Description
The purpose of this Editorial is to introduce the reader to the changing environment of arts
marketing, which poses challenges to researchers and necessitates creative methods of inquiry.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Special issue on creative methods of inquiry in arts marketing
Gretchen Larsen Daragh O'Reilly
Article information:
To cite this document:
Gretchen Larsen Daragh O'Reilly, (2010),"Special issue on creative methods of inquiry in arts marketing", International J ournal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 3 - 7
Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506181011024715
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Dennis A. Pitta, Van R. Wood, Frank J . Franzak, (2008),"Nurturing an effective creative culture within a marketing organization", J ournal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 25 Iss 3 pp. 137-148http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07363760810870635
Alan Bradshaw, (2010),"Before method: axiomatic review of arts marketing", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality
Research, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 8-19http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506181011024724
J ayasankar Ramanathan, Keyoor Purani, (2014),"Brand extension evaluation: real world and virtual world", J ournal of Product & Brand
Management, Vol. 23 Iss 7 pp. 504-515http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/J PBM-04-2014-0559
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:115632 []
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Guest editorial
Special issue on creative methods of
inquiry in arts marketing
Gretchen Larsen and Daragh O’Reilly
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this Editorial is to introduce the reader to the changing environment of arts
marketing, which poses challenges to researchers and necessitates creative methods of inquiry.
Design/methodology/approach – The Editorial introduces the papers in this special issue.
Findings – It was found that creative inquiry in arts marketing includes the use of both established and
innovative interpretive methods.
Originality/value – The Editorial explains how the application of creative methods of inquiry can aid our
understanding of the relationship between art and the market.
Keywords Marketing, Research, Research methods, Creative thinking
Paper type General review
Introduction
Arts marketing and consumption research is an exciting and lively ?eld that is rich in
potential academic and practitioner insights. The arts offer rich symbolic resources, intense
consumption experiences and opportunities for passionate and enduring customer
relationships. Individual artists are showing themselves to be accomplished marketing
communicators, successful entrepreneurs and powerful brands in their own right. Cultural
organizations are increasingly adopting business models and mainstream commercial
organizations are increasingly turning to cultural partners of various kinds in order to add
vitality and sustenance to their offerings. Cultural elements saturate commercial marketing
communications through a variety of mechanisms, including aesthetics, sponsorship,
product placement, celebrity endorsement, cultural franchising and merchandising. The
culturalization of the economy and the economization of culture leads arts marketers to
conceive arts and heritage offerings as embedded within cultural value chains which
powerful organizations and technological innovations mediate. As a result of the scale and
pace of these changes, the cultures of production and consumption within creative and
cultural industries and markets are inevitably changing.
Clearly the cultural and creative industries offer a wide range of interesting marketing
practices and sites of consumption, which are increasingly gaining attention. Marketing
theory itself is undergoing rapid development and change in a wide range of areas. Scholars
and practitioners must therefore be re-think and re-imagine arts marketing. In response to
this plea, the Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom) funded a series of
six seminars entitled ‘‘Rethinking Arts Marketing’’ that ran across various universities in the
UK from 2005-2007. Central to rethinking arts marketing is the examination of methods of
inquiry within the ?eld. Thus the seminar held at Bradford University School of Management
in December 2006 focused on creative methods of inquiry in arts marketing. This Special
DOI 10.1108/17506181011024715 VOL. 4 NO. 1 2010, pp. 3-7, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
j
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
j
PAGE 3
Gretchen Larsen is a
Lecturer in Marketing at the
School of Management,
University of Bradford,
Bradford, UK. Daragh
O’Reilly is a Lecturer in
Marketing at the
Management School,
University of Shef?eld,
Shef?eld, UK.
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Issue presents papers from this seminar, and as such serves as a valuable source of
knowledge and insight into innovative and contemporary methods of inquiry in arts
marketing.
Discussion
Traditionally, mainstream managerial marketing and ideas about the promotion of high
culture provide the dominant in?uences on arts marketing theory. Arts marketing has been,
until relatively recently, somewhat marginalized in the academy and conceptually isolated,
primarily because the arts did not ?t well within the dominant thinking about marketing.
