The definition of customer orientation in a new scientific museum: insight from theory and case analysis

The aim of this paper is to analyse the definition of customer orientation in museum marketing. The recent literature underlines the implementation of interaction in the visitor’s experience, the integration of the museum offer with new services and the use of new technologies in the museum context in order to improve the quality of the visiting. According to this perspective, the customer orientation is able to change the concept itself of museum product radically, in a way which could not be coherent with the museum mission. In the case of scientific museums, the “public understanding of science”, as a key component of the mission, could limit the use of interaction, integration and new technologies, and calls for a new definition of customer orientation. In order to investigate this topic, the research methodology is based on a case study approach, examining the development of a new science centre in Florence. The paper presents the results of a focus group and the findings from a quantitative research of visitors in order to offer an integrated framework which has implications in the management of museums.