This two hour virtual presentation was part of the Artrepreneur program in Halton Hills on September 29, 2020.

1. Promoting work,
promoting self:
Market Research for Artists
September 29, 2020
Artrepreneur, Halton Hills

2. Agenda
1. About me
2. Rules of engagement
3. Creativity exercise courtesy of Edward de Bono
4. 5 minute Marketing 101
5. What is marketing research?
6. Competitor and SWOT analysis
7. How to define your target markets
8. Creating your problem statement
9. Group exercise
10. Your turn: comments / questions?

3. 1. About me
Manager, cultural marketing, City of Kingston. Reside on the
traditional territories of the Anishnaabe and Haudenshonee.
@juliefossitt
A copy of today’s slides can be
found at slideshare.net/jfossitt

4. 2. Rules of engagement
1. No dumb questions!
2. Chatham House rules
3. Introvert pause
4. Don’t worry about the technology
5. Raise your physical or virtual hand and I will be happy to your
answer your question

5. 3. Warm-up exercise
Connect creativity exercise Excerpted from Edward de Bono’s “How to
Have Creative Ideas: 62 Exercises to Develop the Mind”
The aim of this exercise is to find multiple connections. How do you
move from one item to another? The task is to arrange a bridge
between two chosen ends.

6. 3. Warm-up exercise
1. Obtain five random words from https://creativitygames.net/random-word-generator or ask Julie
2. From these five random words select two words. These two words are going to form the end of
the bridge.
3. Now arrange the remaining three words to form the bridge. Each word must connect to the word
on each side of it, so that you move smoothly along the bridge from one end to the other.
4. For each link the bridge, describe clearly the basis for the linkage. Why does this word lead onto
the next?
5. Be prepared to share your linkages with the bigger group.
Note: You are choosing the end words for the bridge and also the order of the linking words. You
may need to experiment to get as sound a bridge as you can.

7. 3. Warm-up exercise

8. 4. Marketing 101
The classic role of
marketing includes the
following:
Distribution - Deciding
how you'll get the
goods or services you
want to sell to the
people who want to
buy them.

9. 4. Marketing 101
Financing - Generating enough
revenue for product development
and marketing.
You need money to make a living
and continue producing.

10. 4. Marketing 101
Market Research - Market
research is about gathering
information concerning
your target customers.
Who are the people you
want to sell to? Why should
they buy from you?

11. 4. Marketing 101
Pricing - If your price is too
high, you might lose
customers -- but if you price it
too low you might be
undervaluing the perception of
quality. The "right" price
normally comes through trial
and error and doing some
market research.

12. 4. Marketing 101
Product and Service
Management -
listening to
customers,
responding to their
wants and needs, and
keeping your
products and services
fresh and up to date.
Does the work you
do have an audience?

13. 4. Marketing 101
Promotion - Advertising your
products and services is
essential to attracting new
customers and keeping
existing customers coming
back.

14. 4. Marketing 101
Selling - Selling can
happen only after
you've determined
the wants and needs
of your customer
base and are able to
respond with the right
products at the right
price point and time
frame.

17. Can you be the answer?

18. What is market
research?

19. 5. What is marketing
research?
•A community health organization needs to know how to better develop parenting
classes for parents of mentally challenged children
•The president of an energy company needs to understand the concerns of
company’s employees as the jurisdiction goes through deregulation
•A wine merchant can save $250,000 a year by changing the bottle shape for one of
its wines. However, will changing the shape cause consumers to buy more or less of
that brand, and by how much?
•A pharmaceutical firm needs to know which form of a new drug to market
•A manufacturer of bar code-readers wants to expand its product line by having
other companies integrate bar-code readers into their products.
•A religious organization needs to understand the perceptions and preferences of its
members

20. 5. What is marketing
research?
Marketing research deals with the collection,
processing, analysis, and communications of
information regarding people’s attitudes,
feelings, intentions, and behaviour toward
products, services and those organizations and
people involved in any aspect of marketing.

