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FEDERAL STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

OF HIGHER EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Saint Petersburg School of Economics and Management

Department of Management

The research of activity features of museums with youth market

Bachelor's thesis

In the field 38.03.02 Management

Educational programme `Management'

Dementeva Elizaveta Konstantinovna

Kudelkina Anna Nikolaevna

Saint Petersburg-2019

Abstract

Since the end of XX century museums have entered the highly competitive market of leisure-time activities. To deal with the new requirements the heritage institutions start to reach new segments of audience. In this terms, young adults might be an important segment of the heritage institutions audience as today's youngers are tomorrow's basis of solvent part of the society. The research paper is aimed to explore the features of museums activities regarding the young adults segment of their audience. In order to deal with the goal there are raised the following three research questions: what practices and formats of communication with the young adult segment of audience modern museums use; could the young adults segment of museums audience be divided on sub-segments on the basis of differences between the levels of youngers cultural backgrounds; what features of cultural products contribution different groups of young adults could have. To reveal actual formats of communication between museums and youngers there were conducted both expert interviews with heads of museums departments responsible for interaction with young audience, and content analysis of world-wide famous art museums official websites and social networks. To explore if the young adult segment could be divided into additional sub-segments, there was carried out a survey on the bae of The State Hermitage student club audience. To indicate and describe patterns of cultural products contribution typical for groups of youngers that differs by their levels of cultural background and levels of involvement in the consumption of cultural products, there was conducted a survey that consisted of three questionnaires for The State Hermitage and The State Russian Museum student clubs audiences. This paper tests five hypotheses revealing the young adult segment patterns of cultural products contribution and examines if the 4E marketing model could be applied to the heritage institutions market segment. The research is conducted on primary database collected with the help of such tools as questionnaire and expert interview. The survey was conducted on the base of The State Hermitage and The State Russian Museum Student clubs. At the data analysis stage there were used content analysis and Excel statistical analysis methods. As the result of the research 4E marketing model was adopted to the heritage institution market and there were described young adults segment patterns of cultural products contribution. The findings will help museums to understand the needs and preferences of the young adults segment and thus gain success on the highly competitive leisure-time market by meeting them.

Keywords: museum marketing, young adults, 4E, marketing model, cultural products contribution

Table of contents

museum marketing hermitage

Introduction

1. Literature review

1.1 Museum Marketing

1.2 4E Marketing Model

1.3 “Young Adults” Segment

1.4 Visitor engagement

1.5 New technology

1.6 Social media and the Internet

1.7 Factors of visiting the museum

1.8 Russian experience

2. Research question

3. Methodology

3.1 Expert interviews

3.2 Sub-segments

3.3 Patterns of cultural products contribution

4. Results

4.1 Expert interviews

4.2 Matrix

4.3 Model 4E

4.4 Unique formats of interaction with young people

4.5 Survey of the “Student club of the youth center of the Hermitage”

4.6 Excel analysis

Conclusion

Reference list

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

Appendix 6

Appendix 7

Appendix 8

Appendix 9

Appendix 10

Appendix 11

Appendix 12

Appendix 13

Appendix 14

Appendix 15

Introduction

Within the analysis of the modern social-cultural milieu a complex interaction between local and global tendencies could be noticed. This relation is displayed in all areas and particularly in the field of culture and science. The modern world of museums is expected to be changed in order to adapt to these trends. According to the current ICOM's (International Council of Museums) definition of the museum, the institution main functions are conserving and researching the heritage of humanity with the educational and entertainment purposes. However, over the past three decades the heritage institutions functionality began to go beyond the denoted frameworks (McLean, 1995). One of the confirmations for this statement can be a research demonstrating that with having visitor's senses been stimulated, it might be possible to “recreate” the content of a cultural message that leading to its rediscovery (Kotler & Armstrong, 1999). The case illustrates the situation which one of the functions the museum has performed in is enhancing the visitor's experience. This example confirms the fact that museums started to replace the product concept with the marketing concept and the focus was shifted from a searching for customers for products to the searching for products for customers. It also reveals that nowadays the segment of heritage institutions primarily and specifically museums face the radical changes both in external and internal environment. In other words, it is supposed that museums need to be radically transformed, adjusted and revise their principles, policies and practices to retain the status of one of the most covet places for the 21st century people leisure. This proves that in an actively changing world, museums should consider new opportunities, explore their audiences and their needs.

