Thinking...

The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning

Stephen Cashman, February 2003

This online background paper provides a review of some of the definitions, theories
and concepts underpinning strategy. As such it is intended to introduce the key
concepts involved, or to form an overall reminder of the various issues relating to
these areas.
1. What is strategy about and why is it so important?
‘Every company needs a strategy – either
explicit or implicit.’
Costas Markides (1995)
‘An effective strategic management
process has become the essential norm for
businesses.’
Richard Hanscombe and Philip Norman
(1993)
‘Effective strategic management is the
ultimate aim of all managers.’
Financial Times, 1997
‘The survival, growth and prosperity of any
organisation depends on the quality and
viability of the strategy the organisation is
pursuing.’
Andrew Kakabadse, Ron Ludlow and Susan
Vinicombe (1988)
Indeed, such is the importance attached to the
subject of strategy that one commentator on
the subject, Richard Whittington (1993), reports
that ‘there are thirty-seven books in print with
the title Strategic Management’. Similarly a
leading strategy thinker, Henry Mintzberg, and
his colleagues (1998) note that ‘The literature
of strategic management is vast – the number
of items we reviewed over the years numbers
close to 2,000 – and it grows larger every day.’
However, despite the importance given to
them, thinking, writing and talking about
‘strategy’-related topics are subject to two
main challenges, as is acknowledged by the
warning issued by a leading thinker on
marketing strategy, Paul Fifield.
The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning
‘The word “strategy” has become one of
the most common and badly used words in
business writing.’
Paul Fifield (1992)
The twin challenges faced here in using the
term ‘strategy’ are as follows:
• First, unless the user is wary of how
management terms can sometimes be
abused (and thus end up as mere jargon),
these expressions can occasionally be used
more to create an impression of good
management, rather than for their actual
comprehended meaning.
• And second, there is very little agreement as
to what these sorts of terms mean.
‘There is no single, universally accepted
definition [of strategy]. Different authors
and managers use the term differently.’
Henry Mintzberg and James Brian Quinn
(1998)
‘Strategy is very important. But no one
knows what it means. Every professor in
the world has a different version of what
strategy means.’
Jo Owen (2002)
The challenge of defining
‘strategy’
The roots of the challenge of defining
‘strategy’ rest in the fact that ‘strategy’ has
always been a dynamic, evolving and shape-
shifting concept. Initially the term came from
Ancient Greek military use, where the word
1
strategos described a general in command of
an army. This meaning then changed to
become ‘the art of a general’, and by the time
of Pericles (450 BC) strategos was being used
to indicate ‘overall managerial skill’ (Evered,
1980).
The earlier military aspects of the term were
still being employed in modern times by
eighteenth-century General von Clausewitz
who, in his On War, writes of strategy as being
concerned with ‘draft[ing] the plan of war …
shap[ing] the individual campaigns and within
these, decid[ing] on the individual
engagements’. Contemporary business usage
very clearly flowed from such initial militaristic
use. Hence its modern business and
organisational application was initially a
metaphorical extension of these military
notions.
What’s more, the challenge of arriving at a
contemporary meaning for ‘strategy’ that is
unified, comprehensive and consistent, is
further complicated by the term’s potential to
describe a number of distinctly different ways
of thinking. Here Henry Mintzberg (1987)
makes the pertinent point that there are five
different approaches to visualising strategy
(Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1 Mintzberg’s (1987) five ways of
thinking about strategy
Strategy can be thought of as being like:
• A plan: ‘a consciously intended course
of action’.
• A ploy: ‘a manoeuvre intended to outwit a
competitor’.
• A pattern: underpinning ‘a stream of
actions’.
• A position: a deliberate stance taken in
relation to the environment (i.e. the world
in which it works).
• A perspective: an all-embracing way of
thinking about the organisation and its
approach to the world.
2
So although this short review of the term’s
early and current use gives some sense of
where the current meanings of ‘strategy’ sit, a
more useful approach to defining it is to
consider some of the identified qualities that
are frequently attached to it. It’s also helpful
to get a sense of where strategy actually
lives.
So what’s it for and where does
it live?
One way of identifying both what strategy is
for (its ‘purpose’) and where, in conceptual
terms, it lives (its ‘domain’) is to examine real-
life instances of strategy and strategic
management practice as a means of distilling
its essential features and characteristics.
For a start, ‘strategy’ is predominantly
concerned with addressing the major issues
facing an organisation. By implication this
relates to setting and guiding an organisation’s
future direction.
‘Strategy is concerned with making major
decisions affecting the long-term direction
of the business.’
Graeme Drummond and John Ensor (1999)
Part of setting the organisation’s overall
direction will inevitably involve making
decisions and choices about the scope of its
activities. In this sense strategy rests on
agreement not only about what the
organisation should be doing, but also about
the things it should not be doing.
In turn this involves managing the relationship
between an organisation and the world in
which it works (sometimes referred to as its
‘operating environment’). Consequently one
aim of strategic management is ensuring that
– as far as possible – an organisation
continues to ‘fit in’ with its world.
British strategy writer Gerry Johnson (1992)
who warns of the dangers of what he calls
‘strategic drift’. This occurs when the
relevance of an organisation to the world in
which it works becomes gradually diminished
as things in that world change. Hence this
danger is about not keeping up with
environmental change.

