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Although some organizations are happy to prepare their ads in-house, most benefit from the
assistance of a trained professional. Advertising agencies provide a full range of services,
including basic market research, the creative development of ads, an effective range of media
for ads, and negotiation with the media. Some agencies will undertake a certain amount of
community service advertising, or agree to sponsor an organization and provide in-kind
sponsorship in terms of ad creation or production (Dickman, 1997, p. 69). There are
professional public relations companies that can organize publicity, but the charges for their
services often put them beyond the reach of small organizations. So, before starting, it is
important to assess how much publicity your organization can manage.
Relationship Marketing
As already stated, the main task of arts marketing is to motivate people to attend activities,
purchase works of art and encourage them to share in artistic experiences. For most artists,
therefore, the audience seems to be the core element of an artistic experience and the key source
of revenue. Although this implies only one type of customer (the ‘consumer’), an audience can
also be thought of as comprising the primary audiences which consist of those who attend or
could attend arts events, and a secondary audience of other stakeholders such as funding bodies,
sponsors etc. (Conway and Whitelock, 2005).
Although consumers and governments have become more demanding and less loyal than ever
before, they have indicated that they will continue to fund cultural and arts programs. However,
they expect organizations to become financially more inventive and more able to develop and
maintain their own funding base, something that can be mainly achieved through sponsorships.
Arts organizations have to present their sponsorship requests in a way that will not only satisfy
their needs but also show the benefits for the business sponsors. The increased number and
variety of sponsorship opportunities have made the environment more competitive, with
increasing numbers of organizations pursuing even smaller numbers of sponsors. Arts
administrators all agree that the marketplace is becoming more competitive. The public is
getting smaller because of the difficult current economic situation. This results in cutbacks on
their cultural expenses. They can also choose from a vast number of alternatives. Organizations
are developing a marketing orientation to meet these challenges and ensure they not only
survive in a difficult environment, but also grow and develop, and build a long-lasting base of
loyal supporters (Dickman, 1997, p. 4).
Marketing planning activity is structured around the relationship approach and is directed
towards a process that creates, maintains and also enhances relationships. Companies often
focus on attracting customers but pay little attention to what they must do to maintain them.
Nowadays, arts marketeers view the retention of customers as an important aspect. Because it
is very expensive to draw new customers away from the competition (Fitzgibbon et al, 1999),
it is essential that effort should be spent in this direction. While aiming to draw new
audiences/customers, it is also important to hold onto their existing ones and focus on
relationship marketing: