Museum Audience Insight

Limiting Modern Intrusions--But Not Visitor Amenities

Once again, we welcome guest blogger, friend, and independent historian Erica Donnis to the Museum Audience Research blog.  Erica pored over thousands of respondent comments in our recent outdoor history museum visitor survey, and told us, loud and clear, that modern intrusions were an issue.  To find out why, read on.  Thanks Erica!

Visitors to outdoor history museums are seeking immersive experiences.  In our recent survey conducted for 13 outdoor history museums, respondents overwhelmingly indicated that they want to feel as if they have stepped back in time, and that they notice when aspects of their surroundings seem out of place with the historical world they are encountering. In fact, their sense of belief and feelings of enjoyment often come to a screeching halt when modernity rears its ugly head. Simply put, anachronisms can ruin the visitor experience we all work so hard to create.

What do visitors find annoying? Respondents to our survey mentioned their dislike of many different kinds of modern intrusions, everything from utility poles to traffic noise to inaccurate staff costumes to people talking on cell phones. Consider these comments:

• “I like how you hide trash cans and soda machines at your museum. The whole look of the place is authentic.”
• “At Historic St. Mary's City, the open space and relatively sparseness of non-historic structures especially lends authenticity. Also, subtle signage, etc.  Mute the modern as much as possible, including noise and lighting.”
• “All modern items [should be] hidden or taken off the body, like diamond earrings, wristwatches, modern glasses, modern rings."
• “I was dismayed and disappointed that the tavern cooking used present day canned vegetables and food and even left the cans on the table saying to ignore them.”

However, our respondents indicated that they disliked anachronisms--but only to a point. They want to step back in time without abandoning their creature comforts. They want the amenities available to them to be modern, readily available, and easy to find. Here we are talking about the three sacred cows of visitor amenities:  restrooms, food, and benches. People want to be able to check out the privy, but they don’t necessarily want to be forced to use it.

Consider one of the largest demographic groups in our survey: moms. Moms want to be reassured that amenities are close at hand. When their children need to pee or need a snack, they need it NOW, and therefore moms want to know where the closest restrooms and concessions areas are at all times.  They want plentiful signage directing them to these facilities, and they don’t want to have to hunt for the entrances.

The bottom line? Focus on making modernity recede into the background, but don’t eliminate creature comforts in order to do so. Think about limiting high-tech computer and video-aided interpretation to orientation areas, burying utility lines, limiting cell phone use, and ensuring that all aspects of your staff’s costumes are as accurate as possible--down to shoes, eyeglasses, and nail polish. And disguise necessary signage, trash cans, benches, and facilities by designing them to aesthetically blend with their surroundings as much as possible.

- Erica Donnis

 

Visitor Services and Hot George

This afternoon I had a chance to pay a visit to Emily Dibella and her colleagues at Mount Vernon.  The visitor experience at Mount Vernon  has changed dramatically since my last visit, with a stunning new education center and museum. 

Emily took me in to the new visitor reception area through a back door, entering the public space the same way the visitor services staff enter it every day. And the last thing I saw, as I passed through the door, was this sign.  

This sign, with a reminder that staff should exhibit enthusiasm, engagement, and education in order to provide exceptional guest services, puts the visitor front and center in the minds of employees as they go out to serve the public.

Enthusiastically engaging and educating visitors. Who doesn’t want that? But unfortunately, as we have seen in our surveys of children’s museums and outdoor history museums, fewer than 1 in 5 core visitors to museums feel that the staff really cares about them.  Yet these same visitors also cite enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and engaging staff as being central to having immersive, authentic experiences. That is a big gap that between visitor wants and visitor perceptions.

Mount Vernon is using a simple tactic commonly used in the for-profit sector to remind staff that visitors come first – and the result is that visitors likely have a greater sense that the staff is glad to see them there.  

Now as to the fabulous new education center and museum . . . while I was able to refrain from licking the beautiful cases in the new museum galleries, I do have to say that forensically-researched young George is, well, let’s just say he was a pretty good-looking guy . . . .

- Susie

Museum Advocates - Not Your Standard Visitor

Museum Advocates.  Just the sound of the phrase creates the image of someone who believes passionately in museums. 

But what is a Museum Advocate exactly?  How are they different than the other visitors to your museum?  Why are they difficult to distinguish?

A couple of weeks ago, we were working through some data from a recent lifestyle survey that we ran outside of the museum field.  In that survey, we had asked how respondents liked to spend their leisure time, and gave 15 options, of which visiting museums was one.  23% of respondents chose visiting museums, and those respondents were then asked what types of museums they like to visit.  When we saw the results, we were surprised by their responses, and looked to our recent studies on children's museum visitors (for ACM - the Association of Children's Museums) and outdoor history museum visitors to compare.  The difference was striking; those who self-identify as enjoying visiting museums in their leisure time were much more likely to visit more types of museums than respondents to our museum surveys.

So what is going on?

To dig deeper, we pulled out one demographic group that had statistically stable data across all three surveys:  moms in their 30s.  And then we charted their museum visitation.  This is what we found:

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For zoos/aquariums, children's museums, and science centers, visitation is high for all three response pools.  This makes a lot of sense as these are the types of museums moms with young children, our sample here, are most likely to visit, but these are also the museum types that have the lowest perceived barriers of entry.

Things changes as you go across the chart, however, with Museum Advocates showing higher visitation across the board, at times by over 50 percentage points (with the exception of outdoor history visitors who, by default, clocked in at 100% for historic sites).  Museum Advocates are much more likely to go to more museums of all types, regardless of any perceived barriers of entry or not. 

Simply put, the core visitors from our museum surveys go to fewer museums than those who self-identified as enjoying visiting museums from a non-museum survey.  There is a clear difference between them, and when we puzzled over how to describe this, we realized that we can segment the general public into four groups, seen below:

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For the general public, museums are not really on their radar screen.  If they find themselves in one, it is a rare occurrence.  Within that circle, however, you have the casual visitor who may find themselves in a museum every now and then, but do not typically seek them out.  Additionally, they are unlikely to be members. 

The core visitors are different. They are members and supporters of museums, are on e-mail lists, and respond to the surveys we field.  They like their local museums, and visit the appropriate ones for their children's ages and interests.  But what seems to be lacking is an emotional connection to the museum. A connection that Museum Advocates feel and that manifests itself in a pattern of museum visitation and long-term commitment unlike that of core advocates. 

So the question becomes "how do you turn those core visitors into Museum Advocates?"