‘[Strategic management is] a systematic However, if the organisation has a well-

approach to a major and increasingly
important responsibility of ... management:
to position and relate the firm to its
environment in a way which assures its
success and makes it secure from
surprises.’
I. Ansoff and E. McDonell (1990)
The importance of this is emphasised by
thought-through and well-implemented
strategy, it will avoid this danger by
maintaining the best possible level of
synchronicity or fit between itself and its
surrounding world. Ideally, it would change its
approach and activities in such a way that
they parallel, and take advantage of,
opportunities cropping up in the world in which
it operates (Figure 1.2(a)). But because it often

Figure 1.2
Effective strategy ensures that the organisation continues to fit in with the world in which it
works, thus avoiding strategic drift

(a) An organisation stays synchronised with, and keeps up with changes in,
its environment

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

THE ORGANISATION

TIME

(b) In reality, organisations may occasionally lag behind environmental change

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

THE ORGANISATION

TIME

(c) Ineffective strategy leads to an increasing gap between the organisation and
the world in which it works = strategic drift

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

THE ORGANISATION

TIME

The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning 3

takes extensive energy and effort for
organisations to respond to change, in reality
there may be times when even the most
strategic businesses lag behind changes in
their environment (Figure 1.2(b)). However, if no ‘A strategy is the pattern or plan that
efforts are made to maintain some form of integrates an organization’s major goals,
synchronicity with the world in which an policies and action[s] ... into a cohesive
organisation operates, then a gap between the whole.’
two will gradually develop (Figure 1.2(c)). This James Brian Quinn (1980)
last case represents strategic drift at its worst
and most damaging to the future prospects of As a result, if an organisation is taking a well-
an organisation. It can be damaging because thought-through approach to strategy, what it
as strategic drift increases, the relevance of does will come across almost as a set of
the organisation, and the sense of connection variations on a common underlying theme. In a
it has to the world in which it works, reduces. sense, then, good strategy can be seen to
trickle down into, permeate, inform and affect
At the same time – and as a way of achieving everything in an organisation – almost like the
these aims – ‘strategy’ is an essentially word ‘Brighton’ permeates every bite of
integrative function, devoted to bringing Brighton Rock (Figure 1.3).
together and coordinating an organisation’s
various areas of activity. Thus one writer has
described strategy as the ‘conceptual glue
that binds together an organisation’s activities
and functions’.

Figure 1.3
Well-thought-through strategies permeate every part of the organisation

THE ORGANISATION'S STRATEGIES

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT EDUCATION MARKETING

OF AND
RESOURCES OUTREACH

Production, Finance and

presentation personnel
and curation

4
And then, to be useful, strategy needs to
turn into a set of actions to be carried out
in the real world. So appropriate strategic
thinking tends to ensure pragmatism by
making sure that an organisation’s activities
match its capabilities and resources. Thus
in this sense strategic decisions usually
have major resources implications, i.e.
implications for an organisation’s finances,
staffing and knowledge base (see Figure
1.4).
Figure 1.4 At a glance – the top seven
distinguishing features of strategy
Strategy is concerned with:
1. Thinking about important and major
issues for the organisation.
2. The long-term direction of an
organisation.
3. Deciding the scope of the organisation’s
activities – both what to do and what NOT
to do.
4. Managing the relationship between the
organisation and the world in which it
works so that it continues to fit in with it.
5. Bringing together, coordinating and
integrating an organisation’s various
activities.
6. Ensuring the organisation’s activities fit
with its available capabilities and
resources.
7. Translating the organisation’s thinking
and aspirations into a practical set of
actions.
Consequently it can be seen that the
strategy’s whole area of concern (as it were,
the domain it inhabits) relates to ‘big things’.
Big issues, big ideas and big thinking about the
organisation’s desired future destiny and
direction that help it fit in with the big picture.
The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning
Case study: Adopting a strategic approach
at the Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester City Galleries is a department
of Manchester City Council and a major
regional galleries service. It manages four
venues, including the flagship Manchester
Art Gallery.
Kate Farmery, Head of Marketing and
Business Development, explained that
Manchester Art Gallery has recently
undergone a £35 million redevelopment
which transformed the way in which the
organisation engages with its audiences.
A market study prior to the closure of the
Gallery for this project indicated that most
visits were made by a core audience of less
than 30,000. Given that project funding
was partially awarded on the basis of
growing audiences, the Gallery’s approach
to strategic marketing needed reviewing.
There is now marketing representation at
senior management level, a marketing
team of six and a cross-gallery focus on
developing new audiences.
Current and potential visitors are
segmented into three main bands: ‘die-
hards’, ‘maybes’ and ‘difficults’. The harder-
to-reach ‘difficults’ are encouraged via
outreach programmes while the ‘maybes’,
who have more propensity to become
regular visitors, are targeted via
programming and mainstream marketing
activities.
The momentum for this change in strategy
was gained from the overall transformation
process, but most staff feel that this
increased audience focus has enriched
their activities. The annual attendance
5
target was reached within three months of
the Gallery re-opening.
With these ideas in place, it should now be
possible to generally recognise what
constitutes strategy and strategic thinking.
But it doesn’t quite resolve three further
conundrums that are central to this
publication’s purposes:
• What’s the difference between strategy,
strategic planning and strategic
management?
• How is strategy different from tactics?
• And what is strategic marketing about?
These questions are discussed below.
The differences between strategy,
strategic planning and strategic
management
As was implied earlier, the terms that relate
to, and flow from, the central concept of
strategy all share a common concern with
addressing big issues. Yet there is an intrinsic
difference between the way in which some of
these terms are used. Fortunately one writer
on the subject, David Hussey (1991), offers a
set of helpful definitions.
In short, and put at its simplest, strategy is
about identifying the overall path that will lead
to the achievement of an organisation’s
intentions and goals – how it moves from
where it is now and gets to where it wants to
be in the future. Strategic planning is about
assessing the starting point, the required
journey from it, devising the routes that could
lead to the desired goals, and then deciding
which of these paths should be followed. And
strategic management is concerned with the
practical measures needed to put the plans
into action, thus realising the strategy and its
overall intentions (Figures 1.5 and 1.6).
Thinking BIG! (the hard-copy guide that is
backed up by this online paper) focuses on the
strategic planning of marketing activities. But
given the strong, intrinsic and mutually
dependent links between the practices of
strategic planning, strategy and strategic
management, the last two terms will be
referred to on numerous occasions.

