>On Fri, 19 Apr 1996, Henry B. Crawford wrote:
>
>> Yet I still contend that the intent of the department store is not
>> interpretation and education as in a museum exhibit.  Department stores use
>> museum interpretation techniques to market goods.  Museums use (or should
>> use) marketing strategies as a means to interpret and educate.  Of course I
>> am speaking only of truly interpretive exhibits (see my earlier definition
>> below).
>
>Henry,
>Are you suggesting that there is some substantial difference between
>marketing goods (stores) and marketing ideas (museums)?  Is marketing a
>bad thing?  Is not one of the functions of a museum to market (make
>palatable) our interpretation of our subject just as one of the functions
>of a store is to market (make palatable) its goods?
>
>Michaele and David Haynes    [log in to unmask]

Reply:
I Don't see a substantial difference.  I am making a point that marketing
is good, and museums have now finally come around to using marketing
strategies (to promote ideas through exhibits, outreach, and programming)
that the commercial world has used successfully for years.  As anyone
knows, marketing is a strategy which is employed to enhance ones public
image.  Advertising is not marketing, but is merely one among dozens of
marketing tools.

Department stores and museums simply approach the same marketing goals from
different directions.  To both, the objectives are 1. to get bodies through
the door, and 2. to ensure that those bodies leave with a product in hand,
whether a pair of designer jeans, or a head-full of the world's knowledge.
In this sense you are correct.  Museums market ideas just as stores market
goods.  Without a positive public image, the product becomes irrelevant
because no one would care.

The use of a comprehensive marketing strategy is good, and I am a firm
believer in it.

HBC

*****************************************
Henry B. Crawford        Curator of History
[log in to unmask]     Museum of Texas Tech University
806/742-2442           Box 43191
FAX 742-1136             Lubbock, TX  79409-3191
*********All opinions expressed are mine**********