Identity and Vision: Designing Marketing Strategies for Art Museums in Serbia
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNIVERSITY OF ARTS IN BELGRADE Centre for Interdisciplinary studies UNIVERSITE LUMIERE LYON 2 Faculté d'Anthropologie et de Sociologie UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management Master thesis IDENTITY AND VISION: DESIGNING MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR ART MUSEUMS IN SERBIA By: Marja Bastajić Supervisor: Prof. Divna Vuksanović, PhD Belgrade, September 2008 Acknowledgement My sincere and deepest gratitude goes to my mentor, Prof. Divna Vuksanović, who supported and helped by work on this thesis, to Prof. Milena Dragićević Šešić, for her precious assistance, to French Cultural Centre for giving me the opportunity to experience and explore the prosperity of Paris museums during my internship in Musée d’Orsay where I developed the initial idea for my thesis, and, above all, to my family, for believing in me and encouraging me along the way. 2 ABSTRACT At present time, when marketing becomes indispensable tool for communication and outreach of public not-for-profit institutions such as museums, where it implies many different segments of operation – from market and visitor research to audience development, and when the concept of museum’s mission is being changed from object-based to audience- based (marketing-driven), Serbian museums have found themselves in the need for a change. The process of museums’ reform in Serbia, which started in 2001 when some innovative concepts, programmes and ideas begun to develop and adapt to new management (and marketing) “styles”, has nevertheless shown to be very slow and inconclusive due to unsystematic approach and non-existence of adequate cultural policy framework for museum field, which makes difficult to design strategies of organizational development, among which also marketing strategy. This, however, is not the only problem. It can be argued that museums in Serbia are still predominantly of traditional orientation, not so much “open” to apply new means of audience development, while still perceiving marketing not as an investment but as an (unnecessary) expense. They have small (and undiversified) audience, and have a prevailing image of “conservative, unattractive and closed” institutions. It is also argued that marketing is only superficially understood and employed in Serbian museums, that there are no formulated marketing or audience development strategies, as well as that museums’ educational role is mostly neglected. Serbian museums should embrace innovative management practices, marketing strategies and tools, because current situation is unsustainable. They must improve and expand their offer and activities, attract new audience and create new image, as they do have capacities and potentials to do so. Thus, our paper intends to give an answer to the question “How to make museums in Serbia attractive, innovative and progressive cultural centres?” and “How would introduction of marketing-based strategies help Serbian museums to attract audience?” The research was approached on the basis of the theory and practice of marketing of non- profit cultural institutions, theories of museology and of organizational development, as well as on the interviews conducted with the directors and PR managers of several Belgrade museums. The main research question includes the identity and state of art of Serbian, notably Belgrade museums, on one side, and European, particularly French, models of museum management and marketing as positive case studies, on the other. The study aims to identify requirements of museum marketing and how they can be approached in Serbian cases. It should examine 3 and evaluate the existent marketing practices, determine main problems and potentials, and give recommendations for improvement of Serbian museums in this sense. Final chapters confirmed the previously held hypotheses while analysing and summarizing the findings, as well as introduced proposals and suggestions in relation to identified problems, based on the theory of museum marketing and organizational development as well as leading tendencies and ongoing practices of European museums. Key words: museum, marketing, strategic planning, image, identity, audience, product/service offer, mission, vision. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT ............................................................................... 13 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 13 1.2 The aim of the thesis .......................................................................................................... 17 1.3 The main research questions .............................................................................................. 18 1.4 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 19 2. MUSEUMS AND MARKETING ..................................................................................... 23 2.1 The role of marketing in (art) museums / a shift from traditional to modern museum ..... 23 2.2 Examples of Good Practice / Audience-Based Approach ............................................ 28 2.2.1 Musée d’Orsay ................................................................................................................ 29 2.2.2 Musée du Quai Branly .................................................................................................... 35 2.2.3 Centre Georges Pompidou .............................................................................................. 39 2.3 Museum marketing tools – a must for modern museums ............................................ 43 2.3.1 Audience and market research ........................................................................................ 48 2.3.2 Segmentation and targeting ............................................................................................. 53 2.3.3 Positioning – identity and image..................................................................................... 54 2.3.4 The marketing mix .......................................................................................................... 57 2.3.5 Partnerships, fundraising, profit ...................................................................................... 67 3. SERBIAN MUSEUMS ..................................................................................................... 69 3.1 Introduction (object-based museums, traditional approach) .............................................. 69 3.2. Marketing in Belgrade museums: the chosen case studies.......................................... 71 3.2.1 National Museum ............................................................................................................ 71 3.2.2 Museum of Contemporary Art ........................................................................................ 79 3.2.3 Museum of Applied Art .................................................................................................. 85 3.2.4 Museum of African Art ................................................................................................... 89 3.2.5 Belgrade City Museum ................................................................................................... 94 3.3 Summary of findings and comparative analysis ........................................................... 98 4. MARKETING SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SERBIAN MUSEUMS ........................................................................................................................... 116 4.1 How to redefine the image and identity of Serbian museums? ....................................... 119 4.2 The 4Ps of the new programme/service offer .................................................................. 121 4.3 Audience development and the new role of museums in Serbia ..................................... 126 4.4 How to diversify financial and human resources in Serbian museums? ......................... 128 4.5 Partnership and networking as a solution ........................................................................ 132 5. CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................. 137 5 6. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 142 7. ANNEX ............................................................................................................................. 153 8. ABOUT THE AUTHOR ................................................................................................. 156 6 Résumé Aujourd’hui, alors que le marketing représente un outil de communication indispensable et touche les institutions à but non lucratives comme les musées, ce qui comprend plusieurs ségments de l’opération – de la recherche du marché et des visiteurs au développement du public, et lorsque le concept de la mission du musée se transforme de celui qui est orienté vers l’objet à celui qui est orienté vers le public (poussé par le marketing), on peut constater un grand besoin de changement dans les musées en Serbie. Le processus de la réforme des musées en Serbie, qui a débuté en 2001 lorsque de nouveaux concepts, programmes et idées innovatrices ont commencé à se développer et se sont adaptés aux nouveaux “styles” du management (et du marketing) s’est pourtant montré très lent et sans solutions faute du manque d’approche systématique et d’encadrement de politique culturelle adéquate