Study of Cultural Creative Merchandises of Museums and Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The promotion of sustainable culture heritage, the increasing need of aesthetics, knowledge, and economic growth are all direct contributors to the fact that Museums have become a viral trend not only in Taiwan but also in China in recent years. However, many museums host Cultural Creative Merchandises without proper adjustments to their targeted audience. The priority of quantity over quality is noticeable, leaving visitors unsatisfied. This thesis uses questionnaires to analyze the visitor’s consuming patterns in museums, including questions about environmental design, product design and service design in order to understand the preferences of customers. It is hard for consumers to acknowledge the cultural meanings of the merchandises, leading to possible dissatisfaction. However, the consumers tend to approve with the arrangements made within the exhibited space, visiting route and lighting. Therefore, museums should emphasize on promoting culture and combining historical facts with interactive and intuitive elements when designing Cultural Creative Merchandises to maximize the effects of learning through entertainment.

1 Introduction

1.1 General Background Information

Museums enjoy rising popularity in China and Taiwan, partly due to the governments. The government’s interest stems from the growing economy and cultural awareness of preserving intangible cultural heritage, knowledge, aesthetics surrounding the museums. Being the main group investing in cultural artwork, middle class is eager raising their cultural and aesthetic knowledge. Therefore, visiting museums is a way of learning through entertainment. The souvenir shops in museums in western countries usually name themselves “The last exhibition hall”, which suggests that Cultural Creative Merchandises are ongoing and continue to expand the topic at hand even after the exhibition. As a result, Cultural Creative Merchandises can act as products to preserve and continue culture.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Cultural and Creative Industry

According to a report “The Globalization of Cultural Trade: A Shift in Consumption” and a survey “Cultural times”. The First Global Map of Cultural and Creative Industries” [1] done by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) [2], in 2013, Cultural and Creative Industries have created 2250 billion US dollar revenues which is about 3% of World GDP and the industries have created 29.5 million jobs worldwide. It shows that the contribution of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) have made them become the backbone of the world economy; the CCI are major economic assets in developed and emerging countries.

The definition of Culture Industry by UNESCO is “the combination of creation, production and distribution of goods and services that are cultural in nature and usually protected by intellectual property rights” [2]; Cultural and Creative Industries can be seemed as creative industries that include music, textual, television and film production and cultural tourism that adds value to content and generates values for people and the societies [3].

2.2 Museum Cultural Creative Merchandise

The definition of Cultural Creative Merchandises by UNESCO is: Cultural Creative Merchandises include the goods and services; Cultural Creative Merchandises are defined as consumer goods that convey ideas, symbols and lifestyles. Cultural services are activities that satisfy cultural interests or needs. It does not represent the actual product itself.

2.3 Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage demands cooperation between a government and its people. Through language, art, history and literature, it’s possible to spread culture as people get together and socialize. Museums play an important role of carrying and continuing culture by offering cultural collections. Museums also offer customers to purchase merchandise of the exhibition and blend into their daily life at home. Interactive design is essentially the best medium for cultural heritage.

3 Method

3.1 Research Method

This research paper is using content analysis method to compile information about Cultural Creative Merchandises and continuing cultural meaning as research topic. We further developed questionnaires based on the information that we gathered. The questionnaires were targeting tourists who have been to the National Palace Museum in either China or Taiwan. The questionnaires were sent out between May 1st to May 15th 2018; we have gotten 112 sets of feedbacks from Chinese tourists and 99 sets from Taiwanese tourists.

3.2 Research Analysis

The willingness of customers to purchase things at souvenir store has a lot to do with the design of space, the environment of the store, the design and the presentation of the products, the lightings, the flow, and the service. This research contains surveys about the design of the space, product design, and marketing management to determine whether Cultural Creative Merchandises can continue the culture by analyzing the purchasing behaviour of customers.

3.2.1 Descriptive Statistics

Customers’ age is ranging from 19–25 years old, 42 people in total; 46–55 years old have 19 people in total; 26–35 years old have 17 people in total; 36.45 years old have 16 people in total; 56–65 years old have 2 people in total; and there’s one person who is under 18.

Occupational wise, the major consumers are students, 32 students in total; the rest being service sector for 13 people; other for 12 people; government employees for 10 people; manufacturer and freelancer for 8 people; information industry for 5 people; advertising design for 3 people; art industry for 2 people; financial industry and medical professional for one person.

Monthly income: 45 of the participants have 5500 RMB income; 17 of the participant have 22,001–35,000 RMB income; 16 of the participants have 35,001–50,000 RMB income; 11 of the participants have 50,001–65,000 RMB income; 8 of the participants have 65,001–10,000 RMB income; 1 of the participants has above 10,000 RMB income.

