The Branding of Arts and Culture: An International Comparison

This paper explores the approach of arts and\r\ncultural organisations towards branding in Italy\r\nand Australia. Data were collected through\r\nextended interviews with general managers\r\nand marketing managers of 18 arts and cultural\r\norganisations, including museums, galleries,\r\ntheatres and festivals of both countries.\r\nThrough the analysis of the data collected,\r\n!ve initial elements emerged when seeking\r\nto classify the branding paradigms of the\r\norganisations, viz., the orientation of the brand\r\nmanagement, the type of brand management,\r\nthe level of customers’ involvement in the\r\nbrand “idea”, the degree of consistency in\r\nbranding and attitudes toward risk in branding.\r\nFor this article, we focus on two particular\r\nelements, the orientation of the brand\r\nmanagement and the degree of consistency in\r\nbranding, as these elements have an important\r\nin"uence on how an arts organisation will\r\nstrategically manage its brand.\r\nThe Branding of Arts and Culture—\r\nAn International Comparison\r\nOn the basis of the assumption that branding is\r\ndriven by di#erent factors in di#erent countries,\r\nthe paper identi!es two main paradigms/\r\nmodels of branding characterised by speci!c\r\ndrivers: marketing tools and strategies in\r\nAustralian arts and cultural organisations;\r\nhistory and tradition of the cultural product/\r\no#er in the Italian ones. What emerges in\r\nthis study is that the importance of brands\r\nin the arts and culture context should not be\r\nunderrated by arts and cultural managers. Both\r\nmodels (the Italian and the Australian) represent\r\nvalid examples for managers to look at in\r\nrelation to the brand management process.