There are two immediate answers.  First, we believe that there are some core visitors that can be converted into Museum Advocates.  To do so, museums have to understand the needs and interests of those core visitors, and provide mission-based programs and exhibits that appeal to the intellect, and emotions, of those visitors, creating that long-term connection and commitment. 

Secondly, the children that core visitors bring to museums are future Museum Advocates. Our research indicates that Museum Advocates have parents with higher educational attainment than other visitors, which we believe indicates they were more likely to visit museums as children, creating the museum-going habit.  Children visiting today are developing a habit of museum visitation at a young age that museums would do well to encourage to grow into a long-term connection and commitment. 

This short article only begins the conversation about Museum Advocates.  Check back on our blog over the next few weeks for more on how the lifestyles of Museum Advocates are different than other visitors and non-visitors, and to dig deeper into 30s moms as core visitors, but not Museum Advocates. If you have thoughts or comments on this article, be sure and click on "comments," below. 

Reminiscences and Museum Advocates

Childhood museum memories are powerful stuff.

My earliest museum memory is of standing in front of the mummies at The Field Museum when I was about three.  And I was a fortunate kid - my mom, an L.A. native who probably felt culturally deprived in the rural Appalachian Georgia town I grew up in, was always taking my older sister and me to museums when we traveled.  As seen here, I had a precocious interest in period rooms (I think I am seven in this picture of me in front of a Korean period room, and I remember insisting on this photo being taken!). The snippets all wove together into a passion I continue to feel today.

I am not alone.  In our recent survey of outdoor history museum visitors, many, many people wrote in about their childhood memories of visiting sites, and how that continues to influence them today.  A sampling:

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• “. . . but since Farmers’ was the first museum I ever visited when I was 4 ½ years old; all others have to compare to it 54 years later.”
• “Loved this museum since childhood.”
• “I started going to Mystic Seaport as a child in the 1960's. Participated in their Youth Sail program in High School. I'm still going back as a member. And after more than 40 years, I'm still learning.”
• “At the age of 9, I visited Strawberry Banke on a school field trip, and from that day I developed a life long love of history. Now at the age of 43, I have visited the museum more times than I can count. To me the museum is a living, breathing entity that I feel passionately about. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Undoubtedly, many of these children, who grew up into what we are calling Museum Advocates, had parents who nourished the museum-going habit into an emotional commitment.   But not everyone is so fortunate, and not everyone who visits museums as children develops into Core Visitors, much less the emotional commitment to museums that Museum Advocates have. 

So what are the differences between Core Visitors and Museum Advocates?  How and why did we distinguish the difference in our research?  And how are their museum visitation patterns different? 

Well . . . I am going to leave you hanging over the weekend!  In my next post I will share more on Core Visitors and Museum Advocates, and how they respond to museums in quite different ways.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, we would love to hear your earliest museum memory!  Please share by clicking on "comments" below.

- Susie

Let Me Rest My Aching "Museum Feet"

When I was a little girl (probably about three), my mother took my sister and me to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.  I have two very clear memories of this museum visit.  The first is trudging around with aching feet.  The second is how good it felt to sit down on a bench to rest (the view of a diorama of stuffed animals from Africa was a bonus). 

Benches are important. 

In our recent survey of over 5000 visitors to outdoor history museums, the importance of seating was strongly conveyed through many, many written-in comments.  Visitors like benches.  Visitors want benches.   Below are a small sample of their thoughts:

• “I also like to have places to sit and relax, so that friends and family don’t get impatient while I take my time with the exhibits.”
• “ . . . doesn’t have enough benches along the river to just sit and be.”
• “Would be nice to have some more park benches.”
• “need more resting benches for older visitors”

Benches are important for many reasons.  As the first quote highlighted, they allow that visitor to take her time . . . . and a place to park her friends and family.  Others want to simply relax in a place that is, to them, a place of retreat from a crazy modern world.  Older visitors could use places to rest . . . but so could young moms and kids, or even young women wearing very high heels, as one of our recent commenters noted. 

At our recent tour of curated brand experiences at Colonie Center Mall, Linda Norris and I noticed that the comfy armchairs had disappeared from American Eagle Outfitters.  She shared with me how when she used to go shopping with her daughter, that is where she relaxed, allowing her daughter far more time to try on clothes (and probably increasing the number that ended up getting purchased).  When we went to Barnes and Noble and LL Bean, however, we noticed there was quite a lot of seating.  Stores are usually pretty savvy about seating - the more seating you have, the longer the visit, and the longer you visit, the more you spend.  (Which makes me wonder why AEO pulled their armchairs!)

Museum visits are no different.  We have all had "museum feet," as I remember my mother referring to it at the natural history museum.  But we take a breather for a few minutes on a bench, and get up refreshed and ready to learn or absorb more. 

After the mall tour last week, I wondered aloud to our guests what museums would look like if they, like Barnes and Noble, were filled with comfy leather armchairs.  One of our guests quickly shot back "a lot more like community centers."  Not at all a bad thing.  Museums as places of respite, restoration, learning, and community life.  And if adding seating helps create that environment, then it seems an easy decision to make.

And a final note.  In our recent study of Gen Ys we asked what a perfect hang-out would have.  The number one answer?  Comfy seating.

We would love to hear how your museum provides generous seating opportunities - and what your visitors say about it!  Share your thoughts by clicking on "comments" below!

Susie

“History was not just 9 to 5”: Extended Experiences at Museums

 

In our recent study of outdoor history museum visitors, we turned to my good friend, and colleague, Erica Donnis to analyze the written-in comments of over 5000 respondents. She did a fantastic job analyzing what people said, and then teasing out motivations, frustrations, and passions. And because she worked so closely with the data, she is the perfect person to share with us just how, and why, people want to extend their experiences at museums.

Thank you, Erica, for contributing to our blog today! 

 

What are the secret desires of our visitors? Wouldn’t we all like to know!

Well, our recent survey of visitors to outdoor history museums yielded some fascinating insights. We think that the answers we received to the question “If you could do whatever you wanted at an Outdoor History Museum, with no restrictions, what would you do?” point to several major opportunities for outdoor history museums--and museums in general.

Today we will focus on one of the largest responses to this question: visitors’ desire to visit OHMs for extended periods of time, often including time after the usual close of business. Almost 19% of the respondents wanted to stay all day, after hours, for an overnight, for a weekend, or even for a week. As one person put it, he or she wanted the “opportunity for overnight stay as history was not just 9-5.” Another wrote in, “I would love to have been able to win the overnight offered as a contest a few years ago. To have that experience would have been incredible.”