It is important to note that the range of museums was divided into following separate target audience groups: children, students, families, the elderly and disabled people. As it can be seen, young audience at the age from 14 to 35 years old, is not allocated as a separated segment. According to Mokhtar and Kasim (2011, p.44), “îne market segment that most museums repeatedly fail to satisfactorily attract is the young audience market”. There are several difficulties to attract this segment because the youth culture is a lifestyle that fosters opposition to institutional or adult culture because it has completely different views and needs. This fact may explain why young people make up a small percentage of museum visitors. However, it is crucial to recognize that young people are a significant market segment, because they are expected to be treated as potential museum visitors, professional workers and the most active financial audience in the near future. Museum professionals do not have the sufficient knowledge, describing people's reasons of visiting historical sites and museums, particularly motivations inspiring young audience segment. Nevertheless, this audience occupies a significant part of the market, so it makes young people a large and attractive target segment. Therefore, it is very important for museums to identify and clarify the main drivers the youth audience to visit the museums, because there is no clear description and classification of the desires of the young audience, which is not homogeneous and divided into certain subgroups. In this regard, this work will consider the youth segment of museum visitors which will be divided into several groups according to specific characteristics. This division will help to describe the profile of a particular group more specifically and clearly and create a marketing model as well as compose a list of recommendations which will help to engage these groups.

There are some main objectives of the thesis. Firstly, some special unique reasons, barriers and expectations from culture industry products and services contribution of the young audience should be defined, because they differ from other groups' ones. Secondly, it is needed to understand how the young audience segment can be divided into additional groups by the principal of different levels of cultural background. Thirdly, it is important to explore how the museum affects the consumption of cultural products by young people. Fourthly, it is crucial to understand what formats of museums ' work with young people exist now and how they can be made more effective. Fifthly, it is significant to divide all formats of works with youth audience into three categories such as unique formats, popular formats and average demand formats. Sixthly, it is needed to make an analysis of the formats of museums with young people using a more appropriate marketing model. The answers to these questions will help to outline the young audience surely and highlight their main visit drivers.

There are some tasks of the thesis. Firstly, it is important to define the concept of museum and the main functions of museum. Secondly, it is needed to give a definition of the museum marketing and examine the types of marketing models. Thirdly, it is significant to study a young adults segment and factors of visiting a museum by this segment. Fourthly, it is crucial to study a concept of visitor engagement thanks to new technology, social media and the Internet. Fifthly, it is needed to analyze the Russian experience in terms of working with young adults. Sixthly, it is important to create and conduct interviews with leading museum experts, for the purpose of identifying foreseeable future of communication between museums and young adults. Seventhly, it is crucial to create a matrix based on social networks and museum sites, for the purpose of identifying the main formats of museums ' work with young people. Eighthly, it is significant to create and conduct interviews with students from “Student club of the youth center of the Hermitage” and “Student club of the Russian Museum”, for the purpose of identifying preferences and desires in the consumption of cultural industry products.

The results of the thesis could be relevant for further research in scientific papers on topics related to the work of museums with a youth audience. Therefore, the results may be interested to researchers, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students. The results of the study can also be implemented in the work and modernization of various Russian and international museums, especially in the classical and modern art museum, because these types of museums were analyzed in the practical part. Thus, the results can be used by the museum staff, including representatives of the museum administration, to overcome the policy of the museum towards the expansion of work with the youth audience. The marketing model connecting with museum's activities for work with young people and specific recommendations can be presented in the “Student club of the youth center of the Hermitage” and “Student club of the Russian Museum” for practical application. It relates to the fact that students of these youth clubs participated in the main practical research (survey).

Thesis is defined by tasks and objectives and consists of introduction, theoretical foundation, statement of the research question, methodology, description of the results and conclusion, list of used references and appendices. The number of pages in the thesis (without appendices) are 84 and number of sources in the document are 72. The introduction indicates the basic elements and theses on which the study is based. Theoretical foundation describes a concept of museum and the main functions of museum, gives a definition of the museum marketing and examine the types of marketing models. It also describes a study of young adults segment and factors of visiting a museum by this segment, study a concept of visitor engagement thanks to new technology, social media and the Internet, and this part also analyzes the Russian experience in terms of working with young adults. Hypotheses and research questions are formulated in the statement of the research question. Methodology describes the methods that were used in the analysis of the work. The description of the results shows the practical part of the thesis. It was carried out thanks to the help of interviews, analysis of social networks and sites of international and Russian museums which helped to identify main formats of work with young people, thanks to the help of a survey conducted in The State Hermitage which helped to distinguish three groups of young people, and thanks to the help of surveys in The State Hermitage and The State Russian Museum which helped to check the hypotheses. The final part is a summary of the hole work which includes marketing model and recommendations for improving the work of museums with a young audience.

