Museums for visitors: Audience development

- A crucial role for successful museum management strategies

Christian WALTL

Abstract
Let's face it: museums without visitors would be like lifeless, empty halls with no purpose.
This should remind us that the key role for museums is always to serve its visitors. To do this
effectively and efficiently we have to understand the motivation and needs of different audience
segments and create an atmosphere that offers a range of experiences. It is all about pulling
down barriers and allowing visitor involvement and engagement, and at the same time
conserving and securing the collection for future generations. The process of reaching new
audiences and retaining repeat visitors is calledņaudience development.ŇIt is the perfect
ńZusammenspielŅof departments such as marketing, education, curatorial and visitor services
to offer varied experiences, and an environment for learning as well as enjoyment. Museums
with space for recreation, social interaction, contemplation and emotions are high on the
agenda these days. The talk will explore the term audience development theoretically, its
importance for management strategy, and highlight examples of work with different audience
segments. It will also show that audience development is not the responsibility of only a few, but
of all staff working in museums.

INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Museums for visitors: Audience development - A crucial role for successful museum management strategies

Introduction Museum for the many

Museums have entered a time of change: Museums are centres of knowledge and
they are asked not only to justify their funding the mission to offer an educational
but also to redefine their role in society. experience is the key objective in serving our
Grand halls, real objects or comprehensive visitors. It is interesting to note that research
exhibitions do need visitor engagement in in the US and UK shows that it is not the
order to be rightfully called museums caring quality of the collection which is the main
for our culture and for future generations. factor for potential visitors when deciding to
Despite substantial public funding museums visit a museum or gallery, it is much more the
survival is by no means guaranteed; an active environment as a whole and the interaction
dialogue with potential and existing with the collection that proves to be the key
audiences and special interest groups is also factor. It is very much about offering
necessary. In a consultation paper in 2005 opportunities for engagement. This also
the UK government states that museums and means that museums are part of the service
galleries ņplay an essential role in helping its industry working in partnership with all
citizens to understand their place in the world stakeholders to achieve user satisfaction at a
and its heritage and that they connect our time when expectations on service quality
1
past with our present and our futureŇ. generally are rising. According to Pine and
Stephen Weil argues that a museum, ņ... is Gilmore the desirable economic products are
still nothing more than a human fabrication, leisure experiences which are more highly
an organisational contrivance through which valued rather then merely services or
some group or other hopes to achieve some products. 4 It is not the question of learning
short or long-term objective. Whatever versus entertainment it is a win-win
worthiness a museum may ultimately have phenomenon where both construct an
derives from what it does, not from what it isŇ experience that is engaging peopleņin
2
. educationally enjoyable experiences from
In Austria today we see also a slight shift, which they can take their own personal
in some cases a substantial shift, in the role meaningŇ.5
of museums away from the main core The process of establishing museums for
functions such as collecting, documenting, the many goes hand in hand with a
preserving and research towards a visitor transformation of museums which engage
orientated approach. That is not to say that and involve visitors and change from being
the core functions are no longer important but ńproduct led to audience centeredŅ. 6 If
they need to be assessed in the context of museums are able to engage the visitor in a
what museums are all about. Even ICOM in communication process so that the visitor is
its 2002 rewritten Code of Ethics sees a able to relate to his or her experiences,
museum as a social space and defines a museums have to become more open and
museum as: ņ.... a non-profit making
1
permanent institution in the service of society Understanding the Future: Museums and 21 . Century st

Life, DCMS, 2005.

and of its development, open to the public, 2
Stephen Weil, Beyond Management: Making Museums
which acquires, conserves, researches, Matter in INTERCOM, Study Series, No12, 2006, p4.
3
ICOM code of ethics for museums, ICOM, Paris 2006.
communicates and exhibits, for purpose of 4
Pine & Gilmore, 1999, The experience economy: Work
study, education and enjoyment, the tangible is Theatre and every business a stage, Boston, p11-12.
5
Falk & Dierking, 2000, Learning from Museums, p76.
and intangible evidence of people and their 6
Black Graham, 2005, The Engaging Museum.
environmentŇ.3 Developing Museums for Visitor involvement, p3.

INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

 more accessible - better meeting visitor appeals to them.Ň8
needs and achieving greater visitor Audience development is about breaking
satisfaction. An audience-focused museum down barriers in all its forms and shapes and
has a dynamic relationship between the engaging visitors in activities which they
programme activities and the audience. consider worthwhile. It is not only about
Some of these changes are hugely numbers, and there are different approaches
debated and museums are often criticised for depending on the need of the specific target
ńdumbing downŅbut with the commitment of group. The basis of all audience
providing innovative programmes with the development initiatives should be research -
highest possible quality standard for a wide market research - knowing your audience is
range of audiences, museums can establish key to identify different needs but also to
themselves as centres of excellence, show- develop niche markets and convince more
casting original objects which make a positive visitors to become regular museum goers.
difference to people's lives. Having said that, Kotler argues that successful museums need
it all depends on getting more people more to ņprovide multiple experiences: aesthetic
often through the door and convince them and emotional delight, celebration and
with exciting programmes and challenging learning, recreation and sociabilityŇ.9 In
exhibitions that a museum visit can offer not delivering multiple experiences that are
only educational experiences second to none, satisfying and engaging museums will meet
but is also fun and entertaining. specific needs of different target groups and
also help individual audiences in their self-
Audience development development process.
Audience development is very much an
Anglo-American led term, which has only
slowly found its way into Central Europe that
describes a powerful process of improving
services to existing visitors and reaching out
to new audiences. It is not a simple course of
action but a planned and targeted
management process which involves almost
all areas of a museum working together to
deliver the organisation's overall aims and
objectives to high quality standards. For Hans
Christian Anderson audience development
meansņenriching the experience of your Diagram 1: Audience Development Model ( c C. Waltl)

visitors by helping them to learn more and

deepening their enjoyment of what you have Successful audience development is the
to offer. It therefore combines the aims of the perfectńZusammenspielŅof almost all
curator, educator and marketer.Ň7 Audience museum departments. In this model research
development also needs to ensure that and collections are core to be able to devise
museums continue to be relevant to all the a programme that is communicated through
different community groups. Thus the core interpretation and marketing. Together they
elements of audience development are ņThe 7
Anderson Hans Christian, Museums Journal 2005.
actions we take to involve people, to 8
Audience Development Plan, Heritage Lottery Fund,
understand their needs and interests, and to UK, p4.
9
Kotler and Kotler (1998: 39).
create an environment and experience that

INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Museums for visitors: Audience development - A crucial role for successful museum management strategies

bring the message across to the visitors and needs and desires that should be best
potential visitors. catered for.
Goals of a sustainable Audience In their extensive research Hood and Kelly
Development strategy are: made it clear that the motivation for a
œ To refine and enhance communication with museum visit must be seen in a larger social
visitors context:
œ To achieve an attainable and sustainable

audience
œ To turn non visitors into visitors, visitors into

repeat visitors and regular museum goers

into supporters
œ To enhance access
Motivations
œ To offer multiple experiences
Predictors Museum Visiting Global Trends

œ To engage visitors (hands on & minds on)

œ To establish an active network with special

target groups.

Understanding your audience

Being audience-centred rather than Diagram 2: Model of Museum Visiting (after Hood 1996;
Kelly 2001)
product-led requires a profound
understanding of visitors and non-visitors with
A visitor survey of the state museums in
respect to their nature, motivations,
Vienna in 2004 found that over 58% of the
expectations and needs. To be able to do
visitors are visiting a museum because of a
this, professional audience research is vital to
special exhibition and another 14% because
make informed decisions on programme
of an event or special programme. That
activities and to efficiently react to changes in
means that two in three Austrians pay a visit
behaviour patterns of society. Practically,
to a museum because of special programmes
visitor studies are an important management
or exhibitions. This information is crucial for
tool that should feed into all museum areas
strategic planning meaning that museums do
and lead to improvements in service quality
have to have special exhibitions in addition to
as a whole and as Graham Black argues ņ...
their permanent displays, otherwise they fail
if museums acknowledge that they should be
to attract their full audience potential.
audience-centred, a properly resourced
programme of visitor studies should be an
essential, systematic element of museum's
activitiesŇ.10
Changes in society have strong
implications for museums and their services.
One factor which needs to be taken into
account is that in Austria, and this is probably
true for other European countries too, the
Diagram 3: Reason for Visiting (Source: FESSEL-Gfk,
society is rapidly ageing and within 20 years Osterreichische Bundesmuseen 2004, n=1000)
from now a third of all Austrians will be over
60. Another challenging target group is
families in all their guises from single parents
to patch-work families. They all have different 10
Black Graham, 2005, p10.

INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Visitor needs and their impact on visitor (3%). For galleries the numbers are
management strategy quite different with 18% of the spiritually-
Nowadays museums are more motivated visitors. The higher visitors move
accountable to their public and people are up the hierarchy the more fulfilling and
better educated, more affluent, more rewarding the museums visit was. Thus the
experienced and have therefore higher aim of good programming and visitor
demands and expectations of customer care. engagement seems to be core to the work we
Society is also more culturally diverse and do.
museum strategies have to link all operational
aspects of museum's businesses towards an Visitor engagement & involvement
agreed mission that reflects this way of Not all visitors are in a position to make
modern life. contextual links with what they see on display
Numerous market research projects have without any interpretative help. This did not
been undertaken but none of them seems so seem too problematic in the past since
groundbreaking as work done by Morris, museums and galleries often served more
Hargreaves and McIntyre, a company in educated social classes and also saw their
Manchester, specialising in audience existence more in researching, collecting and
research and arts marketing. From extensive preserving rather then providing an
research in the North of England they educational as well as social experience for
developed a chart based on a hierarchy of visitors. As a consequence large parts of the
visitor engagement which reflects Maslow's public simply stayed away from museums,
pyramid of human needs. Their model is a with the attitude that museumsņheld nothing
useful way of segmenting visitors by their in particular to seeŇor they areņin general
main motivations. boring or not for themŇ11.
The classification has been grouped into Nowadays with museums broadening their
four key drivers: the socially-, the audiences and trying to make collections
intellectually-, the emotionally- and the more accessible to the public, more
spiritually-motivated visitor. Each of them are sophisticated - technically as well as
hierarchical, beginning with the socially- methodically - interpretation tools become an
motivated visitor who makes about 48% of important part in the process of engaging the
visits to museums, the intellectually-motivated visitor. Tools such as audio guides, computer
visitor (39%), the emotionally-motivated interactives, multi-layered text labels as well
visitor (11%) and the spiritually-motivated as specially trained mediators are helping to
make the museums experience more
worthwhile for visitors by linking the visitor
experience with the collection displayed and
Engagement
Visitor Needs
initiating a communication between the visitor
with the Arts
and the object. Engaging visitors in an
interactive experience is much more likely to
result in a positive museums experience and
visitors come back for more.
In Austria there have been for some time
successful projects which had their main

