How Marketing Shapes the Behaviour of Culture Participants

Abstract

Significant changes concerning the ways in which cultural needs are met are observed in the sphere of consumption. They are associated with the development of the processes comprising the so-called new consumption and are characterised by the intensification of consumer behaviours expressed in the occurrence of trends such as homogenisation and heterogenisation, servicisation, dematerialisation, virtualisation, presumption and individualisation. These processes are clearly revealed in the sphere of the behaviour of culture participants. The aim of the study is to show the role of marketing in shaping the behaviours of culture consumers and the typology of cultural institutions that takes the scope of their orientation towards culture participants into account. The study is based on the results of empirical research of quantitative character which was conducted on a sample of 451 managers of cultural institutions in Poland. At the stage of analysing research results, one of the taxonomic methods was applied, namely Ward’s method, which allowed the researchers to identify four types of cultural institutions by the extent to which they are market-oriented, with the changes of the marketing paradigm taken into consideration. Cultural institutions oriented towards acquiring new consumers and satisfying their needs form the first and largest typological group. The entities on the cultural market focused on creating loyalty among recipients towards works that meet the needs of artists constitute the second-largest group of cultural institutions. Entities that are oriented towards creating loyalty among consumers and satisfying their needs forms the next group of institutions. The last of the types of cultural institutions identified is characterised by the fact that the functioning of the entities forming it is not consistent with the principles of marketing concepts.