Tag: marketing strategy

Can We Truly Market the Arts?

April 23, 2009 • Blog • no comments


Art or sheer marketing brilliance? (Damien Hirst’s £50 million For The Love of God courtesy of Secretly Ironic)

There is an underlying tension in the field of cultural management where one has to balance between giving customers what they want and preserving artistic integrity.  This is especially prevalent in what we term as the ‘high arts’ like classical music, ballet, theatre and museums.

Against the ever growing competition from lifestyle activities coupled with the ever shrinking discretionary time of today’s consumers, it appears suicidal for art organisations to hold their ground for the sake of their art.  Considered by many to be a discretionary expense (compared to purchasing groceries, fuel and homes), cultural activities have never faced such tremendous competition as the present age.

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Delectable Morsels in Marketing

April 8, 2009 • Social Influence • 2 comments


Extreme co-branding in action! (courtesy of Haendal Dantas)

Here are some interesting little snippets that I picked up this week.

To kick it off, Seth Godin warns us that marketing isn’t just about being better or more efficient, but rather, just being the right thing for customers, no matter how idiosyncratic those demands may be.  Its interesting to read about his new middle-aged fetish for button fly jeans though.

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To Market Or Not To Market?

March 11, 2009 • Blog • no comments

One of the greatest challenges facing communicators and marketers in the arts is the balance between satisfying artistic input and commercial (or public) interest. 

How does one reach out to new customers and audiences without diluting one’s craft?  Should we be setting the agenda and pushing the envelope in terms of experimenting with new art forms?  Or should we cater to the most mass of markets and stick to what everybody likes to see, hear or experience?
According to some academics, the arts should be kept pure and undiluted from the transgressions of the commercial world.  Artists, curators, musicians and dancers should exist in their own little bubble of creative experimentation, oblivious to the grind of dollars and cents while dreaming up that next original work of genius.  
The role of marketers would then be that of publicists helping to generate the greatest amount of buzz, media coverage and advertising effectiveness.  Visitors and audiences should thus be attracted towards their artistic inspirations in an organic fashion.  
This is what has been termed as being “product focused”.  Build it and they will come.  Or arts for arts sake. 

The Whats and Hows of Global Brands

November 18, 2008 • Blog • no comments


Courtesy of woodleywonderworks

I was invited to a sharing session yesterday afternoon by David Shaw, Director at Effective Brands and a former marketing stalwart at both Lenovo and HP. Founded by Marc De Swaan Arons, the company embarked on a worldwide global brand study seven-years ago which now includes close to 100 global brands with a database of about 40,000 marketers. In the study, the branding consultancy focused on global marketing challenges and possible solutions to overcome them.

Here are some of the key highlights which I picked up.

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The Parable of the Spider

September 21, 2008 • Blog • 6 comments

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I spotted the above spider making his home at the lift lobby just outside my home. The little guy has been there for weeks, and interestingly, no efforts have been made to clean up his silky home. I don’t really mind though as I have a thing for spiders.

In fact, there are some lessons that you can learn from them, which relates pretty well to the world of marketing.

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A New Marketing Idea

May 7, 2008 • Content Marketing • 6 comments

In the age of increasing emphasis on individual preferences, coupled with the prevalence of social media, the traditional rules of marketing would need to change. We are no longer talking about market segments that aggregate themselves neatly into discrete demographic groups, or consumer preferences that follow neat patterns. Information is available fast and free, and the general levels of trust in advertising has descended to an all-time low.

How do marketers hope to thrive in this landscape? Enter the concept of I-Marketing.

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Childlike Marketing (No Kidding!)

May 5, 2008 • Blog • 3 comments

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Child’s Play or a Lesson in Marketing?

As I was going for a run this evening at the neighbourhood park, I noticed how kids have this boundless energy aimed at the sole purpose of having non-stop fun. Jumping and skipping from one activity to another, they appear not to have a care in the world, and are focused on their agenda of having pure, unadulterated fun. While watching them play in glee, it hit me that perhaps there are lessons there that we can learn from in the realm of marketing.

Indeed, some of the traits of childhood – especially at play – are invaluable to us jaded marketers. They include the following:

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Branding Non-profits

July 29, 2007 • Blog • 5 comments

The Salvation Army is one of the world’s most recognised non-profit brand.

In this day and age, non-profit organisations like charities, trade associations, special interest groups, and clubs can ill afford to ignore branding. To reach a critical sized audience and membership, you need systems and processes to be in place. You need to also market your organisation for it to gain greater clout and reach so that it can better achieve its purpose. Just passion alone would not cut it.

Branding Insider, one of my favourite references for branding thoughts, highlighted 7 points of branding non-profit organisations.

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