To continue the discussion about Peter Drucker’s thoughts on Non-profit management that I started yesterday, I thought I would look at his view of marketing.
There are a number of interviews included in Managing the Nonprofit Organization where Drucker asks different people their views on a set topic. One of the interviews associated with marketing features Philip Kotler who teaches at Northwestern University. One of the things he says is that many people confuse marketing with hard selling and advertising.
He says “The most important tasks in marketing have to do with studying the market, segmenting it, targeting the groups you want to serve, positioning yourself in the market and creating a service that meets the needs out there. Advertising and selling are afterthoughts.” The difference is a function of how you start out. Do you look at who you want to serve or do you start with a product and then look for markets to push it into. The former is marketing, the latter is selling.
I will be the first to admit, I am guilty of selling under the guise of marketing. Part of this is due to pressure from above to fill seats and lacking the time, staff and environment to be asking if my actions properly served a market. Actually, pretty much all of it is due to those influences. I learned what marketing was supposed to be in school, much as Kotler defines. When I got out in the real world, I was never in a position to work under the proper definition.
Still, it is easy to market incorrectly even if you are acting in accordance with the definition. You may be clear about the needs you want to serve, “but don’t understand the needs from the perspective of the customers. They [organizations] make assumptions based on their own interpretation of the needs out there.”
I have been seeing this idea cropping up a lot recently in the articles I am reading. Arts organizations have been accused of not being cognizant of the changing needs and expectations of its audience. One of the things Mr. Kotler says is marketing can “help us understand why customers chose to be with us in the first place and why they’re not choosing to be with us any more.”
A couple ideas I came away from the reading with was that arts organizations could do a better job marketing by assessing their strengths. Even if there are a couple other theatres, orchestras, ballet companies, etc in the area, they can certain examine the market, see what there might be a demand for and fulfill it. This can range from things arts organizations already do like positioning themselves to the Shakespeare or modern dance niche or offering classes to adults and children and providing outreach programs free of charge to underserved schools.
It can also be new programs that recognize the different needs of all the segments you wish to serve. Instead of only having one format for an audience education program, you might pitch different ones for different segments. Older audiences might like a formal lecture/talk back after a Thursday performance that started at 7pm. Younger audiences might prefer a coffee house format discussion after a Saturday night performance that started at 8pm. Churches have different ministries under one roof to suit different segments of their congregations. This is a structure that arts organizations can adapt to their needs.
The methods that Drucker and Kotler discuss for making sure your organization is market rather than selling driven are fairly obvious but perhaps difficult to implement because it can require fighting institutional inertia. The first is to do market research to understand the market and its needs, the second is to develop segmentation and be aware of the different groups you want to serve, the third is to develop policies and programs that are structured to the meet needs of the groups. Everyone in the organization has to be invested in these programs over the long haul because the desired result won’t be attained immediately.
More Drucker to come.