Marketing the museum

the long version

The history of the museum is one of shifting purposes and changing ideals. Taking a necessarily close look at the specific needs of this sector, this volume asks if it is possible to define the 'product' which the modern museum can offer. Are the theories of marketing developed for manufactured goods in any way relevant to the experience of visiting a museum? Or, as anti-marketing lobbies believe, should marketing play only the smallest of roles, if any at all? In this volume, the marketing of a museum is not seen in terms of 'product', but rather as the process by which one can build a relationship between the museum and the public. This study is the ideal guide to the ways in which museums can overcome the numerous hurdles on the route to truly achieving a marketing orientation. It gives practical guidelines to the specific ways in which marketing can be tailored to the needs of museums and become a useful as well as an acceptable part of today's museums in achieving their ultimate purpose in serving the community.