myriam simon - rex - marketing and pr

7/30/2019 Myriam Simon - REX - Marketing and PR

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University of Arts in Belgrade

MA Cultural Policy and Management

PR and Marketing Strategies

MARKETING AND ECONOMY OF CULTURE (Strategic analysis)

Mentor: Siniša Zarid

Student: Myriam Simon

Belgrade April 2011



Index

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2

Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 2

Short presentation of Cultural Center Rex .......................................................................................... 3

Actual PR and Marketing strategies .................................................................................................... 4

Marketing Mix proposal: ..................................................................................................................... 7

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 8

Sources ................................................................................................................................................ 8

Introduction

As I did a separate task for the strategic analysis, this work is exclusively devoted to the

marketing and PR part of the task. The cultural center Rex was selected because I did my

internship there and could easily get the needed information about the institution.

Methodology

An oral semi-structured interview was conducted with Milica Mitid, employee of Rex. A few

questions were asked to Dušica Parezanovid, irector of Rex; to Marija Čečen, director of

Fund B92; and to one of the interns Rick van der Linden.

Then observation during the internship period was used, as well as the internet material of

Rex (new and old site, B92 site, facebook, youtube).



Short presentation of Cultural Center Rex

Genesis and legal statute

The Center was founded in 1994 as cultural center of radio B92 (under the name CinemaRex-B92 Cultural Center). From April 1999 to October 2000 Rex lost its space after the illegal

seizing of the management of B92. However, after one an half year of ‘noma’ existence indifferent venues and online, Rex came back (under the name Rex Cultural Center) when the

Milosevid regime fell an B92 was returne to its original funers.

Today Rex still exists as part of Fond B92 and it never had a legal entity of its own. Fond B92

now considers giving Rex an independent legal statute to be able to apply for funds

independently. This could be beneficial because the identity of Rex is often confused with

the humanitarian dimension of Fond B92. In this way Rex could become more distinctive in

its specificities, and this more clearly defined identity would make the promoting of theCenter more efficient and open the way for more diversified funding and sponsorships.

However the relation with the Fond will continue and it will stay the main source of financial

support for Rex. Today a part of B92 has been bought by a Greek shareholder, but the Fond

is still controlled by the original staff.

Vision and mission

REX aims to be(come) a laboratory for research of new fields of culture.

Seeing art as mean of communication, Rex considers its tasks to be:

supporting production and presentation of analytical and critical culture

promoting values of an open democratic society and culture and art that reflect

current civil needs and initiatives

carrying out projects in collaboration with cultural workers active on local or ex-

Yugoslav scene to develop regional exchange

carrying out programs in Belgrade and throughout Serbia with the aim of playing an

active part in the European cultural milieu: organizing guest visits of various artists,

participating in forums and workshops, initiating and carrying out international

projects, exchanges programs and experiences with similar centers insisting on working with young people and audience, emphasizing educational

aspect of such an activity

creating a "free zone" for discussion about current political and social processes



Actual PR and Marketing strategies

For Rex marketing (research of market and identifying of target groups) and PR (addressing

the target groups) are as important as for any institution. There is however no person

employed for these purposes. This lack is not due to good will but simply because of financialreasons. As other independent cultural centers, Rex has to fight for its survival and the

financial means which are at disposal are invested in the program.

PROGRAM

The attractiveness in Rex which should be promoted is exactly the richness of its program,

which is alternative, inclusive/open for minorities and still putting value on artistic quality.

Some elements of the program such as the FREEZONE Film festival are really famous and

internationally visited.

PLACEThe location in Dordol, close to the Cara Dušana boulevar, is quite well centere an easilyaccessible by tram and bus (2, 5, 10, 24, 26, 79). The space is well equipped and has a

multifunctional hall which can be used for different events going from concerts, film

projections, performances, debates, workshops and exhibitions. Unfortunately, Rex oesn’town the space, which is rented from the City of Belgrade.

PRICE

The main criterion is availability to the wider audience. Rex keeps its prices low or non-

existent. Usually higher prices are asked for co-productions or hosting of others, because

then, the partner organizations decide on the price.Rex also has a small bar and sells drinks, but regularly free drinks are offered to the people.

PROMOTION

When talking with different people (volunteers, outsiders), it seems that the promotion is

lacking, but considering the means which are at disposal something is actually done and,

regardless of the difficulties, Rex has its own strategies of PR1.

Regarding staff, Dušica Parezanovid (irector) an Milica Mitid (assistant) are both in chargeof PR. Dušica Parezanovid takes care of the more personal word of mouth PR, whereas Milica

Mitid is in charge of the internet and fax PR. Rex also employs a designer (Jovana Timotijevid)who creates low-budget promotion material, which however looks good, printed in black

and white by Rex itself with an ordinary printer, and then photocopied in A3 format. This

material is then distributed around the city by volunteers.

1As to Marketing we could say that research about targets group is not the focus at all. This could be explained

by the fact that uring the years Rex has gathere its particular auience, mainly persons from the ‘culturalscene’ of Belgrae. But of course we face here the same financial problem, and communicating with the target

groups (although not perfectly defined) about the program seems more urgent than doing research on whichthese groups are. The focus on immediacy is a problem in Rex, and in other similar centers as well, because

there is not always time for reflection and reconsideration. We will come back to this point later on.



Then a lot of programs are co-productions or the hosting of other organizations, and in that

case, the partners or other organizations mostly take care of the creation of promotion

material.

