Museum Marketing Based On The Viewpoint Of Game Theory

With collection and research as the major function, and with display and exhibition as the major public education method, traditional museums perform poor in social beneficial results for their monotonous operation model. In the new conditions that market-oriented economics system has been established, marketing management theory becomes mature too. Modern museums have adopted the idea of marketing management of economic sphere to enrich their methods of propaganda and education, which provides a effective way to further improvement of their social beneficial results. The marketing activities of museums don’t mean the blindly and passively catering for the public’s obsolete cultural consumption habits, aesthetic taste and senses of values, but to gradually guide the public as well as serve them, to increase its brand credibility through the guidance, to attract more people by brand credibility, and therefore, to strive for the museum’s sustainable development by the maximization of social benefit.With the development of the marketing practice of museums, the contacts of museums and the society are increasing, and the relationships are more and more complicated. To intellectually deal with the relations,exert the use of the marketing activities of museums, promote the development of the social function of museums, and improve the social beneficial results of museums, it becomes a considerable problem. As an set of tools for analysis, the game theory is very outstanding and important in modern economics and marketing. By applying the thoughts and methods of the game theory to marketing of museums, museums can better deal with the many relations that issue from the marketing practices,which could improve the social beneficial results of museums. Combined with the unique characteristics of museum, I will focus on several kinds of game relationships in museum marketing as below.Firstly, the game relationship between “economic man” and “public-good man”. It means to adhere to the museum’s core value of public-good by using the thoughts and methods of the game theory. Secondly, the game relationships among different museums. Both competition and cooperation exist among museums.A museum must display its theme features and create excellent brand to be outstanding in the same field. The relationships of competition and cooperation among museums can better realize the win-win results, and establish the good figure of museums, which will enhance the social beneficial results.Thirdly, the game relationship between museum and the audience.Under this circumstance where people can make choice among different recreational styles,the museum must propagandize through different channels, take different measures to attract more audience, and enhance communication efficiency between museum and the audience. All these will help realize mutual benefit of the museum and the audience, as well as enhance the overall social welfare.Fourthly, the game relationship among the museum’s marketing methods.This topic is to realize the optimization of the marketing methods, and the maximum of the social benefits.Lastly, the internal competition among museum staff and among departments. It’s aim is to simplify the relations of game, and improve the efficiency of the managements of museums.According the game theory,both of cooperation and competition will co-exist among the relationships, which will help enhance the museum’s public good to a greater extent.