There is nothing so practical as a good theory.
—Kurt Lewin, 19511
As I have argued for years, despite existing and competing in a twenty-first century Knowledge Age, most museums still operate with a twentieth-century industrial age business model.2 The hallmark of the Industrial Age was an abundance of standardized (“one-size-fits-all”) inexpensive goods and services. Although mass production allowed for the unprecedented availability of goods and services, it depersonalized both the production and delivery process. By contrast, the trends in the Knowledge Age are for an increasing desire on the part of consumers not just for quantity of choice but also for quality, not just for reasonable prices but for real value. Most significantly, consumers today are growing to expect that goods and services be designed to specifically meet their own personal needs and interests. They are much more discriminating, in part because they can afford to be given the glut of available products and services. It is a rare product or service that cannot be had in myriad shapes, sizes, and price-ranges and that includes museum-related experiences. Above all else, consumers today are seeking to forge long-standing relationships with the people they “trade” with; they do not want to be just another nameless, faceless consumer. Collectively, these trends represent a sea-change in the marketplace and a radical departure from the norms of doing business of even a decade ago.
It is against this background that we can see how out of step most museums are with these trends. The world has and continues to change rapidly; gone are the simple “truths” of previous times. No longer can a museum survive merely by collecting important objects and presenting them with commendable scholarship in an orderly fashion. Gone is the wonderfully naïve idea that the museum can accommodate the needs of all people by aiming at some non-existent “typical visitor.” Most in the business world have been struggling for years to adapt to the reality that trying to satisfy a diverse range of people with a single generic approach is no longer a viable strategy in today’s complex and highly competitive marketplace.3 Although museums still attempt to hang their financial success on blockbuster exhibitions created using a “one-size-fits-all” approach, it should be clear that this strategy is rapidly becoming unsustainable for most institutions. If the preceding chapters have attempted to make any point, it is that all museum visitors are not alike; different groups of visitors have very different needs and interests. Eventually, if museums cannot adapt to the changing times, large segments of the public that currently utilize museums will find alternative ways to satisfy their leisure needs.
Despite all these dire predictions, a skeptical reader might well point out that the museum industry is doing relatively well and that most individual museums continue to be amazingly popular and successful in their respective marketplaces. What explains this paradox? Maybe museums do not need to change what they do as visitors will figure out how to make museums work for them in the future just as they have in the past.
As outlined in earlier chapters, museums have had the good fortune to be on the correct side of history—sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good! Society has undergone unprecedented shifts in leisure patterns commensurate with the transition to a Knowledge Age at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century. Foremost among these shifts has been a significant rise in demand for meaningful leisure experiences, particularly those associated with identity-building through experiences like free-choice learning. Museums were “pre-adapted” for these major societal changes—in the right place, at the right time, with the right mix of offerings. As a consequence, most museums have flourished. Whereas in the 1980s, approximately 40% of Americans visited some kind of museum at least once a year, by 2000 that number had risen to over 60%—a 50% increase in one generation.4 But looking ahead, it is quite possible that the successes museums enjoyed these past few decades could be ephemeral. The world is full of smart people and the recent success of museums has not gone unnoticed. Every year, more and more competitors have begun to emulate the museum model. Libraries and corporations are putting exhibits in their buildings, developers are anchoring shopping malls with museum-like entities, corporations like Disney are trying (historically with limited success) to make their attractions more museum-like, and even ultra-religious groups are promoting their views through museum-like venues. Despite the fact that collectively museums have had an amazing run of success in years past, it is inevitable that increasing competition will eventually erode that success—initially through a process of dilution of the “brand” and eventually through replacement by some other, better adapted, and more compelling model. That is, of course, unless museums can make the necessary changes to keep ahead of the curve and remain competitive.
Evidence of the impact of increasing competition and dilution of the museum brand is evident to anyone who cares to look objectively. During the first decade of the twenty-first century, attendance at museums leveled off following two decades of exponential growth. Over these past several years, most individual museums have felt fortunate if their attendance has merely leveled off; many witnessed declining attendance. On the up side, the museum brand is still strong and thus, theoretically the ability and opportunities for change will never be better—it is much easier to make changes when times are good than when things are in wholesale decline. On the down side, we seem to be entering a period of significant economic challenge when change will be required by all, but meaningful change will be difficult because of worldwide financial stresses.
The museum visitor experience model I have developed in this book provides a roadmap for how museums can begin to make some of the changes required in order to be more in step with the needs of consumers in the Knowledge Age. Over the next three chapters, I will lay out some suggestions for how museum professionals can use the model proposed in this book to customize the museum visitor experience so that it delivers the type of personalized, high-quality value and meaning sought by today’s visitors. I will also suggest how the museum visitor experience model can lead to a rethinking of how to define and measure the value museums deliver to society.
RE-ENVISIONING THE MUSEUM VISITOR EXPERIENCE
Let’s begin with some basic information. To be successful in the Knowledge Age every museum must be able to answer the following questions:
• Do you really know why people come to your museum and what it takes to get people to visit?
• Do you know how to attract new and different audiences to your museum?
• Do you know what your visitors actually do in your museum and why they do these things?
• What is the one thing you are not providing your various publics today that they are secretly longing for?
• Do you know what impact your museum has on the public, in particular what meanings visitors derive from their experience?
• Do you know what would make a visitor come again and again to your museum?
• Do you know how a new, or existing, competitor could take away your audience?
I believe the museum visitor experience model outlined in this book could enable museum professionals to begin to more honestly and accurately answer these questions. This, then, is the goal of these final chapters, to begin to clarify some answers to these questions by applying what we now know about museums and visitors. The implications of this new model do not suggest that we can continue doing business as usual. If taken seriously, it will lead museums down a very different pathway than what they have historically followed. In particular, the next three chapters will lay out some bold and new ways to think about museums and their audiences. First, by suggesting ways that museums can begin to revise how they attract and build audiences. Second, by reframing how museums can best satisfy the fundamental needs and interests of the people who utilize their exhibitions and programs. And finally, by suggesting that in light of this new model of museums and their visitors, museum professionals may need to fundamentally rethink how they define their purpose and measure success.