Original post on Nigerian Tribune
Over the years, there has been an increase in awareness by culture stakeholders that museums can be utilised for the purpose of education, information, leisure, empowerment, and above all, a source of revenue generation.
As a matter of fact, the museum in Nigeria has not been well marketed to the general public, especially on the significance of the Nigerian cultural heritage.
The essence of this is that, the museum, where the nation’s cultural artifacts are domiciled, has not been harnessed to its fullness, thereby contribute to the sustainable development of the cultural sector.
Therefore, the need to sensitise our minds on how to market museum services to the general public and tourists through the application of marketing mix becomes imperative.
Since technology is constantly changing and Nigerians are increasingly being fascinated with the Western culture, to the detriment of the indigenous cultures of the country, there is, therefore, the need to inform the public.
The museum is a non-profit making institution which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits for purpose of study, education and enjoyments materials evidence of man and his environment.
Museums services, on the other hand, can be described as a range of services offered to the general public, tourists and potential tourists by museums institutions in exchange for consideration such as fee charges and free donation from interested public.
Marketing is, therefore, one of the ways through which the museum can be made to reach more people. Marketing can be defined as human activities directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes. This could be related also to the museum institution where human activities such as collection of artifacts, artwork, identification heritage sites, provision of information about the objects collected, issuance of clearance permit, preservation and protection of movable and immovable objects and also educating the general public, are geared towards the satisfaction of customers and tourists requests or needs in exchange for fees charged.
Marketing mix refers to the combination of elements which must be mixed together in a unique manner while devising marketing strategy for an organisation. Therefore, marketing museum services implies effectively using the elements of the marketing mix to efficiently achieve the goals of museum services.
The totality of marketing school of thought refers to the components of a marketing mix as four Ps, which are Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
Products: A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition use or consumption. In the context of museum, the term, product, means a physical object, both movable and immovable. It must be noted that most of the objects housed in museums are priceless, and cannot be sold, but can be marketed through attracting the general public and tourists to them.
The applicability of marketing philosophy and principles to physical industries of physical products is now very well demonstrated all over the world.
The packaging of goods and services has become extremely important, partly because of the role they play in attracting visitors or customers.
There have been revolutionary changes in styles and packaging of museums product to be more attractive, and museums objects can be improved in terms of showcasing them in enclosed glasses in the galleries.
As a result, museum services could equally be marketed like other physical products, as the marketing concepts and philosophies also apply in museums.
Therefore, the elements of the marketing mix are very suitable to the museum, and if museums are to survive competition in the present day Nigerian economy, the institution should vigorously adopt all aspects of the marketing mix to the latter, for its sustainability.
Museum managers’ perception of marketing should shift rapidly to advertising, focusing more on targeted audience, tourists’ orientations, researches and service products development, especially towards attracting the general public and interested tourists.