Changing perceptions : marketing south eastern Australian aboriginal art

The Aboriginal cultural sector is dynamic and highly valuable to the Australian economy, returning an estimated $100 million dollars annually. The majority of Aboriginal artists and art works have been perceived to be in northern Australia-eighty percent of them are in fact in this region-but Aboriginal artists in South Eastern Australia are emerging as a strong force as they struggle for recognition from commercial and national galleries, curators, art dealers, newspaper critics, and buyers. If marketing is to be effectual, the Aboriginality of the art must be presented in a form that is understood and accepted by the audience. 1 Thus changing public perceptions is crucial to marketing South Eastern Aboriginal art. The primary task of this paper is to discuss this marketing priority for Aboriginal art and artists in South Eastern Australia, previously neglected in marketing literature. Specifically, the upcoming Melbourne Commonwealth Games are proposed as an opportunity for intensive marketing of the region's Aboriginal arts.

Arts marketing challenges in multicultural societies

With an increasingly diverse, multicultural society in many countries, it is timely to look more closely at the current literature on arts marketing, ethnic identity and segmentation issues. The growth of diverse, multicultural societies in many countries warrants a closer examination of arts marketing and the use of ethnicity as a basis for segmentation, as these issues have implications for attracting and retaining arts audiences and other consumers of arts related activities. Researchers in the arts industry have stressed the importance of understanding the fundamentals of audience development and the ability to focus on satisfying the needs and wants of their audiences. The focus on marketing activities comes at a time when there is greater pressure on arts organisations to move beyond their traditional role as subsidized non-profit organisations in order to become more self-supporting. Internationally, audience development in the arts industry has focused on segmentation dimensions such as youth, mature aged individuals, geographic location (rural), individuals with disabilities, low income earners, and individuals with culturally diverse backgrounds. Most of these potential segments are under represented in the population of arts consumers in Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and North America. Of those dimensions, segmentation of arts markets by cultural differences such as ethnic identity appears to be a somewhat under researched area. Hofstede's (1980) model of national cultural differences continues to be widely used as a basis for strategic and marketing decisions in international business. However, the cultural characteristics attributed to individuals in their country of birth are likely to change through immigration to another country. In this situation, the ability to predict the consumption behaviour of various ethnic groups is complicated by acculturation processes in which arrivals attempt to adapt to their new environment. Over time, this process has resulted in the emergence of bicultural individuals who are able to switch, at will, between their ethnic identity and an identity aligned with their host country, or a combination of both at any time. Ethnic identity and affiliation with ethnic groups can also change over time, suggesting challenges for arts marketing approaches, and the application of market segmentation theory in particular.

Marketing planning and business performance : an empirical study of large Australian organisations

The marketing planning process is said to influence organisational performance. This influence is realised through the adoption of a focused approach aimed at achieving specific marketing objectives, which motivates the adaptation of the internal capabilities of an organisation in facilitating an effective implementation. This study investigated the association of formal marketing planning with business performance. The results showed that marketing planning has a stronger, positive relationship with market share, than with the overall financial performance of the organisation. The study also compared the associations of marketing planning and market orientation variables with the performance measures. The results indicated that the two variables associate at about the same magnitude with market share and the overall financial performance.

A technology of study applied in marketing education and supported by self-determination theory

The aim of this study is to assess whether universities are meeting the needs of marketing students in their specific university function of providing knowledge and knowledge processes. This viewpoint is not meant to overlook the university role as a civilizing agent in a constant search for truth (McKenna 2001), but the focus for this study (based as it is in a Faculty of Business and Law) is toward graduates entering the corporate world. Therefore, graduates with suitable discipline knowledge and reasoning skills, in this context, must be able to meet the needs of the corporate marketing sector. Extending this backward to the role of the university, this study is by default seeking to establish if universities are meeting the needs of the corporate sector. A comparison is made between marketing classes using a specific technology of study called an autarchic system, and those classes not using this method. As part of this analysis the study investigates the application of self-determination theory and psychological needs satisfaction. The basic needs scale, comprising of two constructs; Control and Caring was adapted and used to evaluate students' perception of subjects using autarchic study system and those not utilising this methodology.

Teaching quality and tutorial delivery : experience of a second year marketing unit

The higher education sector, the world over, is faced with the challenging task of servicing an increasingly diverse international student community in the globally competitive education market. The rising expectation of students of education outcomes, varied learning styles and orientations of the student population have brought in challenges such as providing a high quality educational environment with changes in curricula and pedagogy (Coldrake, 2001) to negotiate the cultural and linguistic diversity and the resulting expectations of students. The 'quality' of teaching and learning is high on the agenda among the key issues that had emerged from policy developments to meet these challenges.

Using the SPQ2F instrument (Biggs, 2003) and depth interviews, this paper investigates the study 3J'PToaches of students enrolled in a second year marketing unit in an Australian university focusing on the learning contexts in which learning occurs. The findings indicate that there are no significant differences in study approaches of students and that the study approaches differ according the learning context. The paper concludes that student perceptions on learning contexts assist in the development of teaching strategies that lead to quality outcomes, higher student satisfaction and providing universities a competitive edge in marketing its services to prospective students.

