Strategic marketing on museum audience attraction – a comparative study between Portugal and the UK

Abstract

Museums play a key role in society, they present tangible and intangible heritage, embrace cultural trends and educate multitudes worldwide. Museums impact the economy contributing with jobs creation, investments flow and increasing the Gross Domestic Product. The purpose of this study is to investigate how museums attract a wider audience in an ever-changing world. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were applied in two organizations in Portugal and in the United Kingdom to verify the strategies used by these organizations to be active and attractive to different types of audience. The findings definitely answer the question in the museum strategic management field, as museums strategically work focused on the public, adopting different strategies to acquire more visitors. Further studies may be developed to investigate museums communications strategies and museum’s indirect influence in the economy.