11
MORI, Visitors to Museums & Galleries in the UK.
Diagram 4: Needs Hierarchy after Maslow (1970) and Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and
Morris, Hargreaves, McIntyre (2001) Libraries, London, 2001.

INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper

Museums for visitors: Audience development - A crucial role for successful museum management strategies

focus on working with special target groups to

improve access to museums and collections.
For example ambitious projects for youths
were initiated by the Buro fur
Kulturvermittlung, a non governmental
organisation, working with apprentices who
traditionally have no or hardly any interaction
with museums or the arts in general. Most of
these programmes were offered by freelance
educationalists, sometimes in cooperation
with museum education departments and
mostly co-funded by public bodies. However Conclusion
these projects were often not part of an Since Museums with space for recreation,
institution's marketing strategy and were by social interaction, contemplation and
no means utilised by managers and emotions are high on the agenda these days
integrated in museum forward plans. a major cultural change is imminent in the
The provincial museum in Carinthia Austrian museums sector.
devised some innovative programmes for the Successful museums have to be proactive
traditionally sporty, non museum attenders. in planning their audience development
During the annually organized Roman Week strategies. A well grounded strategic plan will
a mountain race to an archeological park on help museums to move efficiently from where
top of a historic hill brought new people to the it is now to where it wants to be. Devising a
event. Runners were surprised by an original forward plan that reflects visitor needs means
roman award ceremony which brought them that organisations need a good
into contact with the history of the location. understanding of the environment in which
they work. The strategic plan as a framework
helps to devise reasonable goals, allocate
resources to agreed priorities and at the
same time reflect the overall mission and
professional standards on the care of
collections. Graham Black refers to audience
development planning as aņlong-term
challengeŇ and argues thatņin setting out to
develop new audiences, you are actually
seeking to change human behaviourŇ.12
This emphasises the importance of
collaborative work towards a shared vision
Another successful audience development and common goals and shows that
programme was targeted at teenagers. For successful museums have to be aware of the
the special exhibition featuring parasites the interrelated issues of ņcohesive leadership
museum offered in cooperation with a local and visitor focused public programmingŇ13
school a programme of events where the and make sure that visitors have easy access
pupils took centre stage in most of the to all that museums do.
activities. They took ownership of the 12
Black Graham, The Engaging Museum. Developing
exhibition and were also responsible for the Museums for Visitor involvement, 2005, p61.
13
Des Griffin, & Morris Abraham (2001). Effective
great success of the exihibition. Management of Museums: Cohesive Leadership and
Visitor-focused Public Programming. Museum
Management and Curatorship 18 (4), 335-368 (2000).

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About the author
Christian Waltl (MPhil, MA) worked as a curator for education in the museums and cultural sector in Vienna, Austria,
for more than seven years and was subsequently Project Manager for Acoustiguide, a company producing guided tours
for museums and visitor attractions. In 1997 he moved to London and after gaining his MA in museums management
he worked as project coordinator and research fellow at the University of Greenwich Business School's Department for
Museums, Heritage and Arts Management Studies. Christian's special research areas included visitor services
management, visitor surveys, audience development and museum management training.
In December 2000, Mr. Waltl moved to Canada where he worked as the Operations and Communications Manager
for the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival. The festival turned out to be the most successful to date both in
terms of visitor numbers and income generation. His move back to Europe was primarily to get back into the museums
sector and also to be closer to family. He took over management at Woodhorn Colliery Museum in June 2002 covering
for the museums officer who has been seconded to the Heritage Lottery Fund bid project.
In December 2002, Waltl moved back to Austria to work as manager of the Provincial Museum Carinthia, where he
had broad responsibilities and moved the museum successfully from a scholarly-based to a more visitor-friendly
institution. In August 2006 he was appointed Secretary of Culture working for the Arts Minister of Carinthia.

INTERCOM 2006 Conference Paper