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curated by sierra gonzalez 
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Smithsonian teams with QVC

The Smithsonian Institution has entered into a licensing agreement with QVC to develop a jewelry collection based on artifacts in the National Gem and Mineral Collection, a part of the National Museum of Natural History. According to the Washington Post, the line will include a "smaller version of the Hope Diamond", which will retail at $85.

Millions of people visit the museum each year, admiring its beautiful and rare jewelry and gemstone collection. Now our customers can share these national treasures in a very personal way as we give them access to owning jewelry based on items of great historical significance.

—Debra Puzio, QVC's director of merchandising

The Smithsonian's goal is to "create jewelry that is not only fashionable, but also serves to educate the public about the Smithsonian and the jewelry, gems and minerals found in its collections," according to Carol LeBlanc, director of consumer products for Smithsonian Enterprises. As with most other museum stores (see: the Met),  revenue from the Smithsonian's stores (the organization reported a 15% profit margin in 2007) goes back into the institution to support its programs and educational initiatives, but it's not clear if and how QVC would share the profits of this agreement. I also wonder whether shoppers agree with Carol LeBlanc and see their purchases as vehicles for personal edification--or whether it's instead about the perceived prestige of owning an authorized reproduction of a museum-worthy piece. (Or maybe it just looks nice. Who knows?) With the Smithsonian's move to sell their museum-inspired pieces through a third-party, home shopping TV network instead of directly to shoppers on site or online, it seems to dilute the messages of educational and cultural cachet. [Smithsonian and QVC Announce New Jewelry Line | CNN Money]

Filed under  //   branding   consumerism   cultural capital   merchandising   museum   museum store   smithsonian   television  

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Scaling down the Met brand

As if responding to my suggestion of the Met's interest in thrifty marketing, the museum announced Monday that its endowment has taken a 25% hit, membership and attendance is down, and Emily Rafferty, the Met’s president, said that “we cannot eliminate the possibility of a head-count reduction.” This falls in line with experiences at other cultural institutions, but the Met is also responding to the economy by curbing one of its most unique assets: its nationwide retail operation.

According to the New York Times, the Met had 23 stores across the country last year; now, they're scaling down to 8, with plans to focus on their online and catalog sales (they also have a handful of international locations). I've always been curious about the business/marketing decision to take the Met store off site, and even thousands of miles away from the museum. It might be that the Met earned $90 million annually in store revenue with a gross margin of about 50 percent, as James Twitchell reported in 2004.*

Museum stores are curious things: as part of non-profit institutions, store revenue directly supports the operating costs of the museum, including maintaining collections and organizing educational programs. On the other hand, museum stores put a discrete price on culture: you can buy reproductions of Egyptian jewelry, copies of Buddhist sculptures, and Art Nouveau-inspired perfume bottles, all carrying the additional cultural cachet of museum approval. (Curators and art historians OK all store products before they hit the shelves to ensure "authenticity.") Bradford Kelleher, who built the Met Store empire, once said, “Our test is whether the curator concerned with the object can tell the reproduction from the real thing.”

Some museums have national brands (like MoMA/SFMOMA) or even international reach (the Guggenheim and the Louvre are both planning outposts in Dubai), but they've all got multiple museum locations. Not counting the Cloisters (the Met's Manhattan branch dedicated to medieval art) the Metropolitan Museum of Art is using its store—and not the original objects in its collection—to build international awareness. Kelleher said, “If it’s a faithful reproduction, it has educational value and it’s a way of giving the object wider circulation outside of the museum."

*Twitchell's Branded Nation, p. 250; net income for the Met Stores is around $1 million.

[Sorry for the lengthier post, I reverted to my grad school days a little bit here.]

Filed under  //   cultural capital   economy   merchandising   museum   new york   store  

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