by neonbluelights
I recently made a visit to the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo. This is Norway’s oldest and largest museum of natural history, and here I visited the Zoological Museum which is displaying wildlife from all parts of the world.
The Zoological exhibition is divided into two: A Norwegian hall that displays everything from sea-living creatures to animals living on the high mountains. There is also an extension to this hall which is the Svalbard room. Here you can find arctic animal species. The other hall is the Zoogeographic hall which is organized according to the zoological regions of the Earth. Here you can find animal species that are typical for different regions, like Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia etc.
Exhibitions at the Zoological Museum, photos taken by me.
So how do museums understand and communicate with their audience and in what way does this help the museum relate to its audience?
The book Arts Marketing states that audiences are important, and understanding audiences is an important part of museum marketing. An approach to understanding audiences is the traditional approach based on demographic profile like age, gender, education etc. Another way is segmentation based on audience focus. This approach takes differences in audience psychographics into account, like personality, values, interests and lifestyle attributes. I think that by understanding the audience, it allows the museum to be able to customize the exhibitions more to suit their main target audience. Let’s have a look at the Natural History Museum.
When I was at the Zoological Museum, I noticed that there were quite a lot of families with children there. Understanding what each audience segment wants, can give the museum an advantage. I noticed the museum had some interactive exhibits where you could more actively take part and get more knowledge about the animals that were on display. There was also an area for younger children with activities relating to the exhibition.
Because the museum displays wildlife from different parts of the world, it relates to a wide range of audiences. For example, it will show a cabin in a Norwegian forest with different forest animals like deer, birds and a little fox. I think the way they have chosen to display these animals and the landscapes they are showing them in, give the audience a feeling of connection to it and it can make them feel like “this could be outside our own cabin”.
The museum also offers educational programs, and students also get discount on tickets. An event I recently saw they were hosting was Night at the Museum which is based on the Night at the Museum movies where the animals come to life at night. At this event you can experience the exhibitions in the dark with a flashlight, and with sound and light effects it’s giving the audience a new experience of the exhibitions.
Therefore, I would say that by being able to understand your audience, you can give them more valuable experiences that are suitable for them.
References:
Rentschler, R. (2004). Arts Marketing. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Making sense of art and design industries 