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From: "Ed Sobey" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Informal Science Education Network" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 8:20 AM
Subject: Re: Marketing Budget for Science Museums
Randee-
Still not so easy. I've directed 5 museums and in each case we had
in-house graphic designers do most or all of our design work. Their
salaries showed up in the staff budget, not in marketing/pr.
As a rule, we never bought media. We always negotiated tradeouts or
arranged news coverage. (Actually we did make media buys, but usually it
was with someone else's money and it happened infrequently). We were able
to generate so much media coverage that we never (rarely) had to buy
anything.
If you take the expenses and assume that 50 - 55% go to personnel costs
(for a typical museum), 10% go for utilities (this varies greatly), throw
in
insurance, janitorial (if it's out sourced), traveling exhibits, exhibit
maintenance, and program expenses, there's no way that marketing/pr will
register 10%.
Looking at an old budget for a small museum, the identified advertising
and PR budgets were 2.8%. Adding printing raises it to 3.5%. These
numbers
are probably low by museum standards, but maybe not by much.
All that said, your institution may need to spend a larger percentage
of
its budget on marketing and PR. The culture of the institution and the
attitude of the community (especially the attitudes of the media - whether
they support nonprofits and a sense of community or not) determine what you
have to do to get your message out.
Best wishes,
Ed
Ed Sobey, Ph.D.
Northwest Invention Center
2420 178th NE
Redmond, WA 98052
(425) 861-8685
www.invention-center.com
www.invention-engine.com
www.kidsinvent.org
www.inventionfact.com
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