As Vargo and Lusch (2004) describe, marketing initially inherited a model of exchange from
economics, in which the dominant logic is based on the exchange of manufactured goods.
Consequently the good centred dominant logic focuses on goods and resources which are
tangible, and value that is embedded in the goods and transactions. This viewenvisages the
purpose of economic activity being to make and distribute things that can be sold. In order
to be sold, these things need to be embedded with utility and value during the production
and distribution processes and to offer to the consumer superior value in relation to
competitors offerings. To achieve maximum production ef?ciency, the good should be
standardised, produced away from the market, inventoried until demanded and then
delivered to the consumer at a pro?t.
However, the arts do not easily ?t into the goods centred dominant logic due to the intangible
and experiential nature of arts products and, particularly in the case of the performing arts,
because of the inability to separate production and consumption. Consequently the
straightforward application of classical marketing theory to the arts can be problematic. The
reasons for this include, for example, the nature of the creative process and the artistic or
cultural ‘‘product’’ and the tension between art for art’s sake and art for business’s sake.
Other problems exist. For example arts marketing theory is concerned to a considerable
extent with the nonpro?t art sectors, and there is therefore a risk that arts marketing theory is
de?cient in terms of applicability to the more commercial areas of the arts. Another ?aw in
arts marketing theory is the tendency to treat the ‘‘art’’ in arts marketing as a black box, a
product for marketing; this approach avoids the dif?cult task of engaging with the literatures
on the nature of the artistic experience, the co-creation of aesthetic experiences and the
resulting blurring of boundaries between production and consumption. As a result, growth
areas in marketing threaten to pass arts marketing by – for example critical marketing, social
marketing, branding, consumer culture theory, corporate social responsibility, the
experience economy – not to mention areas ‘‘outside’’ marketing such as politics and
ideology, cultural studies, cultural and creative economy, popular culture, tourism studies,
leisure studies, and media studies.
In a turn that is positive for arts marketing, marketing thought is evolving towards a new
dominant logic. Vargo and Lusch (2004) brand the new marketing perspective ‘‘service
dominant logic’’ and similar ideas also underlie Arnould and Thompson’s (2005) Consumer
Culture Theory. Service dominant logic focuses on intangible resources, the co-creation of
value and relationships. This is a positive shift for arts marketers as this new dominant logic
resonates closely with the very nature of arts markets and consumers.
The cultural and creative industries offer a wide range of interesting sites of consumption,
such as festivals and live performances (not to mention the internet), which are
characterized by co-creation and networks of producer/consumer relationships.
Consequently these are now beginning to attract scholarly attention. Within arts
marketing, a range of scholars are commenting on this from different
marketing-conceptual perspectives, including services marketing (Hume et al., 2007;
Leighton, 2007), audience development (Hayes and Slater, 2002; Scollen, 2008),
creativity/innovation research (Kern, 2006; Fillis and Rentschler, 2005), branding (O’Reilly,
2005; Schroeder, 2006) and symbolic consumption (Goulding et al., 2002; Larsen et al.,
2009). Arts marketing scholars are also beginning to apply and adapt experiential marketing
and relationship marketing ideas. All are key areas of inquiry within the emerging marketing
paradigm. At the same time, cultural industries and markets are attracting research interest
PAGE 4
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from a range of scholars outside of marketing, including, for example, arts management
(Chong, 2002; Hesmondhalgh, 2002; Steinert, 2003), cultural sociology (Spillman, 2002),
the sociology of arts and culture (Alexander, 2003; Tanner, 2003), cultural economy (Du Gay
and Pryke, 2002), culture and consumption studies (Gottdiener, 2000;Lury, 2004; Negus and
Pickering, 2004), celebrity studies (Walker, 2003), museology, performance studies
(Schechner, 1993), art economics (Frey, 2003) and theoretical literatures relating to the
different arts and heritage sectors, for example ?lm, theatre, music and ?ne art, as well as to
tourism and leisure studies.
