||| April 26, 2025 by Jim Hirsch

Full Contact Branding and Positioning

I recently had the pleasure of doing a short presentation about branding to a small group of arts marketing directors through the Arts Engagement Exchange.  I spoke about some of the branding and positioning work I had done as Executive Director of the Old Town School of Folk Music and more recently, as E.D. of the Chicago Sinfonietta.  

We worked very hard to make “the tent” as large as possible without watering down the mission.

I really wanted to impress upon these marketing people the need to understand, enhance, and crystallize the brand characteristics of their organizations, and the need to position their organizations in an ultra-aggressive, almost hostile fashion.  Hostility in the arts?  Really?  

Well I do like to exaggerate these things a bit when giving a presentation of this nature, but I think the points are important.  When I worked at Old Town the brand needed to evolve from its 1960s/folkie/protest singer/guitar & banjo roots to a much broader set of characteristics that included elements of personal self-expression, multi-cultural music and dance, children’s programs, and more, all presented in a cool, accessible style.  We worked very hard to make “the tent” as large as possible without watering down the mission.  The positioning strategy was geared towards convincing both consumers and funders that Old Town was the predominant institution providing these services, and that it was the best, no, the only place to take classes, attend folk-related concerts, and to financially support in it’s market segment.  The goal was to own the traditional/contemporary acoustic music and dance niche as completely as possible and to make competition very difficult.  Sorry, competitors!

The Sinfonietta story has been different.  When I started in 2004 the brand was very much tied into the personality of the Founder.  Our marketing team began refining the brand characteristics to really focus on a couple of central points: A Chicago Sinfonietta concert experience is very different due to the diversity of the orchestra and audience, and due to innovative programming.  As for our positioning strategy, it is all about being perceived as the leader in promoting diversity and inclusiveness in the classical music field, and as the most innovative orchestra in the city.  Unlike Old Town, the Sinfonietta is vulnerable to competition. 

So to summarize, make the brand simple to understand and position your organization in the market to be a niche owner – even at the expense of your competition.

Tags: Customer Service