Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
Karissa Lehn
Central Washington University
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Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary
3
SWOT Analysis Outline
4
Experience Music Project – Introduction
5
SWAT Analysis
Strengths
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Weaknesses
9
Opportunities
11
Threats
12
Suggestions
13
Appendix A
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Appendix B
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Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
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The Experience Music Project is a museum in Seattle founded by Microsoft
Co-Founder Paul Allen. It’s one of a kind architecture by Frank O’Gehry draws
attention to the building from afar but it’s what the museum has to offer that really
captures the minds of the audience. It has dedicated its mission to showcasing the
history of science fiction, popular culture, and music. A broad mission and lack of
funding have inhibited the full functionality of the museum. Although they have a
strategic plan to push their organization forward in a new direction, funding may be
holding them back. With core values in place and a strong group of museum goers,
the organization has ability to be a strong and educational experience for all
attendees. With a few tweaks and changes in the way the organization runs, it could
possibly be one of the most stimulating and educational museums of today.
Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
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Strengths:

Educational

Very hands on and stimulating

Located near other popular Seattle attractions

Very respectable and sought after exhibits
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Easy and rewarding membership program
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Environmentally friendly
Weaknesses:
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Broad mission statement

Unorganized/inadequate cataloging system
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Lack of funding

Storage systems have been known to damage historical items
Opportunities:

Sell sought after items to collectors for funding to create a cataloging/storage
system

Creating a “Digital Library” for online use/research.
Threats:

Loss of corporate funding/grants

Loss of funding for exhibits

Exhibits stop coming to Seattle
Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
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The Experience Music Project (EMP from here on) is a nonprofit museum that
focuses solely on the history behind popular culture, science fiction and music and
used their influences to create numerous educational programs for all ages, interest
groups and backgrounds. The EMP has dedicated itself to exploring the history of
many of today’s largest pop culture influences and creating exhibits in their honor.
The EMP was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and struggled early on
until the combination of the EMP and its additional museum The Science Fiction Hall
of Fame (located in the same building but different admissions) combined their
efforts and made the museums one. The building itself was created by Frank
O’Gehry. The design stemmed from a handful of electric guitars cut apart and
molded together to get the right look as an early model design. O’Gehry wanted to
create a look that was contemporary but stemmed from rock n’ roll without being
too literal. The look of the building’s exterior was designed to appear to change
colors depending on the lighting in hopes to symbolize the constant evolution in
music.
Some of the exhibits include the development of AVATAR, the way Nirvana
changed music forever, a gallery of props and memorabilia used in horror films over
the decades and a full exhibit about Jimi Hendrix. The museum also features
extensive hands on exhibits including the “Sound Lab” where instruments are
provided and you bring your own creativity and the “Science Fiction Hall of Fame”
featuring Ray Bradbury (Moby Dick, 1956), Joe Haldeman (The Forever War, 1974),
Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
and James Tiptree, Jr. (the alias of Alice Sheldon who spent her life exploring sex,
gender identity, male/female relations, and death in her work all while hiding her
professional identity from her family). The museum also features the exhibit “On
Stage” which gives attendees the opportunity to put their creativity to the test and
perform live on stage for onlookers.
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Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
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Strengths
Besides the exhibits listed above, the EMP has many strengths that make it a
well-known and interesting nonprofit. It provides numerous educational programs
that give children an opportunity to express their creativity. They host the Science
Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival yearly. This festival allows aspiring
filmmakers to submit their films to be judged by a nationally recognized jury. They
also offer a Community Access Program that allows community members that may
be experiencing physical, social or financial barriers to visit the museum. The
S.T.A.R. (Students Training in Artistic Reach) Program gives youth music ensembles
the skills to perform in a professional environment. Traveling exhibits are also an
educational option for those who cannot attend the museum due to distance.
The museum is very stimulating and hands on for those who attend the
museum. The “Sound Lab” and “On Stage” exhibits provide hands on experiences
and the website also offers lesson plans and history information on the exhibits
being offered so students can have an understanding of them before attending the
museum.
The Seattle Space Needle and the Seattle Center Monorail are both
attractions near (the monorail actually runs through the building) the museum
making it very accessible to the Seattle tourist. It is located on the Seattle Center
grounds in the Lower Queen Anne just north of Belletown. Its prime location puts it
Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
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only minutes from the water front and a quick commute to Pikes Place Market and
Safeco and Century Link fields.
Though the admissions fees are seemingly low and affordable with an $18
online selling price, the $50 basic membership fee seems easy and rewarding. The
membership programs range from $50 for and individual to $95 for a family of four.
These memberships allow for free admissions, discounts at museum shops,
invitations to individual events, complementary iPod audio guides and so much
more. The fees aren’t too costly and with a quick turnover in exhibits, the
membership is affordable and worth the money spent.
Another strength the EMP has is its most recent commitment to reducing its
carbon footprint. The museum as partnered with Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City
Light and a group of local vendors to put a comprehensive energy and water savings
project into effect to eventually receive LEED-EB (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design for Existing Buildings) certifications. They hope to serve as a
model for other modern museums to do their part and reduce their energy
consumption.
Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
Weaknesses
The EMP may have a very extensive list of strengths, it also has a few issues
that may need to be worked out for it to be a better nonprofit organization and
museum. Their main issue can be identified on page two of their Annual Report,
their mission statement. The statement is written as follows:
“EMP is a leading-edge, nonprofit museum, dedicated to the ideas and
risk-taking that fuel popular culture. With its roots in rock ‘n’ roll,
EMP serves as a gateway museum, reaching multigenerational
audiences through our collections, exhibitions, and educational
programs, using interactive technologies to engage and empower our
visitors. At EMP, artists, audiences, and ideas converge, bringing
understanding, interpretation, and scholarship to the popular culture
of our time.”
Their mission is broad and lengthy. It should be shortened and just
answer a few questions that allow attendees and researchers to know who
they are and what they want to do. They need to leave the fine print to the
bylaws where they can be edited and changed yearly as necessary. Using
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Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
vibrant words and getting to the point allows for less confusion and provides
enough information to interest the publics.
Research also points to a lack of organization in cataloging past
exhibits. It is always necessary to organize and catalog anything within a
museum due to how much it can be worth and the fact that it can be an
irreplaceable artifact. This library of items would be costly and take time to
implement but its reward would be much larger if the museum can keep
objects from getting damaged or ruined. The storage systems being used now
have been known to damage pieces of exhibits.
As any museum, or any nonprofit organization, may tell you, they are
always lacking funding do help their organization grow, and some lack the
funding to even maintain their current status. Though the EMP is
maintaining just fine, any addition of programs, exhibits or new cataloging
libraries, may be out of the question until further funding can be placed. With
a small amount of funding coming from memberships and grants, the
organization depends solely on corporate and individual donations. Some
corporate donors include CenturyLink, The Microsoft Corporation, The
Wallace Foundation, Toshiba, Boeing and No Wasted Notes.
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Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
Opportunities
The Experience Music Project has many different opportunities it
could take advantage of to follow its mission and to make their organization
run more smoothly. They have to option to sell some of their memorabilia to
collectors for good money to be able to fund the cataloging library mentioned
before. Their EMP Library Strategic Plan can be found online and it explains
the option to sell valuable assets that won’t provide for the museum anymore
and is only taking up space when there is someone who could enjoy it fully.
Both sides of the spectrum would benefit from the selling of assets to gain the
ability to plan and implement a library system.
Along with the library comes the option to digitally catalog the items
and to implement a “Digital Library” that will allow museum goers to view
stored away items online. This will allow the EMP to know the most enjoyed
exhibits and will allow them to decide how to better their museum and see
what attendees like to see most. It will also allow them to have a digital
inventory of their assets.
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Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
Threats
Every nonprofit organization has the fear of threats they cannot
control. The EMP if largely funded by corporate donations. It would be
detrimental to the organization for it to lose any corporate funding. This is a
political world and the inability to make corporate donors happy could end
in a loss of funding. Corporations like to see an organization running
smoothly, especially when their name is attached to the nonprofit, so if the
EMP was unable to make a corporation happy, it could result in a loss of their
funding.
Another threat to the organization could be the loss of funding for the
exhibits. It’s a snowball effect with this. If the corporations stop funding the
museum, they lose funding to bring the most sought after exhibits to the
organization. It’s always necessary to keep fresh exhibits in a museum that
focuses mainly on pop culture because it expected to be timely and modern.
The loss of any exhibit could be detrimental to the organization as well as it
is a museum and is solely there for the viewing of exhibits.
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Experience Music Project SWOT Analysis
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Suggestions
After weighing the weaknesses of this organization, it was apparent that
the easiest issues to fix would be to redo the mission statement and to create
extra funding. They could make it shorter but just as powerful all the while
stating what they want to accomplish with their organization. The first line
of the existing statement could be used as an acceptable mission statement.
The new one would read like this “EMP is a leading-edge, nonprofit museum,
dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel popular culture.” The EMP
also has the option to extend the mission statement to include their target
audience and could read something like this “EMP is a leading-edge,
nonprofit museum, dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel popular
culture while reaching multigenerational audiences.” The Kenisis Blog says a
mission statement should answer questions like these:
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
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What do we do?
For whom do we do it?
Why do we serve our clients in the way that we do?
How do we serve our clients in the way that we do?
Why are we in this industry?
Why did we start this business?
What image of our business do we want to convey?
The blog also says that the mission statement should use powerful words, which the EMP
already accomplished.
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Here are a few mission statements that get their mission across with just one sentence:


Nike: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
Starbucks: To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and
one neighborhood at a time.
These mission statements provide information about what they are trying to achieve and
who their target audience is and where they aspire to make their mission strive.
Another way the organization can improve on is their funding. They need to
apply for more grants as only 2% of the EMP is funded by grants and special events.
There are plenty of grants that can help fund an innovative, contemporary museum like
this one. They can also downsize their assets and give collectors a chance to preserve
them correctly and admire them fully. An item that is an asset to the museum may be
worth much more to an individual and can really help the funds of a museum. Doing this
could open up the opportunity to implement the previously mentioned library and digital
library.
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Appendix A
When researching the organization, I e-mailed Christina Orr-Cahall, CEO and
Director of EMP. I gave her a list of questions that she answered in depth which opened
my curiosity. We exchanged short e-mails about the organization for about a week until I
had what I needed from her to create this paper. She answered my questions fully and
explained what the website explains, but in a little more depth. As it is her last year with
the organization she seemed extra helpful for my situation and encouraged me to work
within the nonprofit organization field. I don’t really have minutes or an outline of our
conversation as it was an e-mail interview.