Who Are You, Anyway? - ArtsMarketing.org

14 Pages·2010·3.98 MB·English

by  William Childers

Chapter 4
Who
Are You,
Anyway?
This Chapter . . .
••Provides•an•overview•of•Positioning•or•Branding,••
continuing•to•answer•the•first•marketing•planning•question,••
“Where•are•we?”•by•focusing•on•“Who•are•we?”;•and•
••Provides•an•outline•and•arts-specific•questions•to•streamline•the•
three•key•components•of•Positioning•or•Branding:•Targeting,•
Competitive•Analysis•and•Finding•Your•Uniqueness.
Chapter author Julie Peeler is an expert on organizational and product positioning and is
Vice President of Private Sector Initiatives at Americans for the Arts.
Who Are You, Anyway?
COMMON PROBLEMS PART 1: Overview of Positioning
WITH MISSION
To begin answering the question, “Who are we?”, most arts organizations would first
STATEMENTS
look at their mission. And, while a mission statement is a good starting place for writ-

Vague and obtuse ing an organization-wide strategic plan, that same mission statement isn’t necessarily
Verbose the best foundation for building a marketing strategy.
Too philosophical or abstract
To be sure, missions have their place in arts organizations. First, a mission is required
Too broad or narrow
to qualify for 501(c)3 status.
Too category - focused (describes
dance, theater or music, etc.)
The Problem With Mission Statements
Not unique or distinctive
A mission statement reflects the purposes and values of the group of artists making up
Insider-focused
the organization, and defines what drives the artistic product. But the problem with us-
ing missions as a starting points for marketing strategies is that they lead to marketing
programs that aren’t consumer focused.
Mission statements also can become out of date. Artists grow over the course of their
careers, making noticeable evolutions about every three to five years, yet the mission
statement often gets left in a drawer to gather dust. Missions should be revisited every
three to five years to ensure that they remain living documents. They set organization-
wide direction and they’re a great way to ensure job candidates understand the total
organization‘s direction.
As funders and marketing consultants, we see hundreds of mission statements every
year. What’s wrong with most mission statements? We’ve seen them too broad or too
narrow, and too philosophical or abstract, using verbose, obtuse and vague language.
Most are too category-focused in that they describe the organization’s art form, but
not their unique perspective on that art form. Thus they’re not distinctive. When read
along with ten others, they don’t describe the organization’s uniqueness.
What can be improved in this example?
We produce plays that span the full spectrum of theatrical genres but share a
common impulse: to celebrate the human spirit’s endurance and capacity.
Why can’t a sound new audience development strategy be built from here? This mis-
sion is vague in that it defines theatre. It’s too broad in that they say they “produce
plays that span the full spectrum of theatrical genres,” but a look at their past ten sea-
sons tells us something different. It includes insider language—most consumers don’t
know what “the full spectrum of theatrical genres” are. And most people we share
this mission with ask the question, “the human spirit’s capacity for what?”
4.2
Let’s look at a few more examples, beginning with the dance organization that wants
to be everything to everybody.
Dance Company Y’s mission is to produce and present high quality concerts
of dance, music and theatre to diverse audiences.
Or these three theatre companies, all from the same city, whose missions are fact-based.
We produce premier and seldom-produced plays.
We’re the only theatre to produce premier works of local playwrights.
We produce Midwest and World premieres offering new voices to our town.
Finally, one way to judge whether your mission is as unique as it could be is to state it
in the opposite. For example:
Dance Company Y’s mission is to be dedicated to excellence in the perfor-
mance of classical ballet.
Obviously, this mission could fit any ballet company anywhere. But ask yourself this:
Does anyone start a ballet company in order to dedicate themselves to mediocrity?
4.3
Who Are You, Anyway?
While mission statements have their place in arts organizations,
there are problems with using your mission to create your Mar-
keting strategy:
Mission statements are focused on the organization, but successful Marketing pro-
grams are always focused on the consumer. Using your mission as a starting point
for your Marketing strategies can lead to Marketing programs that aren’t consumer-
focused, and therefore aren’t effective.
MISSION STATEMENT EXERCISE 1: Print out the mission statements of ten other
arts organizations. Get them from playbills, annual reports, your local arts service orga-
nization, or ask your colleagues for them. Read each mission statement out loud. Now
read your organization’s mission statement. Ask yourself: Does your mission stand out?
Does your mission describe your organization’s uniqueness?
Mission statements also can become out of date. Arts organizations grow over
the course of their careers, making noticeable evolutions about every three to five
years. However, the mission statement often gets left in a drawer to gather dust. Mis-
sions should be revisited every three to five years to ensure that they are living docu-
ments. Remember: Mission statements set organization-wide direction. When you’re
hiring new staff members, your mission statement can make sure that job candidates
understand the organization’s big picture.
MISSION STATEMENT EXERCISE 2: Ask your board members and staff people to
define your organization’s mission. How close is each definition to the real mission?
Keep track of the answers. This exercise has two purposes. First, it will help you ferret
out misunderstandings regarding your organization’s mission. Second, for board devel-
opment, it can help you understand where various board members’ interests lie among
your organization’s programs.
Most mission statements are too category-focused, yet at the same time
they’re not distinctive. They describe the organization’s art form, but not the orga-
nization’s unique perspective on that art form. Mission statements are often too broad
or too narrow, too philosophical, and they use lengthy, wordy, language that is hard to
understand.
4.4
A good mission statement should answer three questions for your organization:
1. What are we here to do? (Statement of Purpose)
2. Where is the organization heading? (Statement of Ambition)
3. What values do we hold dear? (Statement of Values)
Answering these questions will help your organization create a precise, unique and
visionary mission statement.
Finally, here’s a mission statement that works.
“Black Storytelling embodies the history, heritage and culture of African Americans. It
preserves, perpetuates and passes-along the folklore, legends, myths, fables and mores
of Africans, their descendents, and ancestors. Our mission is to establish and maintain
a network of individuals and groups to preserve the African Diaspora Oral Tradition.”
(Source: Black Storyteller’s Association of San Diego)
See Worksheet 4.1 to evaluate your mission statement.
4.5
44..66
Who Are You, Anyway?
Why You Need a Positioning Statement
This is why organizations need a positioning statement to develop marketing plans
that are consumer-focused, simple, motivating and persuasive. It’s called a position-
ing statement because it asks you to help define what unique position you hold in the
consumer’s mind. It is also referred to as your brand.
Having a more focused, consumer-based place to begin marketing provides an express-
way into the consumer’s mind, leads you to more focused and efficient messages, and
puts you on the target’s mental ladder when they’re bombarded with thousands of
messages daily. Positioning is also the key to a distinct visual identity.
What’s a Positioning Statement?
••Represents•a•trusted•promise•to•the•consumer•that•encapsulates•a•
big•idea•
•
••Defines•you•relative•to•the•competition,•providing•potential•custom-
ers•with•a•frame•of•reference•for•making•a•buying•decision•
•
••Is•an•objective•perspective•from•the•outside•looking•into•the•orga-
nization•
•
••Depends•on•an•understanding•of•the•needs•and•motivations•of•the•
customer•or•potential•new•customers••
••Is•highly•focused••
••And•answers•the•question,•“What•do•I•have•that’s•worth•custom-
ers’•time,•effort•and•money?”••
4.7
Who Are You, Anyway?
“Most times when we ask our clients PART II: The Mechanics of Positioning
about their competition, they name
other arts organizations. But, people
don’t sit up in bed in the morning THE THREE COMPONENTS OF A
and shout, ‘I’m a member of the POSITIONING STATEMENT
chamber music audience!’ ”
1. Who is Your Target?
—Julie Peeler
2. What are Their Other Entertainment Options?

