1 The Purpose of This Book
Since the mid-twentieth century, a growing scientification of the heritage conservation profession has been observed, which in turn has led to the development of sophisticated standards concerning both the professional ethics and the methodologies involved. Those who decide to pursue a professional career in heritage conservation are, having gone through a very demanding interdisciplinary process of university education, committed to an arduous, careful and precise work. Although the latter, in many cases, can only progress very slowly and although its outcome can only be admired after many months or even years, it is the objective that matters: to safeguard the valuable cultural products of humanity for the generations to come.
It is a dramatic paradox that public awareness of all these efforts is still rather scarce. Although the final result of a conservation endeavour, especially one carried out in a public space, such as a church interior, is usually very much appreciated by the public, few people are actually in a position to understand the painstaking effort that has led to such an outcome, including industrious scientific investigations, the taxing manual work of conservators that was frequently performed in a very uncomfortable bodily position under inadequate light or in humid conditions, and, last but not least, the extremely costly materials and equipment necessary to perform the conservation and restoration work in a correct manner.
To make matters worse for conservators, many of them do not even get the chance to work on such spectacular projects subject to general admiration. Yet, while the lack of proper understanding by the public might admittedly be somehow frustrating, ultimately it can be ignored, as long as one has a stable income and a satisfying job. However, the employment situation of the conservators is becoming more and more difficult. Practice shows that in most European countries, few conservators can afford to actually choose employment according to their preferences or predispositions. Quite the contrary, the number of conservators has been growing continuously, while there are fewer and fewer respective positions offered within public, cultural institutions (Kowalski 2014). Consequently, many conservators have no choice but to go freelance or to establish their own multiperson business entities and to face the challenge of market competition (Zalewski and Parowicz 2015).
In an extremely multidisciplinary curriculum of heritage conservation studies, comprising and combining such fields as artistic craftsmanship, the natural sciences, and history of the arts, insufficient attention has so far been paid to acquainting the future adepts in heritage conservation with questions such as market , marketing or entrepreneurship. As a result, the graduates of conservation studies frequently experience great frustration when they realise that they are not prepared to face challenges of the increasingly competitive market realityâto face difficulties that no one has ever taught them to deal with.
The challenges that await conservators within the free market environment are numerous and may be perceived as overwhelming. One has, namely, to find a suitable, conveniently located lab spacious enough to ensure basic working comfort and to acquire the necessary equipment. Business activity has to be registered, and the pertinent bureaucratic procedures might be arduous and complicated. A freelance conservator has to duly keep the accounts and, in case of movable historical objects, to find an effective way of their safe storage, preventing them from being damaged or stolen, as well as insuring them, if possible. This organisational and investment effort is only a necessary prelude to running a conservation service business, and the road to professional and commercial success can be long and bumpy. What is most crucial for this success is becoming noticed and appreciated by customers and ensuring a continuous inflow of commissions, the volume and number of which are large enough to make oneâs ends meet. An additional difficulty is that, in many countries, the heritage conservation market is oversaturated as the number of professionals offering their services has been continuously growing. Thus, the competition becomes more and more intense.
Now any deals taking place on the heritage conservation market concern precious objects that are owned only by a fraction of society, although these objects may be of infinite value for a community, a nation or even the entirety of humanity. The potential users of conservation servicesâowners or curators of historical objectsâfrequently have insufficient knowledge of the nature of these services. Consequently, they find it difficult to anticipate the benefits thereof or to properly assess the value of these services. Instead, they usually perceive conservation services as an expensive or even very expensive activity, the nature of which is difficult to grasp. Those who have never used conservation services would, as a rule, hardly know where to find the right professional and what kind of criteria they should adopt when choosing a conservator. Very frequently, when given a quotation, they consider it hard to commit to spending a significant amount of money, especially when it is not clear to them whether such expenditure be necessity or fancy. The owners of historical objects moreover find it difficult to judge whether a given quotation indeed reflects the actual workload and necessary procedures involved or is perhaps exaggerated.
This lack of understanding could result in the public perception that heritage conservation is neither affordable nor readily available to private, individual parties. Eventually, they might make undesirable decisions regarding the conservation and use of the historical objects they own. This may, as a result, lead to irreversible damages or even ruin of these objects. Moreover this deficit of knowledge causes a distortion of the demand side of the conservation market as many potential users of these services never actually become users, become users too late or choose the wrong providers for these services (such as craftsmen who might not have sufficient expertise in the field concerned). Consequently, it becomes clear that any business encounters between providers and recipients of conservation services are necessarily burdened with many misunderstandings.
Thus, there is a vicious circle observed on the heritage conservation market; on the one hand, there is a still insufficient level of public awareness with regard to the nature and rationale of conservation services. On the other hand, there is a growing number of conservators working freelance or within multi-person business entities who, little trained as they are in entrepreneurial skills, frequently struggle with getting sufficient number of commissions in order to survive, let alone succeed on the market.
Is there any way to break this vicious circle? Is it possible to improve the awareness level of the owners of historical objects and that of the general public and, at the same time, to support conservators in achieving a commercial success? Is there a chance to overcome the aforesaid misunderstandings that have arisen between the providers and (prospective) customers of conservation services? As in any other area of life, the most natural means of overcoming misunderstandings is to try to augment communication between the parties concerned, to be better acquainted with each other, and to realise each otherâs needs and expectations. Only when communication is improved can misunderstandings be reduced or, ideally, eliminated. These misunderstandings are not only of an idealistic nature but involve a market encounter of a conservator who offers their services and an owner or curator of a historical object who should become willing to use these services and, last but not least, to pay for them. Therefore, it is necessary for the conservators to effectively market their services.
Now, in many other branches of the economy, a marketing activity of business entities offering their products or services is stimulated by the demand side that rather clearly reveals and communicates their expectations. The latter very often determines the nature of what is to be supplied. For instance, the increased necessity to stay connected and available and to have a continuous, instant access to the Internet has led to developing mobile phones that in turn have evolved into multifunctional smartphones. In such cases, the nature of supplied goods and services is determined by the expectations of customers and the suppliers attempt not only to respond to these expectations but also to predict and to anticipate them. In the case of heritage conservation services, due to their specific and hermetic nature, one cannot expect customers to communicate their needs, nor that they will initiate such communication processes. In addition, one cannot take it for granted that the customersâ ideas about conservation services are realistic and that they comply with the principles of conservation ethics. Since in many cases it is quite the opposite, it is necessary that the supply side embrace the initiative of such a communication. It is the conservators who have to initiate such communication, to ensure the most effective methods thereof and, last but not least, for the sake of the heritage to be preserved, to educate their customers. It is however not only education that needs to be taken into account in this respect; in view of the sensitive nature of the heritage conservation branch, including the natural protective reflex that causes the owners to be cautious when revealing information about their valuable belongings to strangers, it is of particular importance that aspects such as customer care, reputation management or trust building be taken into consideration. Since this communication aims to fulfil goals of the service providers (including their commercial goals), and since it takes place in a market environment, it can and should be referred to as marketing. And marketing of heritage conservation services is exactly the subject that this book is dedicated to. It aims to establish an innovative, interdisciplinary ...