Branding Artists and Arts organizations : turn your brand into a destination you want to be

Abstract

The objectives of this thesis was to find out if branding theory from commercial sector can be modified and applied to an arts sector without compromising artistic integrity. It also emphasise on encouragement of arts institution, arts managers and individual artists to apply branding principles in to their own organization or an individual art project. To justify to the arts community that branding is a very beneficial marketing tool that can explore their opportunity to enjoy the rest of their artistic life. To provide guidance on how and why to brand arts through good case examples about distinctive artists such as pop icon Madonna, great arts institution Victoria& Albert museum and former Finnish opera house the Alexander Theatre . To let arts organizations, art mangers and individual artists to understand why branding is important and how they can really apply it into practice. Brand is also an intellectual property and a financial asset, example of a great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius brand as an intellectual property whose wealth inherited by his family after death of the composer had been also introduced. The analytical research method of my study was qualitative. In my thesis I was not providing any statistical generalization of my findings within the frames of this project. The theoretical framework was based on branding literature which reflects the theory of branding process proposed by five different scholars of branding concepts, such as D. Aaker, D.Knapp, J.Kunde, T.Gad, D.Andrew, D.B.Holt and Keller. I studied and analyzed different approaches and theory proposition of the branding processes models of mentioned above authors, which helped me to construct the framework of comparison, co- relation of these models and its practical application into various arts organizations and individual artists in a case study form. In addition the theoretical frameworks was also constructed as a combination of several branding issues, its analysis and elaborate explanations of brand identity, core and extended identity, brand as an organization, brand as a person, Iconic and cultural brands, brand strategy proposition, brand as an intellectual property and financial asset and so on. I also answered the questions of what is brand, why to brand it and how to brand it in the art sector. In conclusions, the results of the study indicated that branding theory, models and its concepts are really applicable into the arts sector, and can be really encouraged to be used by arts organizations, arts managers and artists themselves.