Coventry Museum - From Denial to Discovery - Research Paper Example

Market Research for the Coventry Museum By Devangini Mahapatra Chauhan As far as the conception of museums and their aims go, they work to reproduceideologies in order to lend credibility and authenticity to the existing order of things. Also, museums have been seen as instruments of social reform, which shows a variety of pattern. The first is that the objects in museums can exceed their designated roles as documents or specimens by revolving around the strategic placement to make them give out a certain message in terms of sounds and images. This conforms to the notion of the museums adopting a certain standard of media culture. The primary role here is to correlate people and material things, so that the museum becomes an important site for the development of new forms of experience, memory and knowledge. As a transport museum, Coventry boasts of the largest arrays in its display of road transport mediums, cars, commercial vehicles and buses, apart from motorbikes and cycles. Through its plethora of galleries like the Introductory Gallery, Landmarques and Boomtime Boomtwon, among many others, this museum has the scope to tap markets other than automobile lovers. This can be done by adopting a certain level of media culture and displaying its millions of archive and ephemera objects in a way that appeal to the sensibilities of even the most average person by showcasing trends like now and ten as well as others like tours that involve no instructions. Set in the place where British automobile and transport was born, this museum displays collectibles that are mostly from a personal collection or gifts apart from the purchased items. (www.transport-museum.com) PART I Problem definition and review of secondary information Having traced the journey from denial to discovery (Rentschler, 2002), museum marketing depends largely on presenting facts in a way that grab interest and offer experiences that most cultural industry based organizations would term as marketing orientation. With a new emphasis on skills and market presence, there is now a concerted effort towards driving resources to create museum visibility in the most unusual places. In thus regard, marketing activities concerning a museum seek to promote a ceratin sense of intrinsic values that will offer motivation to the most unlikely individuals as far as transport and automobiles are concerned, and turn them into visitors. This paper will study the methodology which can be adopted to increase the audience base and market the museum effectively. Coventry has a 303, 475 strong population (www.wikipedia.com) Apart from this, it is strategically situated between the Midlands and Birmingham with a proximity to London. Considering the fact that the Coventry has a large influence from the Midlands, owing to the fact that this is where Britain's tryst with transport really began, it is imperative for the museum's marketing managers to identify the niche crowd that subscribes to the concept of ethnicity, as the Midlands have a large variation in their population in terms of Asian and other communities. This has strong implications towards further research to find out the level of visitation to the museum. The museum is also in dire need of a complete refurnishing plan. This is owing to the problem that it does not, in its present form, cater to the sensibilities of emerging lifetsyle profiles as well as interest areas. Since the 1990s, museums including the Coventry, have seen a surge in studies revolving around experience of visitors and motivation. This laid the foundation for audience research (Doering, 1999; Thyne, 2001) as well as visitor learning (McManus, 1993). It was found that will factors like more upmarket ways that contribute to overall segmentation. These may include profiles that make statements about one's lifestyle or other such factors. (Todd and Lawson, 2001). The focus of museums has also come to include the area of multicultural audience studies, in a bid to include visitors from various walks of life. In this case, my observation is that the displays must take on the mantle of being a lifestyle statement. To further explain this, it is imperative to realize that the lifestyle conscious people need to visit a place that will conceptualize their wider experiences in life and contribute to the same in terms of being awe inspiring and out of the ordinary. Research Plan Coventry will need to resort specifically to qualitative research to arrive at conclusions and findings for marketing planning. For a report of this sort, it is important to have close tie ups with various authorities in the cultural museums so as to make use of their regular reports on various aspects. Further, there is a need to conduct surveys and formulate questionnaires for the same. These questionnaires must ask a few specific and short questions pertaining to the museum's strategies within and even on the outside as far as promotion is concerned. For this, it might be necessary to catch hold of marketing research agencies that will formulate reports on target audiences before moving in on them - whether or not they are visitors to the museum. Also, there needs to be a special emphasis on the use of secondary data pertaining to the recent works on museum marketing so as to learn of the trends being followed. A good volume that shows the trends and results of implementing changes in markets like UK and Australia in this matter is Ruth Rentscheler's Museum Marketing research - From Denial to Discovery Data Collection: Audience and Marketing Research The first element on this paper requires a study of the audience base through qualitative marketing research. With a broadening of the terms social and