There are different types of research bases were used in this thesis. Theoretical database includes sources dedicated to museum and young audience. Such sources as Neil Kotler, Philip Kotler, Wendy Kotlerhas “Museum marketing and strategy: designing missions, building audiences, generating revenue and resources”, Timothy Ambrose, Crispin Paine “Museum Basics”, Gail Anderson “Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift”, Ruth Rentschler, Anne-Marie Hede “Museum Marketing: Competing in the Global Marketplace” has been observed. Methodological database based on already conducted surveys of young audience and set out in the writings such as Rachna Sharma “Relevance of the 4E Marketing Model to the Indian Insurance Industry”, Muhammad Fauzi Mokhtar “Motivations for visiting and not visiting museums among young adults: A case study on UUM students”, Thomas Akiva, Julie Petrokubi “Growing with youth: A lifewide and lifelong perspective on youth-adult partnership in youth programs”, David Mason ,Conal McCarthy “`The feeling of exclusion': Young peoples' perceptions of art galleries. Empirical database includes such organizations as “Student club of the youth center of the Hermitage” and “Student club of the Russian Museum”.

The are several methods and tools of research in this paper. The first stage of the research was related to the conducting of some expert interviews. The main feature of the method is the status and competence of the respondent who acts as an experienced participant in the question studied. As the experts there were invited the heads of The State Hermitage and The State Russian Museum student clubs and the expert from The Tretyakov Art Gallery. There was some assumed topics for discussion prepared in advanced which was modified and extended depending on the course of the interview. The second stage was related to analysis of the official museums' websites and social networks like Instagram, Facebook, VK, YouTube, and Twitter, because it helped to reveal the ways of communication with youngers which are used by museums in modern times. For the further analysis of the museums interaction with their youth audiences, there was used 4E marketing model. The model reflects the 4 elements that form the basis of interaction between a company and its customers: Experience, Exchange, Everyplace, Evangelism. In order to see, which formats of communication are more popular among the museums within the frameworks of 4E marketing model and which a less popular, four radar charts were created. The next stage was related to survey which help to divide young adults into sub-segments according to their cultural backgrounds. The empirical base for the survey was the first-year visitors of the “Student club of the youth center of the Hermitage”. The last stage was related to identify the features of young adults cultural products contribution and examine the homogeneous nature of the heritage institution market segment the t-test and chi square statistical methods was conducted via the Excel analysis package. The bases for the data collection stage were represented by the audiences of the “Student club of the youth center of the Hermitage” and “Student club of the Russian Museum” that visit club for several years (at least for two years).

This paper will be significant for scientific contribution, because young audience are famously underrepresented in museum, as a result, museums professionals and exports are looking for different ways to better meet the needs of this segment. It is important to pay attention to young adults because they will become a basis of the most solvent part of society and will be the largest generation of nearest time. Therefore, the studying the young adults segment, learning their desires, wants, motives and drivers for visiting museums became an important issue for heritage institutions. This paper will development of a scientific discipline connecting with young audience and museums, because it was created a marketing model, which has never been used before, and formed the different groups of young audience which vary according to the following characteristics: interests, level of art education, format preference of interaction, value system and lifestyle. Being based on the obtained characteristics, particular recommendations concerning the ways for working with the youth audience will be highlighted.

