To Market, To Market:

The importance of collections care is already understood. A public awareness survey conducted by the Gallup Organization in June 1996 revealed that 95 percent of Americans either strongly agree or agree that "the collections in our nation's museums, libraries and historic houses need to be preserved." This is further supported by a survey of museum visitors conducted by NIC in 1995, which found 95 percent "definitely agree" that collections need to be preserved. Although Americans agree that these collections need to be preserved, there is a substantial gap between the expected role of the institution and the preceived adequacy of its resources. In fact, 38 percent either disagree or strongly disagree that these instititions have enough resources. This gap gives the cultural preservation community a key leverage point with which to pursue expanded funding and patronage.

To make this demonstrated interest work to the field's advantage, conservation and preservation professionals must use an organized and creative process--;commonly called marketing--;to communicate their goals. This booklet will outline the fundamentals of marketing and demonstrate how they can be applied to collections care, conservation and preservation. It will also identify what the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property (NIC) has discovered to be the target needs of and audiences for conservation.

WHAT IS MARKETING?

Since marketing is a technique traditionally used by the for-profit sector, many nonprofit institutions believe that it is not applicable to furthering their missions. Marketing is not only applicable, it is essential to the survival of every organization. Imagine not advertising a new museum exhibition, not instructing patrons on the use a library, or not establishing a potential client list for a private conservation practice!

In the most basic sense marketing is an activity that facilitates exchange (fig. 1). Marketing helps you reach a targeted audience with a message that will motivate people to respond. Marketing activities are designed to sense and satisfy user needs while simultaneously meeting the needs of the institution. Through marketing you can promote values, accomplish missions and develop increased resources. You provide something to a marketplace and, in a sense, become a seller, even though there may not be a monetary value involved.

The key is to develop an exchange that is mutually satisfying. Marketing involves many activities designed to sense, serve and satisfy consumer needs while simultaneously meeting the goals of the institution. We can not count on mutually satisfying exchanges to happen coincidentally; we must take some initiative. Marketing helps you to initiate, cultivate and nurture such relationships. Raising funds and donor or client cultivation may be a product of your marketing effort, as it becomes increasingly necessary/imperative to find new sources of revenue. "Marketing is not just producing, performing or acting, it is acting in response with full responsibility to the museum's objectives and to its present and future role in society."

FUNDAMENTALS

Who?
One of the first questions to answer is "who will be involved in this effort"? The answer will depend on the size and organization of the firm or institution. It is important to remember that marketing ". . . is not an isolated job to be done by--;or delegated to--;one person or department. It is the manager or, preferably, the management team who takes responsibility and makes the decisions on the eight essential questions--;who, what, when, where, why, how, how much, and how often."

In some cases, conservation and preservation may first need to be marketed to the central administration of the institution. In fact, 60 percent of museums that NIC surveyed do not specifically budget for conservation or collections care. If the institution already has a marketing plan and team in place and it does not include conservation, this is definitely the place to start. Become a part of the institution's marketing effort as soon as possible! Set meetings to make conservation's marketing goals known, assist the marketing effort already underway by suggesting creative ways in which conservation can be involved and supply market research that is specific to conservation. Every area of an organization should be represented through the marketing effort; likewise, the plans should involve everyone who is responsible for that expertise.

How?
Marketing Workbook for Nonprofit Organizations outlines five steps for successful marketing.
1.Set Marketing Goals.
If you want marketing to produce specific, measurable results for your organization, you seek action goals; if you want to be better known or in some way change how you are seen, you seek image goals. For example, the Upper Midwest Conservation Association (UMCA) in Minneapolis sought the action goal of gaining 20 new members by 30 June 1994. Whereas, its image goal was to increase the general public's awareness of art and artifact conservation, paying particular attention to the funding agencies of government, corporations and foundations.9 Chances are conservation issues at most institutions will benefit from setting goals in both of these areas.

Remember/Most important, goals should reflect the organization's mission and further its cause and be realistic yet idealistic. It is better to set a higher goal and scale back as necessary. Therefore, goals should be simply stated and easily adaptable. They should also state how much time they will take to complete, factoring in the external or internal influences that may help or hinder progress. The institution's specific situation will determine whether long- or short-term goals will be necessary. Most often, it is good strategy to set smaller, short-term goals that support a larger, longer term one. In UMCA's case, meeting the goal of 20 new members put them in contact with the leadership, staff and volunteers of more organizations, thus also positively effecting their goal of increasing the general public's awareness of conservation. Even if the association's short-term goal had to be extended by six months to be successful, the long-term goal still benefitted.

