How to make the museum store the last exhibition hall of the museum

Recently, the creative design competition for cultural and creative derivative products of Nanjing Museum, which lasted for more than 5 months, came to an end, including "Fuchun Mountains Picture - Painting Backflow Incense Burner", "Ox Horn Ear Spoon", "Twelve Zodiac Signs" Award-winning works such as "Wall Calendar" quickly became popular with their novel designs and clever ideas, attracting the attention of many netizens.

Visitors purchase products in the Nanbo store. Photo by reporter Cui Xiao

In European and American countries, museum stores are called the "last exhibition hall" of museums. Here, the audience's interest and recognition of the exhibits can be materialized through cultural and creative products, and then transformed into culture Consumption. In the past, domestic museum stores were often blind spots for visitors due to their single product categories and lack of novelty in functional design. In the past two years, with the change in operating concepts, competition in the museum field has gradually shifted from the "hard power" of competing for cultural relics and exhibitions to the "soft power" of competing for cultural and creative product development. Which company has the best cultural and creative products not only determines the popularity and sales of "The Last Exhibition Hall", but also opens a new window for people to understand the museum.

The products were lagging behind in the beginning and lacked novelty - some museum stores have turned into "commissaries"

Visitors who have been to the National Palace Museum in Taipei almost have to take a look at the more than 5,000 cultural and creative products. The museum store of products: an art USB flash drive in the shape of jade cabbage, an insulated table mat with the pattern of Wang Xizhi’s "Quick Snow and Clear Tie", a mobile phone case printed with "Preface to Lanting"... fashionable and practical cultural relic derivatives, almost It has become a "golden sign" of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

In terms of museum cultural and creative product development, the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Shanghai Museum started earlier. As of August last year, the Palace Museum had developed 6,746 cultural and creative products, while Shangbo independently designed and developed more than 10,000 art derivatives, with annual sales of nearly 30 million yuan. In contrast, Nanjing’s museum shops are lagging behind in their start. Except for Nanjing Expo and several new museums, most museum shops can only rely on replicas of cultural relics and traditional souvenirs to “support the scene”. Due to the lack of original products, some museum shops It even turned into a "tuck shop", selling only tourist souvenirs, snacks and drinks. Even Nanbo, the "leading museum" in Jiangsu Province, before its reopening in 2013, the annual sales of its museum store were only one to two million yuan, less than one-tenth of that of Shanghai Museum, and only one among its domestic counterparts. Can be ranked in the middle.

If the scale is cast globally, the gap will become even greater. In 2013, the annual sales of cultural and creative products of the National Palace Museum in Taipei were nearly 200 million yuan, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States was as high as 700 million yuan. In September 2007, the British Museum in London launched the "Special Exhibition of Qin Shihuang: China's Terracotta Warriors." At that time, the loan fee was as high as 300,000 pounds, and the outside world was once worried that this would be a "loss-making transaction." However, the Terracotta Warriors souvenirs launched by the British Museum in conjunction with the exhibition were very popular, and this income alone easily covered the loan fee.

“In the past, when it was said that no one was paying attention to museum stores, the reason was often attributed to the fact that domestic audiences have not formed visiting and consumption habits. In fact, the biggest problem is that museums lack the ability to develop cultural products, the products lack characteristics, and the categories are monotonous. The audience will naturally not buy it." Wang Qizhi, deputy director of Nanbo, told reporters that the museum develops cultural and creative products not only to pursue sales, but more importantly, to bring the audience closer to the museum and deepen the public's cultural identification with the museum. I feel, "The audience taking away a cultural and creative product is a successful export of the cultural value and influence of the museum."

The Seven Sage Dolls of the Bamboo Forest launched by Nanbo Store. Photo by reporter Feng Peng

The Golden Beast Eraser and the Six Dynasties Rubik's Cube became popular on the Internet - "Cute Creativity" activates the treasures in the warehouse to catch up

"2013 Chinese Art" released by the Ministry of Culture "Art Market Annual Report" shows that in 2013, the total transaction volume of Chinese art licensed products, replicas and derivatives exceeded 20 billion yuan. For museums with the inherent advantage of collecting cultural relics, the development of art derivatives has great potential.

Faced with this "big cake", Nanjing's museums, which are in a latecomer position, are also catching up and using creative designs to activate the treasures in their respective warehouses.