1. Literature review

Historically, the main functions of museums were preserving and conserving collection (McLean, 1995). It means that the focus of heritage institutions was aimed at their products. For many years, museums were elite organizations and the assumption that “high-level consumers would participate because of the treasures that museums possessed” (Kotler, 2008, p.22) was treated like an indisputable fact. However, when companies started to replace the product concept with the marketing concept and the focus was shifted from a searching for customers for products to the searching for products for customers, the museums had to follow this trend. Thus, L. Coffey wrote that museums should turn “from exclusive places to inclusive, from places of education to places of study” (2008, p. 263). L. Kelly also saw museums as spaces of "free choice or informal learning environment" (2004, p.46). The above trend has led to a conceptual shift from internal to external orientation: from the focus on the curator to the focus on the market, taking into account the needs of the audience (Kelly, 2004). Thus, by the mid-1970 museums have started their evolving from product-centered to consumer-centered organizations, along with other nonprofitable sector organizations. The shift was also reflected in the definition of the world museum that was described in the work of Rentschler and Hede (2007) “Museum Marketing: Competing in the Global Marketplace”. From an object-based or collection-based organization with the functional definition sounding like “museums acquire, conserve, communicate and exhibit art for study and education” (Rentschler & Hede, 2007, p.44), an institution comes to people-based concept and the purposive definition “museums are for the people to enjoy and to learn from collections which are held in trust for society” (Rentschler & Hede, 2007, p. 48). Thus, by the end of 20 century museum functionality was expanded with service to the society that becomes a critical aspect of the heritage institutions work (McLean, 1995). Nowadays, in accordance with ICOM the museum defined as “a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment”. Since one the purposes of museums is enjoyment, museums enter the leisure market that is characterized with a high level of competitiveness and need to “meet the expectations of increasingly discerning visitors” (Conway & Leighton, 2012, p.36). The high level of competition in the leisure time activities market is aggravated with the time lack as main feature of modern audience. It is important to note that, free time of the modern audience is constantly reduced, it is mean that its value is constantly increasing. People are looking for a way to spend their free time in the most profitable and useful way for them. However, a lot of studies indicate that for many people is a risky waste of time to visit an institution such as a museum, because they doubt to find there anything interesting for themselves. (Êóäðÿâöåâà, 2012). As a result, a big part of the audience refuses to go to the museum and choose a reliable and predictable by the desired effect alternative of spending their free time. Muhammad Fauzi Mokhtar and Azilah Kasim research stated that about 13 % of respondents have never visited museums and the main reason for this they named the lack of time (Mokhtar & Kasim, 2011). “In today' s world, the public generally has a number of leisure-time choices but not enough leisure time” (Kotler, 2008, p. 25), therefore museums have to struggle for a public attention and under these conditions “marketing is no longer an option for museums, it is a survival tool” (Rentschler & Hede, 2007, p. 34).

1.1 Museum Marketing.

With the accordance with American Marketing Association (AMA) marketing is identified as “an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that bene?t the organization and its stakeholders” (Kotler & Keller, 2006, p. 47). Another definition underlines the exchange process of the marketing nature and determines it is as “social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others” (Kotler & Armstrong, 1999, p.56). Each of these definitions contain concepts that lies on the base of communication between museums and their audience: values and exchange accordingly. As until now AMA has not define the term museum marketing (Komarac, 2014), it might be explained through the prism of answering the questions what the marketing role in the museum is and what the marketing does in the museum environment. Thus, museum marketing could be illustrated by Figure 1 and described as a process during which museums provides customers with product or service such as experience, idea, place, information in exchange for money, time, energy, psychic costs from consumers side.

Figure 1. Value exchange between consumers and museums*

*Based on the source: Kotler, N. G., Kotler, P., & Kotler, W. I. Museum marketing and strategy: Designing missions, building audiences, generating revenue and resources. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. P. 23

It is assumed that organizations will gain the success if provide customers with relatively greater value compared to competitors could do. The value of provided product or services is determined as a sum of functional and emotional benefits from the product or service consumption divided by all the cost the customer has to pay in order to get the value. If the benefits exceed costs and value is high enough, it is expected that a consumer will positively respond to the museum offer.

The way, how a museum offering is created might be reflected in a marketing model of a museum. Studying different models, applied to the museum and related markets, revealed that all of them could be divided into two groups: classic marketing mix and its derivatives and other. The first group cover such models like 4P which includes product, place, price, promotion (Ambrose & Paine, 2012), 5P supplemented with people (Kotler, 2008), 7P extended with physical evidence and process. This group also includes the 5C marketing model which consist of consumer value, cost to the consumer, convenience, communication, courtesy that shifts producer view of the market to the consumer view and focuses more on the consumer perceptions and needs. The second group contains such marketing models like holistic marketing model and BOCR. Holistic marketing model (Kotler, 2008) reflects more broaden understanding of the position of marketing and its functions within the organization and represented with the Figure 2. BOCR is the marketing model that for the first time was presented in the work of Saaty (1996) and then were applied to the museum segment of market by Tsai and Lin (2018). The marketing model aimed at the assessing a competitive advantage of an organization in term of four perspectives: benefits, opportunities, costs, risks.