The rethinking of arts marketing and the shift in marketing thought generally necessitates a
multi-disciplinary approach to arts marketing that incorporates psychological, sociological
and anthropological perspectives and the full range of research methodologies that underlie
these perspectives, including not only surveys and experiments, but in-depth interviews,
discourse analyses and various kinds of ethnography. Methods explored in this Special
Issue range from grounded theory to visual ethnography. All have rich insights to help
develop our understanding of arts marketing and thus further the development of arts
marketing as a discipline.
The papers and themes
All of the papers in this Special Issue either support the use of, or demonstrate, interpretive
methods. This certainly does not imply that other, positivist methods are irrelevant, but
simply that such approaches may not be the most appropriate for gaining rich insights into
the behaviors, thoughts and feelings of arts marketers and consumers.
Alan Bradshaw’s paper ‘‘Before method: axiomatic review of arts marketing’’ sets the scene
by investigating the axiomatic foundations of arts marketing scholarship. By problematising
the diametrically opposite positions held by arts and marketing, Bradshaw raises questions
about the foundations of various forms of arts marketing scholarship. He concludes that
while the opposing positions of art and marketing are not necessarily broken down, the
interrogation of the axiomatic distinctions does generate new thinking about the essential
nature of arts marketing. Bradshaw’s paper helpfully summarizes some of the ‘‘rethinking’’ of
arts marketing that has occurred recently, and as such, it provides both an explanation of the
need for more creative methodologies in arts marketing and a framework within which such
methodologies and related issues can be understood.
The remaining papers in the Special Issue all explore and demonstrate the use of various
methodologies in arts marketing research. Both Terry O’Sullivan’s paper ‘‘More than words?
Conversation analysis in arts marketing research’’ and Dirk vom Lehn’s paper ‘‘Examining
‘response’: video-based studies in museums and galleries’’ discuss methods which
enhance the interpretation of verbal data. O’Sullivan’s paper focuses on Conversation
Analysis, which is a method for studying social interaction and how this results in co-created
texts. Thus, where an analysis of the basic textual data will identify meanings and emotions
that are important in respondents’ experiences, conversation analysis facilitates an
understanding of how researcher-respondent conversations (re)construct meanings and
emotions. Vom Lehn demonstrates that employing video-based ethnomethodology can
further enhance such interpretations. This approach allows for an analysis of people’s
actions and interactions with and within the material environment, and of the ways in which
material objects gain meaning and signi?cance through interaction. Vom Lehn concludes
that video-based ethnomethodology is useful for understanding the production of
multifaceted experiences. Both authors conclude that these methods are particularly
useful in arts marketing primarily because the personal and multifaceted nature of arts
experiences requires methods that facilitate an understanding of the relationships between
meaning, emotions, behavior and the environment.
The remaining papers discuss methods that are all particularly useful for providing detailed
insights into individual experiences, and thus go far beyond traditional audience surveys
and other positivist research methods that characterize early arts marketing research.
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Focusing on the use of Repertory Grid Analysis, Alix Slater’s paper ‘‘Understanding
individual membership at heritage sites’’ illustrates the application of Kelly’s (1955) Personal
Construct Psychology to arts marketing. Although this is a robust and useful method,
marketing researchers rarely use Repertory Grid Analysis. However Slater demonstrates the
ability of RGA to provide insights into the personal constructs underlying ‘‘construing’’ or
experiencing. Slater concludes that RGA is therefore a useful method for understanding
issues such as audience behavior and perceptions.
Anthony Patterson’s paper ‘‘Art, ideology and introspectivism’’ explores the role and use of
introspectivism in arts marketing research. Through his own introspection of introspection,
Patterson demonstrates that despite a controversial history in marketing, introspection is a
particularly useful method in arts marketing research. Patterson suggests this is because
both arts marketing and introspectivism are primarily concerned with consumption,
creativity and aestheticization.
The concluding paper of the Special Issue, ‘‘Immersion, emergence and re?exivity:
grounded theory and aesthetic consumption’’ by Christina Goulding and Michael Saren
demonstrates the potential of Grounded Theory for providing insights into arts experiences.
