Museum Store Fall 2014

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Museum Store THE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE MUSEUM STORE ASSOCIATION

THE FUTURE OF THE MUSEUM STORE

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NEW MSA BOARD PRINCIPLES

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FALL 2014

SENSORY MARKETING

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M U S E U M S TO R E

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Fall 2014 | Volume 42 | Issue 3

FEATURES

20 The Future of the Museum Store

MUSEUM STORE ASSOCIATION

Forecasting four trends for museum stores.

By Elizabeth Merritt

26 Buyer’s Guide

Explore budget-friendly and luxury products.

By April Miller

32 36

Knowledge Standards Key

3773 E. Cherry Creek North Dr., Suite 755 Denver, CO 80209 Phone (303) 504-9223 Fax (303) 504-9585 info@museumstoreassociation.org museumstoreassociation.org

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BUSINESS RELATIONS

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Integrating sensory marketing into your sales strategy.

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HUMAN RESOURCES

M USE UM STORE M AGA Z INE A DV E RTI S I N G

Board Principles The MSA board of directors unveils five new principles.

By Jeff DeCagna

CONT E NT E D ITOR

GRA P H IC D E SIGNE R

Michelle Fandrey E D ITOR

Mary Petillo (503) 726-4984 Maryp@museumstoreassociation.org Diana Grossarth (503) 726-4986 dgrossarth@museumstoreassociation.org

DEPARTMENTS 10 Letter from the Board President

P ROD UCT ION M A NAGE R

12 Letter from the Executive Director

CIRCULAT ION

Cindy Pike

John Mendez

16 Ask Yourself

Museum Store magazine (ISSN 1040-6999) is published quarterly by the Museum Store Association. Museum Store Association and MSA are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

42 Measuring Performance 44 MSA Community

Postmaster: Send address changes to Museum Store Association, 3773 E. Cherry Creek North Dr., Suite 755, Denver, CO 80209-3804

46 Just for Vendors 48 Member Story 52 Book Review 54 Ad Index On the Cover: MSA board member Stuart Hata and AAM’s Elizabeth Merritt discuss the future of museum stores.

Photo: Robyn Arouty

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© 2014 Museum Store Association Inc. All rights reserved. Except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, no part of this magazine may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Museum Store Association. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Museum Store Association. Printed in the USA.

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FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT

considering trends

a

s managers, merchandise buyers, and product developers in retail operations, we are always looking for trends. Are sales going up?

Is the average transaction dropping? Are they buying more books? Is the exhibitionspecific merchandise I chose doing well?

These are trends on an operational level.

Then there are the trends that affect us in society—how is the economy affecting baby boomers and do they have enough disposable income to continue to visit our museums and stores? Is Generation X responding to our online presence?

There are technology trends like 3D printing. Many museums and vendors are experimenting with this trend. Michael Higdon of the National Building Museum recently shared that he has immersed himself in the new technology, trying to figure out how to make it work for his store. Both Jeanne Tripi and Donele Pettit-Mieding of the Milwaukee Art Museum see a trend in visitor purchases—the visitor is less inclined to purchase gimmicky items in favor of quality, unique or artisan-produced items. Just getting back from the NY gift show, there is a new partnership with Etsy, which to me says that artisans are finally being recognized as mainstream producers of merchandise. Chacho Herman of The San Diego Museum of Art and Stacey Stachow of Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art see trends in spending habits.

Visitors have adopted more thrifty habits. To deal with this trend, they are driving traffic to the stores through specials, directional signage in the institution and display kiosks within the galleries. And Lauren Salazar of Hillwood Museum and Gardens shares that women still like to treat themselves despite media reports on the economy.

This issue of Museum Store magazine is loaded with trends. Elizabeth Merritt, Founding Director at the Center for the Future of Museums, expands on her four trend assumptions she discussed at the Houston conference. Jama Rice talks about trends being experienced by associations. And Jeff DeCagna, chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, introduces the new principles created by the board of directors to serve as “an adaptable yet resilient framework for making more effective decisions.” This is the issue to read from cover to cover and share with your co-workers, financial team and directors.

MSA Board of Directors PRESIDENT Barbara Lenhardt The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington, D.C.

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT David A. Duddy deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum Lincoln, Mass.

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Stuart Hata de Young and Legion of Honor/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco San Francisco

S E C R E TA R Y Michael Higdon National Building Museum Washington, D.C.

TREASURER Gloria Stern Minnesota Historical Society Split Rock Lighthouse Two Harbors, Minn.

D I R E C T O R AT L A R G E Mary Christensen Museum of Flight Seattle, Wash.

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D I R E C T O R AT L A R G E Kathryn Rush Harn Museum of Art Gainesville, Fla.

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A F F I L I AT E A D V I S O R Phil Zuckerman Applewood Books Carlisle, Mass.

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FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

associations are people too id you know there’s an association for associations? I attended the 2014 American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) annual meeting in Nashville in August. As senior managers of associations gathered from all over the world, the trends that are affecting professional societies and trade organizations were the topic of many conversations and sessions.

d

While many of these trends are very positive—for example, the growth in collaborative efforts between associations in fulfilling their missions—the problem-solving nature of those gathered led us to spend a lot of time discussing the challenges membership associations face: • • • • • • • •

Cuts to budgets affecting travel and membership dues decisions The speed with which technology is affecting every single industry represented by professional and trade associations Global, local, social and political upheaval affecting association members’ work (government shutdowns come to mind) The overwhelming amount of information coming at association members and the difficulty of pulling relevant information out of the clutter The lack of time members have to engage with, volunteer for and participate in their associations Members’ desire for affordable, useful educational content and the challenges to associations to provide it in a financially sustainable way The constant effort for all of us to collect data and connect various sets of data to make good business decisions Finding time to be creative, innovate and think

There’s good news and bad news from the ASAE meeting. First the bad news: no one who attended the ASAE meeting—executives from huge associations, small associations, domestic or international—had a silver bullet that provides the answer to these and other issues. The good news: many ideas were shared about how MSA staff and board might help your association be a more relevant and accessible resource for its members. Stay tuned!

Jama Rice Executive Director/CEO

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MSA Staff EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/CEO Jama Rice, MBA, CAE

DIRECTOR OF LEARNING Andrea Miller, MPA

MEETINGS & CONFERENCE MANAGER Jennifer Anderson

S Y S T E M S A D M I N I S T R AT O R Adriana Herald

M A R K E T I N G C O N S U LTA N T Sue Stoveall, MBA

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ASK YOURSELF

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Do you see what your customers see? Take time on a regular basis to take a fresh look at all aspects of your store. Put your feet in the shoes of your customer and be honest with yourself, and periodically give this list to members of your team and ask them to evaluate the store in the same way. Use this important checklist about aspects of your store most likely to affect museum visitors and store customers and lead to incremental sales.

