Marketing Strategy for the Creative and Cultural Industries

Bonita Kolb

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000190373
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Developing and executing marketing strategies is a vital aspect of any business and few books currently cover this with relation to creative industries. This textbook provides students and managers in the creative industries with a solid grounding in how to maximize the impact of their marketing efforts across a range of business types in the creative and cultural industries.

The author, an experienced cultural marketing educator, provides sector-contextual understanding to illuminate the field by:

• taking a strategic approach to developing marketing plans;

• bringing together strategic planning, market research, goal setting, and marketing theory and practice;

• explaining how content marketing on social media encourages a relationship with consumers so that they co-promote the creative product.

With a range of learning exercises and real-life examples throughout, this text shows students how to create successful marketing plans for their creative businesses. This refreshed edition is a valuable resource for students and tutors of creative, cultural and arts marketing worldwide.

Analyzing internal resources and external forces

Chapter 3

This chapter will answer the following questions

• How does an organization analyze internal resources, including financial, human, and cultural?
• How should organizations answer questions using secondary research with already existing information?
• How does an organization scan for information on people and competitors in the external environment?
• How does an organization analyze the external forces affecting the organization including, economic, technological, and socio-cultural?

ANALYZING INTERNAL RESOURCES

From resource to plan

Conducting an internal analysis can be a daunting task. The internal environment consists of many different resources that need to be analyzed from money to people to culture, all of which are needed by the organization to meet its marketing strategy goals. However, not all resources can be used as a competitive advantage upon which a strategic plan can be based. One way of evaluating internal resources is the VRIO approach. This approach asks the organization to analyze its resources based on four questions:

V:	Is the resource valuable? A resource is only valuable if it increases the product’s value to the consumer.
R:	Is the resource rare? If the same resource is offered by many other organizations, it ceases to be valuable. If the organization has a resource that is both valuable and rare, they have a competitive advantage over other companies. However, this advantage may be only temporary.
I:	Is the resource costly to imitate? Such as creative talent! If this is true, then the organization has a sustainable competitive advantage.
O:	Is the resource organized to capture value? There must be production, distribution, and promotion strategies to get the value from the company to the customer. A competitive advantage alone is not enough. There must also be a means of exploiting this advantage which is the basis of the strategic marketing plan.

Barney 1991

QUESTION TO CONSIDER: What competitive advantage do I have that is valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and that I have organized to capture value?

Success in any organization depends on offering a product that meets a consumer need or solves a consumer problem better than other products. A product that does so is said to have a competitive advantage. All organizations have a product that they are selling whether it is a physical good, a service, an idea, or an experience. No matter how unique the product in a globally connected world, there will be a competing product available from somewhere that will also solve the problem or meet the need. If the consumer doesn’t see any difference between the products offered, they may choose the easiest to buy or the cheapest. The challenge in marketing a unique creative or cultural product is to inform the consumer of its value so that the purchase decision is made on the value provided by product benefits rather than just price or ease of purchase.

The first step is to analyze the value of the product that provides a competitive advantage over competing products. The value might come from better product design, performance, or quality. The value might also come from internal aspects of the organization such as community involvement, environmental concern, or human inclusion. These organizational values then attach themselves to the product (Butler 2018). A research study found that 92 percent of Millennials were more likely to trust a company that supports social causes and 68 percent were more likely to purchase their product. Of course, if competitors have products with similar benefits and are supporting the same social causes, then there is no competitive advantage. This does not mean that the product or cause is at fault, but rather that the company will not be noticed by consumers.

Finding the right competitive advantage starts will an analysis of the organization’s internal environment. This internal analysis will examine the financial resources, human resources, and organizational culture of the company. The organization will need to determine if the financial resources needed for start-up funding, working capital, or future expansion are available. Human resources should be examined to determine if there are a sufficient number of people needed to run the company. In addition, the organization’s human resources need to be analyzed to determine if the employees have the needed skills. Organizational issues that must be addressed include the culture of the organization along with risk tolerance. It is not enough for companies to have a product with a unique competitive advantage. The competitive advantage must also be difficulty to imitate. If they are not, competitors will do so and the advantage will be lost. Finally, the advantage must be organized around excellent promotion, correct pricing, and efficient distribution.

Financial resources—it will take money

The first step in analyzing financial resources is to review the organization’s financial records to determine its assets and debts. Whether the organization has been in operation for years or is a new start-up, no marketing strategy can be successful without the needed funding. When a strategic plan is being written for a new organization, there is a danger that marketing may be insufficiently funded as a new business requires financial resources to purchase the raw materials needed for production, to pay salaries, and to run production or sales facilities. Therefore, a complete listing of financial assets that can be used to cover these costs is necessary.