2.Position Your Organization
After outlining goals for the marketing effort, focus on how to approach the market. The message of supporting conservation should appear confident, clear and unique to the audience. Potential consumers should think of you and your organization when they think of conservation and preservation. To do so, follow the three tenets of marketing: Know Thyself, Know Thy Customer and Know Thy Competition.

• Know Thyself
  This tenet is geared at determining what product or service the conservator has to offer the buyer. This will help you define your role in the marketplace. What types of collections care programs, products and services do you provide? Products/services are classified in three groups: tangible, extended and generic.

  The Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) sought to define conservation and increase awareness of why it's needed among the museum-going and supporting public, so that the center could build recognition for the institution's mission as the "caretaker of community objects" and to solidify support for conservation and collections care within the institution.10 In order to meet these goals the museum created and offered all three types of products/services. The RMSC's tangible product was the exhibition, Handle with Care: Preserving Rochester's Heritage. The exhibition provided basic information about conservation and preservation techniques and showcased how the museum had used them to preserve local collections. An informational booklet was another tangible, low-cost product sold during and after the exhibition.

  Handle with Care was not the only conservation service the museum provided the community. A cluster of services‹extended products‹accompanied the tangible product. Exhibition text explained conservation issues pertaining to other museum exhibits, information sheets on preventive measures individuals could take to preserve personal belongings were distributed and free telephone advice on the care of personal objects and public clinics with conservators were offered.

  Generic products/services are the essential benefits that the buyers expect to get from the product/service. The Rochester Museum recognized its strengths: as a caretaker of local collectionsthe museum had made significant advances to preserve collections and it had a conservation staff that could provide similar, limited services to the public. Through the appropriate products they invited the public to take advantage of this expertise. Handle with Care gave the public an opportunity to learn more about conservation and the information sheets, telephone advice and public clinics provided the public with information to care for personal collections. The exhibition was well attended and attracted media attention, booklet sales were successful not only on the local but national level, and attendance at public clinics and collections care workshops were also high. Now, when Rochester residents consider family heirlooms, perhaps they will think not only of preserving them but of calling the Rochester Museum and Science Center specifically.

• Know Thy Customer
  This tenet involves market research. This can be as simple as reviewing the membership and client list or as extensive as conducting surveys. You can then determine a target market through market segmentation. Consider what types of collections care programs, services and products are currently used or purchased. What are the motivating needs and wants? Understand why your market participates in programs, purchases your products and services or donates to conservation. There are four general categories for analyzing the institution's market: geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral. Know where customers are located; their age, income and education; how they feel about your services, including preconceived notions they may have; and what they have done or regularly do in regards to these services.

  The National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property (NIC), for example, serves customers on the national level. But the demographics of these clients vary from project to project. Save Outdoor Sculpture! is a grassroots project involving local civic groups and volunteers in an effort to inventory and assess the condition of publicly accessible outdoor sculpture throughout the United States. These grassroots volunteers represent a varied demographic, from college students and alumni to school children and veterans groups. Consequently, the project specifically adapts materials and marketing efforts to appeal to different constituencies.

  By contrast, the Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) serves only small- to medium-sized museums all around the country. The majority of these museums do not have conservators on staff and participants are frequently interested in additional collections care training and information. To address such a need, NIC and the National Park Service developed the "Care of the Historic Site: Assessing Needs and Implementing Solutions" workshop. Because of the wide geographic distribution of CAP recipients, this workshop is being offered in XX locations around the country in 1996 and 1997.

• Know Thy Competition
  Familiarize yourself with other collections care programs, services and products. What is unique about your programs, services and products? This will help you define your market niche and will help you position your program in the actual marketing process.

  Following these three tenets will allow you to position your organization. Positioning is the process of selecting a target market, defining a competitive frame of reference, choosing a basis for differentiation, and providing the reasons why a customer can expect to be satisfied with your conservation products/services.

• Product: what you offer (often services in the context of conservation)


• Price: how much you charge (not only money but time, energy and attention)


• Place: where the product is available, its presentation and accessibility


• Promotion: what you do to motivate people to respond or get involved

Defining the four Ps will help determine where your program stands and what you might do to achieve your marketing goals. This is known as the marketing mix. Try to find the right balance among these variables to reach your target.

