The document discusses the El Prado online store, which sells exclusive products related to works in the El Prado Museum in Madrid. It analyzes the store's market and competitors. The market has expanded beyond physical visitors to include anyone interested in art worldwide. Competitors include other museum stores and stores selling unique gifts. The El Prado store should target cultured men and women globally who value the prestige of the El Prado brand and want museum-related products or gifts.

1. Fundamentals of Marketing Management 1
09
MDMK
Fundamentals of Marketing Management
EL PRADO ON‐LINE STORE
01/09/09
Elena Ibáñez Viñes

2. MDMK’09 Elena Ibáñez
Introduction
E‐commerce has been for the past 30 years one of the main revolutions that the business world has faced. From
bookstores to travelling agencies, we could say that all industries have joined this new way of trading and the art
one is not a different one.
We’ll try to explain in this document how an art institution like a museum is managing its online store from a
marketing point of view and will propose a relaunch plan to dynamize its performing.
What is the El Prado Online Store?
El Prado is the most important museum in Spain and one of the most important art galleries in the world. However, this
museum is not an “encyclopaedic” museum as the Louvre or the National Gallery of London; El Prado has not such an
extensive collection of art from all the periods, its collection is more intensive that extensive built up by few Spanish kings
who loved the art.1
El Prado Online Store is an e‐commerce site that sells articles that can be found in El Prado Museum. The articles from the
Prado shop are exclusive and original products, which reproduce with maximum faithfulness the originals of the institution’s
most important works, and are the Museum’s only official products and Publications2 so they cannot be found anywhere else.
This online store works as any other digital shop: their products can be found in its site, are presented like in a catalogue and
can be added to a basket which, through a secure paying platform, is sent home.
Market and competitor analysis
The market and competitor analysis is not an easy one due to the nature of this business, over which the digital era has
changed traditional variables like timing and motivation. Let’s see why:
‐ The market:
Traditionally, people has always bought products in a Museum because of two things:
1. Timing: they are already there, they don’t have to move anywhere else to buy those products.
2. Motivation: people who has just seen a good exhibition feels specially sensible to take home
something that reminds him/her of that good experience.
Now, we can have access to a new market because these conditions are not needed anymore. Now, we can reach
people that living far away from Madrid want to take part of the Museum activity, we can reach people who want to
make elegant presents with no need of going to the Museum or another prestigious store, we can reach people who
want to take advantage of the reduced fares and the special offers or those who couldn’t buy a particular product
when they visited an exhibition and now have the opportunity to get it, and of course we can reach companies that
are willing to have very selective and distinguished presents for their important clients.
Additionally, although the market is in its majority digital immigrants, they already have a consolidated experience
on e‐commerce and are used to spend part of their day in the Internet and make purchases through the net.
So in conclusion we can say that now, our market is much bigger and digitally wiser.
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3. ‐ The competition:
Again, the competition is not that easy to analyse because we have two different types:
1. The natural competition: these are the online shops of other important museums in Spain and the
rest of the world (I will focus my exploration on the local ones no to complicate too much the
analysis). They all have in general a similar approach to the selling, very focused on their own artists
and exhibitions, but each one have a singular strength.
A. www.museothyssen.org/thyssen/tienda
‐ Its URL is depending from the main one of the Museum, it does not have an independent “existence”.
‐ Its look & feel and usability are surprisingly similar to the Prado’s one: clean and easy.
‐ It has a very extensive catalogue.
‐ Does not have a web in English.
‐ Its main strength is the focus on the present concept: the web has a special section offering ideas of
presents, divided by prices, age, sex and company presents.
B. http://tienda.guggenheim‐bilbao.es/
‐ Its URL is also depending from the main one.
‐ Its graphic design doesn’t match up with the prestige of the Museum.
‐ Its main strength is the offer of customized presents for companies.
C. www.lacentral.com/nosaltres?site=mncars and www.lacentral.com/nosaltres?site=macba
‐ These great museums do not have an online store itself, they share a big bookstore platform called
La Central that counts with a huge online catalogue but just focused on books.
‐ Their main and original products are not sold online, so they cannot be considered as a strong
competition.
D. It is interesting to mention that other museums as the MACBA, Museo Picasso or Miró Foundation
do not have online stores.
2. The conceptual competition: these are the on (even the off) stores that sell really special articles.
Obviously this conceptual one is competing only with the “present” motivation of the online store
museum target because the “artistic” aspect does not exist. Here we can find lots of sites that have
very different products.
A. www.vincon.com and similar.
‐ This is the perfect site for original presents. Vinçon has an offline store in Barcelona and another one
in Madrid and has positioned itself as the most different and special offer in home articles and
complements.
B. www.becaratiendaonline.com/ and similar.
‐ This is a very selective decoration shop where there can be found really distinguished articles to
make a present.
C. www.regalosoriginales.net/ and similar.
‐ From an original but not elegant point of view, we can find lots and lots of sites in the Internet to buy
a really different present.
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4. MDMK’09 Elena Ibáñez
Target, positioning and the main differential attributes
1. The El Prado store should target:
‐ Cultured women and men of all ages, from all parts of the world, used to e‐commerce but not necessarily experts,
who value the brand “Museo del Prado” and want to get either a product related or not to a past exhibition visited
by her/him, either a distinguished present, in a very convenient way.
‐ Companies looking for distinguishing their selves to their clients through valuable and different presents.
