Exploring the idea of a Museum of Fictional Characters & Possible Marketing Strategies

1. Peer Learning
Museum
Marketing

2. Museum of Fictional
Characters
Exploring the idea of a Museum of
Fictional Characters
&
Possible Marketing Strategies
Saudiptendu Ray
M.A Museology
Project Buddy:
Zahir Khan

3. Content:
Introduction
Examples
Devising ways
to present
• What is Fiction?
• What is Fictional Characters?
• Mediums used to portray
Fiction.
• Why it is important?
• Social, Historical & Political
Background
•Museums dedicated to
fictional characters
•Sherlock Holmes Museum
•Jara Cimrman Museum
•Types of Museum
•Exploring the idea of museum of
fictional characters.
•Dictionary of fictional characters
•How to begin?
•Ways to display.
•Alternatives

4. Content
Literature
Animation
Characters
Conclusion
•What can be done with
characters emerging out of
literature
•Museum of Gabriel Garcia
Marquez’s characters
•Honorable mentions
•Deeper look into animated
characters
•History
•Danke (Thank you)

5. Aim
The purpose of this study is to
devise ways of creating Museums of
Fictional Characters & and look into
the current example around the
world and propagate efficient
Marketing Strategies.

6. What is Fiction?
Fiction describes people, places, events,
and complete narrative works derived
from a man’s....
Imagination.
Dream
Girl. Kisi
Shayar ki
Ghazal
There is no such thing as Dream Girl (Its all Fiction)

7. What is Fictional Characters?
A fictional character is a person or an
individual in a narrative work of art such as a novel,
comic book, play, television series or film.
Excuse
me, I am
a real
person
Hamlet Othello
King
Lear
These are fictional
In place of Shakespeare I could have used Valmiki and
Vyasa but that would be contentious.

8. Mediums used to portray Fiction:
Print Audio Visual
• Novels
• Short stories
• Comics
• Theatre
• Movies
• Television
• Animation
Radio

9. Why it is important?
"Why should we spend attention on people
(fictional characters) who will never care
about us in return?"
It seems that while reading or watching, you are
almost projected into their world, no matter if it's a
fantasy world. You, as an invisible companion, live
their lives and experience every emotion they go
through.
Fiction allows us a rare insight into the minds and
hearts of its characters, its people and world. An
insight that we often wish for in real life.
Titanic
Starring
Kate
Winslet
& Ray
Saudip
Ray Saudip
as
Superman

10. Social, Historical and Political
background
Fictional Characters are not written in vacuum,
they are craved out from
Social background
Historical events
Political scenario
Teaching
PROPOGANDA

11. Museums those are dedicated
to fictional characters....
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES
MUSEUM (LONDON, UK)
THE PINK PANTHER MUSEUM
(SANA ROSA, USA)
MADAME TUSSAUDS WAX
MUSEUM (LAS VEGAS, USA)
JARA CIMRMAN MUSEUM
(PRAGUE, CZECH REP)
POTTER'S WAX MUSEUM
(ST. AUGUSTINE, USA)

12. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson lived in a
Victorian lodging house at 221b Baker Street
between 1881-1904, according to the stories
written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The house
was built in 1815 and is listed by the Government
to protect its architectural and cultural heritage.
It is open as a museum dedicated to the life and
times of Sherlock Holmes, and the interior has
been faithfully maintained for posterity exactly
as described in the published stories.
Sherlock Holmes Museum

13. Jara Cimrman Museum
Museum of a non-existent person
created by the entire nation-
Jara Cimrman
Does it sound crazy to you? A
museum for a person that never
ever existed? Well, nothing is
impossible in Prague!
The museum is dedicated to Jara
Cimrman, a Czech genius from
the turn of the 20 century, who is
said to be the inventor of almost
everything in the world but is not
recognised by the world.
Now you must be confused.
If you ask any Czech on the street,
even a little child, they would all tell
you that Cimrman existed although
everyone present knows perfectly well
that Jara Cimrman was never “flesh
and bones” person, but nobody
wants to spoil the fun!
He was created – over a bottle of
vodka.