PHOTO: BENOIT PAILEY

At the New Museum Store, aisles are clear and promote foot-traffic flow.

DEFINITIONS Merchandising: Where and how products are placed for purchase.

Display: Vignette that tells a visual story.

Ambiance Store clean and neat Cases, surfaces and flooring in good condition Enjoyable place to be, space leads to lingering and fun The experience and the product are equal Comfortable temperature Lush, full, rich, warm, attractive and inviting feeling Five tactile experiences served: visual, sound, touch, smell, taste

PHOTO: BENOIT PAILEY

Store Function and Layout Aisles clear Ambient music Departments not crossmerchandising (except for displays) Fixture height and merchandising density Foot-traffic flow Approach to cash wrap Draw customers throughout the store Attraction of first fixture Attraction of back wall(s) Lighting incorporated into store design All lights work Enough light Front window reflection minimized Organization Clutter controlled

The ambiance at the New Museum Store in Solomon, Md. leads to lingering.

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Complementary products together Organized merchandising for lower priced products

Product Selection and Pricing Best-selling products consistently in stock in season Constantly changing selection of new products Good selection of higher priced products Pricing evaluated for perceived value Pricing in the “sweet spot� range for a majority of products

Signage Clear, professional signage Consistency of style (font type and size, color, graphics) Signs in perfect condition Apparel sizes evident Books in categories No negative signage Production descriptions clear Signs connected to brand

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Operations

ASK YOURSELF

The New Museum Store’s best-selling products are in visible places.

PHOTO: BENOIT PAILEY

Convenience ASK YOURSELF Do you have the sixth sense that it works in concert with the mission of the museum and the context of the museum as a whole?

Does your store make common sense to the customer?

Do any fixtures block a significant view of the store? Is the merchandising close to the entry too dense?

Do you take and study pictures?

They provide an accurate visual representation of what the customer sees.

Are grazing and lingering facilitated for higher priced, higher quality and sophisticated products?

It is often said that customers don’t generally do the following. Do you encourage asking questions, bending, reaching and reading?

Can you effectively handle more than one customer at a time? Do you hire for attitude and train for skills? Does your staff say “Thank you,” not “No problem?”

If each section of the checklist included the “wow factor” as a criterion, how many times would it receive a “wow” evaluation?

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Cash-wrap design Area to accumulate chosen products (drop zone) No clutter Prices easily seen Seating is available

Appeal from Common Area Signage perpendicular to foottraffic flow Snapshot view of store selection and ambiance

Interior Displays Add-on/suggestive ideas Best-selling products identifiable New products identified Special/popular exhibits highlighted

Customer Service and Proactive Selling After a general greeting, use a proactive opening line that helps determine your visitor’s interests. Here’s an example: “What part of the museum did you enjoy most?”

There are times when visitation is low and there isn’t much you can do to stimulate sales. That makes handling crowds when the museum is busy even more critical. Work with your sales team on these suggestions.

Acknowledge presence of additional customers Flow from one customer to the next Suggest things for customer to do while you’re not with them, and tell them you’ll be back Pace yourself to give attention to all customers

Thank the customer for waiting Highlight best sellers Highlight new products Name tags and/or uniform apparel for store staff identification Positive attitude and body language Staff has product knowledge and is properly groomed An unabridged version of this checklist is available at www.

MuseumStoreConsult.com/articles.

Andrew Andoniadis is the principal at Andoniadis Retail Services, a consulting firm that has specialized in revenue-generating strategies for museum stores for 21 years.

He can be reached at (503) 629-9279, Andrew@MuseumStoreConsult.com or www.

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Strategic Management

THE FUTURE OF MUSEUMS

the future of the museum store

BY ELIZABETH MERRITT

The art of forecasting is imagining how seeds of the future may take root and grow.”

m

useums have a long history of conflicted relationships with their retail operations. See, for example, the fuss provoked by the Takashi Murakami retrospective staged at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Brooklyn Museum in 2007-2008. That exhibit was designed around a fully functioning Louis Vuitton store selling Murakami designs—which shocked some people, even though it was entirely apropos of Murakami’s image as the “Andy Warhol of Japan.” The New York Times reported that “some criticized the marriage of art and commerce as crass and inappropriate in a museum setting.” I grant you that some merchandise may deserve that designation, but what makes commerce inherently “crass and inappropriate” in a museum? And if that setting is an art museum, what should the mission-appropriate commerce be about, if not art?

Even though museum staff know that “nonprofit” is a tax status, not a business strategy, we often act as if commercial activity is a necessary evil, something that ought to take place at a dignified remove from the core activities of the organization. That seems odd to me, as someone both devoted to museums, and to shopping in museum stores.

I think museums per se and their stores both spring from the same basic human impulse. Somewhere at the heart of the hard-to-define museum identity is the nature of our relationship to objects. My personal theory is that our thoughts, emotions and memories are too big to be encompassed by our oversized mammalian brains.

We use objects as receptacles for the overflow, as repositories of memories, feelings and stories.

In this schema, the museum store is a natural extension of our relationship to the objects we preserve in museums: enabling people to capture and archive their memories, feelings and stories of their visit. In the past, stores did this by selling stuff, and will probably continue to do so, even if the merchandise becomes more futuristic. (See, for example the “stealth fashion” Adam Harvey installed in his Privacy Gift Store in the New Museum in New York in 2013. The product line included a “drone hoodie”

Photo: Robyn Arouty

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Strategic Management

THE FUTURE OF MUSEUMS

that hides the user’s thermal signature.) More to the point, in the future museum stores may find new ways of playing their role in fulfilling the museum’s mission of connecting people, objects, experiences and memories.

To free up our thinking and imagine what the “museum store of the future” might be like, let’s look at four assumptions that currently undergird the way we think about the store of today.

Stores: • • • •

choose what to stock and sell are places people come to buy stuff transfer ownership of objects to customers are primarily about financial transactions

Here is a brief overview of some current trends that could call each of these assumptions into question.

The Rise of Personalization What is even hipper than a name brand item? A personalized name brand item. Now you can use photos from your smart phone to customize your Adidas sneakers or iPad covers. Those photographs may well come from a museum, where “no photos” is now the exception rather than the rule. Technology such as inexpensive digital cameras, photo editing software, and sites like Cafepress and Zazzle is making it ever easier for people to create and market their own sharable products. Now you can use Audodesk’s free 123D Catch software to make a 3D scan of an object, and send it to Shapeways to print and sell. This personal commerce could be seen as competition with traditional store products. (For example, I’m more likely to use the Postagram app to generate my own postcards and send from inside a museum during my visit, than to hope the shop has the image I want, and then hunt for a stamp and a post box.) But visitor-generated digital content is also an opportunity to invite people to add their personal touch on the museum brand.

