REVIEW

of Economic Studies
and Research

Virgil
Madgearu

VI (2013) , No. 2
Editorial board:
Dana Bako - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ivan Bélyacz - Pécs University, Hungary
Gabriela Bodea - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Anuţa Buiga - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Alexandru Chiş - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Karl Farmer – Karl Franzens University of Graz, Austria
Subrata Ghatak - Kingston University, London, United Kingdom
Gyorgy Kocziszky - University of Miskolc, Hungary
Răzvan Nistor - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Janos Lukacs - Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary
Ioan Lumperdean - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Delia Marga - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Dumitru Matiş - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Dumitru Miron – Academia de Studii Economice Bucureşti, Romania
Anton Mureşan - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ciprian Marcel Pop - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Marius Pop - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Cătălin Postelnicu - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Angelo Santagostino - University of Brescia, Italy
Gheorghe Cosmin Silaghi - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ioan Talpoş - West University of Timişoara, Timişoara, Romania
Adriana Tiron-Tudor - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Alexandru Todea - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Nicolae Tomai - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Alexandru Ţugui - AL.I. Cuza University Iaşi, România
Jon Tucker - University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
Maria Vincze - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Editor in chief:
Paula Curt - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Editorial assistants:
Irina Marilena Ban - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Dan Cristian Dabija - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Foreign languages advisors:

Letiţia Ilea - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ioana Nan - Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania

This review is indexed in the following international databases:

- EBSCO Publishing Inc.,
- ProQuest,
- Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL),
- Cabell’s Directories,
- Global Impact Factor,
- Google Scholar.

http://www.econ.ubbcluj.ro/rvm/
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Editura Alma Mater
Cluj-Napoca, str. Rahovei nr. 2
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 CONTENTs
Vasile Anton – Stances of tradition and modernization in
the economy of Pipirig, Neamţ county, from the beginning
of the 20th century to the present / 5
Gabriela BRENDEA – The impact of the recent financial
crisis on the capital structure choices of the Romanian
listED firms / 15
Istvan CSUTAK – PROJECTED MOTORWAY CONSTRUCTION IN THE
CENTRAL, NORTH-WESTERN AND WESTERN REGIONS OF ROMANIA
BETWEEN 2001-2025 / 27
Iulia-Oana ENĂȘEL, Claudiu Dan GOSTIAN – Art Museums and
the Cultural Market Case Study: «Centrul Artistic Baia
Mare» County Museum / 51
Andrei IRIMIE – INFLUENCES OF JUDAISM IN ECONOMY / 71

Cristian Marius LITAN, Codruța MARE, Irimie POPA – A brief

perspective on the regional distribution of SOPHRD
financing in Romania / 81
Stanca Alexandra POP – PROFESSOR nicolae ghiulea’s VIEW
UPON COOPERATION / 99
Cătălin Postelnicu – Interdependencies Between Migration
and Globalization / 115
Raluca Valeria RAȚIU, Adriana TIRON TUDOR – THE CLASSIFICATION
OF GOODWILL - AN ESSENTIAL ACCOUNTING ANALYSIS / 137
Ioan TRENCA, Eva DEZSI – Connections between the
European stock markets / 151

3
 Art Museums and the Cultural Market
Case Study: «Centrul Artistic Baia Mare»
County Museum
Iulia-Oana ENĂȘEL*, Claudiu Dan GOSTIAN*

Abstract: The communication process is an important component of the

marketing strategy. The paper focuses on the particularities of museums
in general and art museums in particular that lead to the necessity of
comprising educational, informational and financial components in the
strategy. The role of the communication process is to offer a coherent and
unitary character to the message and enhance its effects. The research
conducted in this paper refers to the present cultural sector in Romania,
the way museums are seen by the public and what communication means
they use. The data gathered through secondary research and a pilot
survey is presented in the form of a case study of the «Centrul Artistic
Baia Mare» County Museum. The main findings regard the current usage
of mass media as mere communication channels instead of important
stakeholders and focus on means to improve the effectiveness of the art
museum communication process through and towards all stakeholders.
Key words: art museum, cultural marketing, communication, museum
functions
JEL Classification: M30

* Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administra­

tion, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. E-mail addresses: oana_enasel@yahoo.com,
cgostian@yahoo.com.