Figure 2. Holistic Marketing model*

*Based on the source: Kotler, N. G., Kotler, P., & Kotler, W. I. Museum marketing and strategy: Designing missions, building audiences, generating revenue and resources. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. P. 27

However, all above models are not able to meet the requirements which modern museums faces in view of changes in heritage institutes environment. Classic marketing mix and other marketing models emerged on its basis like 5P or 7P have an offset to the producer point of view on an organization's marketing activities and therefore does not feet the new people-based purposive museum's definition paradigm, described by Rentschler and Hede (2007). Despite the fact that 5C marketing model shifted to the consumers interests and “view museum products in terms of the benefits and quality” (Kotler, 2008, p. 46), the model is more focused on the price offer rather than value proposition. According to Kotler (2008), the main benefits which museums customers are seeking for in the frameworks of the marketing model are “great access and low cost”. Whereas the cooperation between a museum and its customers is defined as an exchange of values, the modern museum marketing model might go beyond the frameworks of price offer and give the organization an opportunity to provide its customers with something more complex than just price advantages. Since museums started to perform the function of public enjoyment, they entered the leisure activities market described as highly competitive field. To survive under the condition and maintain their competitiveness museums need for a clear algorithm of values proposition creation. Because of its general nature, holistic marketing model does not able to fulfill the museums need into creating a competitive advantage through the value offering. On the contrary, BOCR model focused on the market and build the competitive strategy based more on the market circumstance rather than customers insides, needs and wants. Thus, BOCR marketing model again does not meet the requirement to provide museum an opportunity to have a people-based nature in their basis. It also does not cover the value exchange philosophy that assumed as a core element of marketing communication between museum and their audience.

Thus, the heritage institutions face the need for a new marketing model that will meet all the requirements put forward by museums in connection with changes in their internal and external environment. In the frameworks of the paper, it will be considered the assumption that 4E marketing model satisfy all the requests a modern museum could be address to a marketing model and applicable to the heritage institution segment of market.

1.2 4E Marketing Model.

4E marketing model was developed by Ogilvy and Mather as an alternative for classic marketing mix model 4P (Sharma, 2017). The model switches the focus of a company marketing activities from production needs to customer needs, from price offer to value proposition. Each E represents an alternative for P in a classic marketing-mix model. Thus, the product is replaced with experience, price with exchange, place with everyplace and promotion with evangelism (Figure 3). Through the changes the model is becoming more representative exactly in terms of reflecting customers' needs and expectation from museums' products and services contribution.

Figure 3. 4E Marketing model*

*Based on the source: Sharma R. Relevance of the 4E marketing model to the Indian Insurance Industry. Journal of Brand Management, 2017.

The shift from product to experience element assumes that museums not just selling their collections and treasures as a product but offer the experience provided with the product. It is perfectly feet the idea of transition from object-based definition of the term museum to the people-based definition, as shifting the understanding of the product of the museum from the collection itself to the customers' possibility to see and study it. Another word 4E marketing model allows to reconsider a museum's product from its customers point of view and identify it as an experience and knowledge.

The price to exchange transition underline that nowadays “customers are looking for value rather than just price, and they want policies tailored to their needs” (Sharma, 2017, p. 47). The shift, that 4E marketing model shows serves as a support to the new vision of communication between museums and their clients, that based on the value exchange between the parts. Moving from price to exchange in terms of marketing models, museums change the philosophy of price offer to the idea of providing clients with value proposition.

Changing the point place with the point everyplace, museums underline the will to enhance their customers' experience and to make the process of communication easier and closer. The everyplace element shows the process of digitalization and the company's access to the Internet space to overcome the spatial and temporal constraints of consumption.

Finally, the offset from promotion to evangelism helps museums to gain an emotional link with their customer and thus to achieve a greater level of loyalty from their side. This element shows a form of promotion that develops customer loyalty and belief in the uniqueness of products, thereby turning customers into evangelists and lawyers of the brand. As soon as “recent trends in marketing clearly indicate that products with a more emotional and passionate appeal win over products that lack either of these two aspects” (Sharma, 2017, p. 49), the usage of evangelizm instead of simple promotion allows museums to get a powerful competitive advantage that creates added value for their customers.

Previously, the concept 4E was applied to the service sphere in the Rachna Sharma's research (2017), where the company-customer relationships in the insurance industry were explored. In terms of the paper it will be examined if the marketing model could be successfully applied to the museums segment too. Currently, the assumption is accepted on the basis of at least two similarities, which were noted between the two segments which are insurance companies and heritage institutions. Firstly, since the museum's products are knowledges and experience that their clients can get by visiting them, the heritage institution's products could be classified as intangible products the as insurance companies' product are. Secondly, in the Rachna Sharma's research (Sharma, 2017) the insurance segment is positioned as experiencing the transition to the customer-centric approach as well as museums are. Therefore, it seems possible to draw an analogy between insurance and museum fields and test the 4E marketing model on the last one field.

