Is there more to it than posting a status update?

depends on the customer and industry characteristics, and the type of performance
measurements used.
It is difficult to find one suitable orientation for a cultural non-profit organization like a
museum, thus they need to embrace bits of different orientations. The market orientation
presented here, is quite the opposite of the traditional custodial approach (see e.g. Sorjonen
2004, 181; Gilmore & Rentschler, 2002) museums have taken on before, but it is a very wide
concept, and the strategic stress within the market orientation may still vary from listening to
the customers to following competitors’ every move. Due to the vagueness and the wide
scope of the market orientation, the present research finds customer orientation the most
suitable strategic guideline for a cultural organization. Nevertheless, the term ‘customer
orientation’ is not utilized to refer to an approach where the customers are the only concern in
the strategic planning of an organization, or that customers would take part in the creative or
artistic decision-making processes of a museum, simply that customers are considered a vital
part of the organization and without them the entire service processes would not be possible.
3.2.2 Marketing of the museum ‘product’: service marketing
In today’s society the importance of services is undeniable, (see e.g. Gilmore 2003, 3) and
also tangible products are sold increasingly by adding services to the core product. The core
product of a museum is rather difficult to define, but it can be said to have both tangible and
intangible dimensions to it, and the customer is highly involved in the production process of
the experience that usually is pointed out as the ‘core product’ of a museum.
The museum ‘product’, the experience, is usually provided within a physical context, for
example, a museum building. It includes lighting and shapes, and certain means for guiding
the customer (see e.g. Rentschler & Gilmore, 2002). Museums often operate in the public
sector environment, and as non-profit organizations museums need to strive for two goals;
fullfilling their overall mission and creating enough revenue in order to keep the museum
operations going (Camarero & Garrido, 2008). Thus, the overall conceptualization of the
museum service requires multi-dimensional criteria (Gilmore 2003, 84). Gilmore (2003, 85–
87), lists three categories of criteria: 1) the collections (core and changing collections), 2)
accessibility or availability (physical facilities, accessibility of core product, range of
offerings, and availability of the museum service) and 3) communication (nature and scope,
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