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 Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2013, no. 2

1. Introduction
People have been striving to adapt to real life situations and all the
welcome and unwelcome events coming along ever since the beginning
of time. Proof of goal achievement can be considered their survival,
whereas in terms of process, the situation is complex. Considering
evolution from the individual’s point of view, we could talk about a
constant inner need to control the environment and adapt, which, in
more specific words, consists in analyzing situations and responding to
stimuli. Depending on the context, the person gathers data, interprets
it and formulates responses; he negotiates and takes part in dialogue,
behaving becoming similar to adopting a discourse. This concrete
plane of action can be associated with a communication process,
making it, therefore, possible to state that communication is a complex
omnipresent process, which exceeds the mere usage of vocabulary.
Furthermore, the researchers of the Palo Alto Institute determined
that „a human behaviour does not have a contrary” (Lohisse, 2010:
136), making it possible for Paul Watzlawick to formulate the axiom of
metacommunication: the possibility of non-communication does not
exist. (Rus, 2002: 21) Extrapolating from the individual behavior to
the organisational behavior, we can consider that both organizations
and individuals engage in intricate conversations where they have
to cope with imperfect and atomized information. Communication
can therefore be either a panacea or a problem, depending on the
transmitter, content, code, channel, noise, audience.
Organizations are constantly trying to gain control and enhance
their power in the market, by adapting to the environment, using their
directly controllable tools, the elements of the marketing mix and
combining them in a coherent and representative speech.

2. Art museums and the market context

This paper focuses on art museums as communicators and the
way they build and direct their messages to their public (publics).
Analyzing the specificity of such institutions will help establish the role

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 Enaᵕ s, el, Gostian, Art Museums and the Cultural Market...
and character of their communication process. The case of museums
in general and art museums in particular is special due to several
reasons. Judging by the purpose of these institutions, their functions
are stated in the legal framework:
yy Collection, conservation and restoration;
yy Research and scientific development of the patrimony of the
museum;
yy Dissemination of research findings;
yy Education of the public.
According to Law of Museums and Public Collections, no.311/2003,
modified and updated by Law no.12/2006 such institutions „posseses
juridical pesonality and its activity is financed by self generated
revenue and other funds from the state or local budget.” On the one
hand, the legal framework encourages them to lean towards financial
auto-sustenablity while pursuing their goals - „core business”, as called
by Kylie Message: preservation of cultural heritage and education of
publics through exhibitions (Message, 2006). In order for them to
have a positive turnover, they have to constantly attract visitors and
develop new services being forced to compete against other pastimes.
On the other hand, in terms of profitability, the economic framework
is less permissive. While Western European literature talks about both
museum survival and profitability (Camarero & Garrido, 2008), the
Law of Public Finance, no.500/2002 states that Romanian museums
should not pass from one financial year to the next showing unspent
income in their ballance sheet. Regardless of the source of the money
(budget surplus or financial grants from the County Council) any
amount exceeding the accounted costs and expenditures (and, on rare
occasions, investments) has to be transfered back to the state budget.
Moreover, if the institution manages to increase its own revenue and
cover a wider amount of the estimated financial need, the authorities
reduce its subsidy. Despite the fact that it is difficult to gauge the
economic performance of museums, an increase in the economic
value produced by such organizations would allow a better fulfillment
of cultural and educational goals and would ease the creation of social
and artistic value (Klamer, 2011). Yet, emphasizing the financial