4.Develop a Marketing Plan
Once you have determined your goals, positioned your program and evaluated your current efforts, you can devise a marketing plan. The marketing plan is a blueprint for implementation: who will do what, by when and with what resources and support. This is a good time to take another look at your goals and adapt them as necessary. Market research will become another important aspect of your marketing plan. Sometimes internal changes alone will be enough to achieve your marketing goals.

5.Develop a Promotional Campaign
The promotional campaign is how you communicate with outsiders. It will create or reinforce your image by sending a specific message about what you want people to do. Developing a promotional campaign involves determining the communication techniques you will use, what you will say and how they will be implemented, and can range from a simple, low-tech approach to the extravagant. For example, in 1994 (?) the Association of Regional Conservation Centers cooperatively developed a brochure to promote themselves to potential funders. "TITLE" uses text and extensive visuals to explain conservation methods and techniques.

As you proceed with your marketing plan and promotional campaign, be persistent. You should continually evaluate your progress, be flexible and responsive. Successful marketing efforts in the for-profit sector involve continually analyzing the quality of products/services and repeating promotional messages.

CONCLUSION

Developing public support for conservation will generate resources. "Marketing is a process that helps you exchange something of value for something you need." Research demonstrates that the public is interested in conservation and collections care, both in the institutional setting and in regards to personal belongings. The challenge is to obtain the human and financial resources needed to preserve the artifacts that make up our nation's heritage. To accomplish this the goals, needs, benefits and practices of preservation must be conveyed to a broad public, especially to those who value collections. Only through knowing about the importance of collections care can we expect people to give money to our cause.

Market Awareness
The Museum of Unnatural History has recently completed a marketing survey and discovered that the general public has a very low level of awareness of the museum's efforts to conserve and preserve its collection. Whe asked "have you ever heard about the conservation and preservation services offered by the museum?", less than 2% of the general public answered yes. Of those 2%, less than 10% could describe the services offered at any level of detail.

Assignment:
Develop an awareness campaign, including the objective of the campaign (what effect do you want it to have), selection of a target audience, the channel(s) to be used to send the message, the message to be sent, and the communicator who should send the message.

Results:
The campaign objective is to raise awareness of collections care, conservation and preservation among the public and non-conservation staff at the museum. Specifically, to increase support and funding for conservation and to increase awareness from current level of less than 2%.

The target audience would include the 98+% of the the general public and other non-conservation staff, particularly the director. It was noted that reaching the public would be key to reaching the director, since if the public demands it, conservation will become a priority of the museum. Additionally, non-conservation staff and directors at other museums could be targeted.

The message to the public should be that preservation is everybody's business, since we all have personal possessions considered to be irreplaceable. To non-conservation staff and directors, the message should be that conservation is "sexy" and can help promote the whole institution.

The suggested channels for communicating the message were museum exhibitions and brochures, a world-wide-web site and publication of institutional case studies.

The message should be sent by NIC in partnership with other organizations (could coordinate brochures, video and information on how to do an exhibition). Institutional members and professional conservators could also sponsor the message. Finally, it was noted that visitors, through word of mouth will also send the message.

Education
The Museum of Unnatural History recently completed a marketing survey and discovered that few of its highest donors have supported conservation and preservation. When asked to rank order their choices for the allocation of their donation, conservation and preservation was ranked second to last. In an informal survey, less than 1 in 10 donors knew where the conservation department was!

Assignment:
Develop an educational campaign for the donors, including the objective of the campaign, selection of a target audience within the donor ranks, the channel(s) to be used to send the message, the message to be sent, and the communicator who should send the message. Include a discussion of what might motivate these donors to donate to conservation/preservation.

Results:
The museum should treat and rehouse the part of the collection that is the highest conservation priority, and plan an exhibition about conservation and collections care around this project. A long-term objective is to educate donors and visitors about the role of conservation and collections care within the museum.

The target audience will include donors (who have already demonstrated support for the museum), wealthy individuals, local corporations and museum members.

The channels to use to send the message will include behind the scenes events, the museum newsletter, a lecture series and collections care clinics for donors, project status reports, and the exhibition.

The message to be sent will be "Ignore your collections and they will go away." Communicators would include a presentation team -- to include representatives from the director's office, the development office and the conservation department, a committee of the Board, a famous collector connected to the museum and community, and educators from the education department.

