اندازه گیری عملکرد استراتژی بازاریابی غیر انتفاعی : در مورد فروشگاه های موزه

Marketing activities in museum stores offer significant opportunities to evaluate distinct strategies and their related performance in a nonprofit setting. Whereas the museum store was originally intended to provide financial support for the institution with which it was associated, it now provides an educational or mission-related opportunity as well. This research identifies financial and educational museum store strategies and then measures effectiveness in terms of those strategies, providing a measurement for perceived educational performance based on findings from museum stores in America. Implications for museum marketers, museum retailers, nonprofit marketers, and retail marketers involved with social causes are presented.

While measuring the performance of marketing strategies has been undertaken in numerous contexts, it presents unique challenges and illuminating possibilities for nonprofit organizations. Profit-oriented firms generally evaluate their performance using financial measures Morgan et al., 2002 and Sheth and Sisodia, 2002. However, in the nonprofit world, where the goal of the organization is likely to be nonfinancial (Gallagher and Weinberg, 1991), the measurement of the performance of marketing strategies needs to be accomplished in terms of total effectiveness Morgan et al., 2002 and Sheth and Sisodia, 2002, which means a nonprofit organization's performance should be evaluated in both financial and nonfinancial terms. Some nonprofit marketing strategies are designed to raise funds with which to further the objectives of the organization (Kotler and Andreasen, 1996), while other marketing strategies directly target the overall objective. Investigation of this phenomenon is needed in order to gain an understanding of the relationships between a marketing strategy designed to raise funds for nonprofits, a marketing strategy with a goal of furthering the nonprofit organization's altruistic objectives and their respective performance measures. Additionally, development of means for measuring the nonfinancial performance in nonprofits is needed. This research seeks to study this problem in museums in America, and in particular, the unique hybrid of retailing and museums—the museum store. The number and size of museum retail operations are escalating, and museums are increasingly relying on them as a source of funding (Lovelock and Weinberg, 1989), especially in a time when federal support for many museums is deteriorating Dess, 1998 and Hughes and Luksetich, 1999. Museum stores provide an opportunity to identify and distinguish a marketing strategy that is associated purely with the financial or fund-raising objectives of the museum as well as a strategy that may be perceived as running counter to the financial strategy of the museum—that of education. This research establishes two unique objectives for the American museum: (1) to raise funds and (2) to educate the public. These objectives are manifested by two specific marketing strategies (financial and educational) that are identified by the literature. Measures of performance in terms of these two strategies are identified, and a comprehensive measurement vehicle for educational performance for museum stores is developed. Finally, as shown in Fig. 1, the relationships between the two strategies and the two performance measures are examined.

