The four ‘C’s of museum marketing: proposing marketing mix guidelines for museums.

Abstract

This article proposes marketing mix guidelines to empower museums to achieve greater visibility thereby achieve their missions. The four ‘C’s of museum marketing are customer value, cost, convenience and communication. The proposed museum marketing mix guidelines are informed by an extensive literature review. In order to create customer value, museums should develop product offerings that match the everchanging needs of all the segments of their target audience. In terms of determining costs, museums should take into account their missions with some museums having to serve public interests. In an effort to increase convenience, museums should use travelling exhibitions and virtual exhibits. Marketing communication tools should be deployed in an integrated manner to ensure message consistency and maximum impact. The article provides a marketing mix framework to guide museums on how to package and sell their value propositions and also makes some useful general recommendations.

Keywords

• museum marketing
• arts marketing
• customer value
• cost
• convenience
• communication