Museum Membership Innovation: Unlocking Ideas for Audience Engagement and Sustainable Revenue

Data show that 60.8 percent of lapsed members will postpone rejoining “until there is a new exhibit.”9 Thus, museums are inadvertently training members and prospective members to respond only when there is the lure of a new exhibition.

Instead, people are motivated to participate in a cultural activity because it fulfills a specific need—a desire to have fun, to feel less stressed, to experience new things, to learn something, or to spend time with friends or family.5 Thus, the museum serves as an enabler, helping the visitor accomplish a specific goal—a job to be done.

six characteristics that provide important distinctions among member involvement as signified by their motivations, values, and needs, including (1) centrality and pleasure; (2) desire to learn; (3) escapism: spirituality and creativity; (4) sense of belonging and prestige; (5) physical; and (6) drivers of involvement.40

To be sure, the only way to avoid the trap of an internally focused institutional lens is to deeply understand the needs of tomorrow’s audiences.

to drive sales and encourage an “investment” mindset, then bundling

Although generational study is more art than science, consensus among researchers has found the millennial mindset to be well defined when it comes to a desire for experiences that are interactive, immersive, seamless, and participatory. For better or worse, millennials’ expectations and attitudes have deeply influenced a future that is already tak

Moreover, because research shows that a significant portion of visitors and members are unaware that museums are nonprofits, they may not equate purchasing a membership with making a donation at all. Instead, it is likely that many members think of their membership more in terms of a buy-to-give concept, similar to a for-profit social good product

Such a one-size-fits-none, off-the-shelf membership product is to the detriment of both the customer and the museum’s bottom line. Therefore, museums must internalize the concept that it is the specifics of the job and its accompanying motivations that matter most. Accordingly, museums need to rethink their offerings, products, and marketing to ref

As museums seek to reach new audiences, marketing and membership professionals must evolve from the outdated role of “product pushers” into a consultative, cocreator of meaningful experiences that satisfy audience needs.