‘I see strategy as the means by which an

organisation moves to attain its long-term
aims. Strategic planning is the detailed
specification of both the long-term aims
and the strategy for achieving them.
Strategic management is the process by
which the long-term aims, the strategy,
and its implementation are managed …The
three concepts are intrinsically bound
together.’
David Hussey (1991)

6
Figure 1.5
Strategy, strategic planning and strategic management as three distinct activities and roles

DESCRIPTION EMPHASIS COMPARABLE PRIMARY

NAUTICAL ROLE TASK
STRATEGY Identifying the overall Setting the general
CAPTAIN direction
path to be followed to
achieve the
organisation's
intentions and goals

STRATEGIC Assessing the start Analysing the need,

point, devising potential
NAVIGATOR formulating the
PLANNING routes and selecting potential ways
the most suitable forward and then
path to follow deciding between
them

STRATEGIC Implementing the Taking the

practical steps
HELMSPERSON required actions
MANAGEMENT needed to undertake
the journey and
successfully reach
its end

Figure 1.6
The links between strategy, strategic planning and strategic management

THE DESIRED
WAY TO GO

STRATEGY Strategic
planning The
GOAL

STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT

• Setting the • Assessing, • Taking practical

overall direction formulating and steps needed
deciding between
alternative paths

The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning 7

The relationship between strategy
and tactics
‘Tactical planning in … marketing is directly
linked to strategic planning. It identifies
the action details necessary to implement
the long-term plan.’
Martin Bell (1989)
Distinguishing between a strategy and a tactic
can tend to be a matter of degree. It’s also a
matter of perspective.
‘One person’s strategies are another’s
tactics ... what is strategic depends on
where you sit.’
Richard P. Rumelt (1974)
8
However, at an all-embracing, organisational
level strategy is clearly about big, long-term
issues affecting the wider destiny of an
organisation, while tactics tend to be more
concerned with small-scale, day-to-day
operational activity. These differences can be
thought of according to a range of varied
illustrative criteria and aspects (Figure 1.7).
There is, of course, an ongoing and vital link
between tactics and strategy. Tactical activity
is needed to put the steps intended to realise
strategy into action, while strategy sets the
agenda for the tactical activity to be carried
out. The two sorts of approach are thus
mutually dependent – one could not exist in a
useful form without the other.
What’s more, for an organisation to achieve
the results it desires from its activities, both
its tactics and strategies need to be at an
appropriately high level. Here top thinker on
marketing strategy Malcolm McDonald (2002)
points out that a good tactical approach
applied in the absence of well-conceived
strategy, or an excellent strategy delivered in
the absence of appropriate tactics, are both
likely to deliver less than perfect results for an
organisation (Figure 1.8).
Strategy and tactics thus work in support of
each other. Both types of approach need to be
taken into consideration when developing
plans for the organisation. But while strategy
and tactics both work in tandem, strategy
needs to be devised first.
Since the publication to which this paper
relates is devoted to strategic marketing
planning, it is assumed that marketing tactics
should be conceived once an organisation has
its marketing strategy in place. (However, the
places where the links and gateways into
tactical marketing and tactical marketing
planning can be placed during the creation of a
strategic marketing plan will be pointed out.)
Figure 1.7
Tactics vs. strategy

ASPECT TACTICS STRATEGY

Emphasis The quick fix The wider game

Purpose Achieving operational goals Reaching underlying ends

Time-frame Short term Long term

Extent Local Global

Focus Immediate needs and issues Adapting to long-term change

Navigational Take the 2nd left Get to London

metaphor

Figure 1.8
The mutual dependence of both good srategies and tactics after Mc Donald (2002)

STRATEGY
Effective Ineffective

Efficient
THRIVE DIE
(quickly)
TACTICS

Inefficient SURVIVE DIE

(slowly)

The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning 9

Strategic marketing and strategic
marketing planning

As might be expected from the preceding

discussion of strategy, strategic marketing is
the use of marketing on a ‘big thinking’ scale
to address big organisational issues and
concerns.

Strategic marketing is the application of

a strategic approach to an organisation’s
marketing activities which thus
contributes to the achievement of the
organisation’s overall strategic goals.

Similarly, strategic marketing planning can be

considered as the formal and systematic
thinking required to assess what is needed
from strategic marketing, to identify and
select potential ways of working, and then
formulate action steps for its implementation.

The overview section of Thinking BIG! suggests

a sequence of tasks, together with a
framework, which can be adopted in creating a
strategic marketing plan for your organisation.
But first, two further sections of this
background paper provide a discussion on
marketing and planning intended to create
a consistent understanding of what these
terms mean.

