Contemporary issues in museums and heritage marketing management: introduction to the special issue

Recent trends in museums and heritage marketing management suggest a move from passive consumption spaces to more pleasant, engaging and transformative spaces. Since Mclean’s (1995) and Goulding’s (1999) work on public attitudes within postmodern consumption society, a range of research questions and approaches, including some published in the Journal of Marketing Management have acknowledged the contemporary views in consumption of museums and heritage spaces (e.g. Bennett, Kerrigan, & O’Reilly, 2010; Jafari, Taheri, & Vom Lehn, 2013; Taheri, Jafari, & O’Gorman, 2014; Wells, Gregory-Smith, Taheri, Manika, & McCowlen, 2016; Wu, Holmes, & Tribe, 2010). These advances have fuelled a steady evolution in contemporary thinking in museums and heritage marketing management to engender insights into consumer behaviour and marketing management. They have been especially rich in revealing consumer engagement and extensive dialogue between visitors and service providers, particularly those underlying new aspects of decision-making, co-created experiences as well as experiential marketing. Hence, the six papers included in this issue cover a diverse set of topics and methods. Next, we present brief summaries of the papers in the special issue.

The first paper to initiate our special issue is written by Sean Lochrie. His paper applies the understudied application of stakeholder theory in a World Heritage Site (WHS) context. Using a multiple case study approach of three WHS places (i.e. Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns, The Antonine Wall and The Derwent Valley Mills) in the UK, he identified several influential themes including support, engagement, the role of facilitators, and time and resources. These themes were analysed through use of interviews, documentation and physical artefacts. Lochrie also argued that sheer size and multiple ownership patterns of these sites are the most challenging elements of the site stakeholders, making a complex landscape to operate in. He also highlighted the importance of multiple case studies approach in interpreting WHS sites employees’ behaviour by employing strategies such as raising awareness and trust, also using more stakeholder-led projects within their stakeholder networks. The role of managers is also seen as key in developing strategies to increase stakeholder capabilities and maintain personal relationships in these sites.

Our next paper is written by Derek Bryce and Senija Čaušević. Their paper takes on Said’s (1978) and Bryce’s (2013) recommendation in further exploration of binaries between the imaginary cartographies of Modernity/History, East/West, Christendom/Islam, and the role of European identity construction with respect to contemporary sociocultural and political concerns across Europe. Employing Foucauldian discourse analysis complemented by semiotic approach, they interpreted data from eight exhibitions in Western Europe and Turkey. They found two main outcomes. European exhibitions illustrate the legacy of Ottoman cultural heritage in binary terms as this legacy is observed via a Eurocentric view and mediated as such by media. These exhibitions (particularly in Turkey) represent themselves as easily understandable space for the leisure consumption purpose (Taheri & Jafari, 2012). The paper suggests that marketing managers should focus more on balanced presentation of historical narratives to their visitors.

The third paper by vom Lehn and Heath responds to suggestions for use of video-based approach in visitors’ engagement, and social action and activity. They attempted to further advancing use of technology to document visitor behaviour in consumption spaces. In doing so, they used ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to interpret consumer social interaction in exhibitions in the UK. They identified several main factors including navigating exhibitions, concerted looking, interactivity or social interaction. They considered video data that captures visitors’ engagement and how they make sense of exhibits or social situations. They also contribute to previous studies on experiential and sensory marketing (Hultén, 2015; Taheri, Gori, O’Gorman, Hogg, & Farrington, 2016). In addition, the audio–video recording approach can be supplemented by other forms of data such as diary studies, subjective personal inspection and interviews. As a final point, managers and designers of art galleries and museums can be benefited from the audiovisual data gathered from visitors. For instance, they can understand how visitors navigate or explore heritage consumption spaces.

