relationship marketing – life in the trenches - Creative New Zealand

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fuel4arts.com arts + markets + audiences …tools & ideas to take your work further Relationship Marketing and the Arts Arts marketers know that their product has a number of unique characteristics that require different handling than traditional consumer products. These characteristics are ideally suited to a relationship marketing approach. Art is Intangible The experience of art is intangible; there is no ever lasting physical product. Once the curtain falls the show has gone for ever. Sure, you could come back to see the same show the following night, but the experience will always be different. The visual arts are the same. Even though the work itself has a physical form, the real value is ultimately derived from the emotion that it stirs within the person gazing upon it, rather than physical ownership. Relationship marketing is an opportunity for arts marketers to enhance the emotional experience that their customers receive. Arts Involves Individual Interpretation Art is a personal journey. We all come from different backgrounds and all have vastly different collections of life experiences. An artistic work asks each individual to interpret what it is presenting to us. The context for each individual’s interpretation comes from the knowledge and experience they have gathered over their lifetime – this is why we all have different opinions. Relationship marketing acknowledges that we are all different and recognises the need to provide an information system that caters to these differences. Art Appeals to All Arts marketing is about access, enabling the greatest possible slice of the population to experience what we have to offer. This means an arts organisation’s potential customers are of all ages and come from a range of cultural and educational backgrounds. Given this diverstity of backgrounds, the information required by customers for them to make the decision to attend, and then to maximise the personal benefit they gain from the experience, will vary immensely from person to person. Therefore arts orgainsations need a strategy that acknowledges that they have a wide base of potential customers and enables them to provide specific information to individual customers. The Entertainment Industry and Spending More Effectively “In fact, some marketers claim that as a result of changing households, complex products, new ways to shop and pay, intense competition, and declining advertising effectiveness, mass marketing is obsolete.” - Kotler and Scheff, 1997. From sports and movies, to a night in watching the telly, the arts are now up against all activities that people have to choose from in their leisure time. Arts marketers need to develop smarter and more adaptable tools to be able to match it with competitors with far greater resources. In an increasingly expensive marketplace marketers must be able to measure the effectiveness of the tools and mediums they are using. Traditional mass mediums such as print advertising, radio and television are undoubtedly effective tools for raising awareness but research shows that awareness alone is not enough to send customers scurrying to the box office. Published at www.fuel4arts.com with permission from the Author, July 2003 Page 2 of 6 © Penn Trevella and Australia Council for the Arts, 2003
fuel4arts.com arts + markets + audiences …tools & ideas to take your work further As advertising rates increase and the sheer quantity of advertising sky rockets, organisations must review the emphasis and financial commitment they give to gaining mass market exposure and look more seriously at communication techniques that are more directly and specifically targeted at their customers. Relationship marketing based tools such as opt-in email systems and customer focused newsletters are examples of communications that can be delivered directly to your targeted audience and designed specifically for their needs. Relationship Marketing as a Commitment to Service Quality Relationship marketing involves implementing specific service quality processes designed to ensure on-going customer satisfaction. A person’s relationship with an artistic product begins at that first moment of awareness – catching a glimpse of a poster on the street, reading an article in a magazine, hearing a friend talk enthusiastically about a show. Between that moment and the actual artistic experience there are a multitude of interactions, both direct and indirect, that need to be managed effectively and efficiently to ensure that the customer will be receptive to a positive experience. From a customer’s point of view, the artistic product and their reaction to it is what matters. Therefore, as marketers, it is our job to create an environment that gives each customer the opportunity to receive the best possible experience. The battle for customers can be so hard fought that it feels as though you have had to personally persuade each of them to come through the doors. Having endured such a struggle, it is heart-wrenching to receive complaints of ticketing errors, rude theatre staff or unacceptable lines at the bar at interval. Unfortunate incidents taint the experience of an evening at the theatre and subsequently effect the customer’s willingness to attend in the future. The artistic product will always be at the core of what we do as arts marketers. However, acknowledging the importance of service quality and customer satisfaction, as the foundation for the presentation of an artistic experience, increases the likelihood of customers returning in the future. Service Quality – the Building Blocks Every interaction that you have with a customer adds to the mental image (positioning, in marketing lingo) they retain of your organisation. Therefore, every interaction is an opportunity to enhance the customer’s mental image of your organisation. Alternatively, a bad experience can undo all of the good work that has been done. Map out all the possible points of contact between your organisation and the customer from the first moment they become aware of your show to when they’re in the theatre. These points of interaction range from personal contact, such as ticket sellers, ushers and theatre staff, to event listings on the Internet, or advertising in print, TV or radio. By going through this process you can quickly see that there are numerous potential points of interaction that a customer must navigate before they make it to your show. The challenge is to develop processes to ensure the highest possible levels of service quality at each point. Published at www.fuel4arts.com with permission from the Author, July 2003 Page 3 of 6 © Penn Trevella and Australia Council for the Arts, 2003
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