The use of grounded theory facilitates the generation of new theory that accounts for the
relationship between individual or collective experiences to society, history, the group or the
organization. Thus Grounded Theory helps to elucidate the symbolic meanings of objects
and behaviors in social interaction and the use of these symbolic meanings to construct the
individual’s notion of social reality. Goulding and Saren conclude that there is scope within
arts marketing for methodologies such as Grounded Theory, which provide deeper
understandings of behavior and experience.
In addition to the focus on interpretive methods and the primary focus on understanding
experience, all of the examples of the application of creative methods of inquiry are within a
consumption context. This re?ects the shift in general marketing thought froma ‘‘product’’ or
‘‘production’’ orientation to a focus on consumption experiences and the co-creation of
experience. Such a shift in marketing thought necessitates an ontological repositioning,
which the discussion of various methods re?ects. The roots of these methods are primarily
within social-interactionism. Consequently methods such as conversation analysis,
video-based ethnomethodology and grounded theory all take account of the role of social
interaction and the context/environment in the pursuit of developing deep insights into
behavior andexperience. Finally, anumber of thepapers explicitly or implicitly soundacall for
more creativity in arts marketing research. Patterson suggests that artistic creativity should
not only be the domain of the arts, but that creativity should also be a fundamental part of the
process of researching the arts. Artistic and creative methods of inquiry are necessary in
order to produce relevant and insightful analyses of arts marketing and consumption.
Conclusions
Moving beyond descriptive, quantitative audience surveys and adopting creative methods
of inquiry are necessary for acquiring a deep understanding of arts marketing and
consumption. Quantitative surveys have their place, but in academia, practice and at the
policy level, there is a crying need for interpretive and critical research that provides detailed
understandings and insights. Many useful and exciting methods are available: this special
issue includes descriptions of many of these methods. Arts marketing scholars and
practitioners must also consider working across disciplines and across the
academic/practitioner/policy divide in order to transfer insights from one domain to
another and to utilise the different core competencies we each have, in order to achieve
greater understanding of arts marketing.
To conclude, to the editors of this issue express thanks and gratitude to the authors
contributing to this special issue, the reviewers and to the Editor-in-Chief, Arch Woodside for
providing the opportunity to put this Special Issue together. The editors acknowledge the
invaluable assistance of the ESRC, which funded the seminar series that foreruns this
special issue.
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Arnould, E.J. and Thompson, C.J. (2005), ‘‘Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): 20 years of research’’,
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Chong, D. (2002), Arts Management, Routledge, London.
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London.
Fillis, I. and Rentschler, R. (2005), ‘‘Using creativity to achieve an entrepreneurial future for arts
marketing’’, International Journal of Nonpro?t and Voluntary Sector Marketing, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 275-87.
Frey, B. (2003), Arts and Economics: Analysis and Cultural Policy, 2nd ed., Springer, Dordrecht.
Gottdiener, M. (2000), New Forms of Consumption: Consumers, Culture and Commodi?cation, Rowman
& Little?eld Publishers, Lanham, MD.
Goulding, C., Shankar, A. and Elliott, E. (2002), ‘‘Working weeks, rave weekends: identity fragmentation
and the emergence of new communities’’, Consumption, Markets and Culture, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 261-84.
Hayes, D. and Slater, A. (2002), ‘‘Rethinking the missionary position: the quest for sustainable audience
development strategies’’, Managing Leisure, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 1-17.
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2002), The Cultural Industries, Sage, London.
Hume, M., Mort, G. and Winzar, H. (2007), ‘‘Exploring repurchase intention in a performing arts context:
who comes? and why do they come back?’’, International Journal of Nonpro?t and Voluntary Sector
Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 135-48.
Kern, A. (2006), ‘‘Exploring the relation between creativity and rules: the case of the performing arts’’,
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Larsen, G., Lawson, R. and Todd, S. (2009), ‘‘The consumption of music as self-representation in social
interaction’’, Australasian Marketing Journal, Vol. 17 No. 3.
Leighton, D. (2007), ‘‘In the frame: investigating the use of mobile phone photography in museums’’,
International Journal of Nonpro?t and Voluntary Sector Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 308-19.
Lury, C. (2004), Lury Brands: The Logos of the Global Economy, Routledge, London.
Negus, K. and Pickering, M. (2004), Creativity, Communication and Cultural Value, Sage, London.
