June 26, 2009

Request for the Field: Successful Marketing to Latinos

We are working with Amy McDonald, the chair of PRAM, on a session proposal for the 2010 AAM Annual Meeting on marketing to Latino audiences.  The session will include an overview by Reach Advisors of the demographics and why the Latino market is quickly becoming critical for the future of many museums.  It will also feature a presentation from a Latino ad agency, including a case study and guidelines on best practices.


We are looking for museums that are successfully marketing to this audience. 


Have you had success reaching this audience?  If so, would you be willing to participate on this panel next May in Los Angeles?  Do you have a case study that you can share?  Can you provide “lessons learned” from your experience?  Or do you know of someone who excels at reaching Latino audiences?  If so, please contact us with your ideas!


Amy can be reached at amy (dot) mcdonald (at) yale (dot) edu, and James can be reached at james (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.


Many thanks in advance for your help.

June 22, 2009

Musée de l’Orangerie: Wow!

Two weeks ago, James was in Paris to present at the International Council of Museums meeting.  From Paris, he e-mailed me about an amazing experience at a local museum.  He was so blown away, and because we all seek to blow away our visitors, I thought his reaction was worth sharing:

The Musée de l’Orangerie is remarkable.  In part for the contents inside, but more for how the emotions it stirs inside.
 
First, it was about the collection.  Masterful.
 
Second, it was about curating.  Drawing me in with the masters, then introducing me to a modern artist I've never heard of, Didier Paquignon, but I loved.  He really caught the light and emotion that I see in France (even though I think most of his work was done in Spain).
 
Pretty quickly I was impressed with the museum.  But it also helped that a few museum folks were sharing their personal impressions that helped me learn more about art, which I admit to not knowing as much about as I would like. 
 
And then...there was Monet's Les Nympheas.  It's the first time I've ever really felt art.  Felt it was speaking to me.  Not like seeing art, or thinking about art, but felt that every single neuron was firing as soon as I turned the corner into that room.  As if there was a hand that tangibly reached out to welcome me into a different world.  It was respite and retreat in a way I've never experienced in a museum.  The realization of everything I always hope museums could do but have never found to come together so perfectly as I experienced in that one moment.  Music, marble benches, perfect diffused lighting.  And the art...stunning.  Now I understand why Monet's individual water lilies paintings fetch tends of millions of dollars, and why it's so wonderful that museums can keep the best of those for public enjoyment. 
 
Granted, someone pointed out that the room is typically packed with tourists, while we had the space all to ourselves.  And granted, they closed six years to get this right and have the support of a country that understands investment in culture.  But I'm not someone who can sit still very well, yet I could just saunter around that room in a simultaneously blissful and stimulated state and notice endless details while transporting myself to a different state without even trying. 
 
For me, it ranks as a top 10 wow experience, not quite even with, but on the same list as my wedding day, the days my kids were born.  Just plain and simple, a moving experience. 
 
I hope that everyone can get to experience something sort of like that in a museum at some point in their lives.

 
Pretty amazing, isn’t it!  We all want our museums to provide these kinds of “wow” experiences every day.  And many museums do, from mini-wows to these mind-blowing wows. 
 
We would love to see if there is a pattern to “wow” experiences at museums.  Have you ever had one museum, one object, one exhibit blow you away?  What was it?  Why do you think you were affected the way you were?  And was there anything about the physical environment that helped make it such a moving moment? 
 
Share your experiences by clicking on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

June 09, 2009

Life Stages of the Museum Visitor - AAM Webinar and Book!

