attendance at arts events. Keeping an eye on consumerconfidence is, therefore, important for arts marketers as it affects not onlyconditions for ticket sales, but also the willingness of commercial organizationsto enter into sponsorship arrangements. Committing money such as sponsor-ship or programme advertising to promote goods and services makes moresense when customers are relaxed about spending than when they arewatching every penny.

There’s money in creativity . . .

The British, Americans and Japanese spend more on entertainment than they do onclothing or healthcare. The Creative Economy (a term which draws together thearts, publishing, advertising, broadcasting, software, fashion and design) grew fourtimes faster than manufacturing in OECD countries during the last decade of thetwentieth century.

Source: Howkins, 2001.

Political environmentThe political environment for arts marketing exists at three levels: local,national and international. Local authorities are a very important source ofsupport for the subsidized arts – sometimes running venues directly, but oftenproviding the principal source of finance and having significant representationon management boards. In 1999 they provided over half of the public fundingfor the performing arts in the UK (DCMS, 2001). One of the most significantachievements of what was then called the Arts Council of Great Britain fromthe 1980s onwards was to leverage increased arts funding from localauthorities in the UK. It did this by making its own central grant aidconditional on increased support at the local level. The priorities, perspectivesand even political affiliation of a local authority may differ markedly fromthose of national government, and certainly its arts funding agenda is likely toplace civic amenity and local identity at the top of the list. It is importantfor arts organizations to understand the resulting expectations. As a keystakeholder, a local authority has the advantage of being accessible. Keeping intouch with individuals and policy developments is an important part of anyarts marketer’s task of environmental management.

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On a national level most political administrations value the arts assomething worth promoting. They are seen as what economists call a ‘meritgood’ – in other words, something of social value (like preventive healthcareand education) but which people might not be prepared to pay for if left tothemselves. As a result, governments tend to see supporting the arts as part oftheir remit (although the priority given to this is variable). In the UK and muchof Europe such support is through direct funding mediated selectively througha mixture of national and local agencies and local authorities. In the USA theemphasis is on forgoing tax revenues to encourage private and corporategiving to the arts by offering tax incentives to donors. The different forms ofsupport make like-with-like comparisons between nations very difficult. Thus,while US government spending on the arts worked out at £3.63 per person inthe population in 1997, a paltry sum compared to the equivalent figure inGermany (£56.50 in 1993), the US statistic ignores the loss in tax revenuessuffered by the government in order to make giving by individuals,foundations and businesses as attractive as possible (International Arts Bureau,2000).

While politicians tend to agree that the arts are a good thing, the question ofsubsidizing them remains controversial (a subject to which we will return inthe next section). Interestingly, all political parties debate the issue with equalferocity, and find little consensus within party ranks. Alongside the ‘meritgood’ argument are cases made on philosophical, aesthetic and economicgrounds. The cultural economists Sir Alan Peacock and Dr Samuel Camerondemonstrated some scepticism about the latter sort of argument in their reportto the Arts Council of Great Britain in the early 1990s:

A number of our comments concern overestimation of beneficial effects. Thisshould not be misconstrued as meaning that the arts are not important ineconomic terms. One of the main drawbacks of impact studies is their focuson measurement in terms of money without reference to value. The sumswhich have been computed fail to put a value on many of the socio-economiceffects of the arts which are not directly registered in the marketplace. (ACGB,1992)

Nevertheless, political attitudes to the arts based on economic arguments havegained precedence over more value-laden ones in recent years (see Table 1.2).Perhaps this is because of a fear of appearing elitist or paternalistic inadvocating the improving effect of the arts on the electorate. In 1998 ChrisSmith, MP, the then Culture Secretary, articulated a typically modernjustification for state funding for the arts on five fronts, most of them connectedwith economic benefits: ‘. . . to ensure excellence; to protect innovation; to assistaccess for as many people as possible, both to create and to appreciate; to helpprovide the seedbed for the creative economy; and to assist in the regenerationof areas of deprivation’ (Smith, 1998: 19).