14. What can be the different types of
Museums for Fictional Characters:
Museum of a fictional characters
from Literature- Sherlock Holmes Museum
Museum of fictional characters
from Films- Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, Las
Vegas
Museum of animated characters- Pink Pather
Museum
Museum of comic book characters- Flash
Museum

15. A Dictionary of Fictional
Characters
What it would be like to
document all the fictional
characters ever penned
down or drawn?
It is an ambitious and never
ending task as new characters
keep piling up every year,
every month, every day and
every second.

16. How to Begin?
Documentation
Research
Ways to Store
Ways to
Display
Ways to
Communicate

17. Ways to Display
Carve it in Wax
But
that
would
lead to
this
A selfie that harasses
even the wax

18. Alternatives
The aim should be to capture the
soul and essence of the
characters and not their physical
appearance.
Therefore a video and audio archive might
serve the purpose of preserving the finest
characters created in the silver screen.
It is much cheaper, low maintenance and
doesn’t require a physical space.
Honourable mentions:

19. Similar can be done with characters
emerging out of literature
"José Arcadio Buendía, whose unbridled imagination always
went beyond the genius of nature and even beyond miracles
and magic, thought that it would be possible to make use of
that useless invention to extract gold from the bowels of the
earth."
From One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The very first lines from the
novel on José Arcadio
Buendía are capable in
dissecting and revealing the
chief protagonist's character.
Patriarch of Buendía family and also
the founder of the town of Macondo.
He is an extremely inquisitive man
with unparalleled desire to unearth
the truth hidden behind the curtains.
From my blog: Museum of Fictional Characters

20. Museum of Gabriel’s Characters
Characters moulded by literature are pictured differently by
the readers with the help of the words that they read.
Intangibility of literary characters can only be captured by
caressing the words.
Florentino Ariza: “sex is the consolation you have when
you can't have love”
Úrsula Iguarán: “There is always something left to love.”
José Arcadio and Pilar Ternera:
“They were so close to each other that they preferred death
to separation.”
Words describing their intimacy.
A museum like this would have separate galleries for
characters belonging to different novels, such as
“One Hundred Years of Solitude Gallery”, ”Love at the
Time of Cholera Gallery” and “Autumn of the Patriarch
Gallery”.

21. A few honourable mentions:
Hassan: “For you, a thousand times over ” The Kite
Runner
Amir: “There is a way to be good again...” The Kite
Runner
Hori: “What the world calls sorrow is really joy to the
poet” Godaan
“One could not count the moons that shimmer on
her roof, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide
behind her walls”

22. What can be done with comics
book characters?
We can showcase the evolution of each character
over a period of time.

23. Donald Duck
Competitor of Donald DuckFamily Tree

24. Fictional characters depicted in
multiple medias
Comics Version Animation Series In Hollywood

25. Gallery of Theme songs

26. Marketing Strategies
 Targeting the Fan base – giving them new avenues to
explore.
 Harnessing new target groups by redeveloping or
rediscovering the character according to the demands of
the age.
 Displaying the literary and its reel brother in the same
platform.
 Linking the complex social media.
 Providing selfie moments.
 Souvenir shops or museum shops.

27. Marketing strategies used by the
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Sherlock Holmes
museum also does
international deliveries
for its international fan
base.

28. Conclusion.
Fictional characters are brainchild of humans creativity.
These characters are larger than life and draw our attention
through their peculiarity and uniqueness.
These characters have a strong connection with the social,
economic and political conditions.
Because of the multiple mediums in which the fictional
characters are depicted we as Museologist can devise
different and interesting ways to protect and preserve their
essence and display them to the target audience.
We have seen the examples of what the international
museums are doing in this field and also their marketing
strategies and hopefully in future we can come up with our
own Museum of Fictional Characters...

29. Danke...