We are delighted to have worked closely with AAM in the publication of our new book Life Stages of the Museum Visitor, available from the AAM Bookstore, and in our upcoming AAM webinar on the same subject:

AAM Webinar!
Understanding Life Stages of the Museum Visitor

June 24, 2009
2-3:30 pm (Eastern)
In collaboration with the AAM Committee on Education (EdCom), the AAM Committee on Audience Research and Evaluation (CARE) and The AAM Press

Book Cover

Led by:
James Chung, President, Reach Advisors
Susie Wilkening, Senior Consultant and Curator of Museum Audiences, Reach Advisors

Why are seven-year-olds especially important to museums?  What are Museum Advocates, and how do they differ from Core Visitors to museums?  And what is going on with ultra-wired Generation Y and museums?  Delve into these questions and more as Susie Wilkening and James Chung share their research from over 30,000 Core Visitors to museums, just published in their new book from the AAM Press, Life Stages of the Museum Visitor:  Building Engagement Over a LIfetime.  This webinar will help you understand your museum's audiences, their needs, and how to better meet their expectations.

To register, go to:  http://www.aam-us.org/getinvolved/learn/understandingmuseumaudience.cfm
$25 AAM Member
$189 Non-member

To purchase a copy of the book go to:  http://iweb.aam-us.org/Purchase/ProductDetail.aspx?Product_code=I255


June 03, 2009

Kindle is My Paper, Too (Along with Facebook)

I cancelled my Boston Globe this morning.  Me, the newspaper junkie. 


In the past 15 months rates have doubled.  It is now well over $600/year to subscribe.  To a paper that has, in the same time period, shrunk in size. 

 

I decided it wasn’t worth it.  Especially when I can subscribe via my Kindle for only $120/year.  It was a no-brainer.  I will now be a Kindle subscriber to the Globe. 

 

A few weeks ago I posted that Facebook was my paper, and even in the past few weeks that function has, for me, increased.  I get news from NPR in my FB news feed.  And at least once a week I hear from organizations that are local to me, such as Historic New England or the Thomas Crane Public Library, reminding me about upcoming programs. 

 

And I projected that, in the next few years, all of us would have to get used to newspapers disappearing . . . especially metro dailies. 

 

Reactions were, shall we say, visceral.  Some wrote in that newspapers had become irrelevant to them because they were already old news by the time they arrived.  I agree as many times when I read the Globe I find stories that I read the day before online.

 

Others bemoaned the loss of quality news.  Where would they get it, if not from the paper? 

 

First and foremost, we should keep in mind that most newspapers have never had news as their primary business.  The majority of their revenues come from advertising, putting them in the business of print advertising more than anything else.  That revenue model has collapsed, and with smaller revenues they are unable to keep up the quality of the newsroom.  (Note:  If I felt the quality of the news in the Globe was worth $12.25/week, I would gladly pay it.  The quality is not there.) 

 

But the loss of daily metro newspapers does not necessarily mean the loss of quality news.  NPR is stronger than ever, providing quality news from the US and around the world in three formats:  live radio; audio streaming/podcasts; and online articles.  Some periodicals are providing juicy, stellar reporting, such as The Economist, The Atlantic, and now Newsweek, which revamped itself only a few weeks ago, improving their journalism many times over.  Wire services, such as AP and Reuters, have boots on the ground all over the world.  And I doubt I am the only person geeking out by watching PBS’s News Hour.

 

Additionally, hyper-local papers, such as my Quincy Sun, are still doing fairly well, providing quality community news that is important to me. 

 

So quality journalism is still going strong, but there is a gap I wonder about.  Metro and state news (including museum coverage).  In Boston, we have relied on the Globe to uncover corruption and scandal, lately centering around state politics.  Our excellent NPR station covers this as well, but not to the same depth. 

 

What will happen if (and I project, when) the Globe stops printing?  Who will fill the gap?  Some papers have ceased printing and gone to an online-only model, focusing on metro and state news.  Other cities that still have dailies have seen competition from very small, often nonprofit, websites that focus on investigative journalism.   These trends will likely increase, and likely increase reporting on arts and culture along the way as arts and culture reporting draws readers.  I don’t rule out the possibility of high-quality metro weeklies either.  But we are seeing new mediums for metro news that are starting to fill these needs.