Why do people want extended experiences? Respondents mentioned not only their desire to really immerse themselves and their families in the past by living the life, but also their wish to step behind the scenes to see what OHMs are like during the evening, at night, and at first light. They want to have the sites to themselves rather than share them with crowds of visitors during regular hours. They want to feel a deeper and more personal connection to a place and to the staff who interpret it. Many of them are influenced by recent reality t.v. series in which people shed their modern lives to live in reconstructed historical communities. Think PBS’ “Frontier House.”

Who wished for extended experiences, and what exactly did they have in mind?  The respondents fell into two groups: moms looking for participatory activities for their families, and older adults looking for a relaxing getaway where they could forget about their everyday lives by stepping back in time. As you might expect, their preferences reflected their own perspectives.  Moms wanted programs that would engage their kids with hands-on, down-and-dirty physical activities like doing farm chores. Always money-conscious, moms talked about inexpensive day or overnight camps. While they felt that authentic accommodations would be ideal, they also suggested having the option to stay at on site or nearby campgrounds. Older adults, on the other hand, wanted more leisurely programs like workshops, romantic hearthside dinners, or overnight stays where they could take it all in while retaining most of the creature comforts to which they were accustomed. Cost was not as much of a factor for older adults. 

We know what you are thinking. Do you have the extra resources for programs like these? Can your staff give up more of their evening and weekend time to host extended visits? Do you have the right kind of setup for visitor sleepovers?

Well, if you can’t fulfill the survey respondents’ wildest dreams, perhaps you can meet them partway. Also among the suggestions for extended stay activities were more self-sufficient, after-hours access to the museum grounds only. People are also looking for more opportunities to stroll among the buildings at sunset, take amateur photographs of sites at first light, and linger on a bench to absorb it all after the crowds have departed. Several respondents praised Mystic Seaport’s after-hours accessibility with comments such as this one: “We have a boat and it is great fun to pull into the Mystic Seaport and spend the night tied up at the seaport. It is great to prowl around at dusk when the crowds have departed.”

We have much more survey data to share with you! Stay tuned . . .

- Erica Donnis

Gen Y in the Mile-High City

Planning on attending the AAM or ACM meetings in Denver?  Want the scoop on our latest research and findings?  Join us at one of our free research sessions to learn more and swap notes! 

Generation Y & Museums

Generation Y, that generation of teens and twenty-somethings, is plugged in, extraordinarily diverse, and will soon outnumber their Baby Boomer parents.  But in our recent survey work, fewer than 25% reported they enjoy visiting museums. Ouch! 

Find out what sets that 25% apart, what kinds of museums they do enjoy, and delve into what is up with their non-museum-going cohorts. 

Friday, April 25
12:15 PM MDT
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
Adams Mark Hotel (ACM Hotel)


Monday, April 28
12:15 PM MDT
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
Hyatt Regency (AAM Headquarters hotel)

Tuesday, April 29
7:30 AM MDT
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
Hyatt Regency (AAM Headquarters hotel)

We will also be offering an encore of our recent research presentation:

Authentic Respite in an Unreal World:  The Resonance of Outdoor History Museums

This spring we partnered with 13 outdoor history museums to survey their visitors to find out why they value these types of museums, what types of interpretations methods they prefer, and what other types of museums they visit.  And we also asked them what authenticity meant to them, creating some mind-spinning and fascinating results. 

From self-curated experiences to 1st-person interpretation, we will explore what works for the different audiences that visit museums. 

Monday, April 28
3:45 PM MDT
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
Hyatt Regency (Headquarters Hotel)

 

Space is limited in these free sessions, so please RSVP soon by e-mailing Susie Wilkening at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.  Refreshments will be provided. 

You will be in Denver but cannot make our sessions?  Let us know and we will try to share the data with you at a better time.

Want to get together over a cup of coffee just to chat?  E-mail Susie Wilkening at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.  We are more than happy to swap notes. 

"It Smells Like Boys In Here"

Fresh perspectives are always interesting and eye-opening.  And so it is with great pleasure that we share a fresh perspective today with the introduction of our first guest blogger, Amanda Rosner.

Amanda is a second-year fellow in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, and I first met her last fall when I was at Winterthur to speak at their career symposium.  We ran into her again this week at the UHA/MANY annual meeting when she participated in our Curating the Brand Experience tour at Colonie Center Mall.

What amazes both James and me about Amanda is how she intuitively picks up on, and gets, the use and importance of all five senses to create an experiences - something you will see as you read below.

Thank you Amanda for contributing to our blog as our first guest blogger!


This past week, April 13-15, I drove the 4.5 hours to Albany, New York to attend the Upstate History Alliance/Museum Association of New York's annual conference, titled The Relevancy-Driven Museum.  The focus of the conference was how to make our museums more relevant to our communities and how to attract new audiences.  This is a challenge we are all facing in the field today and there seemed to be no easy answer.

However, I participated in a thought-provoking workshop, Curating a Brand Experience, which was held by James Chung and Susie Wilkening of Reach Advisors on the last day of the conference.  The workshop was held at the Colonie Center Mall on Wolf Road in Albany.  At first, I thought that going to the mall for a workshop was a little strange, but in the end - it all made sense.

As we walked through the hallways of the mall, I noticed small carpeted "living rooms" with real couches and tables with lamps on them. Families were sitting down, children were playing on the floor, and the elderly were taking a much needed rest from a long walk.  In another part of the mall hallway, I noticed a large play pen, with colorful objects to climb and the carpet had extra padding to prevent the children from getting hurt from falls.  The place was full of mothers with young children.  And ironically, there was a tiny poster advertising the Schenectady Science Museum.  In essence, the mall was providing a comfortable atmosphere for families to relax and spend time together. And it sort of dawned on me then that museums are competing with shopping malls for people's leisure time.  Even as a kid, I remember my family and I going to the mall to spend quality time together.  It didn't seem as strange to me then as it does now.

The workshop allowed us to meet with mall store managers of American Eagle, Barnes & Noble, L.L. Bean, and Sephora to better understand how they attract their customers and curate a brand experience.  As soon as we walked into American Eagle, I was hit with the scent of men's cologne.  Not that it was a bad thing, I sort of loved it.  But I noticed that all four stores we entered used scent (as well as the other senses) to create an experience for the customer. Barnes & Nobles smelled like paper, books, and coffee.  L.L. Bean used older wooden boards to make it smell like the woods of Maine.  And Sephora (a make-up and fragrance store) just smelled good - since the walls were lined with fragrances to purchase.