Perhaps in the future: in addition to choosing merchandise to stock and sell, museum stores will encourage visitors to design their own personalized products, drawing on the museum’s resources, and produce it for them. A museum store could create the in-house retail equivalent of the Rijksmuseum’s radical invitation, via their Rijksstudio to “take our [digital] stuff and do anything you want with it” (including creating temporary tattoos and decorating a car). Besides creating the obvious take-home items (personalized t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) think about how this could transform the fragile economics of museum publishing. A museum store could offer print on demand services by providing a digital platform on which visitors can combine their own photos and text with images and commentary from the museum’s archives. The resulting personalized museum catalog could

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be printed using a book machine like Espresso, or produced as an e-book.

The Maker Economy Mass personalization is made possible, in part, by the increasing sophistication and plummeting costs of technologies like 3D printing that transform digital data back into physical objects. Increasingly, museums are capturing and sharing digital data (2D or 3D) about their collections and people are becoming more sophisticated about manipulating digital content—whether it’s cropping and applying filters to an image file, or with a little help, mashing up digital data to create their own 3D adaptations. But the increasing popularity of “making” goes beyond digital technologies. This decade is seeing resurgence in all sorts of crafting, high and low tech, from woodworking to sewing to robotics. In 2013 over a half million people attended Maker Faire, the signature event of the maker movement, over 300 percent more than in 2011. The Rijkstudio is collaborating with Etsy to encourage “makers” using the museum’s data to sell their stuff on that massive online marketplace for crafted goods.

Perhaps in the future: museum stores could include “maker spaces”, workshops that provide space, equipment and training related to manipulating and applying museum data, helping visitors create their own personalized objects.

Whether or not they provide their own “makeshops,” as they support the ability of visitors to create personalized objects museum stores can also become a conduit to the larger economy. They could become, in effect, “meta-stores” that help people create and sell their own products. One way libraries are reinventing themselves in the 21st century is as economic drivers—the go-to place for online access to job listings and training in essential digital skills. If museum stores provide economic opportunities for makers, they expand their role in wealth generation for the museum to encompass wealth generation for the museum’s community.

Use Rather than Ownership One trend to follow closely is the rise of the “sharing economy”—peer-to-peer transactions facilitated by internet services that help match buyers with sellers and verify the trustworthiness of each. Rideshare services like Lyft and Uber have helped foster a generation that is largely uninterested in owning cars. Online rental and resale services for everything from fashion to tools support a lifestyle in which you can use just what you want, when you need it, rather than taking up scarce and precious space. In TrendsWatch 2014, I list just a couple of the many instances of “art sharing” programs run by museums. I also cite the Museum of Vancouver’s Swapo-rama-rama as an example of a museum playing a part in the entire life-stream of a product by serving as a site for

THE FUTURE OF MUSEUMS

Strategic Management

the exchange of goods. What role can museum stores play in a future that values access over ownership?

Perhaps in the future: museum stores will facilitate sharing and reuse, at a larger scale, and in new ways. Museums might amass rental collections of historic cars or tools, for example, using them as a way to cultivate a constituency interested in deeper engagement with the subject.

People may value the opportunity to tap into the museum’s knowledge and expertise as well as the opportunity to access stuff they don’t want to (or can’t afford to) own.

Data as Currency Data has been dubbed “the new oil”—a gushing human-generated resource that can be monetized in many ways. Clicks on a web page translate into advertising revenue. More subtly, information about individuals is transformed into personalized, highly targeted marketing. Data helps companies refine their products and services, making them more valuable.

Our algorithmic ability to find meaning in this mass of data fuels advances in fields as diverse as law enforcement, medicine and disaster relief. Museums are already starting to play in the realm of big data, using analytics to build visitor engagement and loyalty, and create personalized services.

Perhaps in the future: data will be an accepted medium of exchange.

Visitors might pay for goods or services at the museum with cash, credit, or with access to data about themselves and how they use the museum. This creates the prospect of integrating the store into the whole ecology and economy of the museum.

Rather than just being accountable for the cash bottom line, stores may play a role in a bigger strategy of interfacing with visitors, one that includes exchanges of personal data, collecting metrics of their behavior and participation, sharing expertise as well as information, and deepening visitor engagement overall.

These trends show how each of the four bedrock assumptions I named earlier in this article about museum stores and how they operate can be

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• Enable people to create what they want • People use to market their own designs • Give people access to use things they don’t own • Are also about data sharing I am sure you can see glimpses of these future stores already, as you look at your own operations and those of your peers. Some museums are doing each of these things in some way, and at some scale, now. The art of forecasting is imagining how these seeds of the future may take root and grow.

Elizabeth Merritt is founding director of the American Alliance of Museums’ Center for the Future of Museums.

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BUYER’S GUIDE

budget-friendly vs. luxury products

BY APRIL MILLER

FROM COLORING BOOKS TO CUFF BRACELETS, shoppers in your store are looking for both low- and high-end items. Offering products at a variety of price points ensures you’ll have something for all guests.

Both high- and low-priced items can benefit from sales techniques that allow the customer to feel as if the product is exclusive or special to that specific museum or exhibit.

“Museums can successfully sell both budget and luxury items by making sure they are selling the correct items,” says Safari Ltd.’s Wendy Szymanski. “It all comes down to selling items that are relevant to the museum.”

“Customers like to feel as if they are taking a piece of their museum experience home with them when they purchase a product from a museum store,” adds Jan Diers of Mata Ortiz to You. “Both high- and low-priced items can benefit from sales techniques that allow the customer to feel as if the product is exclusive or special to that specific museum or exhibit.”

Diers does caution that maximizing your assortment is key to making sure products at all price points will move. “If you offer the same type of product at different price points,” she says, “you are giving the customer the option to trade down and the items will end up cannibalizing each other.”

Andres Arango of Muichic Natural Jewelry reminds buyers not to confuse “budgetfriendly” with “cheap.” “There’s a big difference,” he adds. “Often times expensive items can be super tacky or low-cost items can be inferior quality. It really doesn’t matter what the product is, or does, as long as it’s well designed and in good taste.”

When it comes to various price points, vendors say sometimes you can mix budget and high-end, such as if you were doing a display under the banner of “fair trade,” “eco-friendly” or a theme that relates directly to a current exhibit. But most often, the approach differs. “Lower-end items are generally higher velocity unit sellers, so keeping the product stacked high and physically reachable to the customer is key,” says Diers. “Higher-end items generally sell through emotional or aspirational motivations, so keeping the product looking special and allowing a story to be told is important.”

To help promote high-end items, Safari’s Szymanski recommends reaching out to customers who have purchased similar-priced products in the past. “Send these customers an invitation via mail or email unveiling your new item,” she says.

As you look to both the budget-friendly and luxury items, consider adding some of the products in this Buyer’s Guide to your mix.