Our fourth and fifth papers focus on authenticity concepts in visitors’ behaviour. The paper by Derbaix and Gombault concentrates on authentic experience and visitors’ own imaginative processes. In their conceptual framework, they link staged authenticity and perceived authenticity concepts in creating an authentic experience through imagination. They used semi-structured interviews and observations of visitors which were interpreted via hermeneutical process in Cézanne’s studio in Aix-en-Provence in France. Several themes emerged from these interviews including immaterial dimensions and narrative transportation; material dimensions, immersion, and embodiment; and contagion of the tangible by the invisible. They also developed a conceptual framework based on their findings. This model shows that staged authenticity and the invisible influence on perceived authenticity through knowledge and imaginative processes. They also contributed to authenticity literature, for example, Wang (1999) and Hede and Thyne (2010). Their model can be used as a diagnostic instrument to identify and test imagination process in different settings such as historical reconstructions, and music concerts. The fifth paper written by Thyne and Hede explores managerial strategies behind the concept of co-production in relation to authentic consumption experience in museums. More precisely, their study examines how (in)authenticity is converted through co-production in the museum visitor experience of Katherine Mansfield Birthplace in Wellington and 56 Eden Street in Oamaru in New Zealand. They carried out observations and in-depth interviews with curators and management as well as short open-ended questionnaire with visitors of these two sites. They found that there are no differences in authentic experience from visitors’ point of view, but similar to some previous studies (Prentice, 2001) co-production is essential to a successful visitor experience in museums. Service managers in museums should motivate visitors to participate in co-productive experiences by using experience-related strategies with guidance from management and staff.

The final paper in the special issue written by Murdy, Alexander and Bryce focuses on consumers’ desire to appreciate their own personal history within Ancestral tourism. In so doing, they employed semi-structured interviews from archivists, museum curators, managers and volunteers (who are responsible for delivery of ancestral information) in different heritage sites in Scotland. They found several themes including limited customer resource conflict, extensive customer resource conflict, limited customer and provider resource conflict and complex negotiation conflict. They contributed to previous studies including co-creation of value (Edvardsson, Tronvoll, & Gruber, 2011) and role conflict and ambiguity (Shamir, 1980). They noted that asymmetric resources can assist to increase a sense of service disconfirmation from consumer views, as well as the incapability of service providers to give visitors the personalised information they need. Service providers should find ways to decrease the asymmetrical nature of the relationship, for example, by creating a venue for consumers to register their research in advance of visiting these heritage sites. Understanding the role conflict will also reduce the level of stress faced by heritage professionals who deal (sometimes unsuccessfully with personalised inquires.

Overall, the papers in this special issue offer important insights to contemporary issues in museums and heritage marketing management. The research findings offer guidance to practitioners to help them to better evaluate audience development in this context. For academics, these special section papers act as a starting point to encourage looking at the current development in marketing management and encourage experimentation with and implementation of these in museums and heritage locations. There are also several innovative methodological analytical techniques used to deliver insightful outcomes in this special issue, including: ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, thematic analysis, template analysis, multiple case analyses, documentations, observation, Foucaldian discourse analysis, semiotics and hermeneutical process. We believe each of these methods point towards significant contributions to contemporary issues in museums and heritage marketing management. Finally, the reviewers’ valuable comments helped to select and revise the papers in this special edition. Both the guest editors and the authors appreciate the time and efforts from our peers for providing timely reviews of manuscripts for this special issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Babak Taheri

Dr Babak Taheri is associate professor in marketing, Heriot-Watt University. His research has a dual focus: (a) unpacking and theorising cultural consumption experiences and (b) services marketing management. He has published over 60 articles, book chapters and conference papers in these areas in journals such as Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing and Consumption, Markets & Culture.

Kevin O’Gorman

Prof. Kevin O’Gorman is director of internationalisation across Heriot-Watt’s Campuses in Edinburgh, Dubai and Malaysia, and professor of management and business history in the School of Languages and Management in Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. His current research interests have a dual focus: origins, history, and cultural practices of hospitality and tourism, and philosophical, ethical and cultural underpinnings of contemporary management practices; he has published over 100 journal articles, books, book chapters, editorials, reviews and conference papers.

Ian Baxter

Prof. Ian Baxter is originally trained as an archaeologist, but has spent most of the last 25 years working with tourism and heritage management organisations in the UK and abroad as a management academic and project consultant. He is currently a part-time Professor of Historic Environment Management at the University of Suffolk, where until September 2015, he was also Head of Suffolk Business School. He is also a partner in a management consultancy firm specialising in heritage, tourism and regeneration. He is committed to management development within the sector, enabling greater understanding of strategic, tactical and operational opportunities for heritage organisations.