Things that would motivate donors to support conservation include their desire for name recognition, immortality and participation in "cutting edge" projects, their special interest in specific collections, and their sense of community pride. Additionally, a cost/benefit analysis of conservation could be persuasive.

Product Marketing Plan
The Gotham City Historical Society has recently completed a successful launch of SOS! and wants to extend its efforts to a new product called SOP! -- Save Our Paintings! They believe that the same market that was attracted to SOS! can be attracted to SOP!

Assignment:
Develop a product marketing plan for SOP! , including: a full definition of the product/service, a positioning statement, a proposed marketing mix and a rough plan to support its launch. Include a discussion of the target market for this product/service, the tangible, extended and generic components of this service and why this service would be better than the current approaches to the care being given to public paintings.

Results:
In defining the product, the group decided to redefine SOP! as Save Our Patrimony! to stress that all irreplaceable items people hold should be properly cared for, not just paintings. SOP! would provide a condition assessment, appraisal identification, conservation advice and treatment.

Positioning Statement:
This program is directed towards potential community contributors to the Gotham City Historical Society (GCHS). It's an HMO care concept designed for community, family and corporate treasured artifacts. The four point service will provide a tangible economic benefit as well as the intangible sense of elevated pride in community, family or cultural organization.

The promotional campaign will be kicked off with a cocktail party. Then plan Heirloom Days to be held at meetings of different ethnic and cultural groups, where attendees could bring an heirloom to be assessed for a fee. Register heirlooms in an inventory, publicize treatments within groups to stimulate further activity. Then publicize community-wide in local newspaper and show success stories to corporations to raise awareness about their own collections.

MARKETING DEFINITIONS

The glossary was prepared by Intellectual Capital Partners, Inc., San Francisco. Note: The term donate may be substituted for the terms purchase or buy; donor for buyer; donations for sales.

Advertising: any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor (radio, television, print)

Brand: a name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination of them intended to identify and differentiate the services of one seller from those of competitors

Basis for Differentiation: the unique set of product characteristics and/or customer benefits that distinguishes your product/service from other competitors' products/services

Competition: the sales/marketing effort of two or more parties, acting independently to secure the business of a third party by an offering. Competition occurs between all products capable of satisfying the same basic need by conservation/preservation products and services

Competitive Frame of Reference: the group or cluster of competing products/services in which you want to position conservation/ preservation products and services

The Four Os

• Objects of purchase (what does the market buy?) -- conservation/ preservation products and services.
  
• Objectives of purchase (why does it buy?) -- the drives, desires, and human wants that are satisfied through the purchase of conservation/preservation products and services, e.g., civic pride, commercial gain.
  
• Organization for purchasing (who buys?) -- the buyer and all the behavioral factors that might influence his/her buying decision for conservation/preservation products and services, e.g., professional collector, private individual.
  
• Operations of the purchasing organization (how does it buy?) -- the marketing factors that influence a purchase of conservation/ preservation products and services, e.g., quality of service, pride of service.

• Product mix -- the product line and quality, brand, package and services.
  
• Price mix -- the basic price, allowances and deals, credit terms and transport terms.
  
• Place mix -- the channel types, locations and market logistics, e.g., directly at the institution, direct mail, through a dealer.
  
• Promotion mix -- the mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity.

Marketing Concept: an approach that is customer oriented, backed by integrated marketing and aimed at generating customer satisfaction as the key to satisfying institutional goals

Marketing Mix: the selection and balance of key marketing variables‹price, promotion, distribution and products

Marketing Segmentation: the subdivision of markets into homogeneous subsets of customers. These subsets, can be selected and reached with a distinct marketing mix.

Marketing Strategy: a plan that involves the selection of a target market and the selection of the appropriate marketing mix

Personal Selling: an oral presentation in a conversational form with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making sales

Positioning: the integrated process of

• selecting a target market,
  
• defining a competitive frame of reference,
  
• ?choosing a basis for differentiation, and
  
• providing the reasons why customers can expect to be satisfied with their purchase of your conservation/preservation products and services
  
  

• the tangible product/ service -- the physical entity,
• the extended product -- the whole cluster of services that accompany the tangible product/service, and
• the generic product/service -- the essential benefits that the buyers expects to get from the product/service.