21. 5. What is marketing
research?
Marketing research video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz9ACcr3mFE
- What is marketing research
- Qualitative vs. quantitative research
-Primary and secondary research
- The one question you need to answer

22. 5. What is marketing
research?
•Specifies the information required to address the relevant
marketing issues
•Designs the methods for collecting the pertinent information
•Manages and implements the data collection process
•Analyzes the data
•Transforms the findings into usable marketing information
•Communicates the information and its implications to the
marketing managers

23. 5. What is marketing
research?

24. 5. What is marketing
research?

25. 5. Secondary research
Also known as desk research, the internet does have all the
answers… you just have to look for them.
Sector research is also secondary research such as Culture Track,
and other surveys issued by arts organizations
Any other research you don’t do yourself is secondary research.

26. 5. Primary research
Research existing offerings:
- Customer satisfaction (are your customers happy… or not?)
- Effectiveness of current work (is your current work doing
well?)
Launching a new offering:
- Is there a demand for it? (Who wants your products or
services?)
- Will it generate sufficient return on investment? (Is your
investment of time and money worth it?)

27. “
Who are your competitors?

28. 6. Competitor analysis
You can Google ‘how to do a competitor analysis’, or use this template.

29. 6. Competitor analysis
Make it relevant for you!
- What 10 people / orgs do you think are doing
a great job? Why?
- Reach out to them to find out what they do
well and what they struggle with.
- What is their “USP” - unique selling
proposition?
- Who is their audience?

30. 6. SWOT analysis
Take a deep breath, and get ready to do a SWOT analysis on your own work.

31. Let’s recap!
Now you know:
- The different elements of marketing
- The steps of marketing research
- What your competitors are doing well
- You have done a SWOT analysis on yourself
Now it’s time to identify your target audiences (no, it’s not
‘everyone) and turn them into personas.
-

32. “
Target markets:
Who are you trying to
reach and where are they?

33. 7. Build personas for your
target audiences
◉ Who is the persona? What personality traits
characterize him/her?
◉ What roles does s/he play? What does his/her typical
day look like?
◉ Where is the gap in his/her needs/wants beyond what
we’re offering?
◉ When does s/he close this gap?
◉ Why should s/he care about us as an organization /
artist / individual?
◉ How can I reach this person?

34. 7. Personas

35. 7. Personas

36. “
“The most serious mistakes
are not being made as a
result of wrong answers.
The true dangerous thing is
asking the wrong question.”
~Peter Drucker

37. Your five steps to create a problem statement
Competitor
analysis
SWOT
analysis
Determine
your USP
Determine
your
target
market
Create
your
problem
statement

38. 8. “Creating your problem
statement”
After you have completed your competitor and SWOT analysis, you need to figure out your business
problem and how research can help you find the answer.
1. Recognize the problem. (What do you want to do?)
2. Understand the background of the problem (Look at your
SWOT, competitive analysis)
3. Determine what decisions need to be made (What do you do
next?)
4. Identify what additional information is needed.
5. Formulate the problem statement.

39. What next?
Once you have your problem statement, you can start to
research to gather information to solve the problem. This
research could include:
- Observational research (following your top artists on
social media and tracking what they do well)
- Surveying your current audiences / customers
- Asking for feedback after workshops / transactions
through a poll
- Interviews with customers / clients.
- How else can you gather research?

40. What do you people
see when they look
for you?

41. 9. Breakout group exercise
◉ Get into groups of 3 people. Use your phone or laptop to
search one another. Spend a few minutes looking at the
following:
- Quality of images on social media
- First four to 6 listings on Google
- Content of images on social media
- Topics covered on social media
Present one of the profiles to the group and answer these
questions:
- Did you find anything surprising? Upsetting?
- What do you want to change?

42. What you should do
- Follow anyone in your field who is doing a great job and
interview them. Write down what they are doing well.
- Do a SWOT of your work and spend more time on your
strengths and opportunities.
- Identify your top target markets and forget - literally forget -
about all of the others.
- Ensure that you are constantly finding ways to do feedback
loops, and research your customers / clients so you can
improve
- Do this process at twice per year to evaluate growth, change,
priorities

43. “
You are the only you.
How is your work unique?
Only use the tools to help you reach your
goals and leave the rest.

44. Be lazy, but brilliant!

46. Be lazy, but brilliant!

47. marketinggoon@outlook.com
Thanks!