10
2. The essence of marketing and arts marketing
‘[Marketing consists] of a tightly
integrated effort to discover, create,
arouse and satisfy customer needs.’
Theodore Levitt (1988, source unknown)
‘The simplest definition of marketing is
that it is the process of matching the
resources of the business with identified
customer needs. In other words, marketing
is concerned with customer satisfaction
and with the focussing of the
organisation’s resources to ensure that the
customer is satisfied.’
Martin Christopher and Malcolm McDonald
(1991)
Marketing – an old practice with
an important and current
application
The definitions of marketing shown here give
an initial hint of what marketing really involves.
But let’s start our detailed consideration of
the issues they identify by putting things into
context.
Despite all its apparent links to modern
business usage and slick, glossy corporate
management, marketing is by no means a new
form of human behaviour. Whenever and
wherever people have gathered to trade goods
and services (that is, literally, in
‘marketplaces’), some form of marketing has
been going on. Thus ‘marketing’ can actually
be seen as an essentially ancient craft.
Yet there is an important respect in which this
ancient notion has been modernised. The
aspect of marketing that is relatively new and
modern is the way in which its underlying
purposes and processes have been isolated
and identified by management thinkers.
The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning
Marketing is not a new or modern form of
human behaviour. But the systematic
description of what it involves is.
The results of this drive to come up with a
comprehensive and well-thought-through
definition of marketing – which started in the
1940s and 1950s – has not been particularly
clear cut. In fact, just like the word ‘strategy’,
there is still confusion as to what is really
meant by the term ‘marketing’.
The nature of this confusion can be a bit
deceptive. There is a degree of general
consensus as to what the fundamental aim of
marketing is. For instance, Drummond and
Ensor (2001) begin a seminal text by making an
adamant assertion.
‘The concept of marketing is inherently
simple – business success via a process of
understanding and meeting customer
needs.’
Graeme Drummond and John Ensor (2001)
But this broad consensus tends to break down
the moment people try to explain:
• what exactly marketing is for
• what marketing is meant to do
• and how it is meant to do it.
Consequently, if the literature devoted to
marketing is considered, it becomes apparent
why it’s no wonder that people have differing
and occasionally confused notions of what
marketing is. This is because the one term
encompasses three different sorts of thing at
11
one and the same time. So, seen in this way,
marketing is a term used to simultaneously
describe:
• a way of looking at and thinking about the
world – a philosophy, perspective or state
of mind
• a management task – something that can’t
be left to chance, such that it needs to be a
defined responsibility for someone inside the
organisation
• and a set of tools and techniques for turning
marketing thinking into real action.
The term ‘marketing’ can be used to
describe three different sorts of thing at
one and the same time. It can refer to a
way of thinking, a defined management
task or a set of tools for turning thinking
into action.
The essence of marketing as a
philosophy – the purpose of
marketing and the concept it
represents
Underpinning the philosophy – or way of
thinking – that is marketing is one core
purpose. This basic thing that marketing is for
has two complementary aspects: first, finding
the links between an organisation’s
capabilities and what it provides (its ‘product’
or ‘offerings’) and the needs, wants or desires
of its potential customers and users; and
second, using those links as a basis for
stimulating and bringing about what is known
as an ‘exchange of value’. Such ‘exchanges of
value’ are essentially a trade or swap, whereby
an organisation provides products, goods or
services in return for payment from its
customers – or some other indication that the
customer’s needs have been satisfied (for
example, positive feedback, applause, letters
of appreciation or a repeat attendance).

Figure 2.1
The matching concept.

The core concern of marketing is finding and using the links

between organisation and customer to bring about a swap.
Products, goods or services
The organisation's:
• capabilities Potential customers':
• offerings • needs
• products and • wants
services • desires
Payment or some other
indication of satisfaction

12

‘The central idea of marketing is of a
matching between a company’s capabilities
and the wants of customers in order to
achieve the objectives of both parties.’
Malcolm McDonald (1999)
what it stands for. So marketing can be
used to encourage involvement with an
organisation in the form of both
consumption and participation.
• And that a key set of concerns and points
of reference for effective marketing
practice is understanding an
organisation’s customers and users, and
setting out to satisfy their needs.

Indeed this purpose is based on a recognised

management model that tends to be referred Marketing as a management task
to as ‘the matching concept’ (see Figure 2.1). entails using a systematic process

What’s more, it’s a model that has a number
of interesting and important implications. If
the underlying purpose of marketing is
taken to be about using an identified match
to bring about an exchange of value (or
swap) of some kind, then the following can
be seen:
• That marketing is a discipline whose
purpose, intention and practice range far
wider and deeper than the set of tools
and techniques (such as leaflets, posters
and other publicity mechanisms) that tend
to be used as a part of marketing activity.
• That marketing isn’t exclusively about
financial transactions. It can be used not
only to encourage people to buy from an
organisation, but also to encourage
people to buy into an organisation and
It was noted earlier that marketing can also be
thought of as a dedicated management task.
It’s a job that someone, somewhere in the
organisation, has to perform and can’t really
be left to chance. The ways in which this task
is done can take many forms. However, by
examining best practice it is possible to spot
the elements and stages involved in doing the
job of marketing in an organisation.
Such an examination results in a model that is
frequently described as ‘the marketing
process’. This is driven by the underlying
intentions of both finding a match between
organisation and its potential customers or
users, and of using that match as a basis for
marketing action intended to stimulate an
exchange. The basic ‘marketing process model’
is shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2 1. Set objectives for