This is essentially a utilitarian valuation of the arts, with its hard-headedlydemocratic themes of social inclusion, economic benefit and active participa-tion. The emphases on excellence and innovation underline the link withindustry which is an important part of Smith’s perspective. However, his

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defence of subsidy only goes as far as protecting excellence and innovationwhich might not survive in the open market because it is new, difficult oresoteric. He points to the popular music industry as a fine example ofunassisted excellence. We might well disagree with him on that front, but theadvantage of his argument in general is that it gets away from the kind ofpaternalistic elitism which has been used in the past to defend public subsidy,and which cuts little ice in these less deferential times.

Strangely enough, Smith elsewhere cites just such an argument from theeconomist John Maynard Keynes in a 1945 radio talk on the role of thefledgling Arts Council (founded a year later):

. . . to create an environment, to breathe a spirit, to cultivate an opinion, tooffer stimulus to such a purpose that the Artist and the public can sustain andlive on each other in that union which has occasionally existed in the pastat the great ages of communal civilized life. (Keynes, 1945, cited Smith,1998: 17)

Here the artist sustains and is sustained by an appreciative, but respectfullypassive public. Gritty economics is replaced by a vision of civilized communityabstracted from history. Such political idealism can be understood given thefact that Keynes, and J.B. Priestley (whose arguments in favour of subsidizingthe arts are quoted in Table 1.3), were writing at a time of nationalreconstruction following the Second World War. However, contemporarypolitical attitudes to the arts tend to be based on practicalities rather thanidealism.

Alongside economic effects, a second fundamental strand in contemporarypolitical attitudes to the arts has been their social impact. This is an area whichhas attracted considerable interest in recent policy documents on the role of thearts in combating social exclusion – a condition of being cut off from normalopportunities by a complex mixture of low income, poor health and housing,and vulnerability to crime (Jermyn, 2001). It builds on long-standing themes:‘expanding access has always been an important part of the funding system . . .Advocating the role the arts can play in addressing social exclusion is,

Table 1.2 Public attitudes to the arts

In November 2000, the Arts Council of England commissioned the Social SurveyDivision of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to survey attendance, participationand attitude to the arts in a sample of UK citizens:

� 97% thought that all schoolchildren should have the chance to participate activelyin the arts.

� 74% agreed that there should be public funding of the arts.� 73% said that the arts play a valuable role in the life of the country.� 72% said that arts from other cultures made a significant contribution to this

country.� 75% claimed they would not feel out of place in an art gallery, museum or theatre.

Source: Skelton et al., 2002.

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The evolution and context of arts marketing 19

however, a new departure’ (ACE, 1999). It is a sobering thought that in the UKat the end of the twentieth century over a quarter of the population were livingin poverty, defined as not being able to afford what the majority of their fellowcitizens would see as conventional necessities (Joseph Rowntree Foundation,2000). The arts were represented in one of 18 Policy Action Teams (PATs)mandated by government in 1998 to examine the contribution they could maketo action on the problem. PAT 10 – the relevant team – reported that the artshad a significant role to play, but that there was a lack of ‘hard evidence’ tosupport good practice in future interventions. Certainly, as is the case witheconomic effects of the arts, social effects are difficult to track with certaintybecause of their long-term nature. There is also, as we have seen, a considerableamount of controversy over how and what to evaluate in a way which does thearts justice in this kind of context.

This has not prevented some ground-breaking and influential research,much of it from the UK arts policy think-tank Comedia. Their publications (for

Table 1.3 Artist opinions on subsidy

‘The function of the arts is to bring order out of chaos, coherence out of the endlessstatic, the gibberish of the stars, and to render people capable of thinking metaphorically.The arts are an essential part of public education.’ Edward Albee (1988)

For the motion: J.B. Priestley Against the motion: Kingsley Amis

People in general should have theopportunity to experience good art . . .the more people have this chance, themore natural understanders andappreciators we shall discover

The trouble with bringing art to thepeople is that it tends to become fatallydamaged in transit

art is like yeast in the doughy stuff of life. . . life without art is life already turningsour. Something must take the place ofthat leaven

if you really are interested in quality, oneway of allowing it to improve would be towithdraw public money from the arts

I do not believe the state should maintainits artists so long as they are able towork and maintain themselves. All thatthe state should do is to create theconditions most favourable for theself-maintenance of artists

If you’re paid in advance or have yourlosses underwritten, the temptation toself-indulgence is extreme. If you have toplease to live, you’ll do your best toplease

Good taste and judgement in thesematters of fine art will not bemiraculously bestowed on the leaders ofcollectivist society

We’ll supply the finance, you’d bettersupply the interest; a very clear exampleof the Socialists’ habit of giving the publicnot what it wants but what they think itought to want

We English are beginning to cry in thedarkness for the colour and grace andglory of the arts

The Victorians bought a pre-Raphaelitepicture because they liked it, notbecause some interfering git calledRuskin said they should

Source: Priestley, 1947. Source: Amis, 1979 – Conservative PartyConference, 1979.

