Vice President of Synovate Qualitative research, singer/performer, and now the co-publisher of Express Cincinnati, Thom Mariner could have chosen a number of different career paths. Instead, he chose them all. This week, Soapbox spends time with Mariner as he talks about taking risk and branding the image you want to project.
read full bio
SoapBlog 3 - The Importance of Brand Integrity to the Arts
Posted By: Thom Mariner
6/11/2009
Reading Jerry Kathman’s post last week regarding brands brought to mind a thought I have been carrying around for some time now.
As most of you know, we live in the Land of Brands here in Cincinnati. The refinement by Procter & Gamble of the concept of brand integrity is among the most important building blocks of our Cincinnati commercial infrastructure. While I have been involved in the arts in Cincinnati for over 30 years now, I make my living as a qualitative research consultant for one of the world’s largest marketing research firms. Brands are now my life, and I increasingly see the need for arts organizations to follow their business cousins in embracing the need for brand integrity.
How does one define a brand? Effectively, it’s the story an organization or company tells, and the way it presents itself in order to distinguish the organization from competitors and convey its business standards, principles and unique qualities to potential customers. Brand integrity is achieved when all components of an organization function in alignment with and serve the essence of that brand.
An artist or musician or writer is free to create anything they choose for their own pleasure or satisfaction. However, once they decide to sell their creation to someone else, then it becomes a business transaction. Art for art's sake is perfectly fine, but artists or composers who become successful tend to develop a consistent, recognizable point of view that is identifiable as theirs – their brand.
For an arts organization to succeed financially, it has to develop its own brand. It has to find a way to be the middleman between creatives and consumers, to effectively market the artistic “product” they are selling in order to appropriately compensate those who are creating those products. This does not mean that they have to narrow or limit their brand, but they do have to 1) understand their audience and 2) consistently deliver on their marketing promises, whatever those might be. By so doing, they will build trust among that audience and reap the rewards of repeat business.
The challenge for many arts organizations is that they are not established or managed with brand integrity in mind. Programs and exhibits are often put together in ways that that can seem arbitrary to patrons. In many organizations, artistic product is considered the key element and marketing is not the driving concept. As a result, marketing directors face the daunting task of figuring out how to put people in the seats or get them to an exhibit without the benefit of a unified, integral message or concept. To achieve long-term organizational success, all facets of the organization must serve the same, agreed-upon objectives.
For the arts to compete with mass media and all the other easy distractions in our society, organizations must develop, serve and consistently deliver on a powerful and distinct brand message. More attention to branding and marketing will help make the arts more attractive to consumers and therefore more self-sufficient, and less reliant on governmental funding and private donations, all without sacrificing artistic integrity.
For more on this topic, see the next issue of Express Cincinnati, in print and online, available June 24.