O’Reilly, D. (2005), ‘‘Cultural brands/branding cultures’’, Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 21
Nos 5/6, pp. 573-88.
Schechner, R. (1993), The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance, Routledge, London.
Schroeder, J. (2006), ‘‘Aesthetics awry: The Painter of Light
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values’’, Consumption, Markets and Culture, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 87-99.
Scollen, R. (2008), ‘‘Regional voices talk theatre: audience development for the performing arts’’,
International Journal of Nonpro?t and Voluntary Sector Marketing, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 45-56.
Spillman, L. (2002), Cultural Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, Oxford.
Steinert, H. (2003), Culture Industry, Polity Press, Cambridge.
Tanner, J. (2003), The Sociology of Art: A Reader, Routledge, London.
Vargo, S. and Lusch, R. (2004), ‘‘Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing’’, Journal of Marketing,
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Corresponding author
Gretchen Larsen can be contacted at: [email protected]
VOL. 4 NO. 1 2010
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This article has been cited by:
1. Kim Lehman, Mark Wickham. 2014. Marketing orientation and activities in the arts-marketing context: Introducing a Visual
Artists’ Marketing Trajectory model. Journal of Marketing Management 30, 664-696. [CrossRef]
2. Stephen Lloyd. 2013. Jungian foundations for managing and performing secular pilgrimages. International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research 7:4, 375-393. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
3. Noel Dennis, Gretchen Larsen, Michael Macaulay. 2011. Editorial: terraforming Arts Marketing. Arts Marketing: An
International Journal 1:1, 5-10. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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doc_625768266.pdf
The purpose of this Editorial is to introduce the reader to the changing environment of arts
marketing, which poses challenges to researchers and necessitates creative methods of inquiry.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Special issue on creative methods of inquiry in arts marketing
Gretchen Larsen Daragh O'Reilly
Article information:
To cite this document:
Gretchen Larsen Daragh O'Reilly, (2010),"Special issue on creative methods of inquiry in arts marketing", International J ournal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 3 - 7
Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506181011024715
Downloaded on: 24 January 2016, At: 22:09 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 25 other documents.
To copy this document: [email protected]
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 984 times since 2010*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Dennis A. Pitta, Van R. Wood, Frank J . Franzak, (2008),"Nurturing an effective creative culture within a marketing organization", J ournal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 25 Iss 3 pp. 137-148http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07363760810870635
Alan Bradshaw, (2010),"Before method: axiomatic review of arts marketing", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality
Research, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 8-19http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506181011024724
J ayasankar Ramanathan, Keyoor Purani, (2014),"Brand extension evaluation: real world and virtual world", J ournal of Product & Brand
Management, Vol. 23 Iss 7 pp. 504-515http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/J PBM-04-2014-0559
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:115632 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about
how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/
authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than
290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional
customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and
also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.
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Guest editorial
Special issue on creative methods of
inquiry in arts marketing
Gretchen Larsen and Daragh O’Reilly
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this Editorial is to introduce the reader to the changing environment of arts
marketing, which poses challenges to researchers and necessitates creative methods of inquiry.
Design/methodology/approach – The Editorial introduces the papers in this special issue.
Findings – It was found that creative inquiry in arts marketing includes the use of both established and
innovative interpretive methods.
Originality/value – The Editorial explains how the application of creative methods of inquiry can aid our
understanding of the relationship between art and the market.
Keywords Marketing, Research, Research methods, Creative thinking
Paper type General review
Introduction
Arts marketing and consumption research is an exciting and lively ?eld that is rich in
potential academic and practitioner insights. The arts offer rich symbolic resources, intense
consumption experiences and opportunities for passionate and enduring customer
relationships. Individual artists are showing themselves to be accomplished marketing
communicators, successful entrepreneurs and powerful brands in their own right. Cultural
organizations are increasingly adopting business models and mainstream commercial
organizations are increasingly turning to cultural partners of various kinds in order to add
vitality and sustenance to their offerings. Cultural elements saturate commercial marketing
communications through a variety of mechanisms, including aesthetics, sponsorship,
product placement, celebrity endorsement, cultural franchising and merchandising. The
culturalization of the economy and the economization of culture leads arts marketers to
conceive arts and heritage offerings as embedded within cultural value chains which
powerful organizations and technological innovations mediate. As a result of the scale and
pace of these changes, the cultures of production and consumption within creative and
cultural industries and markets are inevitably changing.