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example, Landry et al. 1995; Matarasso, 1997) have established that there aregenuine, if complex, social benefits to be had from participation in the arts –and that these can be planned for. Also, the difficulty of measurement in thearea has not prevented funding bodies from including exacting social impactcriteria as part of their funding agreements with arts organizations as a matterof course in the early twenty-first century.

The implications for marketers are that they must be clear about hownational arts policies fit into wider policy frameworks, and manage theirorganizations’ relationships with key stakeholders accordingly.

Case 1.2 Everybody needs good neighbours

The West Yorkshire Playhouse had been open for ten years, with a thriving programmeof community activities, when it realized that it had hardly any contact with its nearestlocal community – the Ebor Gardens Housing Estate. Separated from the Playhouse’sflagship Quarry Hill site by the thundering divide of the A64 trunk road, Ebor Gardens has3000 residents – but only a handful were on the theatre’s database in July 1999.

The Playhouse devised the ‘In Our Neighbourhood’ project to make itself moreaccessible to the local residents. Initially it expected that the process would involveadjusting the mix of product and services offered by the theatre in order to attract abigger audience from Ebor Gardens. An introductory event was organized by thePlayhouse which appeared to go off well. However, the project hit a snag with the secondspecially-organized event – which was poorly attended and left both partners feelingrather embarrassed. The intention had been to organize it in partnership, but theprecedent set by the project launch had left the Ebor Gardens side of the relationshipfeeling that they had a very hard act to follow, and so they had lacked the self-confidenceto get properly involved in making it happen.

The Playhouse rethought its approach. Instead of its customary, but in this caseslightly intimidating, dynamism, it became a lot more laid back. This gave the EborGardens partners more space to come forward – and a significant number of residentsstarted venturing out to attend mainstream theatre events. In fact they provedconsiderably more popular than the ‘community-oriented’ performances that theproject’s planners had envisaged as the focus of this new audience’s attendance.

What emerged was that the residents were just as interested in mainstream theatricalfare as any other theatregoers – only a lack of confidence that the theatre was ‘their sortof place’ had kept them away. This impression was in danger of being compounded bythe theatre’s assumption, sincere if possibly misguided, that the new audience wouldonly come if specially invited to specially-developed provision.

Most literature on the social impact of the arts focuses on the benefits (in terms ofself-esteem and skills development) of participatory arts activities. The ‘In OurNeighbourhood’ project suggests that arts attendance itself, with its accompanyingactivities of organizing friends and family to come along, and summoning the courage togo in the first place, may have a significant contribution to make as well.

Source: Downing, 2001.

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The evolution and context of arts marketing 21

The international political environment is clearly important to touringcompanies, and exhibition organizers, but is becoming more relevant to thesector as a whole. In spite of the complexity of application and reportingprocedures, a growing number of arts organizations are looking to Europeansources of funding for projects involving collaboration between organizationsin different member states. Such sources are managed by the EU in the form ofnamed initiatives with specific social and cultural goals. They either operatevertically (i.e. looking at a particular art form or sector in several countries) orhorizontally (bringing together organizations from different sectors). Inter-national political groupings see the arts as an essential tool in culturaldevelopment, and it is likely that this trend will continue to offer increasingopportunities for arts marketers to extend their audience reach.

Key issues and problems for arts marketers

This chapter has considered the arts marketing environment, focusing on theUK, and the multiplicity of forms of arts activities carried out within the publicand the private sector. It has looked at some issues of cultural policy, includingin particular the case of political expectations of the arts. The mixed economymodel gives rise to some dynamic tensions which can act as a constraint or asan opportunity for the marketing teams of arts organizations. A generalawareness of some of the principal areas of tension will facilitate anunderstanding of how marketing techniques and general principles arespecifically applied within the arts sector.