The results of this research, particularly the identification of a nonfinancial performance measure, are significant for museum store managers, museum administrators, retail managers in general, nonprofit marketers, and academic researchers. Measures of an array of tactics associated with marketing strategies that are related to both a nonfinancial objective (education) and a financial objective were identified and were shown to be significant predictors of their respective performance measures. An educational (mission related) strategy was identified, tactical indicators of that strategy were defined, and it was found that an educational marketing strategy had a significant positive effect on the achievement of the mission. In an area of nonprofit marketing that was initially developed only to provide financial support to museums, it is noteworthy that there is a finding of significant educational performance occurring as a result of an educational marketing strategy. Additionally, it was found that the educational strategy had a small but statistically significant negative effect on financial performance, contrary to the literature and in agreement with some of the anecdotal information from practitioners. This finding runs counter to the findings of Voss and Voss (2000) in the nonprofit theatre venue and may indicate that the effect of mission-based strategies in nonprofits is circumstantial. Many of the significant educational tactics in museum stores are collection based, and do not reflect a market orientation on the part of the museum. These tactics include “product development process includes the curatorial staff,” for example, which could have the curatorial staff causing the museum store to carry an educational product that is not very saleable. This has implications for managing internal conflicts between museum staff members with purely educational or financial objectives. Cross-functional involvement between curators in the development of new products and the training of store staff, the retail manager, and the educational staff is vital for optimizing the overall educational mission but needs to be controlled in such a manner that it also enhances the financial performance of the museum store as well. Indeed, museum administrators need to understand the linkages between financial and educational considerations in their overall museum store strategy. The museum and museum store management must carefully balance the financial and educational strategies. Hence, the museum's best interests are served if the museum store is included as part of the overall strategic planning of the museum, which may mean a cultural shift for some museums. The idea that the museum store is merely a source of revenues that can be used to support the museum is shortsighted, since the museum store is part of the overall means of achieving the museum's educational goals. Internal marketing on the part of the museum store management, directed towards the entire stakeholder population of the museum, needs to occur. Examples of cross-functional involvement include the training of museum store staff with respect to the museum's collection, curatorial involvement with product development, curatorial involvement with signing and packaging, and collaborative efforts to install or enhance interactive interpretive demonstrations in the museum store. Museum store managers that have professional retail training or experience are more likely to be associated with stronger financial performance; therefore museums that hire store managers with that background need to be aware of a need to develop a sensitivity to the museum's overall educational mission. The financial marketing strategy had the predicted ambiguous effect on educational performance. This is important in the nonprofit museum setting because it indicates that a financial marketing strategy does not impede the achievement of an altruistic, in this case educational, objective. This is particularly significant in the case of museums where the raising of money, particularly in the museum store, has been seen by some stakeholders as a distasteful, embarrassing, nonelitist activity that endangers the optimal museum experience. The overriding implication of this study is that marketing activities undertaken by nonprofits may have both mission-related and financially related results and that by pursuing both educational and financial marketing strategies in a balanced manner the organization may be able to achieve optimal performance. In fact, the museum should be able to control the educational or financial outcomes depending upon which marketing strategy they emphasize. Implications extend to the discussion of nonprofit marketing. The notion that nonprofit marketing is solely fund raising in support of a social cause is not supported. Furthermore, the idea that nonprofit marketing merely uses marketing tools to enhance social causes is also limited. The findings of this study indicate that the picture of social marketing is more complex and that relationships between social marketing strategies, whether financial or altruistic, will have results that are mixed in terms of performance. Museum store managers have several specific tactics at their disposal that have been identified as being important components of a particular strategy, and as such affect financial as well as educational performance. Measuring mission-related performance at the store level becomes an important tool for the museum store manager. On the other hand, some of the specific tactics that have been identified are not applicable to all museum stores, such as the purchase, installation, and use of a fully integrated POS system, for example, which will not necessarily result in high financial performance for all museums. For retail managers outside of the nonprofit environment there are implications from this study as well. If the mission of the retail firm is in any respect nonfinancial in nature, then the firm needs to be measuring results in both financial and nonfinancial terms and realizing that strategies that are financially driven can result in both financial and nonfinancial performance. Therefore, retail firms would be well served to measure performance in more than just financial terms. 7.1. Limitations and future research There are many opportunities for further research and extensions of this study. For example, if the educational performance measure is to become a viable scale for measurement, it needs to undergo retesting and reassessment (Churchill, 1979). Further testing with respect to certain covariates, particularly that of museum size as measured by visitation would also be helpful, but the sample size precluded such tests here. Other potential covariates include age of the museum, location in tourist or metropolitan regions, and the subject matter of the collection. This research specifically sought to identify variables that were indicators of financial or educational strategies. Indicators of strategies that were both financial and educational at the same time were found in the literature and not used in this research because they were not clearly identifiable as being either purely educational or financial. Identification of additional tactics would be meaningful for practitioners and researchers. For nonprofits in general, it would be helpful to know how the dynamics found in this study apply. Do the relationships between mission-driven and financially driven strategies and performances apply for other nonprofits, or only for museum stores? In fact, within the museum itself, do these findings exist outside of the museum store? Do other activities of the museum such as site rental, food service, and admissions marketing exhibit similar patterns? This research has looked at museum stores from a strategic internal perspective. However, the external environment and the customer's perspective need to be taken into account. For example, how does competition affect these findings? How do customers rate educational performance? Indeed, customer behavior with respect to museums stores has not been academically researched in any respect. What are the motivations for customers to shop at museum stores: tourism (souvenirs), education, extending the experience, altruism, contributions to the “cause,” filling a personal need for the product or gift giving? What are the customer motivations for visiting the museum store? Is it based on the visit to the museum, the recommendation of museum guides or special products that can be bought there? Most of the discussion about nonprofit retailing is concerned with museums. In what other nonprofit environments can retail activities also fulfill both financial and mission driven objectives? Obviously, a research can and should be undertaken. Further research should result in findings that will aid in the understanding of not only museum retail marketing, but retail marketing and nonprofit marketing as well.