2. The El Prado store’s positioning should be:
The most selected articles from the most selected museum of Spain, the Museo del Prado, at one click =
EXCLUSIVINESS + BRAND + CONVENIENCE.
3. Main differential attributes:
‐ In my opinion, Prado’s Store should mainly focus its differential attribute on its brand: MUSEO DEL PRADO
because it is unique and have a lot of distinguished associations, it should take advantage of it.
‐ Secondly, El Prado Store is the only shop that has the rights to illustrate and market products with the art pieces
that the Museum keeps inside its walls. This is also unique.
‐ I would give much more importance to the fact that just by buying articles from this shop people are helping to
support the art pieces and the Museum. This is a transcendental motivation that always works if we talk about
something sensible as art.
‐ And last but not least, I would focus my competitive difference in the originality and exclusiveness of the
products.
Price strategy
I would base the price strategy in:
‐ A politic of price medium­high, because Museo del Prado is a prestigious brand and need to communicate the
exclusiveness of their articles by the price.
‐ Decreasing by default 5% the prices of all products vs the offline store, so people get an advantage of buying
online. This could activate the selling in this channel especially on those customers who are able to go, went or are
about to go to the Museum.
Distribution strategy
I would maintain a unique site for selling the Museo del Prado’s articles, because of image matters; selling these exclusive
products in another site could harm the brand image.
Although I wouldn’t have these articles being sold in another sites, I would have presence in other webs but I will explain this
in more detail in further points.
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5. Unique Selling Proposition
El Prado online store is the only shop where you can get ­in the most convenient way­ the most selected and exclusive articles
which reflect the art of the most prestigious museum of Spain and one of the most important of the world: Museo del Prado.
I want to highlight the most prestigious museum of Spain and one of the most important of the world because this is OUR
BRAND, the main thing that is differentiating us from the competence and our main added value.
Communication strategy and plan, with a separate section on digital marketing
Taking into account that we have different targets, I would implement three different communication strategies. There won’t
be a digital separate section on digital marketing since they will be an important part of each separate strategy.
A. Target “Art consumers”:
a. The objective here is to let this target know that now, they can buy incredible and artistic products without
going to the Museum.
b. So the strategy will be focused on being present just in the moment where these people are consuming art
or some other cultural moment, since the engagement with them will be much higher.
c. Then plan will be:
i. Launch in the Museum with a big Public Relation event, so all media can communicate the new.
ii. Launch in the Museum site: it has a daily average of 10,000 unique entries.
iii. Agreement with the main art galleries in the country, to be present off and online in their spaces.
iv. Online contextual campaign to be present on the sites that this target usually visits.
v. Constant communication on the offline store.
vi. Special actions on the art communities around the web, including Facebook Group.
B. Target “Special present searchers”:
a. The objective here is to let this target know that now, they can find exclusive and originals presents from
the Museo del Prado and on top of that, without going to the Museum.
b. So the strategy will be focused on being present just in the moment where these people are looking for
these original presents.
c. Then plan will be:
i. Launch in the Museum with a big Public Relation event, so all media can communicate the new.
ii. SEM campaigns to be present each time people look for a special and exclusive gift, because
people do not associate the Museo del Prado with a store that sell things so it is needed a
separate offer. It is important also to work on a seasonal reinforce (Christmas, Mother’s Day…).
C. Target “Companies”:
a. The objective here is to let this target know that now, they can get unique presents for their clients with a
high brand image.
b. So the strategy will be focused on a B2B action.
c. Then plan will be:
i. Add to the online shop a special flap for the companies, offering a special offer to them.
ii. Contact with all the advertising agencies so they can offer these products and prescribe them.
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6. MDMK’09 Elena Ibáñez
Main media plan
‐ Public relations:
o A special event at the beginning of the campaign and an ongoing action with the on and off media to be
present all the time.
o Agreements with art galleries
‐ Internet:
o SEM campaign (based on search data) seasonally planned.
o Contextual campaign (based on behavioural data) hour‐time planned.
‐ PLV:
o In the offline store
o In the art galleries
‐ B2B:
o Contact with advertising agencies
o New flap on the site.
Main recommendations for success with its specific actions
I would like to highlight the main things I would recommend to change, each one with its particular proposal:
1. The Museo del Prado is ART, pure and quality ART and I miss the importance of this as a benefit itself on the website
and on the approach to the people: I propose to position this product much more on the PASSION side, letting
feel the people that buying one of these articles is like taking home a little piece of the Museum.
2. There always will be an issue with the security aspect of the online purchases, more on this target that are mainly
digital immigrants. I propose to highlight on the website the 100% security regarding the payment platform.
And I propose also to create a Customer Service really present, not only in the main page but in all the sales
pages.
3. Classic art consumers are really timeless, so I would make much wider the offered catalogue, including articles
from past exhibitions, retroactively.
4. For the company offer, it is very important to include a customization possibility of the presents.
5. From a business point of view I think it would be extremely interesting to include a book offer, since the costs
wouldn’t be much higher (El Prado already has to stock them for the offline shop) and it would enrich the store offer
a lot, since it is a basic art product and a high demanded elegant present, and coming from the Museo del Prado even
more.
Conclusions
In my opinion, the e‐commerce site of Museo del Prado has a great potential because it has something unique that
no other commerce, on or off has, that our target values: the Museo del Prado brand and the Museo del Prado products. In
this sense I firmly ask for a relaunch of the site since I am more than convinced that a new approach of this site to its target
would highly increase the sales.
1 Wikipedia
2 Museo del Prado
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