Clearly the cultural and creative industries offer a wide range of interesting marketing
practices and sites of consumption, which are increasingly gaining attention. Marketing
theory itself is undergoing rapid development and change in a wide range of areas. Scholars
and practitioners must therefore be re-think and re-imagine arts marketing. In response to
this plea, the Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom) funded a series of
six seminars entitled ‘‘Rethinking Arts Marketing’’ that ran across various universities in the
UK from 2005-2007. Central to rethinking arts marketing is the examination of methods of
inquiry within the ?eld. Thus the seminar held at Bradford University School of Management
in December 2006 focused on creative methods of inquiry in arts marketing. This Special
DOI 10.1108/17506181011024715 VOL. 4 NO. 1 2010, pp. 3-7, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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Gretchen Larsen is a
Lecturer in Marketing at the
School of Management,
University of Bradford,
Bradford, UK. Daragh
O’Reilly is a Lecturer in
Marketing at the
Management School,
University of Shef?eld,
Shef?eld, UK.
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Issue presents papers from this seminar, and as such serves as a valuable source of
knowledge and insight into innovative and contemporary methods of inquiry in arts
marketing.
Discussion
Traditionally, mainstream managerial marketing and ideas about the promotion of high
culture provide the dominant in?uences on arts marketing theory. Arts marketing has been,
until relatively recently, somewhat marginalized in the academy and conceptually isolated,
primarily because the arts did not ?t well within the dominant thinking about marketing.
As Vargo and Lusch (2004) describe, marketing initially inherited a model of exchange from
economics, in which the dominant logic is based on the exchange of manufactured goods.
Consequently the good centred dominant logic focuses on goods and resources which are
tangible, and value that is embedded in the goods and transactions. This viewenvisages the
purpose of economic activity being to make and distribute things that can be sold. In order
to be sold, these things need to be embedded with utility and value during the production
and distribution processes and to offer to the consumer superior value in relation to
competitors offerings. To achieve maximum production ef?ciency, the good should be
standardised, produced away from the market, inventoried until demanded and then
delivered to the consumer at a pro?t.
However, the arts do not easily ?t into the goods centred dominant logic due to the intangible
and experiential nature of arts products and, particularly in the case of the performing arts,
because of the inability to separate production and consumption. Consequently the
straightforward application of classical marketing theory to the arts can be problematic. The
reasons for this include, for example, the nature of the creative process and the artistic or
cultural ‘‘product’’ and the tension between art for art’s sake and art for business’s sake.
Other problems exist. For example arts marketing theory is concerned to a considerable
extent with the nonpro?t art sectors, and there is therefore a risk that arts marketing theory is
de?cient in terms of applicability to the more commercial areas of the arts. Another ?aw in
arts marketing theory is the tendency to treat the ‘‘art’’ in arts marketing as a black box, a
product for marketing; this approach avoids the dif?cult task of engaging with the literatures
on the nature of the artistic experience, the co-creation of aesthetic experiences and the
resulting blurring of boundaries between production and consumption. As a result, growth
areas in marketing threaten to pass arts marketing by – for example critical marketing, social
marketing, branding, consumer culture theory, corporate social responsibility, the
experience economy – not to mention areas ‘‘outside’’ marketing such as politics and
ideology, cultural studies, cultural and creative economy, popular culture, tourism studies,
leisure studies, and media studies.
In a turn that is positive for arts marketing, marketing thought is evolving towards a new
dominant logic. Vargo and Lusch (2004) brand the new marketing perspective ‘‘service
dominant logic’’ and similar ideas also underlie Arnould and Thompson’s (2005) Consumer
Culture Theory. Service dominant logic focuses on intangible resources, the co-creation of
value and relationships. This is a positive shift for arts marketers as this new dominant logic
resonates closely with the very nature of arts markets and consumers.
