Strategic Marketing


Many cultural leaders worry that becoming more "market oriented" requires compromising mission, and they struggle to find participation strategies that can win support while advancing their vision. In this environment, new marketing approaches are needed that can help you position your organization for different communities, make the most effective programming decisions, and deeply engage your community.


Strategic Marketing is taught by:

Key Learning


Strategic Marketing is a two-day seminar in which you explore systematic approaches for understanding customers, planning marketing strategies, and creating value for your community. Whether you present programs directly to the public or work with partners such as schools and social service organizations, Strategic Marketing will give you new tools to:

  • Understand the needs and interests of your current - and potential - stakeholders
  • Identify the best target customer segments for your organization
  • Create differentiation and positioning that attract, serve, and keep participants and customers
  • Recognize and systematically respond to changes in your community
  • Advance your mission through a sharp focus on customers and markets

Seminar Sessions


Day One


Session 1: Segmentation and Targeting
The faculty lead a discussion of an arts sector case focused on questions of segmentation and targeting, the challenges of attracting new customers while serving current customer segments, and the range of segments an organization can effectively serve.
Session 2: Exercise on Organizational Positioning
Building on the concepts from the case discussion, organizational teams work together to develop a target market segmentation plan for their organizations.
Session 3: Mission and Marketing
The faculty use another arts sector case to explore the relationship between mission, customer selection, and value positioning.
Session 4: Exercise on Organizational Positioning
A team-based exercise builds on the concepts from the day's sessions to apply considerations of customers and competition to setting an organization's mission, vision, and strategy. Teams develop a marketing positioning statement for their organizations.


Day Two


Session 1: Reaching Target Segments
An arts sector case is used to explore the range of marketing "levers" that can and need to be used to acquire and retain audiences or visitors in a complex cultural environment.
Session 2: Exercise on Integrated Customer Strategies
A team-based exercise builds on the work you completed in the first day's exercises to start to develop implementation plans for your organization.
Session 3: Marketing Implementation
A case study from the for-profit sector is used to examine a "complete" marketing strategy. This for-profit sector case is especially interesting, as the organization had an issue many non-profit arts and culture organizations face: a very high quality product that was nonetheless not being purchased.
Session 4: Exercise on Refining Marketing Strategy
This closing exercise asks you to review your marketing strategy, as captured in the exercises so far, and make refinements based on the last case discussion. Class discussion of your plans allows for faculty and peer feedback.

Recommended Team


Good marketing is more than just advertising and public relations. It is a vital senior-level management function that helps create, capture, and sustain value for the diverse stakeholders of an organization, from institutional funders and individual donors to employees and consumers. Strategic Marketing takes an integrated approach that incorporates program, development, customer service, operations, and communications decisions. We strongly recommend that you consider a senior-level team of three or more for this seminar that includes:

  • Your senior-level program, management, and board leadership
  • The directors for your marketing, development, and outreach teams