the marketing
The marketing process exercise

2. Review the
organisation and research
customers

3. Identify, select and

focus on potential
customers

4. Use the marketing

mix to persuade
customers
5. Assess results and use them

The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning 13

This is an intentionally ‘generic’ model. It could
be used in any setting or context. It can also
be applied to any marketing exercise, be it a
tactical one (such as a campaign related to a
specific production, exhibition or participative
event) or a strategic one. As can be seen, it is
made up of five key stages. These are as follows.
First it shows that the starting point for all
effective marketing activity is ideally a set of
objectives that clarify what the activity is
intended to achieve.
Once the particular objectives have been
agreed, the second stage is to acquire
relevant information – both on the
organisation (for instance, what it provides
and factors in the surrounding world that
impinge on the marketing activity), and on
the organisation’s potential customers, users
or visitors.
With this review of the appropriate information
complete, the third stage of the process is to
use this material as a basis for identifying and
selecting the sorts of people who offer the
best prospect of enabling the organisation to
realise its objectives.
As might be realised, these first three stages
are very much about thinking and analysis.
However, the fourth stage is where that
analysis flows into action. This action consists
of selecting from, and using, the set of
marketing tools (typically referred to as ‘the
marketing mix’) as a means of stimulating and
bringing about the desired trade (i.e. an
exchange of value) with the selected group
of customers or users, in a way that secures
the achievement of the organisation’s
objectives. (Further discussion of the third way
of defining marketing, i.e. as a ‘set of tools’,
is included in this publication’s wider
consideration of marketing plans. Indeed the
marketing mix and issues relating to it – in
terms of marketing planning – are explained
further in Section D, chapter 10.)
14
Besides providing a structure and blueprint for
marketing activity, this model also illustrates
how thinking about and putting in place any
marketing exercise can also be thought of as a
learning process or even a virtuous cycle.
That’s why the fifth and last stage is about
assessing how well your activity has worked,
and using the conclusions drawn to inform
thinking on the objective for the next
comparable marketing exercise you undertake
(see Figure 2.3).
Figure 2.3 The five steps of the marketing
process at a glance
1. Set and agree relevant objectives.
2. Review organisation and research
potential audiences.
3. Identify, select and focus on potential
customers/users.
4. Use appropriate set of marketing tools
to persuade customers/users.
5. Assess results and use them to inform
future plans.
What’s more, this model can be used in a
number of ways. It provides a road map or
blueprint for each and every marketing
exercise that your organisation carries out. It
can also be used to inform the structure of
marketing plans for those exercises. So in this
sense, the marketing process model is used as
a source of elements for the strategic
marketing planning framework suggested by
the hard-copy publication Thinking BIG!
The marketing process model shows the
five key steps involved in thinking about
and carrying out a marketing exercise. The
model can also be used as a basic structure
that provides key elements for both
tactical and strategic marketing plans.
Arts marketing is different –
and special
When it comes to marketing used in support of
the arts and culture (‘arts marketing’, as it
were) there is a further intriguing and
fascinating complication. Possibly because of
its roots in the corporate sector, or maybe
because of the resonances accompanying its
introduction to the arts in this country (which
coincided with a new emphasis on best
‘commercial’ practice), even today marketing is
sometimes unjustly treated with suspicion in
some parts of our sector.
This seems intrinsically unfair, because first
and foremost the idea of arts marketing was
never just to apply wholesale the thinking and
ways of working of big business. Indeed,
because our sector is intrinsically different,
just adopting corporate practice was never
going to work. What is required is that we
borrow the best of commercial marketing
ideas and adapt them to support the arts’
purposes.
Indeed the nature of these differences –
between the arts and commerce – reverberate
through the activities of arts organisations in
such a way that they determine the key
differences between arts and commercial
marketing. And perhaps the central difference
is that – especially in the publicly funded
sector – arts organisations are frequently
what are known as ‘not for profit’ or ‘non-profit’
organisations (as opposed to ‘for profit’ or
commercial organisations).
This is not to say that such arts organisations
don’t have to watch their finances. They do –
because without doing so they will not survive,
let alone thrive. Rather, ‘not for profit’
organisations have a reason for existing that is
not primarily about generating profits for their
owners and shareholders. Their purpose is
primarily about delivering some form of social
The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning
good. In this respect the pre-eminent American
authority on management Peter Drucker
(1990) makes a telling observation with
powerful and positive resonances for arts-
based, not-for-profit organisations.
‘The non-profit institution[’s] product is a
changed human being. Their product is a
cured patient, a child that learns, a young
woman grown into a self-respecting adult,
a changed human life altogether.’
Peter Drucker (1990)
Overall, this concept of the not-for-profit
organisation means that subsidised arts
organisations effectively work to a threefold
set of strategic priorities. They must respond
to the artistic urge by safeguarding artistic
integrity. They have to remain financially viable
by meeting the financial imperative of
generating a surplus on some of their
activities. And at the same time, because they
are using monies drawn from general taxation,
subsidised arts organisations have a moral and
social responsibility to ensure maximum
access and equality of opportunity for all
(Figure 2.4).
Figure 2.4
Multiple priorities for the not-for-profit
arts organisation
Fulfil the artistic urge
Not-for-profit
arts
organisation
Ensure social responsibility Meet the financial
by securing maximum access imperative
15
If the publication that this paper backs up has
one recurrent theme, it is perhaps the
importance of having a set of identified and
agreed objectives as the starting point for any
and every marketing exercise. Hence it would
seem unwise to undertake marketing activity
without first having answered the question
‘why are we doing this?’
For not-for-profit arts organisations this notion
of why a marketing exercise is being done
becomes all the more important because
different exercises may be required to work in
support of different priorities. For instance,
they might be intended to generate income.
They might be required to contribute to the
fulfilment of the organisation’s social
responsibility. Or they might be devised to
support the overall artistic aims of the
organisation.
potential audiences are examined as part of
the stage two review, which sorts of people
will be considered as potential
customers/users, and which set of
marketing tools will be used in contacting
these people. And since any one organisation
may – from time to time – have a range of
different objectives for its projects and
exercises, it is frequently the case that
differing approaches to marketing will be
used at different times depending on the
underlying objective.