3.2.2 Reliability Analysis

Upon 210 questionnaires of reliability analysis, the value of Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.983 which is high in three aspects in general.

3.2.3 Design of Space

A product is seemed as something that can be provided to the market and satisfies the needs of consumers [3]. Products can include the actual objects, services, people, locations, experiences, information, organizations and thoughts. When it comes to Cultural Creative Merchandises, many focuses on selling and developing; they ignore the design of space. The place where products are being presented is equally important to the design of the products; it influences the customers’ decision making and their satisfaction. The souvenir shops have the nickname of “the last exhibition of the museum” which means that it is not just a place to sell goods but also a place for people to relive what they just experienced from the museum. The design and the flow of the space play a crucial part of making the last exhibition complete.

• 1. I believe that the space of souvenir shop is comfortable

• 2. I believe that the flow of souvenir shop is smooth and clear

• 3. I believe that the environment of souvenir shop is too loud

• 4. I believe that the souvenir shop has clear and reasonable price tags.

3.2.4 Product Design

Cultural Creative Merchandises need to stand out among all the products in a museum souvenir shop. A well-designed product, first of all, needs to fit the image of the museum it is in so that it can be distinguished from other museums out in the world [4]. Then it needs to contain cultural meaning which is what we have been talking about Cultural Creative Merchandises should be all about conveying and continuing cultural meaning even after customers leave the museum [5]. Moreover, in order to boost the purchase, products need to be unique to attract people. At current market, products are similar, nothing really stand out to people which reduce the possibility of purchasing. Making a practical and unique product is not easy; as people values quality more, they expect a product to contain not only historical and cultural meaning but also the design has to be at certain level.

• 1. I believe that souvenir shops in museums convey the traits of the museums

• 2. I believe that Cultural Creative Merchandises have decent packaging

• 3. I believe that Cultural Creative Merchandises have contemporary design

• 4. The design of Cultural Creative Merchandises fits my preferences

• 5. I believe that Cultural Creative Merchandises cannot relate to the original objects that they are trying to replicate

• 6. Most people believe that souvenir shops represent and deepen the image of a museum, however the design of its Cultural Creative

• 7. Merchandises do not necessarily represent the same way which makes consumers being reluctant on purchasing products from the souvenir shop.

3.2.5 Marketing Management

According to American Marketing Science Institute, customers’ satisfaction depends on not only products but also service quality [6]. In other words, product and service quality, customer satisfaction and company profitability are intertwined; higher level of quality leads to higher level of customer satisfaction. Some people believe that service quality is about whether or not customers would want to revisit based on how they are being served; however, in customers’ point of view, service quality is about what they presume they would get from a service and what actually happens. Therefore, it is crucial to know what customers really want in order to provide a higher quality of service. To apply this concept in Cultural Creative Merchandises, having a clerk who knows product’s design, meaning and what a product is supposed to convey is what I would consider as high quality of service. In some surveys show what in terms of giving information about Cultural Creative Merchandises; clerks in museum souvenir shops are doing a good job based on the positive feedbacks from the customers.

4 Result and Recommendation

One of the responsibilities for modern museums nowadays is to promote Cultural Creative Merchandises. A modern museum is no longer just about education but more of an entertaining educational process. Cultural Creative Merchandises not only carry historical value but also continue the culture. As recent surveys show, consumers generally lack interest in Cultural Creative Merchandises as the meaning and need of said product is unclear. However, the surveys also featured some feedback regarding the space, flow and lighting of a souvenir shop to improve it. We generated some recommendations according to the received feedback.

4.1 Presentation of Cultural Meaning

Cultural Creative Merchandise represent a museum and they reflect certain period of history in a museum. In order to represent the theme at hand, products need to be specifically designed to appeal to the target customers to see the value in it. While the production process isn’t difficult, the creative development is rather complex and needs consideration for historical meaning and creativity.

4.2 Design of Cultural Creative Products

Cultural Creative Merchandise in a museum are mostly replicas or slightly reskinned versions due to lack of thoughtful design and originality, leading to a product that barely stands out and isn’t anywhere unique. Therefore, museums need to improve their use of creativity in design, development and promotion of their merchandise.

4.3 Usability of Products

Other than the design, the practical usability is another thing designer need to pay attention to when developing their Cultural Creative Merchandise. Products with high usability receive higher satisfactory feedback and customers are therefore more willing to make a purchase, resulting in an educational and cultural souvenir which also has a practical aspect.