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Major case study

Marketing a contemporary
art museum: The White
Rabbit Gallery
By Kim Lehman, University of Tasmania

Source: Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney

Introduction
There has been considerable change in the arts and cultural sectors since the 1970s. Increasing pressures
on funding and the subsequent need for greater accountability has driven a more professional approach to
business processes. Simultaneously consumers have become better educated, have increased disposable
incomethough less timeand are offered a multitude of competing activities. Museums have had to
take account of these social and economic changes, and have had to transition from being just a source

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Increasing pressures

of information and learning towards providing an appealing and satisfying experience in a distinctive

on funding and the

environment. In other words, they needed to modify their product offering and the strategies they used to

subsequent need for

communicate with their consumer. Consequently, there is now a strong emphasis on marketing in the arts
and cultural sectors.

greater accountability

The White Rabbit Gallery is an example of a private art museum that has developed a niche within the highly

has driven a more

competitive Sydney cultural experience market, and has become signicant on a national and international

professional approach
to business processes.

scale (Wilson, 2009). To understand how they have achieved this, we can analyse the philosophy and
approach of the Gallery, the nature of their product and their consumers, and the marketing strategies that
they have used to connect to them.

Contemporary art as a product

The White Rabbit Gallery is dedicated to Chinese contemporary art produced after 2000. While it is the
casethat products in the marketing sense can fall anywhere on a continuum between a pure good and a
pure serviceusually some mix of the twowhether contemporary art (or any cultural item) can be viewed
as a product is the subject of some debate (OReilly & Kerrigan, 2010). Certainly artists do not view their
work as a product driven byconsumer needs (Lehman, 2009). However, once the work has been sold, either
to a private or institutional buyer, it is another matter. It can then be sold again, auctioned, loaned to a
museum or exhibited at will. Furthermore, the work as originally produced forms part of the artists creative
output andtherefore part of their brand. And this is partly what determines whether the work sells or not,
what priceit might fetch, and how collectible it will be. Importantly, when owned by amuseum an artwork
becomes part of their marketing mix; part of their product offering to visitors.
However, that does not mean that an artwork necessarily has the same attributes as, say, a box of
breakfast cereal. Cereal, when viewed through a marketing lens, possesses attributes that can be
accentuated (positives) or diminished (negatives), both of which may form part of a marketing
campaign theme. For example, at the centre of the marketing for Kelloggs Nutri-Grain is the
product claim that it is a healthy food for children. Links to this claim can then be seen in their
television commercials, with proud mothers and growing sons interacting, and in Kelloggs
choosing to sponsor Iron Man events. Can such marketing communication strategies be effective
for artwork? This is a particularly difcult question when the artwork is challenging or is not
readily understood by the viewer, as could be said to be the case for Chinese contemporary art.
Asithappens, these two issues are actually positives for the White Rabbit Gallery brand. The key
to understanding why this is so can be found in the make-up of their target market, the cultural
consumer.

Are cultural consumers different?

The consumption of cultural products is based not on the utilitarian, functional needs
and wants of human behaviour, but on the hedonistic and affective onesthe drive for
pleasure and self-gratication (Colbert, 2007). For cultural organisations such as the
White Rabbit Gallery this meansthat their offering needs to be shaped in such a way
as to connect to the needs and wants of a consumer whose desire is for a product
that goes beyond simply solving a basic consumer problem.

WORK BY CHEN WENLING

Source: Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney

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Certainly the cultural consumer may have a rational reason for visiting

Rabbit Gallery. Signicantly, though, cutting through the advertising

the gallery; for instance to view a work by a favourite artist, or as a

clutter is perhaps more of an issue than budget. The need to get

must see excursion while on holiday. However, viewing cultural

maximum value from marketing dollars is uppermost in the minds

consumers as rational decision makers focused on the functional

of managers. What are the ways to effectively use small marketing

features and benets of products ignores a signicant motivation: the

budgets to connect to cultural consumers? White RabbitGallery goes

search for a cultural experience that gives them pleasure, however

about it in three ways.

that might be dened. Cultural consumers are individuals who seek

an emotional involvement in an enriching experience. Further, they

The collection as a branding device

are not discouraged if the experience challenges them, providing it is

The individuality of any museums collection is a vital part of its

authentic (Foo & Rossetto, 1998).

brand strategies. Although the relative place of the collection within

public museums has shiftedcollecting for the sake of collecting
has been replaced with a focus on the customercollections and
exhibits are still the coreproduct offerings for museums, and represent
the point of differentiation with competitors (Kotler, Kotler & Kotler,
2008). This is certainly true for the White Rabbit Gallery, which was
established by Kerr and Judith Neilson in a converted knitting factory
in the inner city suburb of Chippendale in 2009. Exhibiting a selection
of the Neilson collection of contemporary Chinese art, which was
personally chosen by Judith Neilson in consultation with Chinese artist
Wang Zhiyuan, the gallery is managed by the Neilsons daughter Paris.
Consequently, the White Rabbit Gallery has avery personal approach
to the concept of an art museum, withthe collection the focal point
for the brand.