Regardless of which of these varied objectives

is considered to be the current priority,
marketing in an organisation where there is a
potential mix of multiple objectives has two
major implications:

• It is vital that there is agreement as to the

specific priority of a particular exercise (i.e. is
it artistic, financial or social), and that this
agreement is not arbitrarily changed at a
later stage. (For instance, a marketing person
should not be castigated for failing to
generate substantial income if the agreed
priority of an exercise was to fulfil the
organisation’s social and access priorities.
Just as the same hypothetical marketing
person should not be pilloried for
compromising artistic integrity if the agreed
purpose of an exercise was primarily to
generate income.)
• The allocated priorities – rather like
strategies – need to flow through, condition
and determine the nature of the various
stages of the marketing process. Hence the
agreed priority for an exercise will affect
which parts of the organisation and its

16
The Customs House, South Shields varies the
marketing being used to achieve a project’s
desired purpose
Background
The Customs House is a venue situated on
the riverfront at Mill Dam, South Shields,
and was part of the extensive development
of that area undertaken and funded by the
Tyne and Wear Development Corporation.
The venue has a main theatre/cinema
space (seating 400), a studio theatre space
(seating 145), a restaurant and a bar.
Identified issues
The Director, Ray Spencer, says that, as
part of its artistic policy, The Customs
House feels very strongly about providing
everybody with equal access to its
services. It was recognised, however, that
few Asian audiences were accessing the
venue and facilities despite a considerable
population of this type in and around South
Shields. The issues had been identified
following past attempts to engage with
the audience by promoting Asian artists,
participating in the Asian arts festival
‘Awaaz’ and by screening Bollywood films in
the cinema.
Despite being a positive experience it was
felt that little impact was made with the
target audience. Indeed it was learned
that:
• promoting Asian arts and cinema is a
specialised area requiring careful
planning
• programming should be informed by the
needs of the community
• more understanding is needed about the
barriers to attendance faced by the Asian
community, leisure patterns exhibited
and understanding of the arts
The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning
• more contacts need to be established
with the Asian community
• specialised marketing knowledge is
required.
Implementation
A project coordinator was employed to
lead the project and carry out the
necessary evaluation to measure the
outcomes (Padma Rao). A steering group
was established with key members
representing all communities, i.e. Sikh,
Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi
communities. Other groups were also
to be invited for consultation in order
to encourage raised awareness about
The Customs House and the aims of its
audience development initiative. Members
were expected to contribute useful
contacts and ideas for programming and
marketing, as well as spreading the
word in their communities and meetings
were initially to be held fortnightly,
then monthly.
A relationship was to be formed with
relevant communities in order to establish
The Customs House as being fully
committed to addressing the needs of the
communities and to help generate a sense
of ownership of the venue.
The marketing and publicity strategy was
formulated with the help of the steering
group, marketing department and project
coordinator. Special schemes were set up
to encourage attendances; for example,
taxi drivers were offered one free ticket
when they brought customers to the
venue. There were also competitions
arranged via the local press and media,
while publicity was sent via the Asian
programmes on BBC Radio Newcastle.
Alternative ticket sales outlets were also
engaged, for example partner restaurants
and the Apna Ghar Asian women’s project.
17
And posters and flyers would be printed
and distributed at key points, for example
Asian food stores, student unions, surgeries,
youth projects and community centres.
Cultural awareness training was to be
carried out to equip staff with the
confidence to learn more about
cultural/social barriers and how to address
them. The Customs House set up a film
programme that worked on a ‘rolling basis’
(so it was not necessary for the audience
to be there at a specific time in order to
see the whole film). It also ensured that
these screenings were staffed entirely by
women (including a female projectionist)
and that entry to the cinema could be by a
dedicated entrance thus avoiding the need
for audience members to pass through the
more general public areas.
Which all goes to suggest that managing and
marketing an arts organisation is a far more
complex undertaking than managing in the
commercial sector.
‘The aim of arts marketing is to bring an
appropriate number of people, drawn from
the widest possible range of social
backgrounds, economic conditions and age,
into an appropriate form of contact with
the artist and, in so doing, to arrive at the
best financial outcome compatible with
the achievement of that aim.’
Keith Diggle (1994)
Fortunately it is possible to devise an approach
to strategic marketing planning that is so
flexible it can be customised to support a
range of aims and objectives – no matter
how diverse and varied they are. One such
framework is explored in the overview of
Thinking BIG!
18
Marketing and arts marketing –
a summary
Marketing, therefore, is the management
activity that is concerned with an
organisation’s customers and users.
This is done by first using the ‘matching
concept’ to find the link, or point of contact,
between the organisation and its potential
user. Once this has taken place, the marketing
process is used to create the circumstances
for an ‘exchange transaction’ or ‘swap’
between the organisation and its customers to
take place. These circumstances are created
by:
• understanding the objectives of an exercise
• reviewing the organisation and its potential
users
• identifying the potential users offering the
best prospect of helping the organisation
achieve its selected priorities
• and lastly, using an appropriate range of
marketing tools and techniques both to