Music was also really important to all of these brand experiences.  In American Eagle, the music was loud and lively.  I felt like I was in a beach house at a party!  All that was missing was sand on the floor!  They were trying to attract a younger audience and especially high school and college-aged students - hence the party atmosphere.  Barnes & Noble  had more quiet laid back music, but it was all featuring new artists that you could purchase in their music section.  L.L. Bean had Nora Jones playing, a more easy listening type of music, especially since they are aiming for 30-40 year olds with active lifestyles.  Sephora was playing something hip, fast-paced, and loud.  The store had bright colors - using white, black, hot pink with everything back-lighted.  It felt very shiny, new, and modern.

In order to make their customer's happy and to create a connection with them, the stores approached this in different ways.  American Eagle wanted to help their customer's create really awesome outfits and to make them walk away feeling they found the clothing they needed.  Barnes & Nobles wanted you to feel ownership of your local store and make it into a community center for the neighborhood.  They hold book fairs and community events in addition to providing a ton of seating furniture and endless cups of Starbucks coffee.   I think one of the neatest things they told us was that any local group or organization can meet in Barnes & Noble for free.  The only thing the store asks is that you allow new people to join your organization if asked while meeting in the store.  Perhaps, museums can make themselves more relevant by becoming a community center that gives organizations free space to meet?

L.L. Bean wanted to be seen as authentic to their customers.  They said they hired people passionate about what the store sells:  kayaking, fly fishing, hunting, etc.  By hiring people familiar with these activities, they can give the customer the right apparel needed to participate and not just sell whatever is on display in the store.  Also, we were all amazed by the return policy.  If the product (a kayak, a t-shirt, a zipper on a pair of pants) is defective in any way, they will return your money or give you a new one.  And this goes for items you bought from the store even ten years ago.  If the product fails you, the store will make sure that it is replaced in order to ensure the customer is 100% satisfied.  The quality of the clothing and items are very high so that customers don't mind paying a little more.  They know if something happens, they can always send it back to L.L. Bean.

Sephora was created in response to intimidating department store make-up and fragrance counters. The store is friendly and the products are accessible to you.  The staff is nice and willing to work with you for hours to teach you skincare, make-up and fragrance tips.  The staff does not work on commission, so they aren't trying to sell you everything in the store to thicken their wallets.  Also, the store provides free samples of all their products allowing you to take it home and try it.  If you like it, you might just come back and buy it.  It seems to be working since their sales are very high and the store is doing very well for itself.  I'm not going to lie - we were given free teeth whitening stuff and I couldn't wait to take it home and see if it really worked.  They also have a great return policy - if it didn't work like the store said it would, they take it back - no questions asked.

I also learned in the power of giving away free stuff. L.L. Bean gave us a very nice baseball hat that also has a small flashing mechanism attached so that you can read something in the dark.  Barnes & Nobles gave us free samples of hot chocolate and cake, in addition to a free coffee mug.  Sephora gave us a water bottle with a mirror hidden underneath the cap to check our lipstick.  In addition to the teeth-whitener and anti-cellulite cream.  I love free stuff.  I think our museum visitors would too.  In a weird way, it made me feel special and I developed a strange loyalty to these stores.  Maybe it created an emotional connection with the stores that I didn't have originally....

It became clear that all of the stores were saying the same thing:  to them it's all about their staff's passion for the organization, how to make the community feel welcome and comfortable in their store, and their ultimate goal is to make the customer/visitor feel an emotional connection with their organization.  These are all the things that museums are trying to accomplish by building a large audience and try to be relevant to as large of an audience as possible.  I'm not entirely sure how we can create these feelings in our museums - but perhaps we can start by hiring staff that is outgoing, friendly and passionate and to make our visitors feel welcome to the museum.  Perhaps we can also create family areas, with more seating furniture so that the museum is not only a place to learn, but also a place to hang out like a community center.  Malls are free to get in, so they are tough competition but I think museums can provide strong emotional connections that if done well can make our visitors keep coming back.

- Amanda Rosner

Curating the brand experience

This week, we ran another one of our tours on how America’s top retailers ‘curate’ their brands, this time taking a backstage look at Barnes & Noble, L.L. Bean, Sephora, and American Eagle. Some of these brands are as distant as possible from anything that museums do. Yet many of the tour participants from the Museum Association of New York / Upstate History Alliance annual conference walked away with fresh ideas on a number of random points, including:

- At American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), the store manager described how their floor staff is trained to engage the customer (Approach>Engage>Outfit = A.E.O.). One of the tour participants asked the store manager if he knows in advance who will work out and who won’t. The store manager was pretty quick to answer, yes. They purposefully interview candidates in groups, and the ones that can engage multiple strangers in an interview are typically the ones who can engage customers with questions about what they are doing this weekend, what they need for their wardrobe, etc. One question to ponder: How many times have we seen the front-line museum staff member who’s just uncomfortable with welcoming visitors, and how can museums screen for new hires with an embracing attitude?

- Almost 100 years ago, a gentleman by the name of L.L. Bean created a new hunting boot and sold 100 pairs. 90 were returned because of a major defect. He returned their money, came back with a better boot…and turned a really bad issue into an incredibly powerful brand statement. Almost every single L.L. Bean customer today is willing to pay a bit of a premium knowing that L.L. Bean will always stand behind that purchase. What are the issues (positive and negative) that can help cement how people describe the essence of your museum?

- Sephora is an absolute machine when it comes to selling cosmetics, with a busier sales floor and cash registers than found at almost any other retailer in America. How did they get there? They broke just about every rule in the cosmetics retailing business to focus on the customer’s needs, rather than doing things the way they’ve always been done in the industry...and they are winning a lot of market share from customers who view the make-up counters at department stores as ancient history. Are there any processes at museums that create obstacles for visitors for no other reason than that’s the way things have always been done?

- In our recap discussion, one of the tour participants mentioned how the museum field has a unique and difficult thing to sell. It’s not a product, but a community center. Yet one of the goals for Barnes & Noble is to create a ‘community center.’ They have a community relations manager, and encourage groups to meet and host events at the store. They realize that creating a ‘community center’ sells books. So thinking about museums, what are ways that building the community center can ‘sell’ history/art/science/etc. as effectively as it sells books for Barnes & Noble?

Another thing that the tour participants noted was how the retailers used terms such as “authentic,” “relevance,” and “values,” or had staff whose job was essentially exhibit design. In a way, they are indeed ‘curating’ their brand experience...and some of them are setting a high bar in the minds of the general public.

While the objectives and reason-for-being is dramatically different for a retailer versus a museum, what have you seen in the retail environment that might be of interest to the field? Or what kinds of commercial activities have you seen in the museum field that concern you? Or what questions do you have from the tour or blog post that someone out there might be able answer?