 

Like many others, I don’t relish the idea of sipping my morning cup of tea over my laptop.  That is not how I want to start my morning.  Which is why, for now, I like my Kindle, and why I am switching my Globe subscription to it.  I already get the Wall Street Journal via Kindle, and have found the navigation experience to be similar to that of the actual paper.  I still flip through and scan every article (skipping the “boring” sections, just like if I had a hard copy).  Maybe handheld readers will take the place of paper copies, and provide subscription revenue, for news outlets.  Maybe something else will happen. 

 

So I am not worried about the death of quality journalism.  There is a need and a demand for it.  But newspapers?  Looks like I am joining most of my 30-something peers and doing without.


What do you think?  Is there anything you disagree with?  Or do you see these trends playing out as well in your community? 
Click on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!


-Susie

May 27, 2009

Creativity – The Cart Before the Horse?

A couple of weeks ago a new publication coming out of the UK crossed my desk.  Overall, Learning to Live, which focuses on young people and museum education, is excellent.

 

But I couldn’t help being annoyed by one thing.  It keeps talking about creativity, and how important creativity is.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I think creativity is incredibly important and should absolutely be nurtured in children, both in and out of museums. 

 

But I couldn’t help thinking that a critical step was missing. 

 

And that is the nurturing of curiosity.  If you are not curious about something, you are not going to bother to expend an ounce of creativity on it.  Right?

 

Granted, I have been curious about curiosity for a while.  And I must confess I have my colleagues curious about it too, now.

 

Why?  One of the things we have noticed is that museum visitors who are personally motivated to visit museums are much more likely to identify themselves as being curious.  And visitors who do not identify themselves as curious tend to be less engaged in the museum and its offerings (and tend to visit for reasons other than personal ones). 

 

We have been tracking curiosity as a motivation for museum-going in a few of our studies, and have found that visitors who identify themselves as “curious” are significantly more positive about the museum, more likely to believe the staff cares about them, and more likely to support the museum for philanthropic reasons versus just the family budget.  That is, curious adults are more likely to be what we call “Museum Advocates.”  

 

And we believe that curious adults are much more likely to raise curious children, for whom creativity is a natural outgrowth. 

 

We’ll keep studying this in our research, and would love to hear your thoughts about curiosity and creativity as we plan out future lines of inquiry.  To comment, please feel free to click on “Comments” below (or if you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to this blog, please go to our website to add a comment.


-Susie


May 18, 2009

Seeking your thoughts: Economic change and long-term shifts

We’re wondering if anyone out there might wish to share observations about how the shift in the economic environment has forced dramatically different thinking about the long-term future for their museums or the field in general.  

We’ve been asked to participate in an International Council of Museums event on this topic, and would love to hear from the field on this point.  Note that we’re not looking for topics such as having to crank back budgets in 2009.  Instead, we’re looking at the kind of fundamental rethinking that’s going on in businesses and households across America about how they’ve been forced to re-engineer hard-wired behaviors, reset their long-term expectations, or realize that reliable past patterns simply won’t hold up in the future.  

If you have any comments on this, please feel free to click on “Comments” below (or if you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to this blog, please go to our website to add a comment.  If it’s a sensitive comment that you wish to share with us, but not publicly, please feel free to email james @ reachadvisors.com.  

If this request for help generates enough interest, even if you don’t have a comment to share, let us know as we could always consider scheduling it as an upcoming Museum Conversation conference call for the field.

We realize that this is a different kind of blog post than what we typically send, but thanks for allowing us to call for input on this topic!

May 04, 2009

What I Learned in Philadelphia

So I am back from a week in Philadelphia, attending both the Association of Children’s Museums and the American Association of Museums annual meetings.  Here are some things I observed/learned/thought about:

 

  • Children’s museums do a great job encouraging children to play.  Which got me thinking.  Why can’t museums be places that encourage adults (and kids) to play?  Where else is play encouraged for adults?  How would more play benefit adults?
  • Objects are important.  We know that (most museums are in the objects business, after all).  But I was thrilled to hear Lou Casagrande (Boston Children’s Museums) talk about how important those objects are to young children. . . . and about how children’s museums should utilize local objects in their museums more often.  Our research echoes Lou’s comments . . . . and we would love to see more local history museums partnering with children’s museums to get more young children exposed to those collections.
  • Next time you need to move a large object on top of a small car, ask an exhibit designer to help:

Orselli car

  • In our session on Museums in 2034, Gail Lord asked a fantastic question about how important experts (e.g., the curator) are if the public contributes the content?  I think savvy curators will recognize this as a mechanism to increase knowledge and build relevance . . . and I think the experts who lead the discussion and invite contributions will garner even more respect both in and out of the field.
  • The blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History has a Twitter feed, and I understand that no one knows who is responsible.  Just that it is not an employee.  Maybe it is the whale after all.    Check it out:  http://twitter.com/NatHistoryWhale.
  • When forecasting the future, museum folks often have some rather interesting predictions.  Most creative?  A tossup between opening Hooters branches in children’s museums and the NRA underwriting outdoor history museums.  Hmmm . . . . we’ll see about that.

 

We’ll come back to all of these (and point you in the right direction to find out more about the other future forecasts) via the blog over the next few months.


And if you attended either conference, we would love to hear what you learned or were mind-boggled by.  Share your thoughts by clicking on "comments" below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)


-Susie

April 24, 2009

AAM Research Presentations


Association of Children's Museums Attendees


If you are attending the ACM meeting only, but are interested in any of the topics below, please e-mail Susie Wilkening at susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.   We would be happy to gather an impromptu group to share our research!


American Association of Museums Annual Meeting


Note:  Official sessions of the AAM Annual Meeting will take place at Philadelphia Convention Center and are open to all registrants of the AAM Annual Meeting, no RSVP necessary.

Please do RSVP for any sessions in the Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite so that we may provide you with detailed location information!  You are welcome to RSVP for as many as you find relevant.


Thursday, April 30


"Measuring the Impact of Advertising: 
Useful Metrics or Impossible Dream?"
AAM Annual Meeting
Open to all AAM registrants
2:00 - 3:15 p.m.


Friday, May 1

"Four Audience Trends"
Delve into four audience trends that our research indicates will have a big impact on museums.
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
RSVP to susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.
7:00 - 8:15 a.m.

"A Glimpse of the Future:
Society and Museums in 2034"
What will the future bring?  Find out our predictions at this session!
AAM Annual Meeting
Open to all AAM registrants
9:00 - 10:15 a.m.

"The Declining Power of Community Institutions:  The Past/Present/Future of Newspapers...and Lessons Learned for Museums"
A Salon Discussion
Join in on a discussion involving leaders in the newspaper industry to explore what happened to the newspaper industry, the challenges ahead for community institutions such as newspapers and museums, and the what museums can do about it. 
Please note that this salon discussion may be moved to the Philadelphia Inquirer, a half mile from the Convention Center, in which case we'll meet up for cabs before that tour and discussion.  Just be sure to RSVP to susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com for updates.
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

"Museums Are a Necessary Evil"
Moms and Museums Discussion
Dine and Dialog
6:30 p.m.
To sign up visit the Restaurant Reservation Desk located in the Convention Center Lobby.  Space is strictly limited, so sign up early!


Saturday, May 2

"The Challenge of Moms (and Dads)"
Are moms truly engaged with museums?  And where are dads?  Join us to discuss the challenge of both moms and dads.
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
RSVP to susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Life Stages of the Museum Visitor
Book Signing
AAM Bookstore
Open to all AAM registrants
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

"Connecticut Cultural Consumers"
Find out the traits of cultural consumers from this state-wide study.  Who are they?  How do they prefer to visit museums?  And how can cultural organizations work together to build their audiences?  Of interest to anyone interested in attracting more cultural consumers.
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
Co-sponsored by the Connecticut Humanities Council,
in partnership with Connecticut Landmarks
RSVP to susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.
2:15 - 3:30 p.m.