stimulate the potential users’ interest in the
organisation and what it offers, and then to
persuade these users to buy from (or buy
into) the organisation.
And in the case of subsidised, not-for-profit
arts organisations, there needs to be initial
clarity about the whole point of an exercise,
such that the action steps of the marketing
process can be customised to suit it.
3. The importance of planning
Strategic marketing planning is like a tripod.
It relies on three legs for support and stability.
Unsurprisingly, the third leg of this tripod –
after ‘strategy’ and ‘marketing’ – is the
concept of ‘planning’ itself.
Unlike the pair of terms introduced so far,
planning is probably a lot easier to define and
understand. It’s less arcane, feels less esoteric
and – of all the triptych of notions involved
here – it can feel closer to everyday common
sense.
However, there can often be a reluctance for
organisations to engage with planning, and
this sometimes seems to be a particular case
in our sector – the arts and culture. This is
possibly for three reasons.
• For most people (regardless of whether they
work in the arts or not) an insistence on the
importance of planning may occasionally
carry resonances of paternalistic or
maternalistic parental authority. Indeed
I suspect I’m not alone in having had parents
who frequently advocated the wisdom of
‘thinking ahead’.
• Then, in the arts, there is potentially a
perceived tension between having the
freedom to be creative and artistic on the
one hand, and being limited, constrained and
restricted by the rigours required by a
planning approach on the other. Hence
this is the fear of having planning ‘cramp
your style’.
• And lastly there is also the suspicion that
planning could represent a waste of time –
the ‘I’m far too busy to plan’ syndrome,
as it were (Figure 3.1).
The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning
Figure 3.1 Potential excuses for not
planning – at a glance
Planning can feel like:
• a maternalistiic or paternalistic imperative
– ‘mummy and daddy know best’
• a restriction on one’s creativity – ‘I’ve got
an artistic temperament, and planning
would cramp my style’
• a potential waste of time – ‘I’m far too
busy to plan’.
Yet none of these reservations seem
particularly valid, as is noted by an American
writer on arts management, Frederic Vogel,
quoted by Phyllida Shaw (1995).
‘It often is assumed that planning is a
restrictive process; that the organisation
and its creative leadership will be locked
into a plan which may well not be good for
either; that a plan must be adhered to
rigidly once it is formulated and approved;
that change is impossible, or at the very
best, difficult; that it forces people to do
things when they realise from further
experience that doing something else
would be better; that because one doesn’t
know what is going to happen in future,
one is precluded by a plan from taking
advantage of opportunities which may
arise unexpectedly. To put it succinctly,
such perceptions of planning are
ridiculous.’
Frederic Vogel quoted by Phyllida Shaw
(1995)
Planning need not be the antithesis of
creativity. A central part of most artists’
practice is to plan how an artwork is to be
developed. What’s more, most effective and
useful plans entail the exercise of creativity
and inspiration on the part of their creators.
19
And then an old saw of time management is
that time spent planning reduces the amount
of time needed to carry out actions. Hence in
this sense, time devoted to planning can be
seen more as an investment than as a cost
(Figure 3.2).
There is another potential misconception
about planning. When recognised, this starts
to highlight the potential benefits of planning.
This is to confuse planning’s outputs (‘a plan’)
with what led to its creation (‘the planning
process’) – in other words, to consider planning
as a static thing as opposed to a flexible
process.
‘Planning is everything, the plan is nothing.’
Dwight Eisenhower quoted in Hilary
Barnard and Perry Walker (1994)
Figure 3.2
Planning is a ‘time maker’, not a ‘time waster’
TOTAL TIME INVESTED
Time spent planning
Time spent planning
20
According to a range of writers, the potential
benefits to an organisation (and the people
working in it) of adopting a planning approach
– particularly if undertaken as part of a
strategic process – are as follows.
By using a dedicated process that involves all
the relevant and interested people in your
organisation, planning helps generate a sense
of ownership and involvement in the
organisation’s ultimate destiny and the ideas
developed to help make sure that destiny is
realised. By the same token, by securing the
agreement and support of all involved, a
planning process will establish a broad
consensus on what needs to be done and how
it will be done. And while this seems attractive
and desirable from the point of view of internal
organisational harmony, it also becomes vital
for the people responsible for marketing the
organisation because it ensures that there is
an agreed framework for the activity to be
undertaken. What’s more, having such an
agreed framework reduces the temptation of
others to change that framework or ‘move the
goal posts’.
Time spent doing
Time spent doing Time gained
As is discussed in Chapter 4 of Thinking BIG!,
planning for strategy involves close analysis of
the organisation as well as a thoughtful and
far-reaching inspection of the world in which it
works (a.k.a. its environment). As a result
planning assists the development of a high-
level, big picture-based overview of the
organisation and the world in which it works.
Moreover, once the organisation has acquired
that ‘long view’, it will then be well placed to
identify and set priorities. Or, put more simply,
to spot what is important and what matters to
it and its future, as opposed to what is not and
doesn’t really matter.
Equally, by encouraging an organisation to
inspect and review the world in which it works,
a planning process is almost akin to installing
long-range radar. This ‘radar’ enables the
organisation to register incoming threats and
potential opportunities. And it helps an
organisation to do this while there is still time
to do something about these incoming factors.
So a planning process also makes the
organisation environmentally alert.
It was observed above that one defining
aspect of strategy is the way in which it can