1.3 “Young Adults” Segment

The changes arisen in the heritage institution environment, concern not only the way of value proposition creation but also the issue of which audience the offer is developing for. The audience-oriented approach the most modern as the basis for achieving the sustainability of museums (Villeneuve, 2013). Despite the fact that, the study of visitors began at the beginning of the XX century in the United States of America, theoretical approaches of the audience study were developed only at the end of the XX century. Modifications concerned the focus shift from museum collections to museum services. Innovations were first introduced in scientific museums, which realized that effective communication takes into account the museum audience in the formation of museum messages (Fitzgerald & Webb, 2004). Thus, they studied how the public understands science.

It became important for museums to identify and respond audience various needs. Analysis of the social structure was complemented by a focus on individual or cultural characteristics such as lifestyle, environment or time for explanation of cultural consumption since the 90-ies of XX century (Kirchberg & Kuchar, 2014). The concept where the audience is single gives way to the concept of diversity of the audience, moving from a single audience to many audiences (Werner, Hayward & Larouche, 2014). L. Kelly supports this idea and writes that the study of visitors ' experience becomes the key to the successful development of the museum's programs (2014).

Classically, the segmentation of museum audience was represented by the following groups: families, children, adults, tourist visitors, specialist groups, special needs groups, school groups (Ambrose & Paine, 2012). However, since 1990s museums have started their transition to audience-oriented policy (Anderson, 2004) and begun to reach new segments. Thus, in the “Museum Marketing and Strategy” (Kotler, 2008) young adults segment was mentioned along with other key segments of the museum target audience. According to Russian Federal low “Youth and State Youth Policy in the Russian Federation Confederations” the term young people or young adults identified as “socio-demographic group, allocated on the basis of age, social status and characterized by specific interests and values”. The age limits are determined by the boundaries of 14 and 30, sometimes 35 years old. In the frameworks of Fauzi Mokhtar and Kasim (2011) research, that is dedicated to the studying motivations for visiting and not visiting museums among young adults, the young adults narrowly defined as “those whose age at 17 to 22 years of age”, and more broaden as people from 17 to 28 years old. In this work the widest age range will be adopted under the term young adults will be treated as people aged from 14 to 35 years old.

In terms of museum marketing, the segment young adults treated as a difficult to attract due to the fact that as (Willis, 1990, p. 23) claimed “youth culture is a lifestyle that nurture opposition to institutional or adult culture”. In this regard, scientists begin to discuss the importance of understanding the causes of museums non-attendance among young people (Miller, 2011). Since museums, according to the research of Mason and McCarthy (2006) is often described by young people as “old” and “old fashioned”, associated with “people such as my dad, old people”, the heritage institutions do not seem to be relevant to young people and even could be perceived by them as something opposite to their culture. Also, the main reasons of the low museums attendance level by young people include the fact, that there are more other interesting places, as well as the fact that people do not have enough time (Khachatryan & Chernega, 2012). These reasons are interrelated. Free time is constantly reduced, as a result its value is constantly increasing. Based on the analysis of the study, it is noticeable that a visit to such institutions as museums for many young people is a risky waste of time, since they doubt to find anything interesting for themselves. Thus, many people refuse to go to the museum and choose a reliable and predictable alternative where they can relax and spend their free time. For a young audience, it is more important to spend their leisure time relaxing rather than straining in a museum.

At the same time, young adults should be considered as a defiantly important market segment as in the future they will become a basis of the most solvent part of society. Therefore, the studying the young adults segment, learning their needs, wants, motives and drivers for visiting museums became an important issue for heritage institutions. These factors determine the special features of the cultural consumption of young people. Based on the characteristic features of the consumption of this audience, it was looked for those services that correspond to them (Table 1). It was important to transfer the formats of those social practices that they have developed in culture and other areas of their life, so that there was a kind of co-branding.

Table 1

Features of museum consumption products by young people*

*Source: 1) Xanthoudaki M. Educational Provision for Young People as Independent Visitors to Art Museums and Galleries. Museum Management and Curatorship, 1998. P. 163;

2) Goulding C. The museum environment and the visitor experience. European Journal of Marketing, 2000;

3) Kinghorn N. & Willis K. Measuring Museum Visitor Preferences Towards Opportunities for Developing Social Capital: An Application of a Choice Experiment to the Discovery Museum. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2008;

4) Villaespesa E. & Ohlson J. Research and evaluating young audience on Taye's digital platforms: Tate website, Tate Collectives website and social media channels. 2015. P. 14.

