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ABSTRACT
Nowadays, the museum-temple definitely cannot be any more a link between the past and a present,
already strongly launched into the future. In fact, it does not hold the confrontation with other
means of mass communication and limps to accomplish the delicate task of providing adequate
contents and interpretations to the modern visitor. At the same time, another type of museum is
rising and encountering the favors of the public: the Corporate Museum. Born within the company
itself, it began its existence as a pure marketing and communications tool, becoming later more and
more a generator of culture and knowledge, and finally a tourist attraction.
The corporate museums today are still struggling to be recognized as a category on its own, but the
fascinating peculiarities that characterize them and that we are going to plumb in this text, will open
a new perspective on an institution with multiple potential and complex but critical characteristics.
In order to exploit all the possibilities presented by this institution, it is important to research the
similarities and differences with traditional museums, the conflicts of interest that rise during its
establishment, its relationship with the territory and its enormous value as a promoter of the brand
heritage.
To achieve this goal and to indicate further avenues of research and analysis, it has been done a
study on the most important theoretical texts published in the last decade, as well as professionals in
the field were contacted, who wanted to share their experience, thus making a practical contribution
to this work. In parallel, the author of the thesis has had the opportunity of a direct working
experience in the Lamborghini Museum, where has been able to analyze the practical aspects of the
establishment and the management of a corporate museum.
Keywords: corporate museum, brand heritage, cultural heritage, heritage brand, communication,
marketing, museology, territory, functions, Lamborghini Museum.
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INTRODUCTION
“What would I put in a museum? Probably a museum! That's an amusing relic of our past.”
John Hodgman
In recent years we have witnessed the emergence of numerous corporate museums, which in
different ways and with different tools are able to capture more and more the interest of the public,
and are becoming, or have the potential to do so, real points of attraction for tourism.
But what are, in reality, the corporate museums? These institutions are often treated very
superficially, considered mere showrooms of the company, which seeks in this way to exploit its
tradition and its history for mere marketing purposes. To understand what is the true nature of these
places, we will analyze first the institution of the Museum in its most traditional meaning, to outline
its features, functions and purposes. In the next step, we will study in the same way the corporate
museum, in order to detect the similarities and differences between the two types of museums.
Being aware however, that the corporate museum has unique features that belong only to its
category, we will focus for long on the concept of brand heritage, as well as on the communication
and marketing aspects, conveyed in an original and unedited form through the museum.
In addition, the museum also generates culture and the dissemination of knowledge, both technical,
artistic and concerning the design. Through numerous examples and best practices, both Italian and
foreign, we will try to understand how the corporate museums articulates and express their
messages for visitors.
Why a company should invest in the collection of documents and evidences of its history? Why
spend resources in intangible assets such as historical culture or culture in general, even though it
does not generate know-how that is profitable for the company itself? These and many other
questions related to the world of corporate museums can be answered only by analyzing a number
of complementary aspects, which includes not only the company's policy, but also the relationship
with consumers, with employees, with the territory and with the State.
In the last part of this text, the theory gained will be applied to a practical example, and more
specifically, the Lamborghini Museum will be analyzed. In 2013, Automobili Lamborghini has
celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of international events. The history of this company is
very rich, but at the same time dotted with break points in its continuity. The Lamborghini museum,
which was built in 2001 and opened to the public in 2004, is today a valuable communication tool,
both to customers and business partners, but also and especially to employees and occasional
visitors, who can that way fully appreciate this excellence of Made in Italy. Obviously, the
Lamborghini Museum is still early in its development and its awareness. In this regard, in this text,
some proposals are advanced based on the analysis of the current situation, which could
dramatically improve the quality of the museum.
In breve, questo testo si propone il difficile compito di coniugare due realtà molto distanti
nell’immaginario collettivo: il museo e l’impresa. Il primo viene concepito come un qualcosa di
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polveroso e antico, ma di grande spessore ed importanza culturale, il secondo invece come un entità
devota meramente a generare profitto, che nel caso si avvicini al mondo della cultura, lo fa solo per
interessi personali ed economici.
