That's the mantra of Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "Great art well-marketed" is the key to successful performing arts management, according to Mr. Kaiser. It seems self-evident, but it is surprisingly easy to lose track of in the busy world of setting seasons, staging shows, selling tickets, promoting performances, repairing the plumbing, rewiring the light and sound boards, and all the rest on most arts organizations' to-do lists.
"When there are economic challenges, the first things ... cut are programming and marketing, and that's the worst thing you can do," says Mr. Kaiser (quoted in the Wall Street Journal on 19-Feb-2009). "You're guaranteeing yourself you'll have less revenue next year, and that's how sick organizations get really sick ... If you start by cutting programming, rather than everything else in the back of the house, you're signing a warrant that everything will just get worse, worse, worse."
Businesses (and I include performing arts organizations in that group) exist to sell something to customers. Sometimes we lose sight of that. And, lost in the woods of staffs and facilities and boards and the day to day demands of operating, we decide to save money by reducing our investment in that something that we're selling. In the process, we often (usually) make that something less desirable to our customers. So they buy less, or stop buying altogether.
It is a rare arts organization that has a staff person or board member clear-sighted enough to always have the organization's purpose, its reason for being, appropriately targeted. For a performing arts organization, if you can't put a great product on the stage, something your audiences really want, that meets the objectives of the organization, you will fail, both in achieving your mission, and in business.
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