Andrew Ridal (ArtsProfessional issue 39, Letters, p2) asserts that Keith Diggle?s definition of audience development fails to incorporate the notion of customer wants and needs.
But Diggle?s definition is not about audience development, it?s about arts marketing, and the two concepts are not interchangeable. Diggle intends that arts organisations should embrace the philosophy of audience development within their mission statements, and organisational aims. He says that arts marketers should not only strive to create relationships with their ?available audiences?, but to become ?missionaries?, to challenge hostile and indifferent attitudes towards our art form ? although he admits that this is a long term goal, rather than something to be achieved by next week. As for the available audiences, they also have developed an attitude to our product, although theirs is a more positive one. The very fact that they are buying tickets for our performances suggests that we are already satisfying their wants and needs.