Arguments for and against a subsidized arts sectorPractitioners in the subsidized sector, particularly in the marketing depart-ment, are often asked to justify the use of public funding in the arts. Thearguments split broadly between the belief that market forces alone shoulddetermine the product and level of funds needed to support the arts (i.e.through entrance fees and ticket prices); and the counter-argument that the artsare a fundamental right of the individual, akin to education or health, and aretherefore too important to leave to the marketplace. This latter argument isstrengthened by socio-economic arguments that the sector is a major employerand provides wealth to the nation through direct and indirect taxation. Thisargument was cogently put forward by Myerscough (1988) in one of the firststudies of the value of the subsidized sector as a means of wealth generation.However, as we have seen, the statistics underlying such arguments are oftencontroversial.

The market forces line can be summed up in what Sir Alan Peacock (ACGB,1992) described as the doctrine of ‘consumer sovereignty’:

� The individual should be free to buy whatever services he or she wants at acompetitive market price, which implies no subsidy.

� The individual is the best judge of what he or she wants, and there is nohierarchy of tastes or preferences. This argument ‘explicitly rejects the idea

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that the creative artist, the performing artist, or the informed aesthetes canhave . . . any special status in the community when it comes to the allocationof resources to the arts’.

� Even if the individual is not a good judge, no one else is necessarily better.People should be allowed to make up their own minds.

Sir Alan Peacock acknowledges that this ‘free market’ attitude does not allowfor inequalities in the distribution of provision hence restricting choice;inequalities in income; and inequalities in education in the broadest sense. Atthe same time it chimes with a postmodern sense of replacing official highbrowtaste with more authentic and pluralist values in the arts.

On the other hand, powerful arguments for subsidy of the arts stem from thebelief that they are life-enhancing and that therefore nobody should, because ofinequalities in provision or income, be refused access to them. To the fact thatthey add meaning and colour to life, arts advocates would also adduce thefollowing benefits (and there are many powerful and persuasive advocates todo so, as the quotes taken from the Americans for the Arts website (http://www.americansforthearts.org/artsexchange/quotes.asp, accessed 18 January2003) demonstrate):

� Education‘Recent research documents that the arts stimulate learning, improve overallacademic performance, teach discipline, promote teamwork, and help childrendevelop problem-solving skills.’ Karen Evans, Director of Education, ArenaStage (1998).

� Inspiration‘Music can give you your dreams. It will teach you hard work, it will break yourheart and make you so happy you can’t stand it . . . I don’t think I’d have beenpresident if it hadn’t been for music.’ Former President Bill Clinton (2001) atan event celebrating the restoration of music programmes to the NewarkPublic Schools.

� Urban regeneration, employment and community growth‘When we’re out recruiting businesses, they look at the whole city. They do, infact, want to know if we’ve got a symphony, an opera, a ballet. It’s just goodbusiness for the city to have alternatives to sports.’ Hugh L. McColl Jr,Chairman of the Board and CEO of NationsBank Corporation (1997).

� The hallmark of a civilized nation‘Our place in the community of nations is enhanced by permitting the creativeenergies of our artists to touch the lives of people throughout the world.’American Council for the Arts (1989).

The main problem with arguments both for and against public subsidy of thearts (as we have seen) is finding reliable data to substantiate either case. Theexact boundaries of the subsidized part of the sector are far from clear.Furthermore, statistical evidence can always be criticized on the grounds of

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The evolution and context of arts marketing 23

methodology of collection or the validity of interpretation, but never more sothan when the arena of interest is so hard to define.

The arm’s-length principleThe arm’s-length principle is fundamental to the funding of the arts by politicalbodies. It holds that the organizations which distribute the funds remainindependent of local or central government and do not seek to bend creativityor artistic interpretation to party politics.

It has its roots in the creation of the Arts Council in the UK in 1946, after theend of the Second World War. At that time, the horrors perpetuated by fascismwere starting to emerge, and the effects of communist ideology on freedom ofexpression were beginning to be manifested. Later governments, moreremoved from ideological conflict, have strained the arm’s-length principle bytheir power to grant or withhold funds. Nevertheless, it remains a touchstoneof arts support policy, as indicated by the Arts Council of England’s descriptionof itself as ‘an independent, non-political body working at arm’s length fromthe Government’ (ACE, 2002).

