Competitive advantage and competitive messaging are critical parts of any marketing strategy. Yet few organizations in the arts & culture sector seem to have this formalized. But without this, the messaging is often bland and undifferentiated amongst its competitors.

When every organization describes itself as “world-class,” “unforgettable” and “not to be missed,” audiences have no reason to choose one over another. They default to habit, convenience or price.

We Don’t Have Competitors

I hear this all the time. Of course you do. Remember, competitors aren’t enemies. You can love your peer arts organizations, support them and cheer them on, and still be a competitor.

With a finite audience, you are competing for their attention, their money and their time. Anyone else trying to gain a portion of their attention, money and time is a competitor. That includes plenty of options outside of the arts too – movie theaters, streaming subscriptions, new restaurants, youth soccer tournaments or just staying home.

And it isn’t just ticket buyers. You also compete for donors, grant dollars, volunteers and board members, often against a different set of organizations.

Doing your due diligence to identify why someone should choose you over a competitor is a foundational step in making your marketing perform better.

What Makes a Competitor?

Your competitors may not be who you immediately think of. Here’s how to quickly identify your competitors:

It is okay to have multiple sets of competitors. For example, major symphony orchestras may compete against one another for artists & programming but not at all when it comes to promoting a concert.

What Are Your Strengths?

A strong competitive advantage reflects the strengths of your organization and the opportunities in your market, while decreasing the emphasis on weaknesses and threats.

A SWOT analysis is one of the easiest ways to identify those strengths so you can build them into your competitive messaging. It is also a great exercise for your board. Simply give everyone time to brainstorm the following:

  • Strengths (Internal) – What does your organization do well?
    • Quality of performance
    • Strong programming
    • New conductor
  • Weaknesses (Internal) – What are some areas that you still need to improve?
    • Low awareness of our organization
    • Poor venue
    • Ticket pricing
  • Opportunities (External) – Where are there opportunities in the market that you can take advantage of?
    • City adding funds for promoting arts education
    • Influx of new residents
    • Closure of another organization
  • Threats (External) – What forces outside of your organization will impact you?
    • Economic woes
    • Parking at venue closed for the year
SWOT analysis diagram A two-by-two grid. Top row is internal: Strengths and Weaknesses. Bottom row is external: Opportunities and Threats. Left column is helpful, right column is harmful. HELPFUL HARMFUL INTERNAL EXTERNAL S Strengths What you do well W Weaknesses Where to improve O Opportunities Openings in your market T Threats Outside forces that could hurt you
Strengths and weaknesses are internal. Opportunities and threats are external.

One caution: a board brainstorm tells you how insiders see the organization. Before you build messaging on a strength, check it against what your audience says in post-show surveys, reviews and conversations at the door. A strength only counts if your audience values it.

Determine Your Competitive Advantage

With your list of competitors and your SWOT analysis, you are now armed with all the information you need to determine your competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage needs to reinforce your strengths and be relevant to your audience.

Stand your strengths up against your list of competitors. Which ones hold up? Which ones are unique to you? A true competitive advantage passes three tests:

Once you know what your competitive advantage is, use it to inform all your marketing messaging. Lean into what makes you different from all the other options out there.

Here’s what that shift can look like for a hypothetical chamber orchestra whose strength is its small, intimate hall:

Before: “Experience a world-class season of unforgettable music.”

After: “Sit close enough to see the bow meet the string. Every seat is within a few rows of the stage.”

The first line could belong to any orchestra. The second could only belong to one.

Competitive Advantage in Action

In 2024, Opera Philadelphia was facing a budget shortfall and outstanding debt. When countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo became general director that June, he looked at the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. One of the largest barriers for new audiences was the ticket prices given the local economy. He also understood that one of the organization’s strengths was its mission: to make opera more accessible.

So while most opera companies continued to compete on prestige, Opera Philadelphia claimed a position no one else held. In August 2024, it announced that every seat for every performance in the 2024–25 season would be “Pick Your Price,” starting at $11.

The results (Broad Street Review):

The ticketing program has continued, and Costanzo reported tickets sold about three times as fast as the year before in the 2025–26 season.

To be clear, the lesson isn’t “cut your prices.” Opera Philadelphia found the barrier that its competitors were ignoring. By removing it and putting that at the center of its messaging, the organization cut through the noise and won a bigger share of its audience’s attention and time.

Where to Start

You don’t need a big budget or a bold pricing experiment to find your competitive advantage. You need an honest list of competitors, a clear-eyed look at your strengths and the discipline to say one distinctive thing consistently.

Start this week: pull the season copy from your top three competitors, put it next to yours and ask whether a reader could tell you apart. If not, that’s where the work begins.

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