Journal of Arts Marketing Issue 26 – July 2007

In the know
Heather Maitland advises you to think about what you want to know – it may be that someone already knows the answer
The point of marketing planning is to make informed decisions about what will get your organisation from where it is now to where it wants to go. So where can you get the information to support those decisions?
Wait before you reach for that questionnaire, because someone has probably done the work for you. There is such a lot of readily available information about audiences (by audiences, I mean readers, visitors, participants – whoever it is you want to engage with). The abundance of information has its down side. If you are not to drown in paper, you need to decide in advance what you need to know, why you want to know it and what you will do with the information.
Your shopping list will include two sorts of information: about organisations and audiences similar enough to yours for you to make parallels; and about the wider communities your organisation seeks to serve.
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