permeate, determine and inform the whole
gamut of an organisation’s activities.
Consequently by planning what an
organisation intends to do and how it will do it
inevitably enhances coordination between its
different activities. This can be important
because – as does building a broad consensus
– it increases the chances for making sure
that everyone involved has a common
understanding of what is required and is
‘singing from the same song sheet’. In turn
this will ensure optimised allocation of
resources such as time, money, people,
knowledge and ideas.
Alongside all the potential benefits of planning
outlined so far, there is one last set that
relates to the turbulent nature of the world
today. Nowadays change needs to be
The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning
accepted as an unavoidable and given factor,
which can increase the range of uncertainties
that an organisation faces and the risks
associated with these uncertainties. However,
carrying out a planning process that involves
all the relevant members of a team, is founded
on a careful examination of the organisation
and its environment, and has helped the
organisation agree what it wants and needs
to do (and how to do it), helps an organisation
to cope with uncertainty. And as further
spin-offs, it prepares the organisation and its
people for change, while reducing the level of
risk faced because it has been prepared for
(Figure 3.3).
Figure 3.3 Potential reasons for, and
benefits of, undertaking a strategic
planning process — at a glance
Planning can:
• generate ownership
• establish consensus
• encourage an overview of the
organisation and the world in
which it works
• identify and set priroities
• make the organisation environmentally
alert
• enhance coordination between different
activities
• ensure optimised resource allocation
• help the organisation and its people cope
with uncertainty
• prepare the organisation and its people
for change
• reduce risk by preparing for it.
21
Dundee Contemporary Arts benefit from adopting a
planning approach
Background
Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) opened
in March 1998. Its building houses two
galleries, two cinemas, print studio, visual
research centre, café/bar, shop and
education and outreach facilities. Since its
opening, approximately 900,000 visitors
have attended. Twenty exhibitions have
been held, 11 new major works have been
commissioned and approximately 900 films
have been shown, including 300 foreign
language and 175 British.
Identified issues
Jeni Iannetta, Head of Communications,
says that her role involves the
management of press, marketing, front-of-
house and customer services. Once the
organisation reached two years old, a set
of challenges became obvious.
Because exhibitions were free, there was
minimal data on attendance and attenders,
and information gathered from the cinemas
indicated that patrons were not booking in
advance but buying tickets on the day of
the showing, so data was not being
captured either.
Two marketing plans were formulated: a
five-year plan and a more detailed
strategic plan for 2002–03. Thanks to
these it was concluded that the DCA team
could be happy with the levels of
awareness of the organisation. But it
seemed important to know more about
attenders; in particular, to identify any
gaps in the attender profile, for example,
specific age groups. Additionally, the
objective was set of monitoring patterns
of attendance, for example the overlap
22
between attendance at the cinema and
exhibitions, and the use of the café/bar.
Implementation
Some in-house market research was
implemented in order to find out about
attenders. At least 10% of all visitors were
approached by attendants, thus providing
a broad snapshot of attenders throughout
the day. Additionally, front-of-house and
box office were asked to increase their
data capture to 60% using the Databox
system. This collected transactional
information as well as names and
addresses, which could be cross-referenced
against attenders at the free exhibitions.
Cinema attenders were asked to complete
a more detailed questionnaire including
questions about value for money, their use
of other cinemas, the programming and
location of the cinema.
The results of this research were then fed
into the marketing plans as follows.
Although it was found that attenders were
coming from a wide geographical area,
there were certain postcodes from which
attendance was less than in other areas. So
the quantities of cinema leaflets
distributed were increased and a change in
the distribution locations was piloted. As
part of a sponsorship proposal a chain of
corner shops agreed to accept leaflets in
return for complementary tickets,
invitations to private viewings and their
logo being featured on the website and on
print.
Thanks to these planned innovations DCA
saved approximately £10,000 in
distribution costs, attendance increased by
10% and income increased by 12%.
Jeni emphasises that where budgets are
tight, planning is particularly important
because of the need to use existing
resources as effectively as possible; in
particular, the importance of knowing as
much as possible about audiences and
communicating relevantly with each of the
target markets. The DCA’s five-year plan
lines up the long-term aims and objectives,
while the one-year plans provide
supporting detail. Each year core
activities, pilot stage activities and first
phase activities are defined. As a result of
this planning cycle future activities are
likely to include:

• additional market research with

supplementary questions
• leaflets possibly being distributed with
newspaper deliveries
• extending new distribution patterns to
include exhibition leaflets in addition to
cinema listings
• developing new strategic relationships,
such as working with a taxi company
• further development of e-marketing
using the new DCA website.

This paper has provided a short explanation of

the notions underpinning strategy and
strategic management. It has also set out
some of the crucial elements and aspects of
both marketing and arts marketing. Having
now advocated the benefits of planning, it
seems timely to put the three areas together
and suggest one possible way of carrying out
a strategic marketing planning process. This,
then, is the purpose of hard-copy publication
Thinking BIG!’s first main chapter.

The conceptual background to strategy, marketing and planning 23