Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

This fall, MAKE WAVES president Bonnie McEwan is once again teaching a graduate course in marketing at Milano: The New School for Management and Urban Policy, where she currently has a faculty appointment as a visiting lecturer.  The course, entitled Marketing in Nonprofit and Public Organizations, provides students with a solid understanding of how the strategic marketing process should work in nonprofit and public contexts and also helps them acquire the analytical skills to apply marketing concepts toward mission fulfillment.

This time around, students will be working in teams of four to develop marketing strategies for five different nonprofit clients, all of which focus on the arts.  Clients include Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, Cool Culture, Heart of Brooklyn, Jenny Rocha Dance Theater and the national organization of Young Audiences: Arts for Learning. 

Over the next few weeks, Ripples and Wipeouts will feature a description of the marketing challenge of each client organization, along with periodic progress reports on the students’ consulting work.  Taken together, the blog posts will constitute brief case studies of the five nonprofit arts groups.  To subscribe to the series, click on “Get Blog Updates” in the upper right corner of this page and you will receive the students’ reports via email. 

The first client to be featured is Rocha Dance Theater.

Client:  Jenny Rocha Dance Theater

As the Creative Art Director of the Rocha Dance Theater and resident artist at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, Jenny Rocha has achieved notoriety and critical acclaim for her nine-piece production of “Painted Ladies.” Her work has been described as passionate, exuberant and empowering. Although the press has managed to generate a positive buzz about Jenny’s work, media approval has failed to translate into ticket sales and has had little to no effect on donor contributions. Compounding these issues is the additional burden of having her production classified as burlesque. To Jenny, “burlesque” does not adequately describe her work and additionally limits both her artistic merit as well as audience range. 

Through dialogue and various forms of research, our team, The Milano Ladies, has discovered the depth of this multi-layered marketing challenge. At its core, Jenny’s marketing dilemma stems from the absence of a solid identity. Without a concrete image, it becomes extremely difficult for Jenny to serve the dance community, and the broader arts community.  In general, organizations must not only appeal to their stakeholders, they also need to build an emotional tie with their members. Unfortunately, our client’s image is often scattered and disjointed. This lack of cohesiveness in her image is evidenced by inconsistencies in on-line profiles and printed materials where style, language and imagery fall short of likeness. Inconsistencies in her public persona may deter new audiences and weaken the commitment of her existing audience. Our goal this semester is to streamline the image of Rocha Dance Theater and create a distinguishable brand that reaches a more diverse audience.

Jenny’s second problem is that she lacks the resources to adequately promote the work of the Rocha Dance Theater.  In an effort to attract a wider audience, how can this vaudevillian, cabaret-style production be modified without losing its core supporters? One idea is to introduce the current audience to Jenny’s other works by inserting pieces of her modern repertory into her “Painted Ladies” production. Another option, which could perhaps be undertaken at the same time as the first, is for Jenny to consider collaboration with other artists in an effort to increase market share. It is also advised that Jenny do more to optimize on a variety of perks available to her as a resident artist at Galapagos. Resources include: a unique venue at a prime location, an extensive mailing list, opportunity to hold monthly performances and freedom to showcase new projects. Galapagos even provides marketing support and guidance to those interested. Our plan will encourage the use or optimization of all available resources. 

Lastly is the all too common issue of funding or the lack thereof. Business professionals often say “it takes money to make money”.  How can we develop a successful plan that can be implemented without breaking the bank? The answer: viral marketing and free labor.  In addition to launching popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, word of mouth continues to be the most effective marketing tool. Peer recommendations weigh heavily on our perceptions. For that reason, we will work to target the needs of Jenny’s core audience (which we have identified as primarily a Generation X audience) and get the message across to diverse ethnic groups. Volunteers are a valuable asset that can be used for this sole purpose. They can also take on day-to-day administrative duties to allow Jenny to focus more on concept and creative expressions.

-- Melkis Alvarez, Kim Canfield, Judith Delmas & Amarillis Salcedo