Where Arts Marketing Logic Fails
I mentioned two posts ago that good marketing is based on a logical formula that looks like this:
We know you want x
We offer x
Thus we can reasonably project that you will do y
The x is the product you sell, of course, and y is the behavior you expect from your customers, i. e. "We know you want a great night out featuring dining, socializing and high quality artful entertainment.
I've been thinking a lot lately about my roles in publicity and record label sales and how what I have observed can positively affect what I can and should do as a composer. This is a lucidly clear outline of some of the dangerous routes I've observed. It's a little daunting as a member of any organization to ask what it means should the aim be wrong, and as a composer desiring to compose for a living, would you willingly insert yourself into a route in which you can see the best possible outcome is that you have to encounter one of those inevitable roadblocks? That also leads to the question of whether composers, or any artists, ought to be thinking about marketing in a way that would pinch the creative process towards a public preference (eg "selling out").