Marketing aboriginal art: an intellectual property fiction?

This paper argues that legality is not enough in seeking to solve the problems caused by charlatans and carpet baggers in the Australian Aboriginal art market. It examines the role of social marketing initially posited for the health sector and seeks to apply its strategies to the Aboriginal art market. The author draws comparisons between successes in health and the need for successes in the Aboriginal art market. It suggests that social marketing has been overlooked as a way forward for the Aboriginal art market. The paper concludes by stating that conditions will not change with quick-fix legal solutions sought for complex problems. They are an intellectual property fiction.

The application of non-profit marketing in the international higher education sector

This study considers the impact of the university service and learning environments (which we define as non educational factors) on student satisfaction among international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Australian universities. It is based on the expectations/perceptions paradigm and analyses the relationship between key variables and overall satisfaction of student groups in respect of their service and learning environments. The aim of this paper is to consider the importance of non-educational factors in international postgraduate university students, in particular, with regard to information and communication, infrastructure, and university recognition. The data used in this study is derived from a mail survey conducted among international postgraduate students from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand studying in five universities in Victoria. Structural Equation Modelling was used to understand the relationship between the constructs in this study. The results indicate that noneducation related factors are very important to international postgraduate students and they are predictors of overall satisfaction.

Marketing information sources and the performance of Australian businesses

This study investigated the various sources of information used by business organisations and their association with business performance indicators. The results showed that larger Australian companies predominantly used various internal and external secondary data sources of information, followed by formal primary marketing research. The study indicated an association between market share and the use of competitors, advertising agencies, and sales promotion agencies as sources of information, while overall financial performance was associated with the use of competitors and media/trade publications.

Responding to the learner diversity : an inquiry into the delivery of a second year marketing unit

This paper reports on the outcome of an inquiry into the learner diversity and the delivery of a second year marketing subject in an Australian university. Using Biggs’s revised SPQ2F instrument (Biggs, 2003), it analyses the learning approaches of students and the opportunities for developing teaching strategies for better learning outcomes. The results suggest that overall students seem to adopt deep learning than surface learning though they differ in terms of the learning contexts. Moreover, no significant differences among students in regard to the study approach domains except for minor variation related to specific items in the instrument.

Strawberries any-time, any-day, any-where : a strategic marketing analysis

While the number of Australian strawberry producers has declined by 40% over the past decade the value of production has increased by 58%. Such changes reflect structural changes occurring within an increasingly competitive industry. This paper discusses a study that was conducted to develop a marketing strategy that was conducted in order to reposition an industry so that it may grow in the face of a maturing product life cycle.

To establish a benchmark position, an industry analysis based on the Five Forces model was first undertaken. This analysis was followed by a consumer analysis which consisted of (a) a series of focus group discussions and (b) a comprehensive consumer marketing research survey. The findings of this survey enabled a series of market segments to be identified and profiled. Based on these results a strategic marketing communication campaign aimed at increasing strawberry consumption was developed and implemented.

An exploration of the marketing readiness of websites

The aim of the reported study was to assess the marketing readiness of websites using a tool developed from studies in the late 1990s. The research hypotheses suggest that, in line with earlier studies, government websites are more marketing ready than commercial service organisation sites in Australia. The paper reports findings that commercial service organisation websites are not as marketing ready as might be expected. The research hypotheses are partially supported in that Victorian local government websites show evidence of more sophisticated marketing capability than those of commercial service organisations in Australia and that the service organisations sampled are less likely to employ the Web as a marketing channel than local government.

An analysis of computer-mediated marketing education : the relationship between access to WEBCT, tutorial attendance and student grades

One of the problems faced by Australian academics in the 21 st century is to facilitate learning with a changing profile of students, in bigger and bigger classes. As educators at tertiary institutions, our environment is undergoing major changes as increasingly marketing programs are offering courses either partially (Web enabled) or totally (Web exclusive) online. This study has developed a significant model allowing the prediction of students' overall results and indicates that a student's final grade is dependant, in part, on accessing the study materials and study tools available to them via WebCT and attending face-to-face tutorials.

Masochistic marketing : not one of Volvo Australia's safest strategies?

The marketing approach used by Volvo to debunk the stigma of "Bloody Volvo Driver" in the Australian marketplace appears to be a rare approach and could be perceived to some extent as being 'masochistic'. A masochistic marketing approach, as coined by the authors of this paper, is a high-risk venture. It is a challenging and a demanding initiative because it plays on the humiliation of the corporate image itself. The core idea of the masochistic marketing approach violates, or at least appears to oppose, the fundaments of marketing. The underlying idea is to tum a stigmatised image in the marketplace into something useful and valuable in forthcoming marketing and business activities, however, in the process that corporate image may deteriorate even further.