How to Start a Business

The Louvre Museum in Paris, France is the most visited museum in the world.  In 2008, 8.5 million people passed through its doors to see over 35,000 exhibited works of art.  The most famous of these treasures are the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

For this post, I wanted to concentrate on three big players in the Louvre’s history.

The first is Da Vinci.  A number of works by Da Vinci adorn the walls of the Louvre.  Da Vinci spent the last years of his life in France.  The most famous painting is the Mona Lisa.

The second is I.M. Pei.  Pei designed the iconic glass Pyramid that now graces the central plaza of the Louvre.  But the pyramid is just the tip of the iceberg for Pei’s project.  The true genius of the design was in connecting 3 wings of the Louvre to a central location.  Up to that time, if you were in one wing, you had to walk through the entire length of the museum to see a piece of art in the other wing.  Now all you need to do is go underground right under Pei’s pyramid to access any other point of the museum.

And the third person is Dan Brown, the author of the wildly popular novel “The Da Vinci Code.”  Many of the most famous scenes from the book take place in the Louvre.  A film version of the book was also released in 2006.  To date, the book has sold over 85 million copies in the last 6 years.

Each of these three people made a tremendous mark on the Louvre.  For Da Vinci, his mark is obvious in the fact that the Mona Lisa is housed at the Louvre.  Pei made his mark in 1989.  And Dan Brown made his in 2003.

It is very interesting to see attendance figures for the Louvre over the last 25 years.  After Pei’s pyramid and expansion of the Louvre, attendance nearly doubled over the next few years.  Attendance in 1988 was 2.8 million visitors a year.  In 1992, it was 4.9 million visitors.

Fast forward a few years to 2003 when “The Da Vinci Code” was released.  Attendance to the museum during 2003 was up just 1.6% from 2002.  But in 2004, attendance to the museum jumped 17.3% from 5.8 million visitors in 2003 to 6.8 million visitors in 2004.

So how does this relate to entrepreneurship?  Well, the Louvre has had the Mona Lisa in its possession since the 1650′s.  That fact has not changed (except for Napolean housing it in his private bedroom and the painting being stolen in 1911).  The Mona Lisa itself does not produce big spikes in museum attendance, even though it is the most recognized work of art on the planet.  But the museum’s attendance actually skyrocketed due to the influence of Pei & Brown.

So, for your start up business, are there ways to think outside of just your main product to considering other marketing avenues?  Have you exhausted your efforts in trying to get people to find your product using the old infrastructure?  Maybe it’s time to rethink your main product and how it is presented.

 The Louvre – From Da Vinci to Pei to Brown [3:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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