1.4 Visitor engagement

Another important topic relates with attracting and engaging visitors. As it was mentioned earlier, Mason and McCarthy (2006) have studied the perception of art galleries by young people. They came to the conclusion, that young people have a feeling that museums are not for them (they do not feel part of them). With regard to this phenomenon, the authors introduce the concept of "sense of exclusion". There are several steps which will help to overcome the "sense of exclusion". Firstly, social interaction with other visitors and dialogue with the museum can help. According to Coffey K. (2007), this can happen through communication with visitors at exhibitions or events, and through museums as an institution in the form of communication with curators, as well as through the opportunity to give feedbacks and comments. Secondly, the museum needs to adopt and implement new practices. The Nielsen J. K. (2015) study proved that museums cannot lag behind technological progress, and it is necessary to introduce innovative methods, that will allow to present exhibition materials in a modern format. This applies to the introduction of interactive panels, photo and video materials. This also applies to the organization of exhibitions using interactive technologies (Taheri, Jafari & O'Gorman, 2014).

Another important aspect is the “participation culture” (Stylianou-Lambert, 2010). It means that, today visitors are both consumers and producers of culture, because an approach that builds a one-way communication is not viable. According to N. Simon and S. M. Davis, participation of visitors in the museum should be encouraged in various forms (2015).

1.5 New technology

The widespread introduction of new technologies is one of the most important factors in attracting young audiences, because they are technology exceptional (Vinick & Abbott,2019). This group of people depend on technology, so they want to socialize, give and purchase. Thus, computer ownership, Internet access and the availability of other technology entertainment systems have grown exponentially over the last 20 years (Burton & Scott, 2013).

There is a "way out" of the museum beyond its own building to the virtual world of the Internet (Klachina, 2017). This is achieved through the digitization of works of art, which allows to create "virtual doubles of the museum." The same trend is supported by the creation and distribution of replicas and reproductions of museum exhibits, catalogs, videos, information programs, etc. Also, there are many different digital instruments to promote museum product such as websites, interactive panels and screens, game consoles, computers and tablets, smartphones, gadgets, digital television, mobile applications, etc. Because of it, many studies are devoted to the challenges posed by digitalization to museums, and the peculiarities of the digital introduction innovation in the museum space. Studies by Parry (2007), Marty and Burton Jones (2008), Tallon and Walker (2008), Carrozzino and Bergamasco (2010), Bakhshi and Throsby (2012), Jarrier and Bourgeon-Renault (2012), Howell and Chilcott (2013), Alexandri and Tzanavara (2014), Rubino (2015), Enhuber (2015) emphasize that the introduction of digital technologies into museums practice is a special process and it needs be understood.

Thus, young people need digital and video technologies that will help to reveal expositions in the museum more clearly. Aa a result, game consoles are often arranged in the halls of the museums. So, visitors have an opportunity to use the game to understand a particular historical event or more closely consider some historical product. Gadgets and smartphones present opportunities such as viewing various video images or getting information far from the main source of this information. People can take pictures of museum exhibits, transferring pictures to the Internet and distributing them with the help of tablets.

One of the digital tools that are successfully used by many museums is the mobile app. On their basis, museum audio routes are created. For example, people can see the interior of museums, collections and exhibitions in the application of the Russian ethnographic museum. Some applications include navigators with detailed map of galleries and museums. So, the visitor can plan the route himself or herself. The navigators also include records of artists, experts, suggestions for the most interesting routes and so on.

Some museums, for example, the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg offers an audio guide application that helps to get more information about the exhibits. Moscow Museum on Ostrozhenka (MAMM) uses electronic "beacons" - iBeacon. They are able to upload information to the visitor's smartphones, and a special application guide called "YourMAMM" gives an explanation of the exhibits automatically near them (Klachina, 2017). Another digital tool, which called QR-code, was offered by the developers of digital technologies.

It is worth noting the project "Art&Science: science, art, museum" launched by the State Hermitage together with ITMO university and emphasized the relevance of the introduction of digital technologies. The presented project is devoted to the interaction of science and art. Scientists and artists demonstrated how diverse the use of scientific research (in the field of IT, robotics) in museum practice during science lectures.