Central to the operation of the arm’s-length philosophy is the use of peerappraisal in funding allocations. Groups of practitioners and specialists in anart form assess the work of their fellow artists and this is fed, over time, intothe decision-making process. Arising from this is the freedom of the fundingbodies to take on new clients and to recognize new forms of expression. Finally,and most importantly, freedom of expression is assured to clients while thefunding body assumes the burden of financial accountability to centralgovernment.

All countries which operate a system of arm’s-length funding find theprinciple can become severely strained on occasions by political pressure. InAustralia, for example, serious political concern about the inequalities indistribution of opportunities throughout the regions has caused enormouspressure on the Australian Arts Council’s independence in their distribution ofarts funds.

For marketing staff, the arm’s-length principle has implications about thequality of the product and the positioning of the organization. Peer appraisalis based first and foremost on the quality of artistic product – but the artisticproduct does not exist in isolation. The image of the organization, particularlyits standing with critics and its media profile, makes a crucial contribution tothe perception of quality. For an organization which truly integrates itsmarketing, artistic quality will be reflected in all aspects of its performance.

It could be argued that the arm’s-length principle will become less importantas the economy continues to become more mixed, with arts organizationsdiversifying their sources of income and becoming more commerciallyautonomous. Funding structures are not fixed in stone, as demonstrated by thenumber of reorganizations the Arts Council has been through in the UK sinceits foundation. Devolution, changing priorities, the relationship betweencentral and regional decision-making, and the search for economies of scalehave been some of the most important influences on this process. From theirpost-war beginnings as a single Arts Council of Great Britain, the separate Arts

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24 Creative Arts Marketing

Councils of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have developedroles in co-ordinating, advocacy and planning alongside or instead of directfunding. On the other hand, the diversification of funding sources is likely topresent arts organizations with a number of possible agendas. Carefulassessment of stakeholder values, with a mission to manage funders’expectations, will be a priority for arts marketing in the twenty-first century.

Excellence vs. accessibilityAs outlined above, peer-group appraisal places a high value on excellence. Thisinvolves both innovation in new forms, and the preservation and renewal ofart forms from either minority cultures or the past. An equally importantimperative is ‘access’ – the sector-wide commitment to increase the numberand range of people who enjoy and participate in the arts. More difficult orunusual expressions of artistic creativity may prove a barrier to building bigaudiences or increasing the number of visitors to an attraction, particularly tothose sectors of the community who traditionally are non-attenders. As wehave suggested earlier in the chapter, presentation strategies which work wellfor existing audiences may actually deter newcomers from the theatre, concerthall or gallery.

Modern technology is shaping audiences’ expectations of a live perform-ance. For example, the widespread ownership of video recorders and DVDplayers, which allow the viewer to go forwards, backwards and to pause, mayhave an increasing impact on the attention span of audiences. In museums,traditional display methods which depend on written explanations may beseen as too inaccessible, both in terms of difficulties in understanding and alsoproblems with getting close enough to read the text. The ways in which weaccess entertainment media have become increasingly individualized, asopposed to the communal experience of being part of an audience for a liveevent:

The shift towards greater spending on cultural hardware . . . as opposed toservices has also meant that entertainment is increasingly located in the home. . . The privatization of pleasure – driven by basic economics – has become afundamental issue, whilst traditions of civic, municipal, and public cultures arebeing swept away. (Mulgan and Worpole, 1986)

It is the role of marketing staff to be aware of, and responsive to, the changingneeds of customers in this social and technological context. The artistic directoror exhibition curator and their teams will tend to be production-centred in thatthey will always hope to challenge and stimulate their audience by givingthem something beyond their expectations. At its best, this tension is dynamicand challenging. Often in practice it is difficult to achieve the correct balancebetween ‘excellence and access’. The tension between being at the cutting edgeof an art form and the need to be inclusive of a wide audience is a long-runningissue in the arts. Sir Kenneth Clark, Chair of ACGB in 1958, summarized thisdebate as ‘raise or spread’. It is a theme that runs throughout the followingchapters, impacting all areas of marketing planning and practice.

From: Creative Arts Marketing, Hill, E. et al, Copyright © 2003 Butterworth-Heinemann, reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK.


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