To market or not to market that is the question. Are Minnesota performing arts organizations creating marketing plans? Kerry DePalma University of St. Thomas December 15, 2003

Current challenges  Decreasing funds  Increasing competition  Shifting audience behavior

Arts marketers aren’t getting what they need.  Better marketing tools  Strategic marketing

What is strategic marketing?  Strategic analysis  Market planning  Marketing plan implementation  Measuring results

Why is strategic marketing important?  Identify long-term trends and their implications.  Recognize when there is a need to reevaluate the organization.  Develop and communicate clearer organizational messages.  Identify successes and failures.

Research question Do Minnesota performing arts organizations create and implement integrated marketing plans?

Research goals  Identify whether written plans are being created.  Identify if organizations research their audiences.  Determine if there is staff committed to marketing and who it is.

Methodology  Sample  200 managing directors and marketing managers of Minnesota performing arts organizations  Survey  Printed survey sent via mail  27 Questions  Response  39% Overall response rate

Do you market your performances? 96% of respondents reported they market their performances.

Does your organization have a written marketing plan? 47% have written marketing plans.

Do you have a formal written marketing communications plan? 70% have a written communication plan.

Percent of planned tactics that are executed

Does your organization research and gather information about your audience? 36% collect both lifestyle and demographic information about their audience.

Who is responsible for marketing?  57% have a full-time or part-time employee handling marketing in some capacity.  71% said marketing was not their primary job function within the organization.

Conclusion Do Minnesota performing arts organizations create and implement integrated marketing plans? YES AND NO

What needs to happen next?  Identify current arts marketing educational resources.  Research arts marketers’ opinions on marketing education.  Compare organizations’ marketing plans to their execution.

Questions?