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 Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2013, no. 2
component of the marketing strategy could make the public regard
museums as profit driven organizations stepping in the consumerist
area at the expense of preserving and promoting the genuine cultural
phenomenon and heritage.
In terms of action plans, letting the customers know and
understand who the institution is and what it is doing is developed
in the orientation (set on a preservation - sales axis), positioning
and marketing strategy, but the information is conveyed through a
communication process. Looking at the market as a whole, the museum
as institution acts as a transmitter. At a closer look, even though the
organization uses the elements of the marketing mix in order to develop
the strategy, each of these controllable instruments act themselves as
a communication transmitters. Due to its complexity, this process can
be subject of interdisciplinary approach. From a broad perspective, we
can define the Corporate Communication (Rus, 2004) as the sum of
communication processes the organization is engaged in, consisting
of internal communication (inside the system), inter-communication
(with all the elements of the macro marketing medium) and integrated
communication (referring to the coherence of the information flow).
This is the plane where the museum identifies its stakeholders and
segments its audience. It is a fact that museums, as service providers,
operate using all components of the marketing mix: product, price,
promotion, place, people, physical evidences, service management,
complementary services/products, clients/customers and processes
(Vorzsak et al., 2006). Out of these components, the only one defined
explicitly by a communication process is promotion: “communicating
information between seller and potential buyer or others in the
channel to influence attitudes and behavior.” (McCarthy & Perreault,
1993) Yet, all others components being information transmitters, the
concept integrating these macro and micro perspectives in marketing
theory consists in Integrated Marketing Communications.

3. Integrated Marketing Communications

In order to establish the role of the communication process
in marketing strategy and activities, we will consider as a starting

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 Enaᵕ s, el, Gostian, Art Museums and the Cultural Market...
point the definition of promotion given by Philip Kotler: “that part
of communication that consists of company messages designed to
stimulate awareness of, interest in and purchase of its various products
and services” (Kotler, 2000) and the definition of communication
given by Abraham Moles: “the creation of link between the sender
and the receiver through perception of understanding, transfer and
which takes place from the field of phenomena to the field of symbols
connected in a structure.” (Moles, 1974) Concisely, according to Moles,
communication is about an individual, I, situated in a specific time and
place to acquire the characteristics and data of the experience of another
individual or system, E, based on mutually acknowledged elements.
(Rus, 2002) Analyzing the definition from a marketing perspective, we
can identify the individual I as being the consumer (client or prospect),
the E system the museum institution addressing the public. The specific
time and place can be a loose definition of the marketing environment
(with micro and macro components) and the characteristics and data
of the situation can be identified as the message. We can state that the
message contains much more than the characteristics of the product/
service, it includes coordinates of the context (understood as a sum of
environmental factors, the organization itself, competition and other
stakeholders, such as the public, media etc.). The information aimed
at the consumer contains, implicitly or explicitly, all the elements
of the marketing mix, correlated with the circumstantial variables.
The transmission is made through the instruments in the promotion
sub-mix and through all other meeting points of the consumer.
Communication becomes a complex process, using several channels
and for it to achieve its goal, the sender and the receiver have to share
mutual unitary knowledge elements.
The attention given to media channels, promotion elements and
their combination is increasing, being reason enough to connect them
to the concept of integrated marketing communications. Integrated
Marketing Communications (IMC) is a relatively new concept, which
refers to identifying every place where the organization, its products,
services or brands make contact with the consumer, choosing the
right instruments and proportion for sending the message. (Kotler,

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 Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2013, no. 2
2003: 128) Facing several critiques, IMC is believed to lack a rigorous
definition, mainly because there seams to be no solid theoretical basis
for it to be set on, practitioners showing a high degree of ambiguity
and even shallowness in their work (Spotts et al., 1998). The reasons
for which the concept appeared are also being questioned by the
above cited authors: they believe that this is a construct made up by
advertising agencies as a survival strategy in response to the other
communication strategies or by PR agencies striving to enhance their
own importance. The argumentation carried on and got to a point where
extreme positions can be identified: while Harlam E. Spotts, David R.
Lambert and Mary L. Joyce believe that marketing literature has been
completely ignored and IMC is just another name for a sub-usage of
few of the marketing mix elements, Lisa Fortini Campbell comes up
with a physical outline, differentiating a verbal language (consisting
in the promotion sub-mix) and a body language (consisting in all the
other components of the marketing mix).
Without taking this too far, we believe that a middle position on
this “axis” would be convenient. Museum institutions, as cultural
service providers, adopt a unitary communication processes reuniting
the 9 Ps of the services together with the rest of the museum’s
statements, stressing out the fact that all elements of the marketing
mix are competing, but they are complementary (Kotler, 2003). The
issue at stake is whether such an approach is actually implemented,
its corroboration with the ongoing communication process and its
perception by the organization’s publics.