"Preserve Past, Teach Present, Inspire Future"
 The Relevance of Science Museums in Today's World
Are science museums perceived by visitors to be just for kids, or do they serve curious adults just as well?  Explore with us what nearly 15,000 museum-going households had to say about science museums and their relevance today.
Reach Advisors Hospitality Suite
RSVP to susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.
4:00 - 5:15 p.m.


Sunday May 3

"Shaping the Future"
Join us to forecast what the future will bring to your museum in this fun and thought-provoking session.
AAM Annual Meeting
Open to all AAM registrants
9:00 - 10:15 a.m.

Hope to see you in Philly!

April 10, 2009

Facebook is My Newspaper

I remember the day when I realized that Facebook had replaced the newspaper for young adults. 

 
It was the day that I checked my account and saw a piece of national news (courtesy of Scott) and some museum-industry news (Jennifer).  There also was some hometown news (Jeff), and my sister posted she was eating lunch at her desk (a turkey sandwich).
 
Additionally, it was the second time that week alone that I first heard a piece of major news via news stories posted by friends.  Not via television, a news website, or the paper.  Facebook.
 
And it hit me.  I didn't need the Boston Globe anymore.  Or the White County NewsMy friends were editing all the news I needed.  No, not editing.  Curating. 
 
We all know the newspaper industry is hemorrhaging.  Nearly every week another major paper stops printing (though does not necessarily mean stop operating, as some are going online-only). 

Even my Boston Globe has a murky future, at best, as it is losing $1,000,000 each week.  Hardly a sustainable future.  And while I still get the paper version of that newspaper, I recently cancelled my Wall Street Journal hard copy in favor of a subscription via my Kindle.  I am finding the reading experience to be different, but equal to, the hard copy (and it is never missing, or wet, or late).
 
Technology has made this all possible, and it has turned the news industry, in particular, upside-down.  Newspapers are struggling to find ways to pay the bills when consumers expect their news to be free and online. 
 
Meanwhile, the media world is continuing to fragment, and websites like Facebook are the places where information is pulled back together.  I can pull in Twitter feeds and RSS (real simple syndication) feeds in to only one or two spots, creating my own, custom, news pages.  I could stop getting the Boston Globe and not really feel I am missing much, if anything.  Having always been a newspaper junkie, that realization is a bit shocking for me, yet I am hardly alone.  A recent study from the Pew Research Center indicates only a third of American adults would miss their daily newspaper "a lot." 
 
Overall, the decline of the newspaper industry has brought some crucial trends and shifts to our attention - trends and shifts that will affect museums as well. 
 
1 - It totally changes the PR landscape.  Museums have traditionally used newspapers and, to a lesser degree, magazines, to promote their exhibits and programs.  Now that model is rapidly disappearing as the economics of those industries fail (and as linear inches allocated for news content continues to decrease).  Other avenues must be used to spread the word about events, programs, and exhibits. 
 
2 - It is increasingly an inefficient use of promotional dollars.  Newspaper advertising is not inexpensive.  On a "per dollar" basis, other venues, ranging from your own e-newsletter to social networking sites to even direct mail can provide more bang for your buck.
 
3 - The decline of newspapers is part of a broader trend from which no one is escaping as people seek out information in different ways.  News is now primarily consumed online and via television (or even radio - NPR's audience has grown by nearly 50% since 2000).  What other venues are out there providing similar information to what you share?  Wikipedia?  Flickr?  YouTube?  Fortunately, museums have a secret weapon:  the real, authentic stuff.  Working with those information venues could actually create more relevance and interest in your museum.
 
4 - There has been a fundamental shift in our economy to a free-based model.  So many things are now free, running off a model of giving away certain content, or services for free, and it is paid for by a smaller number of consumers who receive additional, premium content or services.  But here is the thing.  Museums can and should thrive in the free economy because it is already the business model museums operate on.  Many people (visitors) receive free or drastically reduced admission that is subsidized by a much smaller group of members, donors, and funders.
 