Feel free to continue the dialog by hitting the “comment” link!

" . . . the museum is something I feel passionately about"

In my last post I started sharing results of our recent research on visitors to outdoor history museums.  Today, we will look more carefully at why they give, where outdoor history museums excel, and where they may be falling a bit short.

Philanthropy more than budgets . . . mostly

We asked our respondents if they financially supported the outdoor history museum and, if so, why.  The good news is that a majority, 56%, say they supported the museum to help it improve.  This was significantly higher than what we saw in our children's museum survey last spring, where only 37% of children's museum members cited this as a reason for support. 

Additionally, 45% said they support the museum because they like to support community organizations (mostly those who considered themselves somewhat local to the museum) and 36% said they liked to support history organizations (the real history buffs).

Only 29% said they joined to pay for the services they receive or to save money, significantly less than the approximately 50% of children's museum members who cited these reasons.  But when we looked through the outdoor history data more closely, we found something interesting.  52% of young moms, moms in their 30s and 40s, said they joined the museum to "save money" - matching the response from the children's museum.

So what we are seeing here really comes down to life stage more than anything else.  Members of children's museums and young moms that are members of outdoor history museums are overlapping audiences, and these moms are simply more budget-minded than older respondents, whose mindsets, have changed and become more philanthropic (and who may also have more discretionary income.  This does not mean that there are not philanthropic moms or budget-minded empty-nesters, but that, in general, motivations to join a museum change with time and life stage, shifting from a more budget-minded perspective to a more philanthropic one. 

Now respondents could choose more than one answer to the question, as you can see from the percentages above.  Despite that, however, only 3% of respondents said they joined because they "were asked." This tells us two things.  First, these members see high value for why they are joining, whether it is for a budgetary or philanthropic purpose, and so the transaction becomes a value-laden exchange and is not perceived as purely a solicitation.  It also tells us that, because of this perception, you can probably be asking a lot more.

So what is the good news for outdoor history museums?

Approximately 2/3 of respondents say that the museums maintain their sites well, and a similar number say that the exhibits are good.  This makes a lot of sense.  As we saw in my last post, over 60% of respondents said they wanted to immerse themselves in the past. And the site and the exhibits are the most critical elements to that feeling of immersion. 

55% of respondents felt that the museums do a good job educating visitors of "all ages."  We think this is a good result as well because, as we saw in my last post, a wide variety of ages do visit the outdoor history museum (and as we will see, some of them quite often).

But when we started digging through the written-in comments, we saw something else that is harder to quantify, but most important of all for these sites.  A strong emotional connection. Overall, these respondents feel strongly about these museums and feel that they have a strong emotional bond with the sites.  As one respondent said, “To me the museum is a living, breathing entity that I feel passionately about."  And the thing is, this person was not alone.  We saw many comments that truly reflected the strong, positive emotions that these historic sites evoke.  It was really amazing.

Not all good news.

It was not all good news for these sites, however.  Only 46% of respondents felt that the museum met the needs of their families.   We will delve deeper into that specific response over the next few posts as, of course, different audiences felt differently about this.

Only 18% of respondents felt that the staff really cared about them. And with staff being a key determinant of a successful visit, this was a bit troubling. 

Only 14% felt that the museum helps bring the community together.  We did not expect a high number here, largely because a significant percentage of respondents did not live locally, but we still would have liked to have seen a higher percentage here.

Finally, 97% of respondents identified themselves as white or Caucasian.   This is simply not the most promising visitation trend over the long-term as America becomes increasingly more diverse.  And while this batch of research did not delve into issues of diversity in great detail, we do feel that outdoor history museums, and other museums that see similar visitation patterns, need to be having conversations on this issue sooner rather than later.  

So now you have a very broad, overall picture of who responded to the survey, why they think outdoor history museums are important, why they contribute, where the museums excel, and where they may be facing some challenges.  But this is only the very tip of the iceberg, and we will be going into far more detail over the next few weeks as we continue to share this research.

Has this post whetted your appetite to learn more? We will be hosting a free Museum Conversation conference call on our research this Thursday, April 17, at 1:00 EDT / 10:00 PDT.  Space is limited, so RSVP to me soon at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.

Going to be in Denver for the AAM meeting? We will be sharing our research presentation in our suite on Monday, April 28 at 3:45 MDT.  Space is limited, so RSVP to me soon at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.

Have thoughts or questions about what I have shared above?  Feel free to click on "comments" below to post those thoughts or questions.   

Let the Data Dump Begin - Historic Sites and Their Audiences

A couple of weeks ago, I promised to start sharing a large amount of data on visitors to historic sites.  Well, it is time for that data dump to begin!

This winter, we fielded a national study of visitors to outdoor history museums.  For this study, thirteen outdoor history museums invited subscribers to their e-mail lists to participate in a short survey.  Over 5,000 completed the survey, giving us a really nice sample of core visitors to outdoor history museums.

We had some big questions to ask. First, who visits outdoor history museums?  Why do they choose to visit?  And what kind of experience are they looking for?  Is it more observation, or what I would call a "traditional museum experience," or are they looking to be immersed in the past?  And finally, authenticity.  Is it a buzzword, or is it "the whole point?"  (Though my earlier post on authenticity probably tells you what we found, though we will be sharing a lot more on this issue in the future.)

Who responded?

As you can see in the chart below, the largest slice of respondents, just over a quarter, we are calling "empty nesters."  These are adults in their 50s, who are probably no longer visiting the outdoor history museum with their children.  Instead, their children are in their teens to twenties, and most of these empty nesters are not yet grandparents.  The second largest slice, at just under a quarter, are moms.  These are moms in their 30s and 40s who visit with their children.  We were quite surprised by the heavy response rate of older men (those 60 or older), and that they outnumbered their female counterparts.  First of all, men are less likely to sign up for e-newsletter lists, secondly, they are less likely than women to take surveys, and thirdly, demographically speaking, there are just fewer of them than older women.  Nevertheless, a full 15% of our respondents were older men, and 13% older women.  Gen Ys, or adults under 30, made up 4% of respondents, a bit more than we anticipated, and other comprises everyone else who responded.

Why do they visit?

62% of respondents say they visit to immerse themselves in the past. But when we asked this question, respondents could choose more than one answer, and this particular answer was the only one that had over 50% of respondents.  Other responses were much more spread out, telling us that outdoor history museums attract a variety of visitors who visit for a variety of reasons.