3. What are Your Unique Benefits?
1. Who is Your Target?
The previous chapter focused on choosing a target. You should have consciously
selected a target or targets on which to focus your growth goals. You know their arts-
related behavior. You can describe them demographically. You know what they like to
do in their free time. You know their attitudes and beliefs toward your organization.
What more do you need to develop a positioning?
First, you need to know what they value in a leisure-time activity. You need to know
what you’re competing against for their time, attention and money.
2. What are Their Other Entertainment Options?
Competition is an interesting subject in the arts. Most times when we ask our clients
about their competition, they name other arts organizations. But, people don’t sit up
in bed in the morning and shout, “I’m a member of the chamber music audience!”
The chapter on targeting showed that customers are more complex than can solely be
described by their arts behavior. Remember, to grow audiences, we must look beyond
people who eat, sleep, live, breathe and die for the arts. We are looking at people who
have a variety of leisure favorites and we need to understand how the arts can fit their
needs, wants and desires. So when thinking about competition, we have to understand
our target’s leisure-time priorities, and how and where we fit into them. This can be
done by adding a few simple questions to audience surveys, including:
• What are your three favorite leisure-time activities?
• Give us three adjectives that describe why you like your favorite activity.
4.8
Positioning Island Moving Company.
The Island Moving Company is a small contemporary ballet com-
pany based in Newport, RI with a 25+ year history of providing high
quality dance performances to a small but loyal audience base in
a variety of traditional and non-traditional venues. In preparing to
become the resident dance company of the soon-to-open Newport
Performing Arts Center in a renovated, historic movie palace befit-
ting Newport’s focus on historic properties, while still planning to
perform site-specific works, they sought to more clearly define their
brand. Recognizing that their “place” played as important a role
as their product, they developed the following branding statement:
“For people who love Newport, Island Moving Company is the arts
experience where every encounter is up close and personal, whatev-
er the venue; where audiences can see the dancers’ passion, feel
the energy, and experience the joy.” The result has brought new
power to all their communications.
Give them only three spaces to fill in for the answers. If you give them room for an
essay, they’ll write nothing. If you give them three spaces, they’re more likely to give
you an answer.
If you don’t have time for an audience survey, develop a written description of your
target audience using the information you do have. Lead your staff and your board
through a brainstorming session on what they would guess are the top four or five
leisure-time activities of the target. Put each activity at the top of large sheets of paper
tacked to the wall. Then, have the board and staff walk around the room and list the
10–12 adjectives that describe what your target audience gets out of each activity,
i.e. how does it benefit them? Finally, look at the 50–60 adjectives on the wall. What
similarities are there? Can the adjectives be grouped? Can you begin to see what the
target is looking for in a leisure-time activity. . .what they value? Use Worksheet 4.2 to
record your findings.
Finally, you need to understand what makes you unique.
4.9
4.10