MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY OF THE

MUSEUM OF SALT-MAKING SITUATED IN A NATURE

PARK
Mag. Armand Faganel
University of Primorska/Faculty of Management Koper
6104 Koper, Cankarjeva 5
Phone: ++ 386 5610 2044
Fax: ++ 386 5610 2015
E-mail: armand.faganel@fm-kp.si

Mag. Danijel Bratina

University of Primorska/Faculty of Management Koper
6104 Koper, Cankarjeva 5
Phone: ++ 386 5610 2044
Fax: ++ 386 5610 2015
E-mail: danijel.bratina@fm-kp.si

Scientific paper

ABSTRACT

An increasing number of cultural museums are faced with cuts in governmental financing
and a falling number of yearly visitors. A new concept of customers’ experience is needed to
reverse the trend in visits per year. Customers need to be more involved into a museum’s
service delivery, not only as spectators but as active producers of the service itself – a trend
we call immersion. By making museums and other cultural objects interactive enhances
consumers’ experience by adding fun to learning. Our research studies the Museum of Salt-
Making marketing communication strategy and customer satisfaction through visitors’ survey
and SWOT analysis. In introduction a brief historical report is given, followed by
methodology description, analysis of the research. In conclusion chapter a strategy, based on
research results is proposed.

Key words: salt-pans, salt-making, cultural heritage, marketing museum services, marketing
communication, edutainment

STRATEGIJA MARKETING KOMUNIKACIJE MUZEJA

PROIZVODNJE SOLI SMJEŠTENOG U PARKU PRIRODE
Znanstveni rad

SAŽETAK

Sve veći broj kulturnih muzeja suočeno je sa smanjenjem državnog financiranja te

smanjenjem godišnjeg broja posjetitelja. Potreban je novi koncept o doživljaju potrošača,
ukoliko se želi doći do obrnutog trenda u broju posjeta na godinu. Potrošači bi trebali biti više

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uključeni u uslugu koju muzej nudi, i to ne samo kao promatrači, već kao aktivni sudionici u
stvaranju same usluge – trend koje mi nazivamo uronjavanje. Ta interaktivnost u muzejima i
drugim kulturnim objektima obogaćuje doživljaj potrošača, tako što učenje čini zabavnim.
Naše istraživanje analizira strategiju marketing komunikacije Muzeja proizvodnje soli i
zadovoljstvo potrošača putem ankete posjetitelja i SWOT analizom. U uvodu dajemo kratki
povijesni pregled, nakon kojeg slijedi opis metodologije te analiza istraživanja. U zaključnom
dijelu predlažemo strategiju temeljenu na rezultatima istraživanja.

Ključne riječi: solana, proizvodnja soli, kulturno nasljeñe, marketing usluga muzeja,
marketing komunikacije, učenje kroz zabavu (Edutainment)

