- Background
Marketing literature identifies two approaches to marketing: ‘Product-led’ marketing makes a product first and then finds the audiences that are interested in it; ‘Target-led’ marketing identifies the potential audience and attempts to offer an art product to them.
A ‘product led’ approach is common in art organisations where independent producers or artists create artistic works before marketing practice begins. ‘Target led’ marketing produces artworks that appeal to audiences, but is seen to run the risk of compromising artistic integrity and the ‘edginess’ of works.
A more recent tactic (Hill, O'Sullivan & O'Sullivan 2003) aims to reconcile the two approaches, arguing that while artistic planning cannot be dominated by market forces, marketing needs to be an integral part of the process of artistic planning.
Topic
Design a new arts or cultural product (this could be a production, performance, exhibition, festival, public program, arts service etc) and prepare a strategic marketing plan for this product. (NB: your strategic marketing plan will be for a specific project or product, not the overall organisation). Your approach to this marketing planning exercise should reflect the following arts marketing definition:
‘an integrated management process which sees mutually satisfying exchange relationships with customers as the route to achieving organisational and artistic objectives.’ (Hill, O'Sullivan & O'Sullivan 2003 p.1)
Expectations
Your marketing plan should be no more than 4,000 words. The plan should be written in a report format. The assignment is to be submitted via the CloudDeakin dropbox.
Suggested Report Format
Short description and rationale of the artistic product (suggest no more than 300 words)
Short overview of the arts organisation that is managing the project and will be implementing the strategic marketing plan
Situation analysis:
o Indication of how the product links to the organisation’s mission or vision;
o Internal situation (strengthens and weaknesses) and its impact on the product;
o External situation (opportunities and threats, including a SPET analysis or its equivalent) and its impact on the product;
o Description and analysis of your target markets; and o Competitionanalysis.
Marketing goals, objectives/strategies and actions:
o Presented with reference to the Market Mix (the seven ‘P’s);
o Specificationoftimelines,resources,responsibilitiesofstrategiesor
actions
o Within the marketing mix, include use of the ‘marketing aspects’
e.g. market segmentation, audience development, e-marketing; and o Performance measures or indicators (how you will measure the
success or outcome of your marketing work) References
Additional Information and Tips:
Remember that the strategic marketing plan is an ACTION document—it should identify and plan for the marketing work that is going to be undertaken. It is NOT an essay.
Develop the strategic marketing plan with an actual arts organisation in mind. It is much easier to work within the structure and constraints of an existing organisation.
The marketing plan should be for a new product, or the relaunch of a product in some different form. (i.e. the strategic marketing plan is specific to this product/ project—not an overall marketing plan for an entire arts organisation).
Explain the rationale for providing your chosen product. Develop the product and the marketing plan with both the audience and organisational/ artistic goals in mind (i.e. aim for a marketing plan that fits with Hill, O’Sullivan and O’Sullivan’s arts marketing definition).
There is no one way to structure or present a strategic marketing plan. A number of the references and textbooks you’ve been given include worksheets and practical examples of the presentation of information in a strategic marketing plan. Where appropriate, these can be included in the body of your plan. Part of your research and decision making for this assignment is the use of strategic marketing tools and techniques, the presentation of these in a report.
The organisation managing the project does not have to be large—a one person business is not uncommon in the arts and entertainment industry.
Only summary budget information is required. You do not need to get detailed quotes or present complex budget information.
Consider aspects of good report format and structure, for example page numbers; use of bullet points, tables, graphs and diagrams; table of contents.
References should be included, even though this might not be part of a strategic marketing plan you would produce for your workplace. References will provide an indication of how widely you’ve read and conducted research into
o different approaches and techniques for the marketing planning process;
o factors and issues affecting the external and internal environment which your strategic marketing plan responds to (i.e. the situation analysis).
