Impact of marketing communication strategies on visitors’ performance

The research focused on the impact of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe’s marketing communication strategies on its visitor performance from 2002 to 2006. The study was largely prompted by the need to explore marketing communication strategies the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe can use to improve its visitor performance to enhance its core business of Zimbabwean heritage awareness and income generation. Service organisations should use marketing communication strategies such as advertising, sales promotion, publicity and direct marketing. The limited use of the promotion mix of advertising, sales promotion, publicity and personal contact led to the general decline in visitors from 2002 to 2006. I therefore recommend the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe to use all components of the marketing mix to market the organisation. This is because the use of all promotion mix components compliments each other’s weaknesses. The over-reliance of the organisation on the Heritage education department’s outreach contact programmes as the marketing communication tool should be limited through the use of all promotion mix components.