Belfast visit 2022: reflection on customer experiences 

In September 2022, a group of final-year Marketing students visited Belfast to explore cultural and marketing issues in a variety of settings. The trip took in visits to the Titanic Experience, the SS Nomadic, the Ulster Museum, the botanical gardens, the Shankhill Road, Falls Road and the Peace line, the cathedral quarter and a historic local pub called The Crown. Here students reflect on their experience as customers of experiential and arts marketing. 

SS Nomadic 

I am so glad I got to go to Belfast. It was fantastic. Belfast has such a rich but sad history around the peace war, the Titanic and much more, which I learnt by visiting museums and site seeing. There are many memorable things about Belfast, like the Game of Thrones exhibition, and a botanic garden. My favourite part was visiting the Nomadic SS boat, the sister boat to the Titanic, also referred to as the ‘Titanic Tender’. The Titanic Tender transported some Titanic passengers to the Titanic prior to the dreadful tragedy. 

I also saw an unwrapped mummy called Takabuti, which was very interesting (first unwrapped in 1835 in Belfast). The war between the protestants and Catholics has left its mark on Belfast and thanks to Charles, Alison, and Derby University, I got to experience it with some very fun students. 

Chanisse Welch 

The Titanic Experience 

During our visit to Belfast, we took the time to visit the Titanic Museum. I found the experience to be both informative and engaging. To be a consumer in a museum I usually find the experience relies heavily on working to find out further information to fully understand and digest the story. However, in the Titanic Museum I enjoyed how interactive the experience was, being informed as a consumer in a fascinating yet effortless way. The use of interactive communication throughout the museum to portray such a tragic story made the experience more captivating. Additionally, as a marketer, it confirms that engaging content is a highly effective way to communicate with an audience.   

Annabelle Carter 

SS Nomadic museum 

One of the first tourist attractions in Belfast we visited was the SS Nomadic museum. We were already delighted with the beauty of this northern city, but at the same time, we were still tired after arrival. As a visitor and customer, I liked how quickly the staff met us at the museum and did a short review about it. The visit let us explore the ship’s original structure and details throughout how the ship’s history and heritage intertwined with the story of the White Star line and the Titanic itself, which was very intriguing. I especially enjoyed that our experience was interactive and fun, with lots of additional information and characters that could be called up on screens. As a first-time visitor of this place, it was amazing to get the historical involvement on an actual ship built in the same era. A really worthwhile experience!  

Anastasia Mironova  

Belfast international airport 

With the current climate of airport operations, it’s easy to be pessimistic of travelling through any airport, but it’s clear that Belfast International has managed to mitigate these issues to a better degree than many other airports. The security process was relatively efficient and painless, with organised and friendly staff. As with any airport, the usual retail suspects stand proud, and for a relatively small airport by international standards, there is a surprisingly large array of choice. 

This otherwise smooth overall experience was let down by a confusing queue structure at the cluster of boarding gates we used. In our specific case, all the gates in this cluster were in use, which brought the optimistically-sized gate area into something of an organised pandemonium. This is also where I found the majority of the day’s queueing to be. As unpleasant as that is, it’s better to look at this as a glass-half-full experience, as this experience could easily have been much worse. 

Jamie Gentile-Clarke 

Ulster Museum 

During our time in Belfast, we had a chance to visit the Ulster Museum. Entry was free. The museum itself was very straightforward to navigate, with occasional staff to ask questions and to direct you to the right exhibitions. Signage and the layout made sure to interconnect everything on display – from the Game of Thrones tapestry to art installations. Moreover, the ground floor had a cafe to recharge in, before exploring the botanical gardens outside. All to ultimately deliver a smooth customer experience. 

Benas Ruzgys 

Museums, pubs and people 

The trip to Belfast with the university was amazing, we learnt a lot about the city and its people. The most interesting part were the museums. The Titanic Museum was one of the most interactive ones I have ever been to, with endless ways to engage with the content of the museum and feel like you were part of the Titanic. Similarly, the Ulster Museum had the same interactive style and was enormous. So many floors with things ranging from very interesting teacups to a dissected tiger and the history of the Spanish Armada of Philip II. We were able to learn so much about the city from the museums, but we learnt even more from the people we met in the city: a very funny man who told us what he disliked when we went to the supermarket, the hotel receptionist who gave us a link to a website and a book title to learn more about the conflict in the city and the ambience we experienced when we visited the oldest pub in Belfast, the Crown Liquor Saloon, with very decorated ceilings and walls and numerous groups of people happily enjoying their evening. But the most important part I’m taking from this trip is the amazing group of students I met. Coming back to uni from my placement year I was very scared I would not know anyone in my new classes, but this trip introduced me to incredible people. We clicked very well as a group, including the lecturers, and enjoyed Belfast fully. 

Aurora Asenjo Guerra 
 

The Crown 

The trip with the students was a great experience, an early start on the Friday morning, dare I say 4.00am meeting everyone outside South Tower! My concerns of students oversleeping and not making the minibus were swept away when everyone gleefully turned up on time. The experience of taking students away was enjoyable, fun and enabled a good insight into how they all have enjoyed their time at the University of Derby over the last few years. One of my favourite parts of trip was getting to see inside one of Belfast’s characterful and fun pubs, the Crown! The pub held plenty of surprises with its unique stalls, where clients gathered as friends enjoying their well-earned drinks. The décor of the pub provided the students with a sense of Irish charm, and we all came together as one with many tasting the creamy Guinness! The trip flew by with tired feet, fulfilled minds and everyone a little sleepy as we arrived back at Kedleston Road at 11.00pm on the Sunday night. The trip provided such a fabulous and exciting start to the autumn semester for all! 

Dr Charles Hancock 

The Falls Road, Shankhill Road and the Peace Line 

Our bus driver gave us a tour of this well-known part of Belfast. The Falls Road and Shankill Road are names I remember from news broadcasts in my childhood in the 1970s. The terrible violence was frightening for me as a child and I didn’t understand what was going on. To see these roads now, with the Peace Line that goes between them, is rather haunting. The colourful murals on gable ends and walls are kept clean and bright, with figures that were once painted wearing balaclavas now able to show their faces, many of them smiling, as if in a photo. There was no defacing of murals, which (for me) showed a respectful tolerance of difference. It was shocking to learn that there is still a locked gate to keep the two communities apart from 9pm to 7am each night. I was glad to have the opportunity to learn more about this part of Northern Ireland’s history at the Ulster Museum. 

Dr Alison Lawson 

This kind of cultural trip broadens students’ view of the world and allows them to reflect on how marketing is used in the arts, historical and cultural settings, and how important visitor attractions can be to the life and economy of cities and towns. Arts, cultural and experiential marketing are all important parts of their learning as students and it’s good to step out of the commercial world to see how this marketing is done.