In brief, this text proposes the difficult task of combining two worlds far away in the collective
imagination: the museum and the enterprise. The first is conceived as something old and dusty, but
characterized by cultural depth and social importance. The second, instead, is seen as an entity
devoted purely to generate profit, which sometimes approaches the world of culture, but only for
promotional and financial interests. It is therefore important to thoroughly investigate and uncover
the mechanisms and characteristics of this institution, which has all the potential to become the
bulwark of enterprises, cities or entire regions, which will benefit from its presence. At the same
time, these institutions become promoters of a diffused education, directed to many different
segments of professionals and students, who will have the opportunity to study closely the
processes and the products, hardly available otherwise.
In the era of edutainment, of disposable culture and interactivity, the corporate museum offers a
unique example and shows a way forward by other cultural realities. A museum has the vocation to
protect, preserve and tell all that is Man. Not only the past but also the present.
METHODS
In the accomplishment of this study, three distinct methods were used:
Theoretical study,
interviews,
practical study.
The theoretical analysis was carried out by the study of the most relevant literature concerning the
museology, the corporate museums, the brand heritage and the marketing and communications. The
books, papers and statistical data have been collected both in the museum field and in the field of
marketing, as well as some contributions were found in sociology and economics. The presented
examples of corporate museums have been studied through their websites and the website of the
association Museimpresa.
Along with the theoretical study, a series of interviews has been arranged in order to implement this
work with the point of view of the professionals. Moreover, the Major of Sant’Agata Bolognese has
been contacted in order to acquire her opinion about the relationship of the Lamborghini Museum
with the territory, its contribution to the development of the area and her suggestions for the future.
During a six-months working period at Automobili Lamborghini, a practical study was carried out
in situ, where through the analysis of the registers was calculated the turnover of the museum, as
well as was possible to notice personally some flows in the structure, in the exhibition and in the
management.
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1. MUSEUMS AND MUSEOLOGY: IDENTIFICATION OF AN INSTITUTION
"I do not love the museums (...) After a while, I do not know what I came to do in these
lonely moors created, a bit temples a bit lounges, a bit cemeteries and a bit schools. I
came perhaps to instruct myself, or to be enchanted, or perhaps for a social
convention? "
Paul Valery, Le probléme des musées, Paris, 1923
Loved or hated, or maybe ignored, the museums, however, become indispensable pillars of the
Western culture and civilization. In recent decades we have witnessed an almost savage
"museification" of a good part of our history and of our existence, practically as if the existence of a
museum certificates the importance of this or that aspect of human life. More or less tacitly, the
society recognizes to the museum its role of narration, which with its specific tools tells who we
are, what we have achieved in the past and what we expect from the future.
Our generation grew up with the idea of a museum-temple, to which it often recognizes an abstract
importance even though it is poorly attracted by it. We perceive this institution as a granite presence
that has nothing to do with the uncertainties that affect our complicated present. Few people realize
that even the museum is a mutable and often vulnerable organism, leaning on theoretical grounds
which are not always clear and widely shared.
Becoming aware of all this, we still have to ask ourselves, if the museum has preserved its raison
d'être or if it has changed irreversibly. Or, is it more plausible that in a changing world, the museum
can be an oasis of stillness, where the past has the role of educating people who may have lost the
very idea of the future?
1.1 The Reasons for a Museum
The museums are experiencing a time of existential paradoxes. Never as in recent years, the debate
around these institutions has been so lively and pursued with equal fervor. The culture seems to
have assumed the role of universal cure for exhausted economies and represents an additional boost
for those in a rapid rise. At the same time, the global economic crisis led to cuts and to austerity
policies, while the society seem like drugged by an industry of disposable emotions. Who still
wants to walk for hours in huge rooms displaying paintings with an iconography which is now
incomprehensible, when in a few clicks from the comfort of your own home you can see pictures
and curiosities from all around the world, or movies adorned by spectacular effects?