495
 INTRODUCTION

This paper deals with the activities of the Museum of Salt-Making - a branch of the Sergej
Mašera Marine Museum Piran located at the formerly used Sečovlje salt-pans and the
marketing of museum services. The main accent is on the interpretation of market research
regarding the consumers of museum services, and on the appropriate marketing strategy.
We combined the theory and practice of museum services marketing, including an
analysis of the results of the research, made between museum visitors regarding the museum's
position and offer of services, and a presentation of the environment in which the museum
services are provided. The information obtained serves as basis for drawing up a strategy for
the development and performance of museum services, aimed at a qualitative and quantitative
satisfaction of the museum visitors' needs.
The museum complex encloses three restored salt-pan houses, their salt pools and the
Giassi channel as the main supply of seawater. One of the restored houses comprises a
collection dealing with the old salt-making in general, while the other contains a salt
repository and contemporarily furnished rooms and kitchen that can be used during summer
months by people working in salt pools and occasionally, by individuals or groups involved in
research and pedagogical work. In the third house a naturalistic centre is supposed to be set
up, with emphasis on the pans' ornithology and on the salt-pans as a Ramsar protected site.
The salt-makers' dwelling is comprised of three buildings: a two-storied house, where the
family lived on the 1st floor and stored the salt on the ground floor, and a reconstructed
bakery, the curiosity of the Sečovlje salt-works. The buildings and the salt-pans were restored
by the Inter-Communal Office for the Preservation of the Natural and Cultural Heritage,
which has its seat in Piran. The collection exhibited in the Museum of Salt-Making was
created by the Sergeja Mašera Maritime Museum of Piran. The museum works were finished
in the spring of 1991.
In the restored salt-pans a group of salt-workers use traditional methods and tools. A
systematic scheme of how salt-pans function can be seen on the ground floor of the Museum.
Any of the salt-workers in the salt-pans of the museum will gladly explain the traditional
method of work. The rich cultural testimony has placed the Sečovlje and Strunjan salt-pans to
the level of ethnological, technical, historical and landscape heritage of exceptional
importance at the national scale. Since 1990, both complexes have been protected by
municipal decrees within two landscape parks as their most important entities. In 2001, the
area of Giassi channel and Cavana 131 at the Sečovlje salt-pans was proclaimed a cultural
monument of national concern.1
Non-profit museums have a unique set of different affairs to approach when thinking
about their strategic possibilities. They have been confronted with several related phenomena
during the past years: decrease of government financing, a relatively low engagement of
visitors within the museum setting, and a falling number of repeat visitors. 2
Perhaps the most persistent obstacle in changing the strategy direction is the expectation
that the facility is a static repository of viewing spaces that is open during regular business
hours. Customers expect innovation and creativity, and changing business models can be
found globally to compare and provide museums with innovation. 3

1
Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum (2004), “The Museum of Salt-Making”, (accessed August 2, 2007),
[available at: http://www2.arnes.si/~kppomm/frames/english/english.htm].
2
Bradburne, J. (2001), “A new strategic approach to the museum and its relationship to the society”,
Management and Curatorship, 19 (1), 75-84.
3
Roper, K.O., Beard J.L. (2005), Strategic Facility Planning for Museums, Museum Management and
Curatorship, 19 (1), 57-68.

496
 Figure 1. The Museum's salt-pans with the house in the background.

We discuss the possible consumption of museum services as a form of edutainment, when

the individual is enjoying himself and learning at the same time. The object of the
edutainment experience, unlike the subject, is different from any other form of consumption
because a message has replaced the object in the general interactive scheme, and this message
has both an educational and an entertaining content.
Another aspect to be closely examined, because of the permanent reduction of public
funding, is the increasing role and meaning of corporate social responsibility, sponsorship of
cultural organizations and the efforts that have to be made in this direction.

MUSEUMS IN NEW CONTEXT

American Association of Museums (AAM) discussed the role museums play in public
education and framed the question of how museums – as multi dimensional, socially
responsible institutions with huge capacity for bringing knowledge to the public and enriching
all facets of the human experience – help to nurture a humane citizenry equipped to make
informed choices in a democracy and to address the challenges and opportunities of an
increasingly global society? 4
In 1997 AAM charted its current strategic agenda and defined that the first of five main
goals was to help museums anticipate and respond to changing community needs5. In 1998
the International Council of Museums (ICOM) identified as two of its strategic objectives the
need for the museum profession to adapt to changing global situations, and the need to
support museums as institutions of social and cultural development. 6
The ongoing discussion of how museums have increased their societal context has
attracted much commentary by the news and media in recent years. While national museums
have been criticized by some as bland, and major art museums have been challenged to

4
AAM - American Association of Museums, (1992), Excellence and Equity - Education and the Public
Dimension of Museums, Washington, D.C.: American Association of Museums: 8.
5
AAM - American Association of Museums, (1997), Strategic Agenda, FY 1998-2000: A Report to the
Membership, Museum News, (September/October 1997).
6
ICOM - International Council of Museums, (1998), Program Highlights for ICOM Activities for 1999, 2000
and 2001, ICOM News 51 (Special Issue): 26-27.