political positioning to include the culture industry, museums have now come under the purview of trends like audience research. This is apparent in the Coventry Museum where there is now a greater emphasis on tapping into unknown markets and gaining new visitors. In this respect, the museum can apply the concept of audience research as a tool affecting a variety of fields and causes when applied to empirical research concerning audiences of public institutions and events (Almasan et al., 1993). In this regard, the methodology to be adopted by the museum needs to be one that will study the audience on the basis of a need based model which will consider the different ethnicities and indigenous communities they belong to in terms of basic aspirations and standards in life. Therefore, through marketing there is a wide scope to make various observations as long as there is a qualitative methodology in use to carry out research. In this regard, the research questions that will decide which methodology is the best will include, what audience studies with marketing implications have been undertaken in the Coventry and in other parts of UK museums and over what time frame Another question may ask is about what aspects of marketing have been covered. This will make the process more relevant. In the case of the Coventry, these questions will help adopt a case study methodology that will provide deeper insight into the content analysis in the organizational context. Also, this should have a strong connection with the audience research. PART II Data Analysis and Interpretation The qualitative research methodologies discussed above will lead to a variety of data which will need to be analyzed along the lines of specific study areas. These areas have to pertain to broad categories like demographics and age, and to specific categories like lifestyle and societal as well as psychological profile of the visitors and non visitors. Further, this data will need to be interpreted to come to recommendations regarding two specific targets: - Promoting scope for repeated visits from visitors - Promoting scope for converting non visitors into visitors. In this context, one will need to interpret the data gathered to find the factors that contribute to both these aspects of the basic interpretations. Accordingly, one will formulate the recommendations for a congenial marketing mix that will resort to optimum use of both internal and external resources. In this case, the use of promotions like the Visitor Attraction of the Year Award is a good attraction to get non visitors teeming towards the museum. (www.transport-museum.com) Development of a Broader Audience Base is one of the most basic strategies that helps gather data about the broad audience preference and cater to the same. (Rentscheler, 2002) While it primarily seeks to boost the attendance figures exponentially, it is up to the Coventry to decide its social and political positioning to do the same. Further, there must a strong emphasis on interpreting and analysing data to categorise it into estimation of demands for various categories of people. This also adheres to the aspect of demand estimation which will unravel the aspirations of people who visit and what else they would like to see. In this case the museum first needs to identify sources of demand, before projecting the gross number of visitors within a certain time frame and focus on those who have shown up on past attendance lists to. (Rentscheler, 2002) In this case a 1995 report on demand estimation in the cultural industry revealed that the elements most visitors generally look for in a museum are "facilities, performance standards and activities." (Rentscheler, 2002) This will help assess the penetration level and establish targets as far as non visitor populations are concerned. In this regard, underdeveloped demands must be studied in the context of trends and developments that can trigger needs in non visitors as well as visitors, so as to assess further elements for planning the marketing mix. (Rentscheler, 2002) Report on Findings: Recommendations and Conclusions In the final analysis, it is important for the museum to promote beliefs that complete inclusivity owing to the fact that it is based in an area that has a rich ethnic set up as far as demographics go. (Rentscheler, 2002) This can be done by providing facts from various countries and linking them with the displays in the museum. This will require an elevated level of research. A marketing mix with the right proportions of the four P's will go a long way in sealing the museum's long term strategies. This marketing mix must be based on product, price, place, promotion as well as physical support as far as research and better staff goes - this will cement the Museum's standard and create greater market presence. Also, the Coventry's influence as a museum will grow from strength to strength if it aims at total customer satisfaction rather than mere display of material. Further, it must resort to tactics like iconography to promote a certain amount of saleability in the Museum's basic image. For example, it can rope in people racers and movie stars who have played similar roles, in order to promote the museum. This will also contribute to the overall operational quality of the museum. (Rentschler, 2002). In this context, the role of marketing in the museum involves activities that inform the marketing managers about the general choices and preferences. Also, museum marketing research must be in lieu of audience research, by demonstrating a distinctive character of marketing research. In this case, the primary aim of the museum marketing strategy would lie in its use of methods to inform the audience about events and activities in a better way. This