There was more consensus on why outdoor history museums are important.  85% say it is because they preserve our past, 82% say  it is because they share the stories of everyday people, not just famous people, and 79% say it is because outdoor history museums are a great place to teach children about history.   But when we started picking through the written-in responses, we also found a compelling secondary reason, particularly among local respondents.  Open space.  Outdoor history museums are perceived as assets to their communities for the above reasons and because they provide open space for respite, walks, dog walks, and birding.  (Look for a future blog post to share more on this subject.)

So thus far we know that visitors come to outdoor history museums for a wide variety of reasons, though immersion in the past is a common theme.  We also know that these respondents value history and teaching it to children, and that local residents perceive outdoor history museums in slightly different ways than those who live further afield.  But we have only just started!

On Tuesday look for more, as I share why they join or give, how outdoor history museums excel in serving their audiences, and where they fall a bit short. 

Has this post whetted your appetite to learn more? We will be hosting a free Museum Conversation conference call on our research this Thursday, April 17, at 1:00 EDT / 10:00 PDT.  Space is limited, so RSVP to me soon at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.

Going to be in Denver for the AAM meeting? We will be sharing our research presentation in our suite on Monday, April 28 at 3:45 MDT.  Space is limited, so RSVP to me soon at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.

 

Have thoughts or questions about what I have shared above?  Feel free to click on "comments" below to post those thoughts or questions.   

Bookending the Experience

We are all taught as students that the things you remember best from a study session are the first things you study, and the last things.  All that stuff in the middle, well, it is a bit harder to remember. 

Similarly, the experiences visitors have when they first arrive, and when they leave, can be the most memorable . . . and can make or break a visit. 

Yesterday I received an e-mail from an old friend who knows I work with museums (she is not in the field).  She wanted to vent about a recent experience she had at a museum.  She said:

Monday morning.  9:45 AM. And the crowd of parents, kids and strollers outside the museum is about 30 strong.  That’s a lot of people standing around outside in a rather sharp April wind, waiting to get in.  Kids have faces pressed against the glass in anticipation of the fun about to begin, moms hug infants tight to their chests to keep them warm, and everyone wishes they had worn a hat.  The sun is out, and the weather is actually mild for early spring – in the 50s – but here by the water you are more exposed.  Now, the museum opens at 10 AM.  The whole crowd knows that.  It says so right on the door. But, we can see a few staff members inside, standing around and talking. Inside the warm museum.  Occasionally they glance our way, and then look away quickly in an effort to ignore our imploring faces. 

Finally, at precisely 10:01 AM, the doors are unlocked and we all – now closer to 50 people - rush in. Members to the members only express line, and the others who might only be visiting the city for the day, or the museum for the first time, to the long airport-style ticket corral. A second cordoned off area is expressly for groups, who are immediately taken into the exhibit area of the museum.  One museum staff member gets behind the desk and starts to process…members only.  Everyone else, there to pay nearly $20 a party (fee for one adult and one child) stands in line and watches as the members go in.  Finally, at about 10:10 AM another staff member arrives and opens a second line to process the hoi polloi.  Finally, at 10:25 AM my mom, my three-year old and myself, who have been outside since 9:45 AM, are in the museum. 

Now, I’ve been on the other side of the customer service desk.  I understand operational reality, and I have a tremendous amount of patience.  I was patient through all of this, but the one thing that I couldn’t help noticing was that a lot of the other parents were not happy with the situation, and frankly if I had a younger child I would have been very unhappy about standing around in the cold outside. Wondering if this was an unusual circumstance, I asked at the Info desk if it was always that busy at the open. Well, yes, sometimes it was even busier.

We had a great time at the museum, and will definitely return.  However, the story that I am telling people is that if they go, they shouldn’t get there too early because they will be locked out in the cold until the museum is ready.

Here is an opportunity to offer superior service and overcome a real problem area, and perhaps even generate incremental income.  Let’s say the exhibit area truly can not open until 10 AM.  That’s fine – keep your posted hours at 10 AM to whenever. But why not allow someone to come inside and buy a ticket at 9:45 AM, and then kill 15 minutes in the museum shop or cafeteria, or even simply chill on a bench in the lobby?  Or, if you can get the exhibit area open earlier, why wouldn’t you open it at 9:45 AM, with 10 AM still as the posted official time? This isn’t going to be the answer or situation at every museum, but when you consistently have a line waiting to get in at your official opening, a little effort to improve guest service by unlocking the door a few minutes early could go a long way to creating better visitor experiences . . . and convey that you care about your guests.  It’s guest-centric rather than operational needs driven.

Similarly, the experience when you walk out the door is often neglected, but can be a powerful way to tell visitors you care about them and thank them for coming.  Why let them leave, unnoticed, when you can make a big impact by showing your appreciation for the time they took to visit? Not only will it get noticed . . . it will get talked about.

We would love to hear how your museum utilizes those "bookend" experiences to extend your work and to let visitors know you care about them.  To share your thoughts, experiences, or what you do at your museum, simply click on "comments" below!

 

Authenticity and Museums

Authenticity. You see the word everywhere. 

Flipping through a recent issue of a travel magazine, I saw it describing Paris (how to find "hidden nooks of authenticity"), and Fez ("the most haunting and authentic medieval city in the world"). New York City has pockets of authenticity too - "high fashion and authentic fare now line New York streets once crowded with immigrants."  Never mind that that statement makes no sense. And are you a "real traveler . . . someone who cares about authenticity?"  If so, the magazine may want you on their reader panel.   

So is authenticity the latest buzzword?  Or is it vitally important to museum visitors?

Three months ago, I would have been in the buzzword camp.  Now, I have changed my mind.  What changed it?  Well, we asked over 5,000 visitors to outdoor history museums to share their thoughts, and 3,000 raised authenticity as an imperative for museums.  That is a stunning response to a written-in question on a survey. 

And what does it mean?  In short, "everything," as one respondent put it.  Being authentic is critically important to museum visitors, and a huge challenge to museums because in addition to being important, it is expected by visitors. Museums then have to meet those significantly higher expectations . . . a challenge not necessarily true of museums' competitors for visitor leisure time.

But what does authenticity mean to visitors?  And how do you signal it?

Interestingly, what they said applies to museums of all types.  58% of the comments reflected a desire for visitors to know the information provided to them is grounded in research.  They used words like "honest," "true," "correct," and "facts."  For the majority of these visitors, then, it is a trustworthiness issue.  If they do not trust what you present, you are not authentic to visitors.   (As a quick aside, we are asking about trustworthiness in our ASTC survey currently out in the field, so you will be hearing more on this issue from the perspective of science museum visitors this fall!)