497
present the prevailing historical circumstances to the collection they display, not all accounts
have been so critical.
The tremendous advances in global travel, communication, and media reach have led to
suggestions that cultures are converging and that the globalizing of markets will create, or at
least lead to, a common culture worldwide (…) but the global resurgence in ethnic identity
and pride suggests that at superficial aspects of behaviour converge, people tend to cling more
to their own sense of cultural identity. Seen in comparison with society in general, it can be
stated that as reality becomes more artificial, the arts become more real. Costa and Bamossy
note in connection to tourism and museums that one can spot a quest for authenticity in
contemporary consumer behaviour, “A search for the ‘real’, for what seems true to the
experience and to the actuality”.7

RESEARCH

Methodology. The use of qualitative methodologies in consumer behavior studies is

nowadays a common practice. Buttle8 discussed what are the affordances and limitations of
positivistic science in the field of consumer research. One of the key issues is the nature of
behavior itself, which is not always susceptible to the application of natural science laws.
Consequently, there is a growing emphasis on the study of behavior in micro environments,
strongly based in the social context of the situation9. Glasser and Strauss presented the
grounded theory10. However the transition of grounded theory from sociology to the literature
on consumer behavior is recent.

After Goulding11, grounded theory was intended as a methodology for generating theory
which is systematically gathered and analyzed. The theory evolves during the research
process itself and is a product of continuous exchange between analysis and data
collection9,12,13. The researcher has to enter the field with an open mind and allow hypotheses
to develop from the data. These hypotheses are then checked through the collection of further
data. Knowledge is seen as actively constructed, with meanings of existence to an experiential
world. Therefore, the focus becomes one of how people behave within a specific social
context14. Consequently, given that the idea was to explore the meaning of the heritage
experience, it made sense, at least in the initial stages, to conduct the enquiry at the site, or
point of experience.
SWOT analysis. Very often it is difficult to distinguish between SWOT analysis and
situation analysis in the museum. It is very important for museum management to be at most
included and identified with the museum. With both analysis museum as professional

7
Costa, Janeen Arnold and Garry J. Bamossy (1995), “Perspectives on Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural
Identity”, in Marketing in a multicultural world: Ethnicity, nationalism, and cultural identity, J.A. Costa and
G.J. Bamossy, eds. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publication, Inc.
8
Buttle, F. (1998), Rule theory: understanding the social construction of consumer behaviour, Journal of
Marketing Management: Special Edition on Consumer Behaviour, 14 (1-3), 63-94.
9
Brown, S. (1995), Postmodern Marketing. London: Routledge.
10
Glaser, B., Strauss, A. (1968), The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research.
London; Weidenfield and Nicolson.
11
Goulding, C. (1999), Heritage, nostalgia and the “grey” consumer, Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied
Marketing Science, 5 (6/7/8), 177-199.
12
Charmaz, K. (1983), The grounded theory method: an explication and interpretation, in Emerson. R. (Eds),
Contemporary Field Research: a Collection of Readings, Boston: Little Brown & Co.
13
Strauss, A., Corbin, J., (1994), Grounded theory methodology: an overview, in Denzin, N., Lincoln, Y. (Eds),
Handbook of Qualitative Research, California: Sage.
14
O’Callaghan, J. (1996), Grounded theory: a potential methodology, Counselling Psychological Review, 11 (1),
23-8.