5 - Newspapers were considered by many as a stalwart of the community.  Yet now, according to the Pew report, fewer than half of adult Americans think civic life would be hurt "a lot" if the local paper failed. (Go to http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1147/newspapers-struggle-public-not-concerned for more on Pew's research.) What are the other stalwarts of a community?  Museums certainly fall in the community stalwart category, but how many would miss us "a lot" if we failed?  It is a worthy question to ask yourself.
 
Yet all of this also presents tremendous opportunities for museums.  Going back to Facebook as just one example, it allows me to receive notices of things going on in my community, including museum programs, just like a local paper might.  I can "fan" all the museums I want, and am automatically informed of all their programming.  And see if any of my friends are going (thus making my own visit more likely).  It also reminds me of an event the day beforehand, so I don't forget.  I can subscribe to the news feeds, blogs, and Twitter feeds of museums as well, and actually become more informed directly from the museum itself on what is going on than reading an (edited) version via the paper.  And the best thing?  Museums actually have better control of the message and the distribution is free.
 
Will Facebook replace the newspaper for everyone?  No, but the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is adults over 35.  Facebook may or may not have legs, but if Facebook fails, something new, and probably even more comprehensive, will undoubtedly take its place.  The trick is keeping up and utilizing these tools to reach your audiences (and potential audiences) more effectively, where they already look for information, and in a way that builds relevance in their lives.

What do you think?  Is there anything you disagree with?  Or do you see these trends playing out as well in your community? 
Click on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

-Susie

April 01, 2009

Giving: It's All About Age

Times are tough, and more than ever, we are thinking about how to motivate people to become members, or to renew their annual gifts.  Turns out, those motivations, even during tough times, tends to be related to life stage.  A lot happens, financially, to adults as they grow older. 

 

Young adults have tend to have high expenses, including high housing costs compared to income, and they typically have the high costs associated with child-rearing.  Family budgets are tight, with little to be spent on unnecessary things.  Sadly, philanthropy is not the highest priority to families with a constant eye on the budget.  There is a place for it, but for younger adults the focus is more on making ends meet and planning for the future.  And when it comes to museums, they are significantly more likely to give to pay for the services they, and their families, receive, or to save money, than to give for purely philanthropic reasons.

 

Things change as adults grow older, however.  In their forties, adults start to become a bit more philanthropic.  The budget-minded reasons to give are still front-and-center, but for more forty-somethings the philanthropic reasons become more prominent.

 

But by the time adults are in their fifties, philanthropy is the primary motivation.  Children are largely moving out of the house, housing costs are usually lower, and incomes are peaking over their lifespan.  There may be more room in their budgets to give, so the budgetary reasons recede.  Thoughts are also beginning to turn to giving back to the community, including supporting museums.  Additionally, there are a higher proportion of Museum Advocates among older visitors than younger visitors, and those Museum Advocates are making deeper connections to the museums that engage their interests.

 

We wanted to track philanthropic giving over the major studies we have completed, and since this question was virtually unchanged from survey to survey, combining responses and tallying them up were relatively simple.  Interestingly, education and income had little effect on how people responded to these questions.  Instead, age was the primary factor . . . and by a mile. 

 

Below, as seen in the graph, it is clear that motivations change between those in their forties and those in their fifties.  The lines for the budgetary reasons, saving money and paying for services received, cross those of the more philanthropic reasons, supporting the community, helping the museum improve, and supporting history/science/cultural organizations.  


Charitable Giving by Age  

 

Although the change happens between those in their forties and those in their fifties, the trend does not stop then.  Respondents in their sixties are even more philanthropic-minded, and those over seventy are the most philanthropic-minded. 

 

Interestingly, very few people joined or donated because they “were asked.”  It hardly shows up  - and we think this is a very good thing.  Joining or giving because they “were asked” implies that that the respondent had little self-motivation to support the museum.  Instead, it implies a purely financial transaction without a sense of the value of the museum.  We would love to see this percentage go down to nothing, with members being so engaged with the purpose of the museum that they do not even perceive an ask ever took place.  Instead, it is a highly-engaged, value-laden proposition, whether it is for the benefit of a family, a community, or both.

