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We should be unapologetic in the belief that objective data tells us more than subjective thumb-sucking. Precise judgements, however restrictive, are more informative than sweeping judgements. There is too much nonsense and too many unchallenged myths around about arts audiences and their behaviour.

Mark Hazell, Marketing & Publicity Director, Norwich Theatre Royal

Benchmarking

What is benchmarking?

At its simplest level, benchmarking is about a group of organisations comparing some facts and figures and seeing if the results shed any interesting light on the ways that they work. Ultimately, it’s a method for organisations to compare their processes, practices and performance in order to learn and improve their operations. The simplest form of benchmarking is to compare costs in order to make savings.

HOW CAN BENCHMARKING HELP MY ORGANISATION?

Benchmarking opens organisations to new methods, ideas and tools to improve their effectiveness. It helps crack through resistance to change by demonstrating new methods of solving problems and showing that they work because they are being used by others.

Benchmarking can help your organisation be outward looking, think about how it does things and, if it’s appropriate, think about how it could to do things better.

It might show you ways that other organisations work that are different to your own and demonstrate how they make the most of their resources. Or it might help to confirm that you are approaching things in the most sensible way already.

You could find this information useful for:

  • Persuading other staff/your board that you need to make some changes
  • Convincing people that you’re doing well already
  • Deciding how to prioritise your time and money
  • Demonstrating to people outside your organisation that you’re doing well – for example, funders, the press or potential sponsors.

WHAT WILL I NEED TO DO IT?

You need 3 core components to enable a successful peer benchmarking project:

  • Existing facts and figures
  • Tracking over time
  • Comparing of peer organisations


You’ll also need commitment and time; benchmarking can be time-consuming to set up, although once you’ve got it up and running, it should be fairly simple to maintain.

BENCHMARKING HEALTH WARNINGS!

You need to be sure that you are NOT:

  • Using qualitative information. Benchmarking requires hard facts, data.
  • Using the project to replace other support networks.
  • Looking to commission new research, be realistic, start with existing data.
  • Measuring for measuring sake – it needs to be useful.
  • Letting Benchmarking replace other monitoring work such as surveying your audience. Benchmarking is one way to use evidence to improve your operation; but it needs to be used in conjunction with others.
  • Using it for a one off fix. Benchmarks change over time and you should continue to measure and compare parts of your operation which you feel could improve.
  • Using Benchmaking in a reductive rather than constructive way. Just because some other organisations have smaller marketing budgets than you, doesn’t necessarily mean that you are spending too much. Interpret this figure in the light of marketing reach and audience growth in order to judge whether your marketing spend is at a sensible level.