MARKETING SERVICES OF DOMINICAN MUSEUMS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

Religious organizations and communities possess and take care of a unique cultural and artistic heritage in their museums or galleries. Despite the considerable scope and exceptional value of collections, availability, and presentation of material to the public are still modest. This paper is dedicated to the marketing of services of museums of Dominican monasteries as a particular form of non-profit religious organizations. The purpose is to investigate whether Dominican museums use, how, and to what extent, marketing in designing and delivering their services. Exploratory qualitative research was carried out. The results indicate the presence of a limited number of marketing activities carried out to present the museum’s material to the interested users and the public. There is a need to intensify marketing approach, primarily in monitoring the trends in the needs and wants of the users of museum services of culture and art and in communication with interested users and public. To improve marketing activities, it is essential to educate and employ people who care about museum artifacts, not only in terms of heritage conservation but also in marketing them, to design the Dominican monastery museum service as a unique, informative and educational experience. The limitations of the research are related to the nature of qualitative research and the fact that they are based on specific data, while the credibility of the interpretation of data depends on the data accuracy and completeness. The contribution stems from the selection of the original research problem and the results obtained, which enrich the theory and scientific bibliography in the field of non-profit (religious), and marketing of services (in culture and art).