4. Art museums communication process

Considering the functions the legal framework settles for museum
institutions corroborated with the financial objectives, we believe
that a wide approach of the transmitted discourse would fit best. Art
museums should become customer oriented (Camarero & Garrido,
2008). Defined as the degree to which the organization obtains and
uses information from customers and develops a strategy that will
meet customers’ needs and wants, customer orientation is shown in
practice by conducting market segmentations, by conducting research

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 Enaᵕ s, el, Gostian, Art Museums and the Cultural Market...
on both customers’ needs, wants, perceptions and competition, by
taking these results into account when planning exhibitions and by
having a marketing strategy. It is focused on maximizing customer
satisfaction and not on building a relationship seen as an advantage in
front of the competition. (Bruhn, 2001)
Developing a strategy from such an orientation would corroborate
the educational, entertainment and financial functions of the
institution. According to the studies on the educational purpose of
museums (Henriksen & Froyland, 2000; Kratz & Merritt, 2011),
researchers have shown that there is a demand for a form of education,
additional to traditional learning, which can be placed in museums
and which could focus on developing a certain set of skills for students
and on providing specific, relevant information directly influencing
the life and knowledge of the community. Combining this alternative
education with the the idea that “learning can be fun”, museums of all
kinds began to undertake auxiliary activities creating what Hannigan
calls edutainment: “the joining together of educational and cultural
activities with commerce and technology of the entertainment
world.” (van Aalst, Boogaarts, 2002: 197) The product mix of such an
institution can include: (Camarero & Garrido, 2008: 3) the collection
and the experience created by the objects in the collection, the related
services, the symbolic capital and also a series of peripheral services,
such as stores, restaurants and libraries. This approach makes the user
become more responsible for what he chooses to learn (Addis, 2005:
p.732) and manages to atract two types of public: the one driven by
motivation and the one expecting incentives.

5. The Art Museum in the

Romanian Cultural Consumption
The way museums are regarded by the public in our country has
undergone significant change during the past decades. Due to the
censorship in the former regime, especially in its last years, art was
subdued to the socialist doctrine. People thought of art as just another
instrument of the propaganda and extended their perceptions towards
museums which became unidirectional communication channels for

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 Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2013, no. 2
the party discourse. Due to lack of coherence and late and disrupted
implementation of cultural public policies, most Romanian museums
in general and art museums in particular remained attached to the
past and resistant to change. This aspect is backed up even at the level
of phisycal evidences, which for most museums remained at the same
state as twenty years ago. In a chronological analysis, they show a
segmented and forced change, rather than an incremental evolution.
The communication process initiated by these institutions remained
mainly the same, their message being associated to cold, obsolete,
unresponsive institutions.
The paper will present a brief description of the Romanian cultural
sector as depicted by the data provided by several reserch studies made
by the official research organism of the Romanian Ministry of Culture,
the Cultural Research and Consultance Center (Centrul de Cercetare
si Consultanta in Domeniul Culturii, www.culturadata.ro) - Cultural
Consumption Barometer 2009, 2010, 2011 - and by the National
Statistics Institute - Statistical Yearbook 2011, the survey on culture
and sports.
According to the 2011 Statistical Yearbook, the number of Roma­
nian art museums in 2010 was that of 151, out of a total of 687 museums
(22%). From a dynamic prespective, we note that the evolution of art
museums between 2005 and 2010 was quite constant, the number
slightly increasing 2008 (variation of 0.6% to max.8% in 5 years time).
Correlated with the 2005 descentralisation of county museums, we
can state that after the change in the legal framework, the number of
art museums remained constant, despite the tighter of the economic
conditions.
In terms of how the museum image is communicated to the public,
several studies conducted in Romania between 1995 and 2010 show
that the public does not have a crystallized image of the Romanian
museums. There is an inconsistency regarding the actual and the
perceived situation of this part of the cultural field. A marketing
research focusing on the possibility to open a Guggenheim Museum in
Bucharest conducted by the Romanian branch of Gallup International
in 2006 reveals two extreme points of the Romanian cultural field