498
institution recognizes its own identified. SWOT analysis Museum of Salt-making services
comprises internal environment, consisting of internal weaknesses and internal strengths.
Museum strengths’: the only European museum of this kind; attractive location of
Museum of Salt-Making (abandoned salt-pans in Natural Park Sečoveljske soline) in a tourist
developed community; important cultural-historical role of salt-pans (salt-pans houses
reconstruction); preserving of natural values and cultural heritage of environment; great
number of visitors (repeating visits of school groups, families, individual visitors); salt-pans
theme included in school programs; enthusiastic contact personnel and museum team;
volunteers; incomes from selling salt and souvenirs; specific high quality services offer.
Every museum has certain qualities and strengths that can be used for success. It is important
to know how to use the existing strengths (unique subject, special atmosphere, professional
staff, good location, openhearted sponsors).
Weaknesses: relatively bad access to museum (macadam road, exit from public road is
situated between boarders), museum is closed in winter season; truncated visit in bad weather
(mud, sea); lack of marketing museum services skills and knowledge; lack of competition and
demand market research; disordered infrastructure (no toilettes, parking place). We can get rid
of some of weaknesses depending on the level of the employees’ professionalism (museology
as science is also criticism of profession).
Opportunities: to become carrier of scientific research and museology activities, related to
salt-pans and salt-pans ecosystems; natural and cultural-historical exploitation; acquiring state
and European funding; interest of local people for tourist development of Sečovlje salt-pans
nature park; repair ruined salt-pans houses to locations with additional tourist offer;
opportunity to offer genuine, natural, authentic products (salt in different forms); create an
adequate promotional mix. Probable challenges are anything in the museum or outside;
potential of the collection; possibility of planning new programs, necessary for development
of local tourism; organizing camps, etc.
Threats: decaying infrastructure (channels, dykes); unsettled proprietarily relationships
between community and state; unregulated relationships between competent institutions
(nature protection and protection of cultural heritage); severe protective regime; lack of funds,
designed for infrastructure; lack of sponsorships and donations; competition from a host of
other tourist and cultural/educational venues.
Field research. We performed the inquiry in a wider circle of visitors. Questionnaire was
developed in an understandable and clear way. Obtained information can be divided to:
quantitative – basics of concrete market, demand, share of different visitors, demographic
data; and qualitative information and data – demands and requests of visitors, satisfaction
with delivered service. Questionnaire represents certain structured set of questions, to obtain
visitors opinions, to operate with in further business decisions. The role of questionnaire is to
provide a standardized interview across all subjects. The questionnaire is a medium of
communication between the researcher and the subject, albeit sometimes administered on the
researcher’s behalf by an interviewer. 15
Research of museum services consumers consisted of several phases: a) preliminary stage
of research: a statement of the problem (museum services consumers analysis) and the market
research proposal (research goals, the information required and sources, the accuracy, the
budget, the timetable); b) research execution (collecting, arranging, analyzing information and
data, forming conclusions and interpretation).

15
Brace, I. (2004), Questionnaire Design: How to Plan, Structure and Write Survey Material for Effective
Market Research. London: Kogan Page.

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 Table 1. Visitors’ structure in years.
2002 2003 2004
Adults 2.589 5.997 6.668
Children 330 495 1.563
School groups 6.226 6.937 6.665
Pensioners 273 822 2324
Total 9.418 14.251 17.220

Source: Museum statistics.

Research was conducted between April, 15th and June, 30th 2005. It was planned with
intent to capture biggest possible segment and was prepared in three languages, because of the
nearby tourist centers. As we expected not serious answering from pupils, we asked teachers
to answer to the questionnaire on school groups behalf. They also decide about possible
repeat visit to the museum in next years. Questionnaires were fulfilled after visit conclusion,
70 questionnaires were correctly returned.
The Museum of Salt-Making visitors’ structure over past years shows us the
predominance of adults and school groups. Another growing visitors segment is retired
people. In year 2004, 17,200 people visited salt-pans museum, 39% of them were adults, 9%
of children, 38% school groups, and 14% of pensioners. In 2003 visits increased for 51%,
because of newly opened collection with reconstructed salt warehouse, where can be seen
pictures from the past with exhibits.

Table 2. Number of visits to the Museum of Salt-Making.

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
First visit 21 42 16 80
Second visit 8 16 3 15
More visits 21 42 1 5

Source: Research.

Vital for any museum is to induce visitors to return back. We can see from results that
58% of groups came to visit the Museum of Salt-Making twice or more, mostly school
groups. Individuals came to visit in 80% for the first time, probably due to foreign visitors.
Because of distant location they do not come back easily. Fact that individual visitors with
personal vehicles burden the environment and because of the Museum of Salt-Making
location inside natural park, where they treat this problems with special care, results in
decision of management to communicate in a less aggressive way and more gradual to this
segment.

