05/29/2002
Museum marketed new strategy

By Leanne  Bird
Two fresh Prince George faces are working for the Vanderhoof Museum to tap into the Prince George market to encourage our neighbours to the east to come and check out what the museum has to offer.

Wyatt Mcleod and Trish Schneider have been hired by the Innovation Resource Centre (IRC) in Prince George as marketers for the non profit museum as a way to gain hands on marketing experience. They also hope to increase museum revenue by encouraging Prince George residents to take day trips to the Vanderhoof Museum.

“We will be putting together marketing strategies and we plan to address issues using different marketing tools,” said Mcleod. “We will be making a brochure and taking advantage of free advertising available in Prince George, such as Channel 10 public service announcements.”

Mcleod has a diverse education with a Bachelor of Commerce in General Business and a Diploma in Accounting and Finance.

His co-worker, Trish Schneider has a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Psychology. She has extensively studied human behaviour and will be an asset in conduction surveys and analysing data.

“It’s a six month program called the experience@work program and is sponsored by the federal Youth Employment Strategy,” she explained of the funding for her position.

It’s essentially a work experience program, the students must be out of school for 6 months and either unemployed or underemployed before being eligible for the marketing positions.

“The program is directed more toward the technology sector,” explained Alan Idiens, the Coordinator for the eXperience@work program. “There are a number of firms who need marketing skills and it is hard to find people. We want to use people we have here and provide them with the necessary experience.”

The Vanderhoof museum is one of four non-profit groups to have marketers to help promote it’s products this summer.

There will be something going on every couple of weeks throughout the summer at the museum and the marketing team will be working towards identifying the target market and their characteristics through a marketing survey.

“We want to create a positive image of the museum in the minds of Prince George residents and encourage them to take day trips out to the museum,” said Idiens.