Because of the financial demands required to start a business, marketing may be thought of as something that can be funded later. However, without a funded marketing plan to communicate to the target market segment the existence of the product and the benefits it provides, all the other spending may be in vain. Therefore, ensuring that there is adequate funding for marketing expenses is essential. Of course, if there is no funding for paying employees or producing the product, spending money on marketing will also be a waste. This is why assessing the internal financial resources of the entire organization is an essential part of a marketing strategy.

While a new organization needs to determine if it has adequate funding for both start-up costs and marketing expenses, it also needs to know if it will have enough working capital to pay the bills until there is sufficient profit to make the business self-sustaining. Once the business is started and generates sufficient profit to pay the bills, the question arises as to whether sufficient funds are available for new product development and possible expansion to a new location or to add distribution methods. All of these financial issues affect the development of a strategic marketing plan.

If there aren’t enough funds available internally, the organization must determine if there are sources of external funding available. These might include personal funds, funding from government programs to assist business start-up or expansion, bank loans or loans from friends or family. The time to answer these questions is before the funding is needed rather than writing a marketing plan that cannot be implemented because there is no money. It is better to know prior to money being needed if funding can be obtained from friends or family willing to invest in the business. In addition, exploring funding sources through a bank or government agency should be done early in the strategic process. There is no reason to develop plans that cannot be implemented due to lack of funds.

Steps in analysis

• Review financial records of organization listing assets and debts.
• List the personal financial assets that can be used to cover costs.
• Discuss with friends and family the possibility of loans.
• Talk with a local banker about possible loans.
• Contact government agencies about loan programs for new businesses.

Human resources analysis—it will take people

The second factor in the internal environment that needs to be analyzed is the availability of human resources. While it is assumed there are people in the creative or cultural organization who have the talent necessary to create the product, other skills will be needed to run the company. Therefore, an assessment of the marketing, management, and financial skills of current employees is needed. If these skills necessary to run the business are not available, the organization will face a choice. Someone in the company will need to learn the needed skills, they will be obtained through hiring a new employee, or the work will need to be outsourced to a professional.

The first step in analyzing whether the current employees have the needed skills is to conduct a job analysis. Each job needs to be analyzed to determine what skills are needed to implement the organization’s overall strategy. This would include the talent needed to produce the creative product. However, it would also be necessary to determine which jobs at the organization will need management skills, financial ability, and marketing expertise. In addition, the job analysis should determine what level of skill is needed for each job. Of course, this information will need to be reviewed throughout the process of developing and implementing the marketing strategy. It is only after the strategic plan is completed that it will be fully known what skills will be needed. The skills needed to accomplish the goals can then be compared with the employees’ skills.

Therefore, it is necessary to not just analyze what the job requires, it is also necessary to analyze what specific skills, talents, and abilities the current employees already have. Rather than just state that an employee has marketing expertise, it is necessary to note that he or she can create advertisements or run Twitter campaigns. With finance, it is important to note that an employee can develop financial statements or write grant applications. For management, it is necessary to analyze whether an employee has previous experience in this capacity.

Before deciding to add a new hire to fill the gap in skills, the organization should consider providing the technology or training that might help an existing employee preform the needed skill. Another solution to the skill gap is to change job descriptions of current employees (Lavoie 2017). A survey of existing employee skills may find someone with the needed marketing ability. If the employee is not currently using this skill, their job can be changed so that they can contribute to achieving the marketing goals.

Steps in analysis

• List all employee creative skills whether or not currently utilized.
• Survey employees as to financial skills that they possess.
• Discuss past job experience in management and start-ups.
• Ascertain marketing abilities.
• Verify entrepreneurial interest and experience of employees.

Organizational culture assessment—you are what you believe

First, financial resources were analyzed to determine if there was money to implement the strategic marketing plan. Then human resources were analyzed to determine if there was a match between the employees’ skills and what is needed for the strategic plan to be implemented. However, success in implementing a strategic plan will depend on more than money and skills. Even when both are present, a plan can fail because it is not implemented due to a lack of employee support. Therefore, an examination of organizational culture should be conducted to ensure that the final strategic plan is supported by everyone in the organization. An assessment of the current organizational culture will determine whether it needs to be changed to encourage support of the strategic plan.

A strategic marketing plan is more than a written document; it is a plan for action. One of the major issues that must be addressed is to analyze the organization’s culture as to whether the employees will either support or resist implementation. The existence of this organizational culture means that marketing’s role in developing a marketing strategy cannot be done in isolation. Instead, marketing must work alongside the creative team as the work is being produced (Bilton 2007).

Culture is a way of living that is transmitted from generation to generation. Culture helps answer many questions about how to live and relate to others. Most people do not think about the culture in which they live or work as it is simply considered normal. However, if someone travels to another country or works in another organization they will immediately become aware of cultural differences, usually by framing other people’s behavior as unusual. By experiencing other cultures, the differences become apparent.

Organizations and companies have cultures of which the employees may be unaware. These cult...