The cultural and creative industries offer a wide range of interesting sites of consumption,
such as festivals and live performances (not to mention the internet), which are
characterized by co-creation and networks of producer/consumer relationships.
Consequently these are now beginning to attract scholarly attention. Within arts
marketing, a range of scholars are commenting on this from different
marketing-conceptual perspectives, including services marketing (Hume et al., 2007;
Leighton, 2007), audience development (Hayes and Slater, 2002; Scollen, 2008),
creativity/innovation research (Kern, 2006; Fillis and Rentschler, 2005), branding (O’Reilly,
2005; Schroeder, 2006) and symbolic consumption (Goulding et al., 2002; Larsen et al.,
2009). Arts marketing scholars are also beginning to apply and adapt experiential marketing
and relationship marketing ideas. All are key areas of inquiry within the emerging marketing
paradigm. At the same time, cultural industries and markets are attracting research interest
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from a range of scholars outside of marketing, including, for example, arts management
(Chong, 2002; Hesmondhalgh, 2002; Steinert, 2003), cultural sociology (Spillman, 2002),
the sociology of arts and culture (Alexander, 2003; Tanner, 2003), cultural economy (Du Gay
and Pryke, 2002), culture and consumption studies (Gottdiener, 2000;Lury, 2004; Negus and
Pickering, 2004), celebrity studies (Walker, 2003), museology, performance studies
(Schechner, 1993), art economics (Frey, 2003) and theoretical literatures relating to the
different arts and heritage sectors, for example ?lm, theatre, music and ?ne art, as well as to
tourism and leisure studies.
The rethinking of arts marketing and the shift in marketing thought generally necessitates a
multi-disciplinary approach to arts marketing that incorporates psychological, sociological
and anthropological perspectives and the full range of research methodologies that underlie
these perspectives, including not only surveys and experiments, but in-depth interviews,
discourse analyses and various kinds of ethnography. Methods explored in this Special
Issue range from grounded theory to visual ethnography. All have rich insights to help
develop our understanding of arts marketing and thus further the development of arts
marketing as a discipline.
The papers and themes
All of the papers in this Special Issue either support the use of, or demonstrate, interpretive
methods. This certainly does not imply that other, positivist methods are irrelevant, but
simply that such approaches may not be the most appropriate for gaining rich insights into
the behaviors, thoughts and feelings of arts marketers and consumers.
Alan Bradshaw’s paper ‘‘Before method: axiomatic review of arts marketing’’ sets the scene
by investigating the axiomatic foundations of arts marketing scholarship. By problematising
the diametrically opposite positions held by arts and marketing, Bradshaw raises questions
about the foundations of various forms of arts marketing scholarship. He concludes that
while the opposing positions of art and marketing are not necessarily broken down, the
interrogation of the axiomatic distinctions does generate new thinking about the essential
nature of arts marketing. Bradshaw’s paper helpfully summarizes some of the ‘‘rethinking’’ of
arts marketing that has occurred recently, and as such, it provides both an explanation of the
need for more creative methodologies in arts marketing and a framework within which such
methodologies and related issues can be understood.
The remaining papers in the Special Issue all explore and demonstrate the use of various
methodologies in arts marketing research. Both Terry O’Sullivan’s paper ‘‘More than words?
Conversation analysis in arts marketing research’’ and Dirk vom Lehn’s paper ‘‘Examining
‘response’: video-based studies in museums and galleries’’ discuss methods which
enhance the interpretation of verbal data. O’Sullivan’s paper focuses on Conversation
Analysis, which is a method for studying social interaction and how this results in co-created
texts. Thus, where an analysis of the basic textual data will identify meanings and emotions
that are important in respondents’ experiences, conversation analysis facilitates an
understanding of how researcher-respondent conversations (re)construct meanings and
emotions. Vom Lehn demonstrates that employing video-based ethnomethodology can
further enhance such interpretations. This approach allows for an analysis of people’s
actions and interactions with and within the material environment, and of the ways in which
material objects gain meaning and signi?cance through interaction. Vom Lehn concludes
that video-based ethnomethodology is useful for understanding the production of
multifaceted experiences. Both authors conclude that these methods are particularly
useful in arts marketing primarily because the personal and multifaceted nature of arts
experiences requires methods that facilitate an understanding of the relationships between
meaning, emotions, behavior and the environment.