In this regard, Adalgisa Lugli, in her textbook on Museology, ventures a hypothesis where: "in a
world that thinks has seen it all, the museum has remained paradoxically one of the last places
where you go in search of the wonder or of the diverse. A place of curiosity, still, where you can
find something that is not in the everyday world”.
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And it is this feeling, rather than scientific
lucubration, to give us the right interpretation. The museum preserves the same calling with which
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Lugli A. (1992). Museologia, Milano: Jaca Book, pg. 10
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it was born, but can no longer perform it as two hundred, fifty or even ten years ago. Its audience
has changed. The world has changed. If a deformed skull aroused amazement in the IX century, the
today’s visitor certainly needs other kinds of stimuli in order to feel satisfied.
In particular, since the last decade of the past century, the museum is undergoing a period of
profound change, trying to adapt to a demanding public, who does not hesitate to exercise its power
through more or less culturally elevated choices among the many entertainment alternatives. Free
time is becoming more and more scarce and is therefore valuable, social conventions have loosened
their grip on what is perceived as laudable or deplorable and the digital world offers endless
possibilities at a reduced cost.
Certainly, the establishment of the museum has managed at least in part to shake off the dusty
image of an austere and immobile institution, demanding and culturally distant from most of the
population. Nowadays museums are able to propose novel stimuli, easily understandable and usable
by a wider audience. This attempt to 'keep up' has also led to a different way of thinking about the
planning of the museum’s architectures, spaces and exhibition designs.
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Already at the beginning of
the nineteenth century architecture was seen as a communication tool of the museum towards the
outside, narrating about its vocation to the study and the preservation of the collective good. But are
the last twenty years that record the triumph of star-architects, who with their container, self-
sufficient (from the point of view of the attractiveness) from the same collection, are able to
regenerate urban areas or to relocate entire cities on the tourist routes. The new cultural centers are
so magnetic, that for many visitors is enough just to be there, walk through the galleries and be able
to say: "Me too." It happens so for the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Ciudad de las Artes y las
Ciencias in Valencia, for the Centre Pompidou in Paris or for iconic museums such as the Louvre.
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Throngs of visitors each year flock to the entrance of the new library of Alexandria in Egypt and
certainly not to admire antique books or catch up on reading the masterpieces of world fiction.
"Animate, excite, engage, seem to be the new buzzwords in the museum field."
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The success of new
structures such as science centers or Disney-inspired amusement parks, and more unusual
approaches between users and artworks, have also changed the relationship between the institutions
with the outside and with the involved professionals. The increased interest of the citizens has
stimulated public and private institutions to promote undergraduate and graduate degrees designed
to prepare personnel for the "new museum", taking note of the change in progress. The "museum
boom" that we are witnessing the last twenty years goes hand in hand with the search for
dramatization of the exhibitions. Another strategical aspect in this process is the interactivity, a
keyword for the professionals, and which delivers the museums to a new era where the visitor
becomes an active part of the museum experience.
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Taking note of the necessity of the museums to conform to the need for immediate and non-trivial
emotions of the visitors, it has to be added to this list of "reasons to exist" also an aspect perhaps a
little in contrast, that instead to simplify, further sanctifies the museum institution. "It is considered
the only expression, or almost so, of an entire social system, a space that remains virtually excluded
from the capitalist reality," says Adalgisa Lugli.
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In fact, museums are one of the last bastions of
2
Bulegato F. (2008). I musei d’impresa. Dalle arti industriali al design. Roma: Carocci Editore, pg. 21
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Lugli A. (1992). Museologia, Milano: Jaca Book, pg. 13
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Bulegato F. (2008). I musei d’impresa. Dalle arti industriali al design. Roma: Carocci Editore, pg. 21-22
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Ibidem
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Lugli A. (1992). Museologia, Milano: Jaca Book, pg.13