Ethical debate: Marketing
Museums often tackle sensitive themes in their exhibitions, and have the ability to publicise these to people from different ages, cultures and beliefs.
To what extent should marketing and audience development strategies take into account the subject matter they are promoting?
At first sight it would seem clear that, subject matter is, of course, central to the Marketing and Audience Development (M&AD) strategy. Key to any campaign is knowing your audience and your product.
If the exhibition theme - slave trade, gun crime, repatriation of indigenous human remains, the treatment of ancient British human remains - is potentially sensitive then our communications must take that into account.
Marketing's role is not to be deliberately sensationalist, riding roughshod over people, their representatives or cultural descendants, whose stories we are attempting to tell.
But so called 'sensitive issues' surround us in life and the role of museums is not just to publicise but also to engage people in debate about them. Disagreement is not necessarily divisive and can potentially facilitate dialogue creating better understanding.
The role of M&AD then is:
In setting the terms of the debate, to develop strong relationships between the collection and audiences, enabling the museum to negotiate with its audiences on the subject and nature of the debate and the subsequent themes of exhibitions.
This means not just marketing a finished product but involving audiences, communities and users in the creative process replacing fears about sensitivity with opportunities for dialogue. (Code of Ethics principle 4)
To invite the public to participate in the ongoing debate, exhibition-as-forum, with an ethical communications strategy that offers everyone the opportunity to engage, not censoring particular audience viewpoints but understanding audience needs, and recognising that museums are here to engage people in the lives and stories of others and promote a greater understanding of the world around us. (Code of Ethics principle 3)
Tim Manley, Head of Marketing and Audience Development, The Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester
Marketers' planning must consider visitor targets, audience development and any other museum objectives, like visibly embracing diversity and inclusion.
These aims may appear to be in conflict, especially when there are limited resources, so the marketer's understanding of their audiences is crucial to promotional planning.
Targeting under-represented audiences doesn't have to be expensive. It can provide an opportunity for building relationships with community and audience development groups, especially when partners have been involved in the development of exhibitions, exploring or contributing to collections and their interpretation.
Museum of London recently held an exhibition called Belonging: voices of London's refugees, where the 25 refugee communities involved in the exhibition provided marketing support through peer group translations and community network poster distribution.
We faced different challenges for Queer is Here, which we targeted to the places (bars and clubs) and information sources (dedicated press and websites) that would reach gay lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people (LGBT) audiences.
Here the sensitivity considerations were different: we scaled down this exhibition's promotion in our family-orientated print and web presence; while as a manager I was conscious that many LGBT websites are quite explicit and this led me to consider who in the team I would ask to secure coverage on these.
As marketing professionals it could be argued that this is just part of the marketing officer's role, but I thought it prudent to ensure that researching websites and entering listings on LGBT websites was not going to cause offence or discomfort to staff.
Jo Fells, Head of Press and Marketing, Museum of London
To what extent should marketing and audience development strategies take into account the subject matter they are promoting?
At first sight it would seem clear that, subject matter is, of course, central to the Marketing and Audience Development (M&AD) strategy. Key to any campaign is knowing your audience and your product.
If the exhibition theme - slave trade, gun crime, repatriation of indigenous human remains, the treatment of ancient British human remains - is potentially sensitive then our communications must take that into account.
Marketing's role is not to be deliberately sensationalist, riding roughshod over people, their representatives or cultural descendants, whose stories we are attempting to tell.
But so called 'sensitive issues' surround us in life and the role of museums is not just to publicise but also to engage people in debate about them. Disagreement is not necessarily divisive and can potentially facilitate dialogue creating better understanding.
The role of M&AD then is:
In setting the terms of the debate, to develop strong relationships between the collection and audiences, enabling the museum to negotiate with its audiences on the subject and nature of the debate and the subsequent themes of exhibitions.
This means not just marketing a finished product but involving audiences, communities and users in the creative process replacing fears about sensitivity with opportunities for dialogue. (Code of Ethics principle 4)
To invite the public to participate in the ongoing debate, exhibition-as-forum, with an ethical communications strategy that offers everyone the opportunity to engage, not censoring particular audience viewpoints but understanding audience needs, and recognising that museums are here to engage people in the lives and stories of others and promote a greater understanding of the world around us. (Code of Ethics principle 3)
Tim Manley, Head of Marketing and Audience Development, The Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester
Marketers' planning must consider visitor targets, audience development and any other museum objectives, like visibly embracing diversity and inclusion.
These aims may appear to be in conflict, especially when there are limited resources, so the marketer's understanding of their audiences is crucial to promotional planning.
Targeting under-represented audiences doesn't have to be expensive. It can provide an opportunity for building relationships with community and audience development groups, especially when partners have been involved in the development of exhibitions, exploring or contributing to collections and their interpretation.
Museum of London recently held an exhibition called Belonging: voices of London's refugees, where the 25 refugee communities involved in the exhibition provided marketing support through peer group translations and community network poster distribution.
We faced different challenges for Queer is Here, which we targeted to the places (bars and clubs) and information sources (dedicated press and websites) that would reach gay lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people (LGBT) audiences.
Here the sensitivity considerations were different: we scaled down this exhibition's promotion in our family-orientated print and web presence; while as a manager I was conscious that many LGBT websites are quite explicit and this led me to consider who in the team I would ask to secure coverage on these.
As marketing professionals it could be argued that this is just part of the marketing officer's role, but I thought it prudent to ensure that researching websites and entering listings on LGBT websites was not going to cause offence or discomfort to staff.
Jo Fells, Head of Press and Marketing, Museum of London