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 Enaᵕ s, el, Gostian, Art Museums and the Cultural Market...
regarding the museum image. The public perceives an „Ascetic type
of Culture” (mostly existent) on the one hand, where entertainment is
provided to them only by showing exhibits in a rigid environment, and a
„Poly-functional type of Culture” (mostly desirable) on the other hand,
where the entertainment possibilities come from several directions,
such as: ambiance, leisure, active participation in the artistic field,
tourism and consumption. These two opposing positions correspond
to the cold, obsolete (even pre-communist) museum, respectively
the museum inclined to attract, satisfy and educate various visitors
(edutaining museum).
The actual cultural infrastructure in Romania has constantly and
gradually improved since 1995. While records show a number of 2.02
museums/100.000 residents in 1995, a 2007 study comparing statistics
in the Romanian and European cultural field shows that Romania has
a number of 3.1 museums/100.000 residents, placing it in the first
half of this ranking, in front of countries such as The United Kingdom
(2.5 museums/100.000 residents) or France (2 museums/100.000
residents). Regarding the visits paid to museums, the number has also
increased relative to the 1995 average of 371 visits/100.000 residents,
people manifesting a growing interest, integrated in the European
uptrend. The constant growth between 2005 and 2008 was followed
by a 20% drop in 2009, according to the 2009 Cultural Consumption
Barometer (the decline manifested mostly in high school graduates,
the number of collage graduate visitors remaining constant) which can
be motivated by the lack of diversity in the activities offered by these
institutions. All in all, the current situation of the Romanian museums
has improved both infrastructure and visitor-wise during the past
decade and shows some similarities to other European competitors.
The 2010 Cultural Consumption Barometer (first and second part,
published separately) take the analysis further, separating cultural
consumption into mass and elitist consumption, and completes it with
non-cultural pastimes. Elitist culture seams to be the least consumed,
the most dramatic decrease being that in museum visits: 2010 has
the lowest value of the average of museum or art exhibition visiting:
1.29 visits (compared to the 2007 maximum of 1.61 and as oposed

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 Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2013, no. 2
to a 2007 avarage of going shopping in supermarkets maximum of
3). According to the same study, such high-culture activities are not
designed for the mass population, but for medium to high education
and medium to high income individuals, hence the low attendance.
In addition the inapropriate and insuficient infrastructure turns
potential visitors away from such leisure activities. Therefore, some
of the characteristics that make up the profile of the elitist culture
non-consumer, according to the above-mentioned study, are: small,
North-Eastern town inhabitant, spends less than 5% of the income on
cultural activities, has medium level of education, uses the Internet
for over one hour/day, listens to music for less than one hour/day.
Marketing literature specialized on nonprofit organizations shows
new, complex approaches of segmentation and profiling, which, due to
unexisting data cannot be applied, therefore, in terms of visitor profile,
the characterisation only highlights a few coordinates.
The perception that most of the Romanian public has of the
cultural sector (and implicitly of museums) differs a lot from the
identity projected by cultural institutions and from the data shown
above. Cultural consumption is regarded as socially desirable
(not as a personal need) and museums are „ascetic places”, which
one can visit if he or she gives up daily activities turning it into a
heroic experience. Therefore, for most Romanians museums are not
„visitor friendly” environments, where social and leisure activities
can be associated with the artistic experiences. The perception of
public cultural infrastructure is also incorrect. The 2009 Cultural
Consumption Barometer shows a 4% decline in the perception of
museum local infrastructure from 2008. Residents seem to notice
less of the activities of museum institutions, yet they regard such
cultural activities as necessary and show interest for a less formal and
less rigid experience of this kind leaning towards the poly-functional
type of culture. We can state that providing adequate infrastructure
would be similar to entering a new market and would benefit both
the cultural institutions and the public.
Internet access can be regarded as a spin off of cultural
infrastructure, becoming a domestic component. Since the opportunity