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M U S E U M S TO R E

BU DG ET

BUYER’S GUIDE

Merchandise Planning

Galison/Mudpuppy

Applewood Books produces an inexpensive series of best-selling quote books from America’s most famous historic figures. Each is priced at less than ten dollars, and these high-quality, easy-to-carry hardcover books are made in the U.S.A.—a perfect match for any American heritage site or museum.

Children will enjoy discovering digitally-inspired images in a classic color-by-number format. Conveniently sized for portability, Galison/Mudpuppy’s Pixel Pictures series comes in six different titles and is the perfect non-digital boredom buster. Each book contains 18 sheets, including six create-your-owndesign pages, and is wire bound at the top. Children will be able to bring their clever creations everywhere. Appropriate for ages four and up.

Applewood Books (800) 277-5312

Galison/Mudpuppy galison.com (800) 670-7441 See ad on page 40

Applewood Books

applewoodbooks.com See ad on page 40

EDC Publishing Explore the World Activity Book from EDC Publishing is jam-packed with things to do, including puzzles to solve, doodles to draw, games to play, new words to learn and more than 150 stickers. Travel around the world to discover the secrets of the Sphinx, kayak the rapids, design your own island and much more with the exciting activities and fun facts included in this book.

EDC Publishing (800) 475-4522

edcpub.com See ad on page 49

Silver Dolphin Books Smithsonian Young Explorers: Dinosaurs from Silver Dolphin Books lets kids go back in time and walk among some of the most fascinating dinosaurs ever discovered. A 32-page fact book, foldout poster and colorfully illustrated 130-piece floor puzzle are all packed in a sturdy carry case, perfect for young paleontologists-intraining. Created in collaboration with the paleontologists at the Smithsonian Institution. Appropriate for ages six and up.

Silver Dolphin Books silverdolphinbooks.com (858) 457-2500 See ad on page 8 M U S E U M S TO R E

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Merchandise Planning

BUYER’S GUIDE

General Pencil

Since its founding in 1982, Golden Island Int’l, Inc.’s mission has been to bring out the fun in science. The Los Angeles-based company offers a wide selection of kaleidoscopes that make for wonderful budget-friendly holiday gifts, including this elegant model with vintage appeal. Sandscapes, miniature Newton’s Cradle, Tesla’s Plasma Sphere and other iconic toys and novelties are also available.

General’s #10 Kit includes a variety of drawing pencils made in the U.S.A. packaged in a simple, reusable sleeve. Ideal for artists of all levels, aspiring and professional alike. General Pencil artist products have been handcrafted in Jersey City, N.J. since 1889. The company’s tradition of handcrafting safe, quality art products coincides with its commitment to sustainable business practices.

Golden Island Int’l, Inc. goldenisland.biz (213) 622-4179 See ad on page 14

General Pencil (650) 369-4889

Golden Island Int’l, Inc.

Popcorn Movie Poster Company

Kamibashi

Using the artist’s color wheel as its design device, Popcorn Movie Poster Company has developed a complete line of color wheel merchandise: mugs, coasters, mouse pads, greeting cards, magnets and even phone covers! Add your museum’s logo to all color wheel merchandise at no additional charge.

Kamibashi’s String Doll Gang includes characters for almost every kind of museum store. Handmade in Thailand, each string doll has his or her own special power that is always positive and helpful. They are fun for the whole family and make the perfect gift for any occasion. Provide your museum visitors with a little piece of fair trade art at an affordable price.

Popcorn Movie Poster Company popcornposters.com (800) 660-1060 See ad on page 9

Kamibashi (828) 683-7994

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kamibashi.com See ad on page 11

generalpencil.com See ad on page 14

BUYER’S GUIDE

Merchandise Planning

Solmate Socks

The Early American Playing Cards from Historical Folk Toys was reproduced from a 1750s English deck of cards that was brought to the colonies. They are historically accurate and an appropriate time period item for museums and historic sites. Reenactors love them! Great stocking stuffer and souvenir for the historian in your life.

New from Solmate Socks are the September Sun socks. A richly hued and happy pair that reminds us of the fabulous transition from the bright green of summer into the radiant colors of autumn—a time of year that we always eagerly look forward to. The Vermont-based company offers many more whimsical and mismatched socks for adults, children and babies.

Historical Folk Toys historicalfolktoys.com (800) 871-1984 See ad on page 39

Solmate Socks (866) 762-5523

Historical Folk Toys

socklady.com See ad on page 23

Safari Ltd. Mythical Realms Hercules and Incredible Creatures Piranha are just two of the many offerings from Safari Ltd. Dressed in lion skin with his arrow strung, aimed and ready, Hercules is ready to take on the most challenging of tasks. The toothy-mouthed piranha is hand-painted and life-sized. The animals in the Incredible Creatures collection are the largest figures of any set. Appropriate for ages three and up.

Safari Ltd. (800) 554-5414

safariltd.com See ad on page 4

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild Dinosaurs once ruled the planet. Thanks to this clever Disappearing Dino Mug from The Unemployed Philosophers Guild, you can watch eons pass before your eyes over a hot cup of joe. The mug shows a prehistoric landscape populated by fierce dinosaurs. When you pour in a hot beverage, the dinosaurs transform into fossils in a museum exhibit.

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild philosophersguild.com (800) 255-8371 See ad on page 13 M U S E U M S TO R E

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Y UR LUX

Merchandise Planning

BUYER’S GUIDE

Muichic Natural Jewelry

South Africa’s Lifestyle Hub Potina’s smoke-fired pottery utilizes classic round shapes. Each piece of white porcelain clay is inspired by a natural palette of bone and wood, creating subtle but impressive works of art.

Vuyisa Potina discovered his love for ceramics as a boy, fashioning small models of oxen from hand-dug clay as he tended cattle in rural South Africa. He is one of many artists represented by South Africa’s Lifestyle Hub.

The Aros Tagua necklace, from Muichic Natural Jewelry, is a versatile and unique eco-chic piece that goes well with any outfit: a concentric design and playful combination of shape and color give this necklace special character. It is fair trade and 100 percent handmade from Tagua seeds making it sustainable, organic, vegan, biodegradable and naturally beautiful. All of the company’s jewelry comes with information tags.

South Africa’s Lifestyle Hub (800) 691-3839

Muichic Natural Jewelry muichic.com (802) 489-0521 See ad on page 24

South Africa’s Lifestyle Hub

Salifestylehub.com See ad on page 45

The Rose Lady This gold-trimmed dendrobium orchid three-blossom stem from The Rose Lady is made of real orchids.

A fine, delicate layer of lacquer is applied to handpicked blossoms to preserve their natural shape and color. Each piece is electroformed and completed with a 24k gold finish, transforming nature into a one-of-a-kind piece of art that you can treasure forever.

Orchid earrings, pendants and more are also available.

