Management of value for customers on the culture market

The significance of the marketing concept is related to the development of its application areas. One of such areas is culture, as a source of products of not only artistic, but also market value. This paper is an attempt at presenting the perception of marketing among the decision-makers of Polish cultural institutions, and analysing the role of customers in value-creation processes on the market of culture. The analysis of the approach to the concept of marketing among the decision-makers in cultural institutions was based on variables postulated by G.J. Hooley, J.E. Lynch, and J. Shepherd. The research objectives were addressed using findings obtained from literature studies and empirical research conducted in 2012 on a nationwide sample of cultural institutions in Poland. The research involved a sample of 451 decision-makers from various management levels of those institutions, using the random stratified sampling method. Taking into account the range of the quantitative research involved, as well as the type and the work schedules of respondent sample, computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) was selected as the method of choice for the purpose. The findings obtained from empirical research suggest that marketing is typically perceived as a leading philosophy of company operation on the market of culture, rather than a task to be faced by specialised teams. The potential of marketing as a tool has not yet been fully exploited. There is still the need to increase customer involvement in communication and dissemination of cultural values over the internet.