Peter Fisk considers some lessons in marketing and innovation that the arts can learn from the business world.
Here?s an idea. Choose a location in England?s most northerly county, invite some of the world?s most exciting fashion designers, give them the run of the place and see what happens. Newcastle has emerged as a beacon of creativity in recent years ? from the imposing Angel of the North to the ingenious Gateshead Millennium Bridge. However, it is up the road, towards Northumberland?s market town of Rothbury, that you come across Belsay Hall. This quiet, neo-classical mansion is home to some of the most radical new works by designers like Alexander McQueen and Zandra Rhodes. Stella McCartney chose the huge and romantic Grand Hall of the nearby Castle to present her most ambitious creation never to hit the catwalk. Mottling the stone walls with jewelled light is her chandelier sculpture, ?Crystal Horse?. This is English Heritage reaching out to people who don?t care for old buildings (or who feel that one visit is enough), applying the creative talent of design in a whole new way, and creating a visitor experience that disturbs, provokes and inspires.
Are the arts becoming irrelevant?
Belsay demonstrates the potential for breaking new ground in the arts, reaching out to new audiences, developing experiences that attract and inspire them and keeping the arts alive and relevant in today?s fast-changing and time-poor world. In every marketplace, from baked beans to plasma-screen TVs, brands face the challenge of complexity. Audiences have fragmented and blurred. Lifestyles, experiences and motivations have diversified. We don?t fit into demographic boxes anymore.
Power has shifted too. Markets of surplus supply, rather than surplus demand, mean that consumers call the shots today. Markets are intensely competitive too, with competition for people?s time and interest. Imitation is rapid ? a new idea doesn?t last long. Expectations are enormous. People expect instant perfection, and get bored quickly.
Breaking new ground
So how can companies ? in the arts, or any market ? reach new audiences, develop new offerings, overcome inertia and avoid irrelevance? How can they tap into new and profitable revenue streams, whether they seek to make money for shareholders, or raise funds to invest in achievement?
Newness occurs in the margins, not in the mainstream. Look at your toothbrush, or your shampoo. It is hardly innovative. If one brand angles the head, the others do. If another adds funky colours, everyone follows. If one has a special ingredient x, the others will soon add formula y. It doesn?t break new ground, it merely levels the game: moving forwards to stand still. Forty billion text messages were sent in the UK last year. SMS started off as a non-consumer maintenance service for technical staff, but suddenly exploded as a way to communicate, driving new behaviours and relationships, in a way that the researchers and marketers never expected. Consumers made it work.
The disciplines of innovation
Jonathan Ive, the British designer who gave the world the iMac and the iPod, is obsessive. He is obsessive about consumers, about technology, about design and their interface. He lives the Apple mantra of ?Think Different?. He refused to release the iPod for two years after the technology was ready, waiting until the design was absolutely right ? even when competitors were seeking to grab his market. But his creation is now creating the populist power to create a new order within the music industry.
There are typically three levels of innovation:
Cosmetic innovation ? the most basic level of innovation, typically involving some modification to a product or service. Cars, for example, constantly launch new versions ? the new VW Golf, maybe 30 years in the making, but an evolution at best.
Context innovation ? more genuine innovation on an existing theme, changing the market context. For example, by taking an existing product to a new market.
Concept innovation ? advanced innovation that rethinks the entire business model in order to redefine how things happen. Ikea rethought DIY, and Easyjet fundamentally changed the airline model.
Innovation is not just about creativity, but also about making ideas happen in a profitable way. However, while conventional ideas are quickly copied, it?s applying them in unusual ways that makes the difference and inspires audiences. You might argue that the arts world is intrinsically more innovative than the commercial world. With creative minds, a passion for the product and partners who are willing to share the limelight, arts marketing is often leading rather than lagging in the innovation stakes. However, there is no rest for the innovator.
Can you do an iPod?
Marketers need to rise to the challenge of innovation, as Stella McCartney did with her horse. Not just to remain relevant, but to do more. To be different from others, to do more for people, to redefine the models, and to grow. So, what can you do to be different? Innovation doesn?t stop. Once new audiences are engaged, they want more, their expectations are high.
Back in the Northumbrian countryside, it is not just designers who are redefining heritage, but also brands that are embracing the arts. Enter the manor house and you are drawn upstairs by old confetti blowing on the staircase. The seven bedrooms each create illusions that are intriguing and evocative. A glimpsed lovers? embrace, scorched on to a bed, vision and sound that culminate in a very ?Agent Provocateur? moment. The lingerie may not be there, but the suggestiveness is.
When breaking new ground, you are limited only by your imagination.
Peter Fisk is founder of The Great Ideas Company, and a recent speaker for the Arts Marketing Association. e: peterfisk@peterfisk.com; w: http://www.zixio.com. Find out about the Arts Marketing Association at http://www.a-m-a.co.uk