The Rose Lady (800) 767-3155

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theroselady.com See ad on page 23

M U S E U M S TO R E

Mata Ortiz Mata Ortiz to You offers handmade, one-of-a-kind, .950 silver jewelry with a story. Starting with hand-formed, hand-painted, ancient-style fired pottery from Mata Ortiz Chihuahua, broken shards are sent to a Nahuatl Indian silversmith in Taxco, Mexico. In his workshop loft, with a few simple tools and a buffer on his porch, he forms a setting to match each shard. Free marketing kit and provenance cards included.

Mata Ortiz (520) 744-0639

mataortiztoyou.com See ad on page 45

April Miller is a Cleveland-based writer and a regular contributor to Museum Store.

Strategic Management

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BOARD PRINCIPLES

“These new principles have turned the work of the MSA board upside down.” —Barbara Lenhardt

M U S E U M S TO R E

BOARD PRINCIPLES

Strategic Management

why do association boards need shared principles of action?

BY JEFF DE CAGNA

The future is always beginning now.”

t

he future of all associations, including the Museum Store Association, is a great deal more complicated than most boards, staff or other organizational stakeholders realize.

With the relentless forces of societal transformation the powerful influence of digital ubiquity chief among them, reshaping our world in profound ways, senior decision-makers need a compass to guide their efforts each day to listen, learn and make better choices in an environment of growing complexity. Shared principles of action, such as those the MSA Board is announcing in this issue, function in precisely this manner.

Principles are statements of justified belief about the necessary conditions for organizational success. A belief is justified when it can be supported by meaningful evidence instead of mere opinion. Through shared principles, association boards can filter the directors’ individual biases and perspectives to quickly discern the difference between helpful insight and insidious orthodoxy. At the same time, principles are not intended as inviolable commandments chiseled on stone tablets.

They must be subjected to continuous reflection and reframing based on what boards learn from the actual decisions they make. After all, having principles does not make the world less complex, but it does help the board make better sense of the complexity. And it is the board’s clear and unswerving commitment to building the association and helping its stakeholders to thrive that imbues this particular compass with a strong sense of what constitutes “true north.”

By developing, refining and practicing with shared principles of action, association boards assert their strategic legitimacy as the key players in the organization’s governing group. Boards that ignore or are in denial about societal transformation cannot govern effectively. They cannot listen with empathy to stakeholder problems, needs and outcomes, and they are unable to comprehend the disruptive impact of transformation on their stakeholders’ personal and professional lives. Boards that fail to demonstrate their legitimacy will not make an authentic commitment to accelerating their associations’ internal rate of progress relative to the rapid pace of transformation happening all around their organizations. I am very pleased the MSA Board of Directors has chosen a different pathway for its stewardship of the association.

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Strategic Management

BOARD PRINCIPLES

MSA Board Principles and Supporting Rationale All stakeholders are interrelated and success is interdependent Rationale: MSA works with and for many stakeholders. Nonprofit institutions and their retail operations personnel, other associations in the industry, vendors, MSA employees, and contractors of MSA are all interdependent. The rising tide of MSA will lift all its stakeholders.

Trust requires openness and communication Rationale: In order to build trusting relationships among and between the stakeholders, MSA must proactively communicate information of interest to its stakeholders in a timely and positive manner. In receiving feedback, MSA better serves its stakeholders, so it is essential to operate and maintain systems to exchange relevant information. This creates a culture of dialogue in which feedback is effortlessly offered.

Focus on stakeholder value Rationale: MSA must deliver value to its stakeholders. The organization requires a stakeholder-focused business model that is sustainable in order to create ongoing value.

Strategy is innovative and future-focused Rationale: Strategic decisions by their nature require broad thinking that considers the future in a world that is rapidly changing. The economic, social, political, legal and technological conditions of today will not be those of tomorrow. Recognizing that change is a given, it is important to build strategies from fresh ideas that are not necessarily dependent on the successes of the past.

Collaboration requires strategic thinking and clarity Rationale: As the association engages with the non-profit retail environment, MSA has opportunities to collaborate with other organizations and businesses. In evaluating the opportunities, it is important to focus on the strategic implications of all relationships and to seek information to help evaluate the complex connections and clearly consider the tradeoffs in these relationships.

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As a stakeholder of the Museum Store Association, I would encourage you to reflect on three questions as you consider how you can best support the board’s endeavor to apply shared principles of action to its decision-making process:

What unique insights can I provide that will help the board use its principles to make good decisions?

By agreeing to develop these principles at all, the MSA Board is displaying a rare and welcome humility around its willingness to learn. In today’s environment, all decisionmakers struggle with what they don’t know, not to mention what they “don’t know they don’t know.”

Through its principles, the MSA Board is creating a new interface for receiving high quality information from all of its stakeholders. Whenever you possess valuable knowledge or wisdom that can help the board reach a better decision, you have an open invitation to share it.

How can I use the principles to better understand the board’s decisions and provide useful feedback?

For any board, the ultimate application of shared principles of action occurs when a director asks the group, “What do our principles tell us about how we should make this decision?”

As an MSA stakeholder, when the organization announces a new board decision, you can use a similar approach, by asking yourself, “What do the principles tell me about how and why the MSA Board made this decision?” Instead of wondering what the board was thinking, you can use the principles to put yourself in one of the seats at the board table and calibrate your reactions and feedback accordingly.

BOARD PRINCIPLES

Strategic Management

VILLAGE DESIGNS

How can I use the principles to help other stakeholders understand the board’s decisions?

Association boards have specific and significant legal and fiduciary responsibilities, but all stakeholders can contribute to the essential work of stewardship. Your contribution can help to build a productive and generative conversation about MSA’s future by using the board’s shared principles of action as a starting point for dialogue with other stakeholders, especially in the case of controversial decisions. In those circumstances, some of your peers may default to the long-standing assumption made about nearly every association board at one time or another: the board doesn’t “get it.”

Through the principles, however, you can be a catalyst for challenging that orthodox belief to create a space in which stakeholders who disagree with each other may be able to find common ground.

In the words of former U.S. Poet Laureate Mark Strand, “The future is always beginning now.” These six simple words remind us of the many amazing opportunities that are unfolding before us everyday, as well as the serious responsibilities decision-makers accept to make those opportunities come to fruition. From my vantage point, the MSA Board’s decision to shape its work with shared principles of action is a positive sign that a very exciting future for MSA is already underway.

Jeff De Cagna is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, located in Reston, Virginia. Jeff can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com.

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M U S E U M S TO R E

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SENSORY MARKETING

Merchandise Planning

the silent salesperson Sensory Marketing

BY SUE STOVEALL

The museum store mirrors the basic impulse that drove us to create museums in the first place— to create memories.”

Sigmund Freud

i

t is a well-known fact that memory and senses are tied closely together. This fact dates back to 18th century France, when Marcel Proust wrote a book, In Search of Lost Time, which resulted in the coining of the phrase the Proust Phenomenon. Through his seven-volume novel about memory and time, Proust’s work was an innovation in the understanding of how the modus operandi of the human sensory system affects behavior. Centuries later, researchers and marketers are putting Proust’s discovery to work, perfecting retailing techniques that result in increased sales.