Table 3. Way of arrival to the Museum of Salt-Making.

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
With car, bus 42 84 13 65
Walking, bicycle 2 4 5 25
By boat 6 12 2 10

Source: Research.

Movement inside Natural park Sečoveljske soline is limited; this reduces accessibility to
the Museum of Salt-Making. With summer high temperatures or in bad weather visitors
wouldn’t decide to visit this destination, as they have to walk for 3 km. Alternative sea-side
transport is also weather dependent, shore is inaccessible with low tide. Fairs cost is relatively

500
high; they exceed the museum entrance fee more than twice. All this and 15 years of museum
existence dictates special care in solving this question.
They could add direct personalized offers on internet or by e-mails for schools,
agencies, carriers and other excursion organizers.

Table 4. Noticed promotional activities of Museum of Salt-Making.

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
Article, TV 16 32 6 30
Personal contact 6 12 3 15
At school 29 58 5 25
Web site 0 0 0 0
Tourist information 4 8 5 25
Road signs 1 2 0 0
other 6 12 2 10

Source: Research.

There is also a lot of space in linking with existing tourist structures on Slovene coast, as
hotels, tourist information centers, marinas, auto camps, restaurants, public parking lots, gas
stations. Of course, museum itself can not start or carry out such a complex action alone.

Table 5. Is the access to Museum of Salt-Making clearly signed?

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
Yes 37 74 12 60
No 7 14 8 40
Don’t know 6 12 0 0

Source: Research.

Accessibility of museums is one of key questions, which reflects in every strategy

preparations. And this is the segment, where Museum of Salt-Making encounters most of
problems and in this limitations are located important obstacles for further development.
Accessibility of museums is a term that can be defined as the possibility of as much as
possible unimpeded access in physical meaning (car access, handicapped persons access,
children access, etc.) and convenient visiting hours for visitors. Additional weakness for
Museum of Salt-Making is the fact that it’s only road access is situated between Croatian and
Slovene boarder control. With the Schengen regime implementation on southern Slovene
border, the situation will only get worse.

Table 6. Appropriateness of opening hours.

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
Appropriate 44 88 20 100
Inappropriate 1 2 0 0
Don’t know 5 10 0 0

Source: Research.

Visiting hours are another very important factor for visitors’ satisfaction. On the Museum
of Salt-Making location exist no electrical grid, and visiting hours are adapted to the day light,
however average tourist spends these hours on the beach taking sunbath. There is no

501
possibility to heath the museum, so museum can not work in the winter time between
November and March; visit is possible only for announced organized groups. Conditions
don’t allow any other improvements and 11 hours long opening is the best thing, management
could do objectively.

Table 7. Evaluation of chosen themes presentation.

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
Unsatisfactory 1 2 0 0
Satisfactory 20 40 13 65
Good 29 58 7 35

Source: Research.

Table 8. Evaluation of guiding through the museum.

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
Unsatisfactory 2 4 0 0
Satisfactory 8 16 2 10
Good 39 78 16 80
Not guided visit 1 2 2 10

Source: Research.

Table 9. Evaluation of entrance fee, paid by visitors.

No. of groups Percentage % No. of individual visitors Percentage %
Low 4 8 1 5
Appropriate 42 84 16 80
High 4 8 2 10

Source: Research.
We can see that 98% of visitors expressed satisfaction with museum collection and
presentation of chosen themes, positive answer to the guiding and employees’ responsiveness
gave over 90% of interviewed visitors. Entrance fee was set too high only for 10% of visitors.
Functioning of Natural Park is not quite simple, because there are some disagreements
between Ministry of Environment and Space, and Culture Ministry. Visitor of the Museum of
Salt-Making can see the difference between both offers, but it is very difficult to explain this
to a potential visitor. Inside the Natural Park, company Soline produces salt and manages
Natural Park. They have also a souvenir shop and multimedia center for Natural Park visitors.
In multimedia center they show natural heritage, and they also guide visitors through Natural
Park to demonstrate salt-making technology. In the Museum of Salt-Making production lies
on the shoulders of singular worker or his family, in the Natural Park the production is
differentiated.