will reveal the Coventry's explicit market focus by generating options like better websites and a more general tone to the promotional material which will cater to all age groups and classes of people. In this regard, the marketers of the museum need to come up with varied areas of interest and promote participative means of learning. This can be done by having games and puzzles to reach the facts in the various display galleries with colorful lighting to show each answer. Also important in audience research is non - visitor studies, which gives the museum an impetus to learn about backgrounds and gain information about people the visitors would like to bring there. This can be done by handing a questionnaire to each visitor to fill out before exiting and announcing lucky draws every month for the form that gets chosen. In this way, the museum can also learn about the people who come under the category of non visitors as well as the factors that hinder them - aptitude, interest as well as the lack of multimedia based and interactive display methods. (Economou, 1998) For a museum like Coventry where the theme is a very specific one, there needs to be detailed analysis of the audience base as discussed earlier, The research in this regard may reveal the age grouping as well as the class grouping in and around the area. Accordingly, there needs to an emphasis on researching the possibility of rearranging display areas. These areas may be designed to go by the specific research area. To be more precise, if there is more emphasis on age grouping among the people - as in, if that is the case of the gaps considering some ages may find the Coventry boring - there might be a need to work a model that will display the material according to ages and their respective interests. The methodology in this case needs to reflect a link between various kinds of people - especially the non visitors. Once this link has been established, there is ample scope to work out the relevant theories and put them into practice. To determine what audience studies with marketing implications have been undertaken in the selected museums and over what time frame, the information sought on the museums' audience research activities was analyzed according to the categories provided by the conceptual framework. The interpretation of data in this regard has shown a disparity in the visitor rates to museums across UK, including the Coventry between 1998 and 2002. With renewed efforts on marketing, the museums have reported a growth of almost 33.5% (Tyte et al, 2004) This shows that there is a wide scope for increase with the increase of existing promotional activities. In this regard, the Coventry must fight for greater market visibility and thus, a greater market share, by illustrating the use of automobiles in everyday life, since the time they were born. For this reason, the Coventry has announced a refurnishing plan that will cost the museum 6.9 Million pounds, in which they plan to include new galleries and an expansion over an area of three acres with enhanced facilities. (www.transport-museum.com) One must captivate the audience imagination with facts. A newsletter or pamphlet may simply start by stating an automobile fact that relates to one of their galleries. Basically, the audience base can undergo growth trends if the non visitors and visitors alike are left asking for more. For example, the museum has over 240 cars including commercial vehicles and buses as well as over 100 motorbikes and a million items of archival importance. (www.transport-museum.com) In this context, there is a major need to have separate galleries and possibly, separate promotions for each. For example, the tanks can shifted from the motorcycle gallery to a gallery of their own which will have canons, BMPs and tanks. In this regard, one also needs to address the motivations of demand (Rentscheler, 2002) from the visitor's end in order to assess the values on which motivations are based. This will expose the areas that require improvements as well as the effectiveness of existing promotional plans. This kind of research will also expose the unsatisfied demand (Rentscheler, 2002) and help the Coventry look more closely at visitor needs, wants and interests as well as desired services apart from exhibitions, events and areas that might need to adhere to the existing and future trends and projections. Apart from this, the Coventry needs decide on the approach it needs to employ in order to convert non visitors into visitors and guarantee repeated visits from visitors as well. Further, the barriers to reaching this goal need to be examined in greater detail to formulate a model accordingly. References: 1. Rentscheler, Ruth (Nov, 2002). Museum Marketing research - From Denial to Discovery Australia: Bowater School of Marketing and research, Deakin University. 2. Coventry Museum. URL: www.transport-museum.com (Accessed on: March, 05th, 2007) 3. Economou, M. (1998). The Evaluation of Museum Multimedia Applications: Lessons From Research. Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 17 4. Almasan, A., E.V. Borzyskowski, S. Schambach and H.-J. Klein. (1993). Neue Methoden der Ausstellungsplanung in Museen, final report, Karlsruhe. 5. Todd, S., and R. Lawson. (2001). Lifestyle Segmentation and Museum/Gallery Visiting Behaviour. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, Vol. 6 6. Doering, Z.D. Thyne. (1999). Strangers, Guests, or Clients Visitor Experiences in Museums. Curator, Vol. 42 7. Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia. URL: www.wikipedia.com (Accessed on: 08, March, 2007) 8. Tyte, Stephen W; Selwood, Sara (Nov 2004). Museums in UK - Some Evidence on Scale and Activities. 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