Minx Marketing Solutions Essay

A London museum in partnership with department of culture and tourism in Syria wants to prepare for an exhibition to showcase selection of artifacts, relics, sculptures and art – originating from the city of Palmyra, in Syria for a limited time period, over summer 2009. The museum reached out for our company to help launch and manage a campaign that is meant to promote the exhibition, pull customers, raise the museums profile thus reminding the consumers of the museum, differentiate the museum from other museums, raise revenue and attract future partnerships with international departments of culture. Therefore our marketing company, Minx Marketing Solutions (MMS), set out working for a marketing plan and strategies to make the promotion and campaigning of the exhibition a success. The responsibility of MMS is the total management of the exhibition: from choosing of venue, advertisements and general day to day logistics for the period the exhibition runs. The London museum provides a budget of ? 1million which MMS will use in preparation and running of the exhibition. MMS however should give a proposal on how it intends to use the money provided to the London museum. Situational Analysis Palmyra boasts a fascinating and ancient history of significance to many civilizations and cultures. No any other museum has ever showcased Pieces from Palmyra in the recent past. Since the artifacts and art is such significant, we expect attention from a wide audience, youth and adults alike. Therefore this exhibition is fit for all family viewing. It should be understood that there are 1,848 museums in the UK. These are the museums altogether that have attracted up to and over 42 million visitors per year. This is about 22,700 visitors per museum per year. For major museums, the number is twice as much. ( Travers, 2006). Another rather interesting concept is the fact that about 43% of the population in the UK visits museums at least once a year and thus a survey done by London School of Economics showed that museums and galleries were major attractors of visitors and that the type of people visiting the museums had changed significantly in the period spanning 2002-2004. The number of people from the low social economic class and that of the blacks and minority groups had increased by 15. % and 60% respectively in that period (London School of Economics, 2007) The current market is shared by major museums and galleries across the UK but this depends entirely on whether or not it is a major museum (major museums have a larger market stake) and what the museum is showcasing. Therefore, to command a lions share in the market now that the museum is already a major museum, we need to showcase a major attraction such as the Palmyra pieces beautifully displayed to attest the significance of Palmyra works of art and artifacts to other cultures and civilization world over. Market competition is based on what you have to offer. A variety of activities even outside the museum are likely to give one museum an edge over the other. Opportunities and Threats The opportunities for the exhibition to become successful depends on the positioning of the exhibition, the charges, age bracket of the attendants (are children allowed? ) and other related or unrelated events happening around the set date that are likely to draw the crowds. In the 2009 summer, there shall be the Darwin commemoration, the new Jewish museum in Camden grand opening, the London Canal museum is set to host theatrics and other activities for families and many other activities in other museums all over the country. This is a great threat because there are a number of activities being conducted by a number of museums and this may affect the turn out at the exhibition. The only opportunity we have is based on the pricing and other activities outside the exhibition. Another opportunity is based on a fierce marketing campaign to sell the exhibition to the general public.