Marketing Model for Modern and Contemporary Visual Arts in Institutional Context: A Grounded Theory Study on Iran Market

Objective Art business takes place in an institutional context and is highly reliant on the cultural, political, and social content of a society. Because of a variety of reasons such as the profitability of art industry in foreign market, low academic marketing knowledge, the opposing ideas to art economy according to its players, the high rate of graduate students in art disciplines and the number of art universities in Iran compared to the middle east, and finally limited and practical attention to art marketing in the world; it is necessary to conduct such a research. The present study aims to identify which marketing model can be used if we consider art business (markets, modern and contemporary art auctions) in an institutional and value-oriented approach.

Methodology This study is fundamental in nature and is considered as a qualitative-exploratory research. This grounded-theory based research was conducted in 2017. Artists, art university professors, art researchers, media, art auctions, brokers, private institutions, investors, art collectors, art galleries, art exhibitors, art museums, art experts, art managers and policy makers, publishers, insurers, talent managers were among the participants of this study. The data were collected using deep semi-structured interviews. A sample size of 49 was interviewed for this purpose.


Findings The main issue in this research was the participants' concerns. Some factors such as centrality, relevance, repetition, time needed for saturation are all applied to consider an issue as the main concern of a study. Since art marketing and related activities players was the main theme of the interviews, other issues and even other trivial matters were in line accordingly. While coding, the issues of "art institutional business network players and their important roles" were considered as the main theme of the paradigm modeling and the other issues were theoretically linked to it. Based on the evaluation and assessments, secondary issues of "art market", "art world nature", "art institutions", "art world basic values", "Iran art market and its characteristics" and "institutional context of art world and artistic experiences" were identified as causal conditions.

Conclusion An artist is meaningful and can live forever in the minds of people based on 6 general tendencies. These tendencies are inter-related and each plays its own role in certain stages. Therefore, "art market", "art world nature", "art institutions", "art world basic values", "Iran art market and its characteristics" and "institutional context of art world and artistic experiences" are among those causal factors that can affect the players in art institutional business and the major roles they play in that area. Main roles played by "art institutional business network members" which are the major roles they play in this market along with the relationships among them can shape the art market and marketing issues. "Macro Environments, whether economic, social-cultural or politicalgeopolitical", are considered as intervening conditions that can positively or negatively affect the players in art institutional business network and the roles they play. The players in art institutional business network and the roles they play can be affected by "compulsory, imitation, and normative similarities and also artistic norms" as contextual and specific conditions. The relationships among "visual arts marketing”, "blended visual arts marketing", "art market studies", "classification, planning and positioning", and "improvement and optimization strategies" affect art market, artists’ prolong fame, and the value of his art. The application of the proposed strategies will result in the formation of "art market related values" and also "enhancement, approval, durability, and institutional validation" in intervening and contextual conditions