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 Enaᵕ s, el, Gostian, Art Museums and the Cultural Market...
cost of free time increases and people tend to spend more time
indoors, they spend more money on cable TV, Internet, computers and
electronic equipment for entartainment, even making it possible to
coin the new concepts of insidetainment, as opposed to entertainment
and insperience as a derivate of experience. The 2010 Cultural
Consumption Barometer sees the Internet as a distribution channel
(and hence, a communication channel) that would facilitate cultural
consumption (virtual tours of museums, pre/post-visit guiding and
info etc.) and would provide a measuring indicator for indoor cultural
consumption.
Looking at the above mentioned data from a communication
perspective, we can state that Romanian museums in general and
art museums in particular are engaged in a communication process
which they have been constantly trying to calibrate in the past
years, but the effects are not quite those expected. There are many
dissonances between the transmitted and received information and
even between the several sets of data a person receives from the same
museum. The process lacks proper targeting and coherence. In terms
of the communication channels used, new, state of the art means are
provided and still underused.

6. Case study: The Communication Process of the

«Centrul Artistic Baia Mare» County Museum
The case study of this paper is that of the «Centrul Artistic Baia
Mare» County Museum and is used in order to stress out the way the
communication process is used within the marketing strategy of the
art museum. Due to its characteristics, we consider it relevant for the
present paper: it is a non profit public institution, which conducts its
own management process since 2006 and is forced to generate part
of its revenues – and because of the changes it underwent during
the past years in order to improve its performance and its imagine
creation process, constantly trying to lean towards a “new museum”
approach, while preserving and promoting the tradition and the
traditional character of the local painting colony. Moreover, at present
Baia Mare is among the large Romanian cities/towns which manifest

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 Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2013, no. 2
a high cultural vitality. According to the 2008 study on Romanian
Urban Cultural Vitality, Baia Mare is on the 24th position, showing
a reliable infrastructure, competent human resources involved in
cultural activities, financial help from the local budget and cultural
activities and industries.
We conducted both a primary and a secondary research. The
primary research refers to carrying out a pilot survey on 40 respondents.
The secondary research consists of consulting the relevant online and
offline documents.
The survey was carried out in order to determine the level of
knowledge of the existing art-consumers about the actions of the Art
Museum and about the history and artistic culture of Centrul Artistic
Baia Mare. The inquired people were asked to fill in a 15- items
questionnaire. The respondents were participating in three cultural
events:
yy A book launch: The publishing of „Încoace şi încolo” by Mihai
Matei Nistor. The event took place on March 19 2010, in Baia
Mare, at the Petre Dulfu Public Library and was moderated by
the manager of the institution, Teodor Ardelean. The number
of filled in questionnaires was 10.
yy The inauguration of an exhibition: The opening of the painter
Calin Molodovan’s „150x150” exhibition, which took place on
April 13, 2010 at Galleries of the UAP, Baia Mare. The key-note
speaker was the UAP Baia Mare manager, Nicoale Suciu. A
number of 20 questionnaires were filled in until the closing of
the exhibition on April 27.
yy The opening of a theatre festival: The official opening of the
XVIII-th of the Atelier International Theater Festival, on
June 6, 2010 in the in the foyer of the Baia Mare Theatre. The
number of filled in questionnaires was 10.
The main purposes of the survey were: on the one hand, trying
to reveal relevant information on the marketing and communication
strategies used by the museum and, on the other hand, serving
an exploratory purpose, ofering further reasearch directions. The
objectives of the inquiry followed three directions main directions:

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 Enaᵕ s, el, Gostian, Art Museums and the Cultural Market...
A. The knowledge of the existing art consumer of the cultural
events of the Baia Mare Museum of Art.
B. The knowledge of the existing art consumer of the particularities
and history of the Baia Mare Artistic Center
C. Determining some characteristics of the profile of the respondent.
After carrying out the research, the information gathered can be
structured as follows:

1. «Centrul Artistic Baia Mare» County Museum

The Baia Mare Museum of Art is a public institution which
exists in the present form since October 2006, when the Maramures
Museum was divided into three sections: art, ethnography and history.
The institution works according to the Law of Museums and Public
Collections, no.311/2003, modified and updated by Law no.12/2006. It
possesses legal personality and its activity is financed by self generated
revenue and other funds from the state or local budget. The functions
of the museum, according to the above mentioned law:
yy collection, conservation and restoration
yy research and scientific development of the patrimony of the
museum;
yy dissemination of research findings
yy educating the public.
In financial terms, a study on the importance of entrepreneurship
in museums from Maramures County shows the income structure of
the county museums, explaining that even though museums lack the
capacity of self-funding from their activity, they contribute indirectly
to the economic welfare of the state, the value they create being highly
superior to the state subsidy (Coman & Pop, 2010: 127). The revenue
structure of the Maramures County museums is shown in table 1.
The Mineralogy Museum is by far the one with the highest own
generated income, the Art Museum coming up forth. Considering the
fact that 2010 was the year of the reopening of the museum after
the renovation process and the promotion was made only through
posters and word of mouth, we can state that the situation is likely to
improove.

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 Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2013, no. 2

Table 1. Structure of revenues of Maramures County

Museums in 2010

Subsidy Current income

No. Museum
- lei - - lei -
1 History and Archeologu Museum 1.671.364 51.295
2 Ethnography and Folk Art Museum 1.500.000 11.289
3 Mineralogy Museum 873.703 196.608
4 Art Museum 857.300 24.725
5 Museum of Maramureș 1.330.710 131.611
Total 6.233.077 415.528
Source: Coman & Pop, 2010: 127.

In terms of cultural heritage, Centrul Artistic Baia Mare posses

a significant history as it was founded in 1896 as a one of the first
painting colonies in Europe by Hollosy Simon. The painter, originating
from Maramures, studied art and activated in Munich and managed
to gather foreign painting students who came to this establishment
on a yearly basis to paint, thus creating one of the first international
art schools. Centrul Artistic has been continuously developing ever
since.

2. The communication process

Ever since it started to exist as an independent institution, the
Centrul Artistic Baia Mare Museum of Art showed high interest
in communicating its identity to the public. The Marketing and
Educational Programs Department was founded in 2006. This fact
stresses out the importance given to the efficiency of the communication
process and sets the institution among the first ones activating in this
sector to pay attention to cultural marketing activities. In order to
make the communication process a coherent and effective one, the
organization conducted several market researches and has begun a
segmentation of the public, which is not yet completed. Therefore the
cultural institution took research, planning, motivation, coordination

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and control actions and the first practical results took the form of two
public relations campaign plans, one addressing high school students
and the other the existing customers and employment strategies in
order to hire competent and adequate personnel.
In order to conduct an effective communication, the museum
needs to establish its stakeholders. Therefore, we can speak about
several categories: visitors (both residents and tourists), artists, local
authorities, mass media, the competing museums, the competing
pastimes, the community as a whole. Each of these categories can undergo
a segmentation process in order for the targeting and positioning to be
made acurately. Looking from a communication perspective we find it
relevant to analize the the way the museum, as transmitter regards its
main receiver, the visitor and the channel through which the message
is transmitted and decide wether the institution opts for the simple
approach, where visitors are seen as simple receipients which, at most,
provide feedback and the media are mere communication channels, or
they can be regarded as something more. Considering this a starting
point, we can formulate one hypotheses: Media are regarded as
simple communication channels and not as relevant stakeholders
(H0: Media are regarded as stakeholders).
The data collected from the survey stresses out a few characteristics
of the participant at the chosen cultural events: he/she comes from
all age ranges in approximately equal amounts and almost all have
superior education. In order to find out where these visitors gather
their information about the events/exhibitions of the art museum, we
shall analyze the sources of information used by the questioned people
for the event they were attending and for events of themuseum and
corroborate them with age and education. Still, it is relevant to specify
that the analysis made is relevent for the inquired population sample
only.