DISCUSSION

Strategy is the way the Museum of Salt-Making will choose to reach planned goals.
Beside strategic goals, museum has to determine also the vision and mission of their activity.
Mission is the reason for the museum existence. Vision of Maritime Museum Sergej Mašera
and of dislocated unit of the Museum of Salt-Making is to gain old salt warehouse Monfort or
new building near Marine Biology Station Piran. Setting new Maritime Museum would allow
building effective organization of museum activities, quality presentation of museum

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collections and performance of educational work, connected with upbringing relation to
mobile and immovable cultural and technical heritage, assuring space for safeguarding
museum collections and rational organization of depots, to preserve actual down falling and
disappearing heritage. The acquisition of new buildings would allow the Maritime Museum to
become leading museum on the field of maritime and naval history on the eastern side of
Adriatic Sea and leading museum of salt-making in Mediterranean. Strategic goal is to
establish long-term competitive advantage on market, with development of new competitive
services, acquiring new visitors, creating adequate image of the Museum of Salt-Making.
In near future a big project is to start on the field of reconstruction of Venice arsenal
(shipyard) and preparative work to open a museum of salt-making in Trapani and Cervia
(Italy). New and different ways of funding are needed (donations, sponsoring, international
projects, Phare, Interreg) for restoration and maintaining of salt-pans infrastructure.
One of management strategies is the expansion of museum complex. Maritime Museum
has already prepared an outline scheme for expansion of activities of the museum of salt-
making collection. Main accent is on increased role of educational programs, from elementary
school to university. In first phase they would restore six houses, where they would offer
seminars and workshops in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, history, geography,
anthropology, etc.
We would recommend joining the forces with the management of Natural Park and
upgrading the multimedia center of Park to add edutainment form of services. In the last few
years there has been massive growth in the use of digital technologies for learning in
museums, science centers and galleries – both on-site in the form of digital interactives, and
online via the creation of ever-more popular websites. 16

According to experiential interpretation, consumption is the experience derived from the

interaction between a subject (the consumer), and an object within a given context. It is only
from the interaction of these two entities that experience can originate. The interpretation of
consumption as an interactive event between a subject and an object allows an innovative
interpretation of cultural consumption. The consumption of art and culture may be interpreted
as a form of edutainment, as the individual is enjoying himself and learning at the same time.
The object of the edutainment experience, unlike the subject, is different from any other form
of consumption: a message has replaced the object in the general interactive scheme, and this
message has both an educational and an entertaining content. The subject, i.e. the consumer,
expresses his own personality adding, there and then, his subjective responses to the
experience. The message contribution (the entertainment and education content) and the
consumer's contribution (his subjective responses) together give rise to the individual's
edutainment experience. 17
Both the concepts of “involvement” and “flow” were used in studies about experience
similar to edutainment, which require the consumer's most active participation, to the point
that he can be identified as a producer instead of as a consumer18, 19. Both involvement and
immersion can only be modified in the course of time, and they are both defined with
reference to a single individual. However, there are profound differences between them. First,

16
Hawkey R. (2004), Learning with Digital Technologies in Museums, Science Centres and Galleries. Report 9.
Bristol: Futurelab.
17
Addis, M. (2005), New technologies and cultural consumption – edutainment is born! European Journal of
Marketing, 39 (7/8), 729-736.
18
Celsi, R.L., Rose R.L., Leigh T.W. (1993), An exploration of high-risk leisure consumption through
skydiving, Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (June), 1-23.
19
Hopkinson, G.C., Pujari D. (1999), A factor analytic study of the sources of meaning in hedonic consumption,
European Journal of Marketing, 33 (3/4,: 273-90.