A quarter of the respondents felt that authenticity meant the real thing, using words like "real," "honest," and "actual."  For a history museum, it means they want to know if the object in front of them is the actual one used by George Washington, and not a reproduction or a replica.  Or a fake - because if it not the actual one, and you do not say it, the object, and your museum, are now firmly in the fake camp . . . decidedly not where you want to be.

Respondents used interesting words to describe what was not authentic to them, including:

• fake stuff
• commercial
• "made in China"
• Disney
• fictionalized
• romanticized
• plastic

Anything that made them feel they were being cheated of accuracy, angered them. 

So how do you signal authenticity, and what are the faux flags?  Our respondents indicated that the deeper and more immersive their experience was, the more authentic, and desirable, they found it. Those experiences, particularly in outdoor history museums, are highly contingent on the interpretive staff that dress in the period, sometimes act of the period, and share what life was like in a certain time.  The enthusiasm, engagement, and interest of the staff, and how important that was to visitors, reaffirmed for us that hiring for attitude is far more important than hiring for aptitude. It is much harder to train staff to be friendly than it is to train them to demonstrate a historic trade. Other signals of authenticity include attention to details (no sneakers on 18th-century interpreters), careful site planning to minimize the appearance or modern facilities, and opportunities to create handmade takeaways (because anything you make yourself is authentic). 

Faux flags included technology at historic sites (such as televisions or computers), commercialization, and proclaming authenticity.  In short, if you proclaim you are authentic, you immediately raise doubts that perhaps you are not authentic.  If you are authentic, which museums are, pretty much by definition for visitors, then you do not have to proclaim it.  They know.  Now signal it. 

This short article only skims the surface of what authenticity means to visitors.  If you have thoughts or comments, be sure to click on "comments" below. 

We have loads more on this topic, particularly as the meaning of authenticity changes from visitor to visitor, it changes based on lifestage, and it changes based on gender and education.  We will be sharing more of this data at the AAM meeting in Denver as well in further articles on our blog.  So stay tuned!

New Research on Historic Sites

I love historic sites.  Heck, I love museums of all types, but except for a few hazy memories of The Field Museum and LACMA, my earliest childhood museum memories are all historic sites. From Traveler's Rest in Toccoa, GA to Shadows on the Teche in Louisiana.  I have worked at historic sites too, so my childhood memories definitely influenced my adult vocation (and there will definitely be a future blog post on that!).

So I was really excited to start our latest research project.  We worked with 13 outdoor history museums to survey their visitors to find out why they value these types of museums, what types of interpretations methods they prefer, and what other types of museums they visit.  We also asked two open-ended questions that proved mind-spinning: 

•     If you could do anything you wanted to do at the outdoor history museum, without restrictions, what would you do?
•     Thinking of outdoor history museums, what does authenticity mean to you?

I mention all this because, after we share the data with the participating museums next Monday, we are going to share it with you.  I have nearly 30 blog posts started based on this research, so you can expect something new every few days.  Some of it will be highly relevant to all types of museums, and some will be more relevant to history museums and historic sites.  And one will be on how important those childhood memories are to museums.  All of the data, however, provides a fascinating glimpse on a good slice of museum visitors - visitors who also visit zoos and science centers and art museums, and probably your museum as well.

So stay tuned.  And watch the blog and the e-newsletter for announcements of when we will repeat the presentation via conference call.

Going to be at AAM in Denver?  We will be sharing the data there as well. E-mail me at susie (at) reachadvisors.com for more info.

Susie

Audience Research Museum Conversation - Part II

It makes sense. If you understand your audiences, you better understand why they visit your museum. And if you better understand why they visit your museum, you can serve your audiences better.

But figuring out how to be a visitor-centered museum can be challenging. How do you ask them what they want? How do you know they are telling you what they really think? How do you do research on a tight, or non-existent, budget?  How do you help visitors feel that the museum is important to them and their communities?

To dig into these issues, our March Museum Conversation focused audience research, and our guest panelists came from two very different museums with very different budgets. Yet the goals for both organizations were to serve their audiences better. Here are a few takeaways.

• It is all about the visitor experience.  Matt Sikora, of the Detroit Institute of Arts, shared with us that all aspects of the visitor experience, from making them feel welcome and comfortable to helping them feel a more intimate relationship with works of art, must be addressed to ensure that both expectations, and your mission, are fulfilled.  At the DIA, they wanted to anticipate and understand the deeper motivators to visit in order to inform the museum's reinstallation plans.  The goal is then to facilitate those experiences, and reinforce those motivators, for your visitors, thereby increasing visitor satisfaction, to hopefully yield return visitation - and research can help determine if you are satisfying those visitors . . . or where you are falling short.
  
• Repeat visitation, and the word-of-mouth of those visitors, is key.  Both Matt and Bruce Courson, of the Sandwich Glass Museum, talked about how if the visitor experience is good, visitors are far more likely to return, and far more likely to tell others to visit.  By discovering, and then focusing on what brings visitors to the museum in the first place, you can help create the positive experience that drives the repeat visit and the positive word-of-mouth.  As Matt said, it does not have to be the blockbuster exhibition but it does have to address why guests visit on a deeper level.  And as Bruce noted, advertising is far less effective, and far more expensive, than good word-of-mouth.
• Audience research does not have to be expensive. Bruce uses his parking lot as a venue for audience research.  By posing as a tourist and asking exiting guests “Excuse me, I only have about an hour – is it worth go through here?” he has learned what works . . . and what doesn’t work, in his museum. This information greatly informed their recent expansion and installation of glass-blowing demonstrations. It was, and continues, to be a simple, yet effective, way of discovering what visitors are thinking.

We would love to hear more from you on this topic! How has audience research helped your museum?  What struggles are you having tapping into visitor motivations? Any questions you would like to throw out or any insights you would like to add? To continue the conversation, just click on the “comments” link below

Finally, our thanks go out to our guests who shared their time and thoughts during this call, and to those of you who submitted questions to our guests and listened in. 

Audience Research Museum Conversation

**** Please note the time of the call has changed to 2:30pm EDT / 11:30 am PDT ****

We're back with some new Museum Conversation conference calls for the year, and our first one will focus on a topic that we know is on the minds of some museums following a New York Times article that ran last Wednesday.  The article, "Museums Refine the Art of Listening," illustrated various ways museums are using audience research and market research to tune into community attitudes and audience behaviors.