The involvement of the audience with the help of IT technology has created opportunities for interactive programs as well as for edutainment (learning through entertainment). Such programs are studied in the works of Mencarelli, Marteaux and Pulh (2010), Brady (2011), Baradaran Rahimi (2014) and Ntalla (2016). Information technologies not only stimulate the direct participation of visitors, but also help to form the loyalty of visitors and increase understanding of the audience (Dindler, 2014). Mencarelli and Pulh Ntalla (2012) write that information technology can help not only to involve the visitor, but also to tell him more effectively about the importance of the exhibited objects, through thematization and storytelling.

But information technologies in museums are perceived ambiguously. Scientists also write about the risks associated with their implementation. For example, Balloffet, Courvoisier, Lagier (2014) write about the danger of simplifying meaning of the museum and turning it into "Disneyland".

1.6 Social media and the Internet

Social media is playing one of key roles in the lives of young people nowadays. This audience use social media to be “well-informed consumers, tracking and advocating for their favorite events, causes, and brands” (Vinick & Abbott, 2019, p.2). Because of it, the presence of museums in social media is studied. Scientists like Srinivasan (2009), Chae and Kim (2010), Lopez (2010), Fletcher and Lee (2012), Marakos (2014), Gronemann, Kristiansen, Drotner (2015), Pulh and Mencarelli (2015) emphasize the importance of communication between cultural institutions and audiences. Their studies told that websites are essential for creating content (it means filling the media space with information). Thus, it can be articles, videos, images, various applications, blogs, etc. All content should be interesting and understandable for users. When the information is useful for them, the visitors will be interested, and users will take advantage of it. If the content is uninformative, visitors will not visit this site again. Content design should correspond to the theme of the site, be attractive, accessible and understandable. E-mail newsletters should be also actively used. Social networks are necessary to attract attention and expand the audience, to increase the activity of users, especially the activity of young audience. Thus, social networks are effective as channels of information dissemination. Here it is possible to build communities that necessary for museums promotion and communication with users. Social networks are characterized by mobility - the rapid movement of information among users (viral content). Thanks to social networks it is possible to communicate individually with each visitor, which can be located far away from the museum.

A large-scale study of the websites of museums in England, France, Spain, Italy and the United States was conducted by Lopez and his colleagues (2010). The results of the study showed that most part of museums use blogs and RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds. Pew research center in 2013 published the results of a study that was devoted to the integration of the Internet and digital technologies in the cultural organizations of America (2013). One of the conclusions of this study was that technology helps to expand access to art. In addition, museums purposefully use social media to attract audiences to events, promotions, exhibitions, various projects and monitor public opinion about the museum.

1.7 Factors of visiting the museum

The next block is related to the study of the museum quality products and evaluation of museum visits by the audience. Thus, researchers analyze how museums are perceived in the modern world. Khachatryan and Chernega studied the factors affecting on the visiting to the museum (2012). It was found that for the young audience one of the main factors of visiting the museum is to obtain additional knowledge, as they emphasize the traditional function of the museum as a social institution is educational. Novelties of art and modern cultural life attract the attention of young audience to a greater extent. About 20 % would go to the museum for flash mobs, performances, shows, social and advertising campaigns. Only about 15% of people would go to the museum because of communication with a certain group of people (so-called "intelligent party"). Talking about the sphere of interest, museums can attract them with novelties of art and cultural life (60 %) and obtaining additional knowledge (30 %). It turns out that, frequent visitors of museums among young people would like to see in museums enclaves of modern cultural life. Most of the young audience also noted that the ways of further development should be associated with the concept of a "living" museum. Young people would like to see in the heritage institutions not "layers of dust on the shelves", but interactive elements, for which it is necessary to move from the principle of the museum's closeness to the principle of complicity. It is desirable that every visitor had the right to leave their mark on the museum not only in the guest book.

Saleh (2005) also studied the factors that affect visitors and developed a research model. The study showed that physical factors are not so important for visitors. The determining factors were aspects related to the quality of experience, because they determine expectations.

According to John Falk (2013), there are some determining factors in visiting the museum. So, these factors should satisfy visitor's needs and interests. For example, it is can be something new which caused a lot of emotions and was confirmed by further experience. These factors leave the strongest impression of visiting the museum.

John Falk identified five categories of museum visitors. Its classification is based on the motivation to visit the museum.

1) Researchers: motivation is curiosity, the goal is to find interesting content.

2) Guides: motivation is accompaniment of other people (for example, a school group), the purpose is to share with someone the experience of visiting, to tell about an interesting experience to relatives.