Historically, museums emphasized collecting and understanding objects and specimens, not audiences. The resultant strategy played on a field of dreams: Collect it and they will come. Some museums have discovered that this strategy attracts only a small segment of their potential audience.

Below I discuss the three audience development strategies most widely used by museums and their common weaknesses. I then by propose a new marketing strategy called Deep Marketingwhich animates a paradigm shift in museum thinking.

• Build a grand facility and they will come. This capital intensive strategy increases operating costs and often neglects what goes into the building. A good facility is necessary, but not sufficient to attract new audiences.

• Present WOW! objects and they will come. The ultimate form of this strategy is the blockbuster exhibit. It does work. Hugh crowds pay admissions, but only a small percent become long-term members or steady return visitors. The wear and tear on staff and facility can be crushing.

• Advertise our strengths and value and they will come. This strategy fails to distinguish between marketing and sales. Communicating the museum's strengths and values is selling. This assumes that once people learn about your objects and values they will come. Marketing, on the other hand, begins by understanding the audience needs.

All of these strategies are inefficient and underpowered because they overlook the audience's realities. All three share a common weaknessthey focus on the museum to the exclusion of the audience.

• Know them and they will come. The power of this strategycalled Deep Marketingcomes from its focus and respect for the audience. So much can be learned from the audience that programs can eventually be co-created with and for market segments. Focus groups and advisory committees can provide insight can enable the museum to attract new visitors.

Barriers to Deep Marketing
Museums which are focused on the traditional museum functions of collecting and preserving art and artifacts have difficulty shifting the focus to the audience. An audience focus means respecting each market segment of the audience the museum wants to attract as regular visitors. The audience requires as much respect and consideration as the objects museums so lovingly manage.

A lack of respect for the audience often parallels a lack of respect within. A security guard once told me he didn't understand the museum's opening policy. "We open at 10:00 on Sunday," he said, "and no one comes until 1:00. Then at 5:00, when the museum is full of people, we shoo them all out." This museum rarely thought to ask the guards, admission staff, or volunteer docents about their perspective of audience needs.

The foundation of deep marketing is the willingness to rethink, to shift closely-held values, to explore ambiguous alternatives, to experience the discomfort (even fear) of the unknown. Significant audience growth depends upon the museum learning about what it is not good at, not more about its traditional strengths. The price of deep marketing is letting go of old assumptions.

Segmentation Brings Focus
Expanding any audience or market always requires segmentation. What segments do you want to attract? What are their characteristics? Once the museum identifies its market segments, linking the audience to the museum can begin.

Seven Links in Deep Marketing
The metaphor of a chain linking market segments to the museum's objects implies that each link is necessary, no link is sufficient, and the weakest link determines the overall strength of the chain.

The needs of the museum and the needs of the market will not be the same. The distance between them provides the energy for creating connecting links in the chain. Attempts to minimize the distance reduces the energy and the ability to create strong links. When emphasizing the object, as in the strategies on page one of NoIT, the differences between the museum and its audience remain unexplored and there is little impetus or energy to close the distance.

• Build relationships through understanding the target market. Researchsurveys, zip code studies, and focus groupsis useful, but so is reading the newspapers, novels, and poetry by and about the market segment. Face-to-face encounters at the social clubs, churches, playgrounds, dance halls, and community meetings where museum leaders listen with the head and the heart can bring the audience into focus as expounding upon the museum's value never will. Peer-to-peer contact is critical. Directors speak to directors, board chair to board chair, and volunteer to volunteer. Link 1 aims to forge person-to-person trust and learn the hopes and dreams of the new market.

• Be explicit about the points-of-view. Visitors report the widespread belief that the museum's presentation is "objective." Objects can be present from multiple points of viewacademic, esthetic, and scientific to name just three. The visitor deserves to know the presentation bias and, in fact, may contribute a view of her own.

• Communicate with the market segment. Different segments need different information about the museum's collection and significance to the audience. What are the features of the museum and the benefits to the visitors? Knowledge gained from Link 1 connectionsunderstanding the dynamic needs of the marketwill enable the museum to design Link 3 for maximum efficacy.

• Communicate with the individual. This link involves the process of connecting the individual visitor to the museum. Is the museum easy to find? Does the automated telephone system provide the information the visitor needs? Is there a human being available to speak to the visitor? Is the brochure easily available, accurate, and current? Does the visitor feel welcome, respected, encouraged to visit?

• Welcome the passerby. Does the exterior of the building look inviting, exciting, and attractive? Does the museum roll up the banners and canopies when the blockbuster closes and give the impression that the museum is dormant?

• Open the threshold. What is the visitor's immediate experience once they walk through the door? What is the lobby experience? Is the orientation information where it needs to be in a receivable format? Can the visitor easily learn about the totality of the museum and the specifics of interest to him?

• Link the visitor to objects and activities. Once in the building, can the visitor move around with confidence, using time well? Is signage clear, useful, easy to see and read? Are maps helpful or another object needing decoding? What can the visitor learn from the human beings they see? What signals does the ticket taker, security guard, or busy staff member whisking through the gallery telegraph? What face-to-face service does the visitor receive?

A review of the seven links will help museum leaders to realize what's missing and what has been addressed in the wrong sequence. The links to deep marketing can be used to analyze the drawing and holding power of collections, exhibitions, and programs as they relate to targeted market segments. They can also be used to analyze potential market growth, particularly in membership retention and visitor return rates.

Using linking strategies to explore new distribution and delivery systems for museum programs is another way to expand the audience. Moving into community centers, churches, airports, shopping malls, schools, and workplaces can dramatically shorten the chain and strengthen the links.