King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Arts was a special and very enjoyable experience for me because I’ve always been extremely interested in ancient history.

I was struck by a few glaring omissions both from the exhibit as well as from the way it was marketed and the money being left on the table.

But I’ll get to those behind the scenes in the moment…

It was good to get away from the computer for a little while and get out and enjoy life.  The fact that most of my family was there with me (except for my brother) made it all the better and more enjoyable.

It was even worth those inevitable family hassles and sniping, as well as the long wait to actually get into the exhibit.

Since we went over spring break when my little sisters were out of school it was extremely crowded and after talking with one of the museum workers while standing in line she said they were averaging over 6000 visitors per day during the week of spring break.

So obviously we could have chosen a better week because she also said they were getting only 20% to 30% of people during regular weekdays.

Unfortunately, they didn’t allow any pictures or video of the actual King Tutankhamun artifacts.  And there were lots of cool ones including:

- what they believe was his great grandma’s sarcophagus which was coated in solid Gold,
- his solid Gold dagger and the solid Gold sheath,
- pectoral jewelry worn during ceremonies one which had a ton of inlaid gold and other precious jewels as well as an extremely valuable piece of glass shaped as a Scarab (e.g. Egyptian bug beetle looking hieroglyph which means rebirth).
- the wooden chair he sat on as a young pup (probably when he was only 4-5 years old)

The glass shaped scarab looked like the black bugs you saw on the original Mummy movie.

The truly interesting thing about it is at that time which is roughly 3000 years ago they had no glassmaking nor glasswork technology.  The movie inside the exhibit speculated an asteroid had come down and exploded before impacting Earth creating a superheated 3200° event which glassified the Sahara sand in the area.

Though no photography was allowed inside here are some pics of me and family on the outside:

Now onto the part of their business and sales funnel that was flawed.

What’s with the no pictures?

I can understand why flash photography may be forbidden because they don’t want to do anything which would disrupt or damage the artifacts.  These are after all over 3000 years old and very fragile and deserve to be preserved.

But Americans want a personal experience and photos of the artifacts so the museum was leaving lots of money on the table.

They could have had three to four museum sanctioned and approved photographers there to take pictures of people next to the artifacts they wanted to be photographed near and sold a package of four to five photos for $20.

This way it would be safe for the artifacts and can also be a highly personalized experience for the exhibit viewers and their families.

Of course, they could have had package deals where five photos for $20, 10 photos for $40, and may be up to 25 photos for the full museum exhibit for $100.

There were way more artifacts than just 25 but it’s likely that would be more than enough to cover what people want.  For those few outliers who wanted photos next to every artifact they could do a customized pricing plan.

Also, they could have had times for private tours and of course charge a premium.  It cost $27.50 for the public ticket into the exhibit.  I’m sure for a private showing with a family of four to five for roughly 1 hour they could’ve charged between $500-$1000.

And they could have staggered the private showings because the exhibit was organized into chambers similar to what the ancient pyramids were. The private tours could have gone off roughly every five to 10 minutes with 1 private group per chamber.  Of course, personal photography and video packages could be sold here as well.

The other thing they could have done if they were worried about flash photography is to have museum sanctioned videographers there.  This might be a little bit more difficult since there was quite a bit of noise but it could have been worked out.

They were selling the official DVD of the exhibit for $34.95.  But if they’d gone the personal route they probably could’ve charged $100 or more for that DVD.

And I know people would’ve paid it because I probably would’ve paid it myself.

So that was my main gripe and the money they were leaving on the table by not having a personalized experience either via photo or video and it could have been easily remedied in a win-win way for the museum, the exhibit viewers, and the Egyptian artifact protection.

So now what were they doing right?

For one at the end of the exhibit the final chamber you go into was the King Tut themed pharaoh trinket store.  They had all kinds of little artifacts from magnets, playing cards, and most everything else you can imagine merchandised and licensed with King Tut and Egyptian styles on them.

They also had a Tutty bear which look like a teddy bear but had an Egyptian headdress and pharaoh look customized.

And they were charging premium prices as you can tell from the pricing on their official DVD.

Also, while we were waiting in line (before entering the exhibition) a lady came by with a stack of audio playback devices which had recorded supplemental information about each of the artifacts. Because the artifacts were numbered you could put that number into the audio device and it’ll give you the extra info about it.

They’re renting these for $7 a piece which was a major cash cow.

They also had a 22 minute 3-D movie you could watch before or after going through the ancient pharaoh’s exhibit.  This was an interesting bit of background information I watched before going in and went for $5.50 a pop.

So clearly there’s some business and marketing savvy the museum has but there’s also lots of major revenue opportunities they’re leaving on the table.

So where are the holes in your business funnel?  Where is the money you’re leaving on the table?

I’ll look forward to your comments in our profit generating conversation.

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Originally posted 2009-04-02 08:48:45. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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