503
while involvement has been mainly studied within the research of information at the decision-
making moment of the purchase, immersion is analyzed from a perspective based on
experience, and therefore it refers to the consumer's experience as a whole.
Second, while involvement is generally considered a cognitive concept20, the term
immersion highlights both the cognitive component and the “arousal” component. 21
Third, unlike involvement, immersion is more general than the concept of involvement as
it represents the condition felt by individual in the interaction experience inside a virtual
environment. The second concept where analogies and differences can be found is flow22, 23,
24
. In marketing the concept of flow has been used and put into practice in different ways25.
The experience of flow is intrinsically satisfying: living such an experience is in itself a
motive and a source of personal satisfaction. Even though the concept of flow is very close to
that of edutainment immersion experience, this last is more appropriate in order to indicate a
possible difference of intensity.
Unlike flow, immersion is not a transcending experience26. The convergence of education
and entertainment, favored by the diffusion of technology and its use, involves a very high
risk for institutions that are trying to cling to their past history and their traditional managerial
behavior. Institutions like these need to use technological applications to increase the value of
what they can offer to the consumer. For example, the learning process of the visitors of a
museum will not be impaired by the entertaining use of new technologies; instead the memory
of their experience will be reinforced and reinvigorated. The experiential interpretation of
consumer behavior has been one of the most innovative fields of study in these last 20 years,
and it is even more promising for the future of marketing, as it is spreading into product
categories that are far from being hedonistic. 27
Objects are the unique attribute of museum and most of the learning issues are similar,
whether interactives are mechanical or digital, on-site or online. After interactivity, the goal of
many museums is learner participation. This may involve simple feedback (often digital
voting), digital storage of images and ideas (for subsequent remote retrieval) or even
contributing directly to museum’s own exhibits and interpretation. Hawkey28 says that digital
technologies facilitate many kinds of collaboration – between museum and learner, between
different institutions and among learners themselves. In many ways the opposite of
collaboration, digital technologies also facilitate personalization. Freed from the constraints,
both physical and interpretative, of the curator and exhibition designer, the learner can use
appropriate technologies to provide a dedicated and personal mentor. This makes possible to
provide a learning potential of a versatile and mobile information source that is under the
control of the learner.
There could be noticed a conflict between goals of performing arts institutions, as Costa
and Bamossy29 expressed them:

20
Rajaniemi, P. (1992), Conceptualization of product involvement as a property of a cognitive structure,
Doctoral dissertation, Acta Wasaensia, 29, Vaasa: Universitas Wasaensis, Finland.
21
Holbrook, M.B., Hirschman E.C. (1982), The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies,
feelings, and fun, Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (2), 132-40.
22
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1977), Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
23
Csikszentmihalyi, M. and E. Rochberg-Halton (1981), The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the
Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24
Novak, T.P., Hoffman D.L., Yung Y.-F. (2000), “Measuring the customer experience in online environments:
a structural modeling approach”, Marketing Science, 19 (1), 22-42.
25
Celsi, R.L., Rose R.L., Leigh T.W. (1993), op.cit.
26
Hopkinson, G.C., Pujari D. (1999), op.cit.
27
Addis, M. (2005), “New technologies and cultural consumption – edutainment is born!”, European Journal of
Marketing, 39 (7/8): 729-736.
28
Hawkey, R. (2004), op. cit.
29
Costa, Janeen Arnold, Garry J. Bamossy (1995), op. cit.

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 - focus on sanctity, authenticity and protection of the object,
- realizing economic goals of the institution, and
- democratization of education, knowledge, and access to the object.

Regarding future research, Semenik30 suggests that for the art patronage market, the
traditionally quantitative research methods seem insufficient to capture the experiential nature
of the consumption, so he recommends the turn to more qualitative and interpretative methods
to research the complex and emotional dimensions involved in consumption of art events.
To conclude, increasing the museum’s sensitivity to its social impact, ad the ongoing
search for greater relevance to community needs, is an intellectually satisfying area of work.
More importantly, this work can also be financially rewarding for the museum. A mission of
relevancy to the community attracts external funding from corporations, foundations, and
individuals who also want to help make positive differences in the world. The challenge
facing the museum field, both in science centers and elsewhere, is to create compelling
experiences on subjects of importance in ways that increasingly attract society to view
museums as engaging resources for lifelong learning. 31

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