Through sensory marketing techniques, retailers can increase sales when their store environment stimulates certain sensory experiences. The retail store atmosphere is a complex environment that lends itself to sensory marketing. Ambient conditions, visual elements like color and lighting, aural considerations including volume and pitch, olfactory stimulation and tactile experiences can create a “purchase condition” that has an intended effect on a target audience.

The all-knowing king of marketing, Philip Kotler, referred to “the conscious designing of space to create certain effects in buyers” as atmospherics. Store atmospherics include each and every tangible and intangible aspect that creates a store’s environment. Similar to feng shui, retail experts use atmospherics to create harmony by optimizing sensory experiences.

A Rose by Any Other Name More than pictures or sounds, smells can bring back memories and invoke emotions. Big retail stores, casinos, hotels, jewelry stores and high-end supermarkets know this all too well. You may be surprised to know that companies use a sneaky technique—the emitting of scent—that jolts the brain into liking their products and spending more on them. A smell can make you feel at home in a store or hotel, at a black jack table or in front of the diamond case—places where a specific scent is likely to make customers stay longer and spend more.

Research by Nobel Peace Prize winners Richard Axel and Linda Buck revealed that our sense of smell is widely considered to be the most “emotional” sense. Rather than analyzing information our brains receive from a particular scent, humans experience a feeling. In fact, humans can remember more than 10,000 distinct odors— smells that can trigger memories that take us back to our childhoods.

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Merchandise Planning

SENSORY MARKETING

STRANGE (BUT EFFECTIVE) SENSORY MARKETING TECHNIQUES THE SMELL OF NEW Buyers of computers, iPhones and many other products know it all too well, the smell of “new.” This specific smell, which resembles a combination of cardboard, ink and other ingredients, may come from the packaging but it’s rumored that Apple plays tricks to ensure that a new MacBook smells the same as a new iPad.

DON’T BE FOOLED Walk into an M&M store and you probably expect to be enveloped by the smell of chocolate from the candy on the shelves around you. Well, you’d be wrong. The strong chocolate scent is actually sprayed at you from vents in the ceiling.

SMELLING HIGH PRICES Nike stores use a mixed flower scent to direct customers toward the expensive section. Research showed that shoppers spend up to $10 more when they smelled the flowers.

The Psychology of Music

GENRE

Music plays a big role in what consumers buy. Research suggests that there are three qualities of music that can influence buying behavior in a retail environment: tempo, volume and genre.

The effects of each of these qualities are explained by Mehrabian and Russell’s model of pleasure-arousaldominance (PAD). At its most basic level, the model suggests that sound can alter an individual’s mood and therefore behavior by affecting levels of pleasure and arousal. This framework relates well to how music impacts buying behavior in a store environment

It’s probably fair to say that the type of music playing in a store is one of the first things shoppers notice, and that, indeed, genre has an effect on shopping behavior. As part of MacInnis and Park’s 1991 field experiment in a wine store in a large U.S. city, background music was changed over a two-month period, from classical to Top 40. Study results indicated that background classical music influenced shoppers to select more expensive vintages and resulted in the notion that music is persuasive when it “fits” the persuasion context in which it is employed.

Expensive wine and classical music are partners in crime.

TEMPO In 1982, Milliman conducted a study in a New York City grocery store to investigate the effect of music tempo on shoppers’ buying behaviors. The experiment was simple but the results were insightful: slow music led to significantly more time spent in the store and a significant increase (32 percent) in sales when compared to behavior when fast music was played. These results can be explained by the PAD model: fast music leads to high levels of arousal which, in turn, makes customers move at a faster pace through the store.

Conversely, slow tempos prevent high levels of arousal, slowing down the shopper’s pace and leading to an increase in items purchased.

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Visual Merchandising: Art Not Science

VOLUME

Past experiences can have a great impact on a customer’s mind, even before he or she has the chance to refer to an external source of information about a product. The more appealing and effective the visual merchandising, the more customers enjoy and are mentally satisfied while shopping.

A 1988 study by Yalch and Spangenberg revealed that age moderates the effects of volume. They found that younger shoppers are more likely to spend more time shopping when music is played in the foreground, whereas older shoppers are more likely to spend more time shopping where there is background music. Whether age or generational/cultural norms cause the effect is a hard distinction to make. Although using music volume to influence consumer behavior is not a one-size-fits-all tactic, it is an important aspect of sensory marketing that should be taken seriously.

The primary objective of visual merchandising is to convert a passerby into a browser, a browser into a spender and a spender into a big spender.

Visual merchandising alters the perception and attitude of consumers, forcing the purchase of products in such a way that customers enjoy purchasing them, and raises the involvement of customers inside a store. Good lighting, effective color and creative displays provoke shoppers into spending more time inside a store, which translates into more opportunities to make impulse purchases.

BREAKING BREAD The scents of chocolate and fresh bread are emitted from the air systems at Net Cost stores, one of the first supermarkets to implement the sweet-smelling practice. Such smells have been shown to make people slow down to peruse more products, especially in the gourmet food section.

Ultimately, the characteristics of music cannot be isolated, and effects of sensory marketing tactics on purchasing behavior are not stand-alone. Retailers should take the time to learn how the nuances of music in a retail environment can have a planned impact on sales.

SENSORY MARKETING

Merchandise Planning

If eyes are the windows to the soul, then shop windows are just as revealing. They reveal the soul of the shop.”

Debra Templar

To maximize the power of visual merchandising in terms of sensory marketing pay careful attention to lighting, props, hardware, floor and wall covering. Other visual merchandising tools to consider include exterior signs, in-store written communication, product signage, merchandise presentation, fixtures and lighting.

Wikipedia aptly states that visual merchandising is not a science; there are no absolute rules. It is more like an art in the sense that there are implicit rules, which may be broken to achieve striking and memorable effects. The main principle of visual merchandising is that is it intended to increase sales, which is not the case with “real” art.

As a retailer, by now you may be asking yourself how in the world you can incorporate all of this research to finish with a record fiscal year. Understandably, as a nonprofit retailer, your budget has no line item for a team of sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and marketing consultants to turn your store into an unforgettable branded experience that makes it difficult to keep product on shelves.

But, that’s not to say that you can’t take a few pages from Proust’s novel and a bit of time surfing the internet for information about how sensory marketing techniques can improve your bottom line.

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Merchandise Planning

SENSORY MARKETING

To start, here are some key questions: •

What does your store currently smell like? Is there a particular “branded scent” you want to go for? If so, what emotions and memories do you want to evoke?

•

Does your product or marketing imagery portray an ideal your target customers want to aspire to?

If not, how can you change them to reflect your brand’s ideals?

