Museum Market Strategy.

MARKETING STRATEGY FOR A PUBLIC SECTOR MUSEUM.

CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1Definitions of marketing

1.2Public goods

1.3Marketing in not for profit organisations

1.4The social market

1.5Why market

2.SEGMENTATION

2.1Types of market

2.2Responses to segmented markets

2.3Product & service development

3MARKETING MIX

3.1Product

3.2Price

3.3Promotion

3.4Place

3.5People

3.6Physical evidence

3.7Process

4.MARKET RESEARCH

4.1Research methods

4.2Internal sources

4.3External sources

4.4Quantitative methods

4.5Qualitative methods

a)

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1Definitions of Marketing

The UK Chartered Institute of Marketing definition is

'The management process responsible for matching resources with opportunities, at a profit, by identifying, anticipating, influencing and satisfying customer demand.'

Clearly this definition reflects the aspirations and interests of an organisation that is run for profit as opposed to a museum that is run primarily for objectives other than profit generation. Considering marketing in terms of a broader range of organisations there are many different academic definitions of marketing but what they all have in common is emphasis on the interaction between an organisation and it's customers or between and organisation and it's stakeholders.

For a museum the customers could be considered to be the visitors whilst the stakeholders are less obvious and wide ranging. Mercer discusses three elements of the marketing triad: -

·Dialogue - to establish what is required

·Relationship - exchange process

·Co-ordination - organise to deliver

Which applies equally well for customers or stakeholders.

1.2Public goods

A museum is a type of public good (actually something which has common ownership) for which the free market with its considerations of supply & demand and competition does not operate. The current policy of not charging for entrance makes the museum a non-excludable common good. That is, no one is excluded from partaking of the offering (all can benefit from government provision of funds) there is no incentive to seek profit through charging.