The article left some people looking for more background and detail, so we're going to use that as a launching pad for our next Museum Conversation on Tuesday, March 25 at :30 pm Eastern / 11:30 am Pacific.  Our guest panelists will include:

• Matt Sikora, Associate Educator, Evaluation, Detroit Institute of Arts
• Linda Wilson, Director, Audience Research and Evaluation, John G. Shedd Aquarium
• Bruce Courson, Director, Sandwich Glass Museum

So come join us with questions such as:

• What kind of research do they do in house?  With what kind of staff?
• What kind of impact have they seen from their research?
• What have been the biggest pitfalls in the research they've fielded?
• Plus, anything you wish to ask the panel!

As you probably know by now, these Museum Conversations are free conference calls held (almost) monthly. To RSVP for our Tuesday, March 25 Museum Conversation, just email susie(at)reachadvisors(dot)com.

To submit questions to our panel please click on “comments” below and submit it to the blog. After the call is over we will be posting a recap and continuing the conversation via the blog.

We hope you can join us!

Family Amenities Checklist

We all want to make our museums more enjoyable places to visit.  Providing amenities that make families (as well as other visitors) feel special and welcomed make a big difference in the overall museum experience. But what are those special amenities that museums can provide?  To find out, we put out a call on our blog to submit ideas for a family amenities checklist, and here is what were recommended. 

Overall: Museum should be clean and tidy.  This is especially important to the current generation of parents, and focus should be given to restrooms and food service areas. 

Restrooms / Nursing Areas

• Handicapped restrooms that can do double-duty as family restrooms
• Stools to help little one reach sinks
• Diaper changing stations (in family, men's, and women's restrooms)
• Seat in family restroom for buckling in young children while parent uses facilities
• Nursing rooms for private nursing (not a restroom)
• Stash of disposable diapers in case a visitor runs out
• Spare clean children's clothes . . . just in case

Food Service

• Designated place for snacks, inside and out (especially if there is no food service available)
  
• High chairs and booster seats
  
• Child-friendly menu options
• Peanut-free food preparation (including no peanut oil)

Exhibit Amenities

• Children's activity pages
• Interactives that involve small groups rather than one person
• Labels that use language parents use when talking to their children
• Outdoor trails and exhibits
• Family tracks on audio guides
• Stools to reach interactive components

Safety and Miscellaneous

• Small baggies with ice cubes in freezer (for bumps and bruises)
• Assorted bandages, etc.
• Covers for all electrical outlets
• No exposed cords
• All cleaning supplies secured
  
• Benches, lots of benches and seating (this is great for visitors of all ages!)
• Stroller loan

Expectant Moms - for special events, please keep in mind the dietary restrictions for pregnant women and ensure alternatives are available. 

• No cold cuts (meats should be steaming hot)
  
• No unpasteurized soft cheese
• No unpasteurized apple cider
• Some restrictions on meats with nitrates and/or nitrites
• Some restrictions on caffeine
• Some restrictions on seafood

While some of these items take time and effort, others are easy to accomplish in a very short period of time - and all go a long way to making families feel important to your museum.  A surprising number of parents will notice (and speak well of you to others) when you make this accommodation very visible...and notice when you don't.

Thanks to the following individuals and/or museums who contributed to this list:

Ken Bubp - Conner Prairie
Strong National Museum of Play
Connecticut Landmarks
Jeff Stern - Museum of Life and Science
Tricia O'Connor - The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Noelle Foye - Fuller Craft Museum
Tracey Beck - American Swedish Historical Museum
Anne Arenstein - Taft Museum of Art
Susan Douglas - Discovery Museum of Sacramento

Lost Opportunities

The other day I heard a story about an organization that missed out on a national media opportunity.  Why? The reporter could not quickly reach the marketing director to get photos, and did not have a password to access the photo gallery already set up for the media online.   

The reporter was clearly on a very tight deadline, trying to pull the story together.  Because of that, she was going to go for the quickest story and seek out the easiest photos . . . and so the organization missed out because they had erected barriers that the reporter simply did not have the time, and perhaps the need, to break down.

Reporters are busy. They have tight, firm deadlines. To help them you want to make working with you as easy as possible, with no barriers.  So when working with the media, keep in mind the following tips, gleaned from our own experiences and from a working travel writer:

• Reporters and editors are more likely to write something when you can provide a great photo – so make sure you have some great photos!
• When they do use your photo, you are more likely to get more column inches about your museum, and you are less likely to be edited out if there are space constraints.
• Provide open access to your media photos with no passwords or barriers – as our friendly writer said “whether or not they use a site may actually and simply depend on whether there is a quicker alternative; if there is, they will turn to the alternative.”
• Reporters do have lots of alternatives, from Google image searches to Flickr, so they no longer have to come to you at all.  Make it so easy to work with you that they will believe you are here to make their job easier – you will be repaid in better media coverage for your organization.

Have other tips on working with the media? Share them with us by clicking on “comments” below!

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

I know I have talked about e-mail footers before, and even shared an example from Olana State Historic Site before, but this is just too cool to not share.  Can you find the 10 things wrong with this picture?

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When I spoke with Carri Manchester, Olana's Director of Education, about her latest e-mail, she told me not only does she design the e-mail footers herself, but this particular one took her only about 30 minutes to produce.  A relatively small amount of time for how darn fun it is.

This particular example is the kind of interactive and fun thing that is a natural to go viral and get forwarded (heck, I am forwarding it to our blog!), something that Gen X moms, a prime audience for this program, do quite a bit.  It pays to continually harvest e-mail addresses off your website and from visitors because , as seen here, it is cheap, not extremely time-intensive, and high-impact.  Additionally, Carri's e-mail went out to all of the hotels, chambers, and arts councils in the area, and I bet you they are forwarding it out to their lists because when Olana does well, they benefit.

We always love to see what kinds of cool stuff others are sending out.  If you want to share an example from your museum, or one you have seen, feel free to click on "comments" below or e-mail me at susie(at)reachadvisors(dot)com with an image.

Survey Testers Needed

We run a lot of surveys for our clients. Before a survey goes live, however, we test, and then test again, to make sure the survey works properly and that the questions and responses are clear. 

Periodically, we seek new testers who will give us fresh perspectives and opinions about our surveys.  Volunteering to test the occasional survey is a great way to learn more about surveys and their construction. Additionally, testers also learn about other client fields, such as master-planned communities, tourist attractions, and municipalities.

The requirements are few:

• Minimal time (testers can assume 30 minutes/survey test, and perhaps 3 - 4 tests per year)
• Curiosity
• Confidentiality

If you are interested in becoming one of our survey testers, simply let us know by e-mailing me at susie(at) reachadvisors.com and I will provide additional information. 

Thanks!