•

What kind of background music do you currently play in your store? Are you targeting a more youthful or mature customer segment and how does that reflect in your playlist?

Customers evaluate not just the features of a product, but also their shopping experience. A comfortable experience, and satisfaction of soul, emotions and mind create a pleasant shopping memory. This experience becomes a part of life and is always an influencer while purchasing.

Sue Stoveall is a Denver-based marketing consultant currently working with the Museum Store Association.

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Financial Management

MEASURING PERFORMANCE

2014 retail industry report: visitor demographics The 2014 MSA Retail Industry Report can help you understand how to spend your marketing dollars to attract visitors to your museum store.

The 2014 Retail Industry Report is a valuable tool for non-profit and niche retail operations, helping support your business decisions about everything from buying and inventory, hiring and staffing, square footage needs, marketing budgets and more. It offers best practice tips, ideas for increasing your profit margins and controlling operating expenses.

Take a sneak peek at the outcomes reached as a result of the data you and your colleagues submitted.

Majority of Visitors Frequency

Count

Local

18.3%

55

Regional

61.0%

183

Na onal

19.0%

57

1.7%

5

20

40

60

80

Interna onal

100

1

Not Answered

Majority of Visitors by Region 100

Local Regional

80

Na onal Interna onal

60

MAJORITY OF VISITORS In addition to reporting the market population served by the museum, respondents were asked to describe the majority of their visitors in broad geographic terms. The majority of respondents (6 percent) described their visitors as regional, while local and national visitors were reported almost equally by respondents at 18 and 19 percent respectively. Less than 2 percent of survey respondents described their visitors as international.

Survey participants in the northeast reported the highest level of national visitors, while those in the midwest reported the lowest level of this group. Local visitors were reported much more equally across the country.

40 20 0

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Northeast

M U S E U M S TO R E

South

Midwest

West

Order yours today! Contact the MSA office at (303) 504-9223 or amiller@museumstoreassociation.org.

Museum Store Association Individual Membership

t

he Museum Store Association believes that your stores extend the experience that your institution strives to create—into the lives, homes and memories of your patrons. And that you are the key to creating a profitable and meaningful retail space that excites and inspires your customers.

The new Museum Store Association Individual Membership for museum store professionals gives you access to the knowledge, resources and community you need to create a thriving, revenue-producing store that supports the greater mission of your institution—and the greater mission of YOU!

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Webinars, Live and Recorded Learning Sessions, Publications and Online Resources ShopTalk and MSAProductShop Online Access Annual Conference Discounts MSA Knowledge Standards Content New Certificate Program Networking Events with Peers Museum Store Magazine Money-Saving Programs & Discounts Weekly MSA News Brief Quarterly Members-Only eNews

The Th MSA Vendor Connection Through MSA, members connect with a select group of vendors who support the association and whose products are right in line with your buying strategies.

Many MSA vendors have been in the museum store wholesale business for years and are a resource for product development, buying and merchandising strategies and referrals.

Join MSA Today!

SM

VISIT museumstoreassociation.org CALL (303) 504-9223 EMAIL membership@museumstoreassociation.org

MSA Community

updates from the MSA community Josette Prudente-Reilly to Store Operations Manager, de Young/Legion of Honor-Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Salome Bryan to Associate Store Operations Manager, de Young/Legion of Honor-Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Bradley Platz to Retail & E-Commerce Manager, de Young/ Legion of Honor-Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Susan Taylor-Schran to Museum Shop and Marketing Manager, Gari Melchers Home and Studio, Falmouth, Va.

Lorrin Ingerson to Retail Sales Manager, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, Ky. Kari Brizius to President, Relan, Mendota Height, Md. Mary Hume to Retail Services Manager, Memphis Pink Palace Museum, Memphis, Tenn.

Dawn St. George to Museum Director, El Rancho de las Golondrinas, Santa Fe, N.M. Sandy Fisher announced her retirement to take place in September. She has been in the museum store industry for 42 years with over 25 of those as the Manager and Buyer for Retail Operations at The Mint Museum, Charlotte, S.C.

Thomas Randon to General Manager, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. Nancy McCurdy retired from the Wings Over the Rockies, Denver, Colo. after 13 years of service.

Photo: Robyn Arouty

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MSA wants to keep you up to date with your community. Let us know about changes in your life or the lives of your colleagues. Send a notice to: amiller@museumstoreassociation.org.

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1-800-691-3839

SALIFESTYLEHUB.COM M U S E U M S TO R E

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Just for Vendors

tricks of the trade Building Effective and Meaningful Relationships With Museum Store Professionals

BY ANDREA MILLER

t

The Museum Store Association partnered with three major markets over the summer to provide enhanced networking and learning opportunities. AmericasMart in Atlanta, The World Market Center in Las Vegas and NY NOW in New York City rolled out the red carpet to welcome new and returning buyers. As we walked the show floor, we asked a few vendors to tell us one of their best sales tips in working with museum store professionals. These tips and techniques will help you build better relationships and boost sales with the nonprofit retail industry:

Create a buying program to utilize when the museum needs to buy product.

For example, set up an advanced order for the months of January, March and November. This will help the museum set a plan to buy the products they need at the right times for busy seasons, exhibitions and events.”

Ari Lowenstein, Unemployed Philosophers Guild

“Listen to the buyer about their store and museum. Ask what upcoming exhibits may be on their calendars.”

Josh Bach, Josh Bach Limited

“Be flexible. Every museum has a different need.”

Leslie Douglas, Amusemints

“Do what it takes to make sure the customer is there for the long term. Provide flexibility.”

Wood Huntley, Museum Store Products

“Work with low minimums. If it’s a $20 order, take the order. You may have made a customer for life.”

Ari Lowenstein, Unemployed Philosophers Guild

“Have a good product. Museums see product, other stores see packaging and display.

For museums, it’s all about the product.”

Tom Sebazco, Eni Puzzles

The most commonly stated tip: Listen! Over and over, we heard that listening rather than pushing the next best thing worked more effectively than any other sales technique. Build a solid partnership between your company and the museum using these tips as you deliver exceptional service and quality product development. Help your museum store clients tell their stories using your products!

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Member Story

chazen museum of art shop

BY HEATHER GROFF

My goal is to make the Chazen Museum Shop a destination for not only museum patrons, but for the community at large.�

t

he Chazen Museum of Art, located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, underwent a major expansion and remodel project that opened in Fall 2011. Unfortunately, while the store was given a bigger space, it continued to operate in the red and was not able to find its voice or leverage the added media attention or visitorship into an increase in revenue. The store was disorganized, both in the sense of product selection and how that product was merchandised. I came on as museum shop manager in November 2013. Within a week of taking on the retail management for the Chazen I knew I had a huge challenge ahead of me.