The remaining papers discuss methods that are all particularly useful for providing detailed
insights into individual experiences, and thus go far beyond traditional audience surveys
and other positivist research methods that characterize early arts marketing research.
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Focusing on the use of Repertory Grid Analysis, Alix Slater’s paper ‘‘Understanding
individual membership at heritage sites’’ illustrates the application of Kelly’s (1955) Personal
Construct Psychology to arts marketing. Although this is a robust and useful method,
marketing researchers rarely use Repertory Grid Analysis. However Slater demonstrates the
ability of RGA to provide insights into the personal constructs underlying ‘‘construing’’ or
experiencing. Slater concludes that RGA is therefore a useful method for understanding
issues such as audience behavior and perceptions.
Anthony Patterson’s paper ‘‘Art, ideology and introspectivism’’ explores the role and use of
introspectivism in arts marketing research. Through his own introspection of introspection,
Patterson demonstrates that despite a controversial history in marketing, introspection is a
particularly useful method in arts marketing research. Patterson suggests this is because
both arts marketing and introspectivism are primarily concerned with consumption,
creativity and aestheticization.
The concluding paper of the Special Issue, ‘‘Immersion, emergence and re?exivity:
grounded theory and aesthetic consumption’’ by Christina Goulding and Michael Saren
demonstrates the potential of Grounded Theory for providing insights into arts experiences.
The use of grounded theory facilitates the generation of new theory that accounts for the
relationship between individual or collective experiences to society, history, the group or the
organization. Thus Grounded Theory helps to elucidate the symbolic meanings of objects
and behaviors in social interaction and the use of these symbolic meanings to construct the
individual’s notion of social reality. Goulding and Saren conclude that there is scope within
arts marketing for methodologies such as Grounded Theory, which provide deeper
understandings of behavior and experience.
In addition to the focus on interpretive methods and the primary focus on understanding
experience, all of the examples of the application of creative methods of inquiry are within a
consumption context. This re?ects the shift in general marketing thought froma ‘‘product’’ or
‘‘production’’ orientation to a focus on consumption experiences and the co-creation of
experience. Such a shift in marketing thought necessitates an ontological repositioning,
which the discussion of various methods re?ects. The roots of these methods are primarily
within social-interactionism. Consequently methods such as conversation analysis,
video-based ethnomethodology and grounded theory all take account of the role of social
interaction and the context/environment in the pursuit of developing deep insights into
behavior andexperience. Finally, anumber of thepapers explicitly or implicitly soundacall for
more creativity in arts marketing research. Patterson suggests that artistic creativity should
not only be the domain of the arts, but that creativity should also be a fundamental part of the
process of researching the arts. Artistic and creative methods of inquiry are necessary in
order to produce relevant and insightful analyses of arts marketing and consumption.
Conclusions
Moving beyond descriptive, quantitative audience surveys and adopting creative methods
of inquiry are necessary for acquiring a deep understanding of arts marketing and
consumption. Quantitative surveys have their place, but in academia, practice and at the
policy level, there is a crying need for interpretive and critical research that provides detailed
understandings and insights. Many useful and exciting methods are available: this special
issue includes descriptions of many of these methods. Arts marketing scholars and
practitioners must also consider working across disciplines and across the
academic/practitioner/policy divide in order to transfer insights from one domain to
another and to utilise the different core competencies we each have, in order to achieve
greater understanding of arts marketing.
To conclude, to the editors of this issue express thanks and gratitude to the authors
contributing to this special issue, the reviewers and to the Editor-in-Chief, Arch Woodside for
providing the opportunity to put this Special Issue together. The editors acknowledge the
invaluable assistance of the ESRC, which funded the seminar series that foreruns this
special issue.
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Corresponding author
Gretchen Larsen can be contacted at: [email protected]
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3. Noel Dennis, Gretchen Larsen, Michael Macaulay. 2011. Editorial: terraforming Arts Marketing. Arts Marketing: An
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