Regarding production of the material, Rex has good relations with three printing houses in

Belgrade, Byzart, Image and DPC. This does not mean that Rex gets special prices, but otherkinds of services are provided, such as priority in printing, last minute printing etc.

Regarding channels of distribution, there are official and unofficial ones.

CONSTELLATION OF COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

Firstly Rex has its mailing list, for which you can subscribe online. You will than receive news

about the upcoming events. The database to which the newsletter is sent contains not only

the digital mailing list, but also a paper list of contacts. Because of frequent changes this

atabase in general nees to be upate. Milica Mitid is in charge of this task for theupcoming period.

Aside from this, Rex has its facebook fan page and group page to announce events, as well as

its youtube channel for filmed (by Rex its self) events, and its RSS flow.

European Networks

of Independant

Cultural CentersPersonalized

fax/mail

Word of

mouth PR

REX

Mailing

list

Guerilla

marketing(flyers/posters)

YoutubeFacebook

(Unofficial)Network of

Independent Cultural

Centers Belgrade



As founder of Rex, B92 reserves a place for the cultural center on its web page

(www.b92.net) uner the chapter for culture (kultura) they have a guie (void) eicate toRex events.

Then, there are more personalized announcements of each specific event through email or

fax. Persons or organizations who might be interested (who are related to the theme of the

event) are then targeted as well as the media. These announcements are usually sent twodays in advance.

Beside these channels Dušica Parezanovid contacts her connections in the meia or otherorganizations when they could be interested by a specific element of the program.

Unofficially the other independent cultural centers in the city promote Rex by allowing its

promotion material to be displayed. This network is now still unofficial but an official body of

independent cultural centers is on its way to be set up.

More widely, the centre is a member of TEH (Trans Europe Halles), network of European

independent cultural centers, and of ECB - (European independent cultural centers network),coalition of centers for creative development and use of new media.

The distribution of printed materials (posters and flyers) also takes place in an unofficial but

still strategic manner of guerilla marketing:

A precise list of institutions and places is set up, which defines where the material will be

displayed. These locations are either other cultural centers, friends of Rex or places where

the target audience will easily be reached. According to the importance of the event, the

total or a part of this locations are visited by volunteers to deposit the material.

For example the following locations:

-Faculties in Belgrade (Rectorate, Fine art, Drama, Political science, Philological,

Philosophy…) -KC Grad

-Student Cultural Center

-Belgrade cultural Center

-Center for Cultural Decontamination

-Dom Omladine

-National Cultural Centers (French, Goethe Institute, Cervantes…) -Bilet Servis

-Bookshops (Beopolis, Plato…) -Cafés (Plato, Kornjača…)



Marketing Mix proposal:

Regarding the modest financial means, it is delicate to propose a more developed strategy,

but the following considerations could be made:

PRODUCT

As we said previously, production is one of the strong points of Rex. A lot of variety makes

the Center attractive for different kind of people. The question could be raised of undefined

target groups but this openness of programming is one of the characteristics of Rex.

Rex could, if more financial means were provided, do marketing research to test the impact

of its products (programs) on different audiences and try to develop products that could

reach a new audience, to realize further the goal of being more open.

Without marketing research, reflection could be made on lacking elements in the program:

are some (minority) groups forgotten or neglected? Is the way these groups are presented

the only way or are there other approaches? Are some forms of art neglecte? … There could also be more accompanying/explaining English material to encourage foreign

participants to come to the events in Serbian.

But unfortunately, in the run for survival there is no time for this presently. However,

reflection would add to the internal coherence of the program and the comprehension for

the outside, because today selection policy for programming takes place according to

unwritten, not always clear rules.

PRICE

The fact that Rex want to be available makes it to have almost non-existent fees for events.

It is clear that public still comes to “big events” even if there is a higher price (often fixed bythe partners of Rex), so Rex coul try to make the events look “bigger” or to ask a bit morefor the events for which people are ready to pay.

If Rex insists on the “openness” by having people entering without constraints (fees), money

could be asked for extra services: be stricter about paying for drinks, offer snacks, ask a small

fee for wardrobe service, or for information leaflets. Some side products could be developed

for sale such as buttons (which already exist in fact), shirts, posters…

PLACE

The place is already attractive by its location, but some signposting could be interesting, as

Rex is situated in a smaller street.

PROMOTION

In this regard, some future developments are already planned: update and systematization

of the contacts database and officialization of the network of independent cultural centers in

Belgrade.

The promotion by internet channel is functioning well but the English presentations are

always online on the last minute and this could be improved by being stricter with

translation deadlines.

The printed promotion is also often last minute and not very well organized...but this leads

us to the fact that it would be essential to have a specific employee for this task… and this is

not possible at the moment!



Conclusion

As it was seen, Rex manages with its limited resources to maintain an interesting mix of official and unofficial channels of communication for its PR. Low budget promotion material

and personal contacts, combined with regular newsletters make the Center function in a

proper way, although there is no profit. The aim is not particularly to make profit in this

case, but as we suggested in the Marketing Mix Proposal, the price policy could be a bit

modified and additional services could be offered. The case of KC Grad, which manages to

earn some money through the bar, could be a good example. If a bit more was earned, an

extra person could be employed for PR and Marketing, and this would make Rex more

successful for a wider audience.

Sources

www.rex.b92.net

www.rexold.b92.net

www.b92.net/kultura/

www.facebook.com/pages/Kulturni-centar-REX/169321503094545

www.youtube.com/user/KulturnicentarREX

myriam simon - rex - marketing and pr

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