In the Nanbo Cultural and Creative Derivative Product Creative Design Competition, the "Painting Backflow Incense Burner" designed based on the "Fuchun Daling Tu" by the great painter Huang Gongwang of the Yuan Dynasty won the second prize. This incense burner turns the flat landscape painting into a three-dimensional shape. Incense can be burned on the mountain platform, and the fragrance flows back around the mountain, creating an ethereal artistic conception like a mountain waterfall, and turning the static picture into a vivid Fuchun landscape.

In the museum store of Nanbote Exhibition Hall, the national treasures and cultural relics that are usually stored in warehouses and display cabinets are transformed into cute and cute creative products that people can't put down. The "treasure of the town" of Nanbo, the Western Han Dynasty golden beast, transformed into a small eraser, making netizens exclaim, "It turns out that school supplies can be so high-end"; the "Private Visit" luggage tag designed based on the gold medal of the Qing Dynasty is equally domineering It’s perfect. Hanging a “Kangxi Style” gold medal on your luggage will definitely turn heads...

In Nanjing, many museums have their own “Internet celebrity products”. The "Salted Duck Pin" launched by the Imperial Examination Museum is shaped like a salted duck just picked up from a braised vegetable restaurant. Its "realistic appearance" alone is enough to make the audience smile; the "Six Dynasties Rubik's Cube" of the Six Dynasties Museum also has unique features. Due to its popular popularity, the six sides of the Rubik's Cube are respectively printed with the six dynasties of Eastern Wu, Eastern Jin, Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen. It takes a lot of effort to transfer the squares of the same dynasty to the same side. .

After visiting several museum stores in Nanjing, the reporter found that the cultural and creative products sold by each store are very affordable, most of them are less than 100 yuan, and the best-selling products are mostly practical products for daily life, such as Bookmarks, key chains, action figures, refrigerator magnets, bottle openers, etc. The person in charge of a museum in Nanjing told reporters that the design and development of cultural relic derivatives should focus on the combination of creativity and practicality, penetrate into the field of social life, and integrate into all aspects of people’s clothing, food, housing and transportation. “The reason why museum stores in the past were so neglected was because of many problems. The products are all ornamental decorations that are of no use. Today’s cultural and creative products are more cute, and their categories are also very practical, and they are very suitable for the tastes of today’s young people.”

R&D and production all depend on it. "Outsourcing OEM" - "Customers of cultural relics" should have their own creative power development thinking

With the increasingly rich types of cultural and creative products, some museum stores in Nanjing have gradually gained popularity. However, looking around the world, the development model of cultural and creative products in domestic museums is still relatively simple. The entire process from creative design to production is almost entirely dependent on "outsourcing".

There are two main models for the development of cultural and creative products in museums: one is independent research and development by the museum, and then authorizes manufacturers to manufacture after completing the creative design; the other is creative bidding, which is the responsibility of authorized design manufacturers. The whole process of research and development, production, and finally OEM sales by the museum, and the sales revenue will be divided according to the agreement. Most of the mature foreign museums adopt a mixed model of "independent bidding". However, due to the lack of funds and creative design talents, domestic museums mostly "outsource" design manufacturers for R&D and production in the form of artistic authorization. Only the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Shanghai Municipal Museum A few museums, such as the Beaux-Arts Museum, have their own creative design teams.

Industry insiders said that domestic museums generally lack professional creative design talents, and developing cultural and creative products through "outsourcing" can achieve twice the result with half the effort. But in the long run, museums should still learn to "walk on two legs" because museums are the "guardians" of cultural relics and art and can interpret the artistic value and cultural connotation of cultural relics more completely and accurately than professional designers. He suggested that domestic museums should adjust their development strategies and use the creative industry as an important support for their own operations. In the initial stage, they can first rely on external forces, such as cooperating with well-known design companies for joint development and cultivating design talents. When the time is right, we will establish an independent research and development team to develop multi-level museum cultural and creative products.

As the "last exhibition hall", the museum's cultural and creative products should also focus on the integration with exhibitions. For example, when planning a large-scale exhibition, the cultural and creative design and development of supporting exhibits can be started simultaneously.

In this way, when the audience becomes interested in a certain exhibit, they can find the corresponding cultural and creative products in the museum store, thereby better opening up the conversion channel between interest and consumption.