Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as part of the MSc in Strategic Product Design at the International Hellenic University. The implementation of marketing strategies in the museum has experienced a period of controversy until the advent of the 21st century. Significant changes in societies occurred that made the administration of museums to realize that must incorporate marketing strategies if they want to be evolved as an exemplar of quality service provision and value for money, thus to ensure their sustainable development. The purpose of this dissertation is to discover the importance of applying marketing strategies in nonprofit cultural organizations, such as a museum. The research focuses on the examination of services marketing theory in a specific service context. To better serve the purpose of the study along with the theoretical context based on a literature review, a museum’s case study is constructed with the use of a multi-method qualitative approach for the required data collection. The examined non-cultural profit organization is "the Silversmithing Museum" located in the town of Ioannina of the Epirus region in Northwestern Greece. The tool of marketing mix comprising the 7 Ps – Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence is used to identify museum’s marketing strategy and best practices, building block for others to develop. In addition, the importance of holding a strong brand name to improve or maintain the museum's position among other valued cultural institutions in society is revealed. The dissertation is structured as follows. The first chapter provides a theoretical analysis of the reasons for introducing marketing in cultural organizations such as museums. In the second chapter, the expanded marketing mix in services is examined along with the branding strategy, while in the third, the case study is presented. The last chapter concludes.