WORKS BY SHI JINDIAN (BIKE) AND WANG LUYAN

(WATCH)

Creating an experience

Source: Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney

This personal approach is reected in the feel of the museum. While

Understanding cultural consumer behaviour is important given the

there are professional staff, reception areas, shiny elevators and the

signicance of cultural tourism to Australias economy, and to the

various safety items you would expect from a large building open to the

arts and cultural sectors particularly. Nearly 60 per cent of Australias

public, there is also a sense that you are viewing the private collection

2.6 million international cultural and heritage visitors in 2009 visited

of an individual. Indeed, Judith Neilson stresses this aspect: being able

a museum or art gallery during their stay. These tourists are also

to decide which art to exhibit, what to buy or not to buy, all without

prepared to spend to obtain their cultural experiencethe average

reference tocommittees or government funding bodies is one of the

amount spent per trip (which is also longer than that of other tourists)

major benets for a private museum (Neilson, 2010).

was $6280, compared with other international visitors who spent on

Cultural consumers also require authenticity of experience. That

average $3830 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011a).

is, there still needs to be a focus on interpretation and education,

How White Rabbit communicates

itsmessage

which reinforces the credibility of the collection and gives White

Rabbit the status of a real art museum. White Rabbit has a signicant
library open to the public, and has a number of education programs

As has happened in many product categories, there has been a

that encourage school and adult learners. For cultural consumers, a

move away from a mass media approach to marketing in the arts

privately owned collection is okay, but they would not be attracted

and cultural sectors. For a start, the budgets in these sectors are

to the offering if they felt it was just wealthy people playing with

smaller. This is also true for private art museums such as the White

amuseum.

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The evangelist visitor

Conclusion

This is not the case, and visitors come away from the White Rabbit

The White Rabbit Gallery is one of four recently completed privately

Gallery satised that they have had an authentic experience. Part of

funded art museums in Australia. Along with the TarraWarra Museum

that satisfaction relates to the marketing communication interactions

of Art in outer Melbourne, the Lyon Housemuseum in suburban

between the gallery and the consumer. Attracting visitors tends to

Melbourne and the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, the

done more through public relations than advertisingopening nights,

White Rabbit Gallery challenges the notion of what an art museum can

invited speakers, media releases, publishing books and catalogues

be in Australia, and provides a alternative experience to the established

all such devices are used to gain editorial coverage. White Rabbit

government-funded public state museums and art galleries.

has a strong social media presence, a comprehensive website (www.

With the development of the cultural consumer, and the increasing

whiterabbitcollection.org) and an email newsletter that engages

signicance of cultural tourism, these art museums are lling a need in

readers. There is a free lm club, showing Chinese classics, kung-fu

Australias cultural landscape. However, the strategies that art museums

and gangster movies, as well as documentaries and propaganda

such as the White Rabbit Gallery need to use to communicate with

movies. White Rabbit also runs various events, such as book and

cultural consumers have to be carefully considered. By concentrating

poetryreadings.

on what is different about their collection (the core product of a

Evident throughout these activities is engagement with the core theme

museum) through education and interpretation, seeking to involve

behind the White Rabbit Gallery: genuine enthusiasm for Chinese

visitors in the museum experience, and then developing relationships

art and culture and for communicating with the visitor. Consumers

with them, White Rabbit can provide a memorable and distinctive

recognise the authenticity of the experience, and potentially become

cultural experience.

brand evangelists, meaning they will visit again and encourage others
to visit.

Questions
1

Select a cultural institution or event with which you are

familiar. Provide a profile of the sort of consumer that
would visit it. What characteristics do they have that makes
them different from non-visitors? Why is it useful to profile
non-visitors?

The consumer is said to pass though five stages in the buying

process. How does that process relate to visiting an art gallery,
and would visitors go through all stages?

Will an art museum such as the White Rabbit Gallery have a

finite life? What would they need to do to keep appealing to
changing consumer tastes?

Define the concept of a cultural experience product. What

competitors does the White Rabbit Gallery have in this category?
Do they have competition from other sectors aswell?

Consider the profile of the visitor to the White Rabbit Gallery

from question 1, as well as the gallerys current marketing
strategies. Suggest alternative marketing communication tools

INTERIOR AT WHITE RABBIT GALLERY

that the gallery could use to connect with cultural consumers.

Source: Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney

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