Heather Maitland presents extracts from a forthcoming guide for arts organisations on engaging with minority cultural groups, including Mel Jennings? attempt to reconcile segmentation ? a key principle of marketing ? with diversity.
There was a time when the word ?segmentation? used to feel a bit too close to ?segregation?, writes Mel Jennings. Nowadays, most people involved in marketing agree that segmentation is a sensible approach to developing audiences. Some still feel uncomfortable about classifying people into groups, but in reality better targeting tends to mean better communication, savings, service and representation.
Multiple markets
As a practice, though, segmentation brings its challenges. There are many ways to divide up a potential market. It used to be a case of chopping up audiences along geographic and demographic lines such as age, income and education. These are still of great use but finding commonality is not so simple anymore, partly due to the many choices now available to us all.
Ethnicity is a complex differentiator on which to segment as is ?culture? and ?cultural heritage?. Cultures are a paradox. On one hand, cultures are light. They are self-defined in a variety of ways by different communities who say they belong to a particular culture. They are not fixed, they shift and they are debated over. On the other hand, cultures are weighty, significant, have huge histories behind them and people literally die for them.
Often, though, talk of targeting minority ethnic markets doesn?t seem to go much beyond attracting ?Black and Asian? markets in the same way that one might refer blandly to tapping into ?the womens? market?. There?s not much sub-segmentation evident. This is partly due to the difficulty in accessing information that goes beyond the broad distinctions that can be made between the British African, African Caribbean, South Asian and white population.
But there is plenty of evidence to show that there are definable minority ethnic art markets and that specific targeting does work.
A way through the maze
What is the way through this maze of difference? The key thing to consider is how customers perceive your organisation and what you offer rather than how you perceive them. The opportunity to close the gap lies in communicating to connect with potential customers rather than simply labeling them for convenience or out of habitual relationship with a particular community.
There are British Black and South Asian people who are looking for arts experiences that are specifically targeted at them and reflect identities based around ethnicity or cultural heritage. However, there are also people from these backgrounds who are not looking for ?ethnic reinforcement? from their arts consumption, and who are primarily seeking a value for money experience. Then there are those who jump between these two positions and beyond. Anyone aiming to develop minority ethnic audiences needs to be at least aware that there are many different ways in which people locate themselves around ethnic and cultural identities.
Categorising attenders
Once first-time audiences start coming in to an organisation, box office data provides a chance to look at the choices attenders are making in relation to the programme. As a database builds up, it will undoubtedly be more useful to segment on the basis of purchasing behaviour in relation to an arts programme rather than the ethnicity of achieved audiences. Unfortunately, though, this often leads to audiences being placed in the over-simplistic category of ?attenders at Black or Asian arts events? who are only contacted ?when there is a Black show on? rather than being targeted with a wider set of relevant events from across the programme.
Even at the point of data capture there is still another challenge: how to classify attenders without making assumptions, and remaining sensitive to the fact that people are wanting a night out and not a full-on enquiry into their ethnic status. Questionnaires are fine for a limited period but obtaining data on ethnicity over time is not an easy task.
A diverse future
Will the need to segment on the basis of ethnicity ultimately become redundant? Yes and no. My guess is that in the foreseeable future we will continue to need to ensure that equal opportunities are truly being made available, whatever the social group in question. But it is important to remember that addressing ethnic identity alone is not enough to satisfy the market, and that audiences can always smell tokenism. As with all audiences, offering an all-round quality arts experience is key.
Going beyond broad generalisations about the market and beyond the complexities of social identities can be difficult. Navigating around difference is always going to be both challenging and inspiring, and observation of a market from afar will not be effective where cultural and ethnic differences are concerned: so it?s up to us all to draw up a new road map, and with the genuine desire to connect with those who are the target of our efforts, the routes will gradually become clearer.
This article comprises extracts from a guide for arts organisations on engaging with minority cultural groups to be published by Arts Council England in the summer. Commissioned by audience development agencies Arts About Manchester, Audiences Central, Audiences London and Audiences Yorkshire, this handbook is aimed at arts practitioners at a Senior Marketing Director and Chief Executive level. Alongside articles and case studies on programming and marketing, it explores issues of cultural identity and organisational culture that impact on the success of audience and programme development projects. For more details, contact Heather Maitland
e: hmailtland1@aol.com
?I am intrigued to see that ethnic events such as melas, carnivals and fashion and music events are able to attract tens of thousands of people ready to spend and be entertained while mainstream arts establishments draw just a handful. What seems to be lacking is an understanding of audiences.?
Saad Saraf
?Identities describe, they do not define; they are a great place to start and an awful place to end up. Melanin content, religious affiliation or any other identity confers neither knowledge nor insight ? only a particular experience that might lead to both.?
Gary Younge
?Audience development can often begin as the adoption of shorthand approaches to the needs and interests of different communities, but driving this attitude is the essentialising of communities. This inevitably leads to programming based on the flawed concept that we can somehow identify an authentic representation of people. Who has prescribed this authenticity? Sometimes it is self-imposed, but often it has been imposed by others, be it programmers, funders or marketing managers.?
Tony Graves
?Where our curatorial strategies are concerned, perhaps it?s about letting the individuality of persons ? and the individuality of works of art ? take the lead.?
Jorella Andrews
?Diversity should not be passive, mute and ghettoised but expansive, interactive and capable of creating a rich and plural collective culture.?
Ranjit Sondhi