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Table 2. Sources of information of the attended event

and education level

Where did you find out about

the event you are currently attending?
Total
Family and Mass- I do not
Education Other
friends media remember
High school 0 0 0 1 1
Bachelors studies 2 15 1 17 35
Master studies 0 2 0 0 2
Ph.D. studies 0 1 0 1 2
Total 2 18 1 19 40

Table 3. Sources of information on the events

of the Art Museum and education

Where do you get information on the

events of the Art Museum?
I am not
Total
Family and interested in
Education TV Newspaper
friends the events of
the Museum
High school 1 0 0 0 1
Bachelors studies 3 5 27 0 35
Master studies 0 0 1 1 2
Ph.D. studies 0 1 1 0 2
Total 4 6 29 1 40

Analyzing the data in the tables we can see that almost all people
attendig the chosen cultural event have higher education. Their main
information source for the people attending the event was the me-
dia, while the main source of information of the people who consider
visiting the museum were the people from their entourage. 11% of
the questioned people find out about exhibitions from the newspaper

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and less than 10% find out from other people taking part at other
cultural events.

Table 4. Who accompanied visitors

at the museum and their age

Who did you visit the Art Museum with?

Total
Other
Age Family Friends No one
people
Under 18 1 0 0 0 1
19-25 years 0 1 0 0 1
26-30 years 1 6 0 0 7
31-35 years 7 2 0 0 9
36-40 years 4 6 1 0 11
41-45 years 4 1 0 0 5
46-50 years 0 0 1 3 4
Total 17 16 2 3 38

Considering the age of the questioned people, we can state that

most participants are in their 30s or 40s and that they all have higher
education. It can also be noticed that people from the extremes of the
age range tend to be accompanied by family members, while people
in the 30 and 40 age range tend to visit the museum with friends. In
a future, more complex analysis, age should be corroborated with the
life cycle of the family. Another important observation is that people
attending cultural events are mainly some who usually frequent such
events and inform each other about different exhibitions.
Analyzing the colected data, we can state that, for the studied
population in the present pilot survey, the hypothesys is confirmed:
Media are used as mere communication channels and are not treated
as stakeholders. Furthermore, they are underused (even in comparison
with other cultural entities). In order for the communication process to
become an effective one, media should be treated as stakeholders, they
should be constantly informed and invited to events, being regarded as

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members of the community as a whole. In terms of the communication
process, the fact that visitors act as communication (and hence
image) vectors for the museum should be stressed out. They can be
considered and used as information vehicles, turning word of mouth
into a promotion instrument.

7. Conclusions
The communication process is an important component of
strategy, as it goes along with every element of the marketing mix.
Despite several critics, the communication process does not declare
itself as being above the rigor of marketing strategies, but accompanies
it, enhancing its effects.
Studying the case of museums in general and art museums in
particular from the communication process perspective is relevant
due to the fact that they have fulfill both educational and heritage
preservation functions while pursuing the financial goal of income
increase. In order for all the objectives to be achieved, the museum
has to issue a coherent unitary discourse, aimed at all its stakeholder
categories. The information provided shoud be accesible and usefull
and mantain the special character of the institution (its unique selling
proposition).
The limits of the paper consist of the fact that the research is
not comprehensive enough, analyzing a pilot survey of only 40
respondends and making the findings relevand only for the inquiried
population. A wider reasearch trying to probe more hypotheses should
be conducted. Our limitations were caused by the fact that statistical
data on the cultural sector was only available until 2010, leaving the
context of the last two years unexplored.

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