Music Venues in a Multicultural Society

Cultural diversity is a ‘hot topic’ in cultural policy, and cultural organizations in the Netherlands are being pressured to account for cultural diversity in the products they offer, as well as in the audiences they draw. This thesis focuses on the way music venues in the Netherlands seek to attract a cultural diverse audience, and puts forward marketing theory as the solution to the problems they struggle with. General marketing theory urges organizations to approach the market from a consumer point of view, taking into account the consumer’s preferences and wants and needs. Specific performing arts marketing theory argues that this approach is applicable to the arts, when allowing for creativity and autonomy of the artist. The cultural marketer can use the four remaining P’s, being price, place, personnel and promotion, to create a product that appeals to a specific audience by considering the specific preferences of that audience. Ethnic-specific marketing aims at explaining the cultural factor in consumer behaviour, and has found that cultural background does play a large role in an individual’s life and the decisions that are made. In non-Western cultures in general, there is a high-context characterization, meaning there is a large influence from the group on the individual members on the group. Reference groups such as family and friends have the largest influence on the individual, as their opinion is closest to that individual. Also opinion leaders within groups, who have gained high status, have an influence on the opinions that are shared within the group. These opinion leaders can be used as intermediaries by cultural organizations. They function as a bridge between the cultural organization and the cultural community the organization is attempting to reach. The message is communicated through the opinion leader who is believed to be credible and trustworthy within the community. To find how cultural organizations deal with cultural communities in practice, research was set up in which ten different music venues in the four largest cities in the Netherlands were interviewed, and asked for their marketing activities towards specific cultural communities. The main conclusion that was drawn is that cultural organizations indeed use intermediaries to relate to specific cultural communities. These intermediaries are however not persons but more frequent organizations who operate within the community. It also became clear that the programming of the venues was a crucial factor in the decision making process of which communities would be targeted.