During the transition of management at the Chazen Museum of Art Shop, the Museum Store Association proved to be an invaluable resource. Because the interim store manager had little retail or management experience, I had to review all of the store processes to ensure the shop was following best practices. This included purchasing, cash handling policies, PCI compliance, consignment and vendor contracts, customer service and training manuals, and inventory control.

The largest project was dealing with the large amount of inventory on hand. I knew that an open-to-buy system needed to be put into place. The Chazen has a rigorous exhibition schedule, usually hosting 10-12 temporary exhibitions a year and also rotating pieces in the permanent galleries. I noticed right away that patrons wanted to be able to take something home to remind them of the exhibition they had just seen. The open-to-buy plan would have to encompass not only seasonal changes, but also include a buying plan for exhibition specific merchandise.

Chazen Museum of Art.

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As old merchandise began to clear out, albeit not as quickly as one would hope, the shop was able to bring in exhibition-related merchandise. This included creating custom merchandise for the first time. Having just returned from MSA’s Annual Conference & Expo, I had a wealth of new vendors to help create items for an upcoming summer exhibition.

I really wanted a good variety of product categories for custom merchandise and I was able to find vendors that could create merchandise from throw pillows to personal accessories to magnets and notecards. Making these connections was

M U S E U M S TO R E

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Member Story

invaluable to the shop as we had little open-to-buy and needed to work with vendors who could accommodate low minimums and smaller orders. The custom merchandise has been a hit among staff and visitors, and has given management confidence that the shop is moving in the right direction.

The shop has also started laying the groundwork to make itself an integral part of the visitor experience. By partnering with the publishing, events, marketing and membership departments I have been able to foster relationships that give the shop a seat at the table among fellow colleagues. This has helped them recognize the important role the shop plays, not only in terms of a revenue-generating source, but also as a place for patrons to connect with staff about what they’ve seen in the galleries, and as a source to continue our patrons’ interaction with art, even after they’ve left the building.

Celebrate the enduring beauty of our glass ornaments, at prices that guarantee a profitable holiday season.

Tel: 631-242-9664 | Fax: 631-586-1918 msornamentlady@gmail.com www.christinasworld.com 50

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The shop has also focused on participating in the university community by targeting staff and students through promotional email. In addition, the shop has begun actively taking part in opportunities to participate in the Downtown Madison Business Association. This includes providing items and coupons for welcome bags for various conferences, participating in discounted co-op advertising and providing donations for promotional giveaways. My goal is to make the Chazen Museum Shop a destination for not only museum patrons, but for the community at large. We have a wonderful university and downtown community in Madison, and I believe making the shop active in those communities will prove to be the driver for future success.

Hand silk-screened apparel parel and totes with the likeness of artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Renoir, and more.

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3 0 4 - 7 2 4 - 8 7 5 1 • W W W. B R E E K E . C O M

Book Review

three business books that deliver on organizational change and leadership

BY NINA SIMON

h

ave you ever picked up an intriguing-looking business book, started to read it, and then realized it’s just one five-page article’s worth of content spread out over 300 pages? Maybe I’m unlucky or a bad chooser, but I’ve encountered whole shelves of one-horse fluff and drivel. It gives the gems a bad name.

But! Here are three great books that have stuck with me. I found each really helpful in navigating an aspect of organizational change and leadership.

Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity

By Susan Kenny Stevens This slim book provides cogent and insightful analysis of organizational evolution from startup to growth to maturity to decline to turnaround (hopefully). I have used this book in many ways over the past few years: to diagnose and understand an organization that was new to me, to plan for the future, and now, to relearn the needs and abilities of my organization as it moves out of turnaround and into growth. These 130 pages have a magical quality; I keep finding more in them. I didn’t know what “capacity building” meant when I first picked up this book. I still don’t entirely. But I do know that this book keeps helping me learn and grow... and that’s about as good a definition as I’ve got at this point.

The First 90 Days

By Michael Watkins I’ve been recommending this book to many friends and colleagues recently as they take on new leadership roles. Unlike the other two books on this list, this book is more about the individual in the organization than the

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Book Review

organization itself. I found it to be incredibly helpful when I was preparing for and then taking on an executive director role, but it can be useful for anyone taking on a new role who wants to do so mindfully and successfully. This book uses the classic business book formula—pithy missives mixed with diverse examples—but it does so really, really well. The thing it does best is help you think about how to strategically plan out not just what you will do at work but who you will be, and how you can construct your position, relationships and roles intentionally instead of having them “happen” to you.

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business

By Patrick Lencioni

energy, collaborative spirit and creativity. I’m personally struggling with this a bit and would love your recommendations of books that can help in thinking about how to add structure in a way that supports and builds with minimal ossification.

What kinds of books would help you most in your work? What books would you recommend? Let me know—nina@santacruzmah.org.

Nina Simon designs and researches participatory museum experiences. She is the Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and author of The Participatory Museum.

I picked up this book on a whim at the beginning of the year based on the fact that Fractured Atlas, an organization I admire, was using it to guide their work. Like The First 90 Days, The Advantage employs a classic business book formula. But instead of focusing on individual leadership, this book focuses on organizational culture. I’m not sure I completely buy Lencioni’s big idea, but the content is solid and useful—regardless of what trumps what. For us at the MAH, this book has been helpful as we shift from a startup culture of change and experimentation into a growth culture of strengthening and deepening our work. We are using approaches from The Advantage to write meaningful organizational values, infuse those into our hiring, onboarding and performance review processes, and protect and cultivate the unique aspects of our interpersonal culture that make us thrive.

Now, I’m hunting for truly great books about moving from startup to growth/mature operations while maintaining M U S E U M S TO R E

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AD INDEX American Heritage Chocolates . . . . . . . . 31

Kamibashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Unemployed Philosophers Guild . . . . . . . 13

Applewood Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Live Your Dream Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

UPrintonDemand.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Baskets of Cambodia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Madison Bay Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Urban Expositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Bianchi Giovanni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Mata Ortiz to You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

U.S. Games Systems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Boeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Messe Frankfurt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Village Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Breeke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

MSA Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

BullPen Book Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

MSA ProductShop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Buyer’s Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

MSA 2015 Retail Conference & Expo . . . . 3

Christina’s World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

MSA Retail Industry Report . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Clear Solutions, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Muichic Natural Jewelry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Creative Whack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

North Star Treasures (Tense Watches) . . . 50

EDC Publishing (Usborne/Kane Miller) . . 49

Opto International, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Folkmanis, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Popcorn Movie Poster Company, LLC . . . . 9

Found Image Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Q3 Art Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Fractiles, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Safari Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Galison/Mudpuppy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Silver Dolphin Books (Baker & Taylor) . . . . 8

General Pencil Company, Inc. . . . . . . . . . 14

Solmate Socks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Golden Island Int’l, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

South Africa’s Lifestyle Hub . . . . . . . . . . 45

Historical Folk Toys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

TAM Retail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

International Gift Exposition

Thames & Hudson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

in the Smokies (IGES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

The Rose Lady . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

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