 

So what does this mean?  Clearly, museums need to create different membership materials to attract members of different ages.  Materials that play up the value of a membership will be much more appealing to younger respondents, particularly young moms making economic choices for their families (and even more so during these economic times).  In contrast, materials that instead focus on the good a museum does for its community and its visitors will be more appealing to older respondents who have a more philanthropic mindset.  For museums actively seeking members of all ages, creating two sets of membership materials is more expensive, and more time-consuming to manage, but the return on that investment will likely more than pay itself back in better response rates.  


What are your thoughts?  Click on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!


 

March 25, 2009

How Does Your Restroom Rank?

We didn't really mean to continue in the cleanliness theme this week.  Really.  But when this floated across my desktop just moments ago, I knew I had to share.

We have mentioned more than once on this blog how important cleanliness is to the current generation of parents.  My Gen X peers who are parents are just more likely to be germaphobic (and I am too, despite not being a parent). 

Turns out, there is a website, www.sitorsquat.com, complete with an iPhone applet, that combines ratings of restroom cleanliness with a mapping tool.  So you can always find a clean restroom nearby. 

So I started playing with the site, out of professional curiosity (of course - though I had to share it with my sister first!).  After checking my hometown, Quincy, I started checking to see if I could find any museums.  The Met gets 4/5 stars and a "sit" recommendation, while the National Museum of Natural History in DC gets 5/5.  But most of the museums I searched for were not listed at all.

People notice restroom cleanliness, and it is important to them.  It indicates that visitors are cared about.  For some people, it can make or break a visit.  And now they have a way to share where the "best" ones are.  Or where the "worst" ones are. 

Yes, the site is a little goofy.  But if I were running a museum, I would make sure that my clean restrooms were added to the site.  And I would not turn away people who come in just to use the restrooms either.  They might end up staying . . . or coming back.  Because the more people we get in the door, the greater the chance we have to reach people, touch them, and engage them.  Even if it starts with our clean restrooms.

- Susie

March 18, 2009

The Ick Factor: Museums and Cleanliness

Echo Custodian I have always been a bit of a neat freak, but since my son Jack came along, I freely admit that I am even more concerned about the cleanliness of my home and public places, especially since he is not quite over the urge to stick everything in his mouth.  It’s not just the dirt and germs that bother me; it’s also the potential residue from nasty cleaning products.  Who knows how long it’s been since anyone cleaned the restrooms, shopping carts, and stair handrails at the places we visit—and what was used to clean them?  

 

Call me an overprotective parent if you want, but according to research conducted by Reach Advisors, I’m not alone.  Many parents (and some non-parents too) are really concerned about cleanliness in public places, including museums, and they vote with their feet when a place doesn’t meet their standards.  And it’s not just the restrooms that catch their attention, but exhibits and food service areas.  As one mom in our children’s museum survey said, “Museum exhibits are filthy,” while another noted that the "food concession . . . dirty."  We can, and we do, opt to avoid a museum that doesn’t seem clean enough.

 

Along these lines, I recently discovered several additional reasons to love ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center in Burlington, Vermont.  Not only do Jack and I have a great time there, but the place is usually pretty spotless.  Moreover, I was pleasantly reassured to read in Sarah Brophy and Elizabeth Wylie’s The Green Museum that ECHO’s custodians use Green Seal certified products.  Better for the environment, and better for me and my kid.

 

As an added bonus, during one recent visit, we actually saw a custodian making the rounds of the exhibit areas (pictured).  While I followed my kid from fish tank to frog tank, I watched a staff member cleaning everything meticulously—from the benches, to the hand rails, to even the signage suspended in the air.  What a simple and inexpensive way of reassuring the overanxious parents among your visitors!  You aren’t adding any staff, having employees work extra hours, or investing in new cleaning equipment, just doing the same thing you might do after-hours, but in clear sight of the visitors.  This technique probably wouldn’t work at the busiest of times.  But during an average or a slow day, it just might. 

 

All this contributes to my resolve to return to ECHO frequently—even during flu season. 

 

—Erica

 

Photo credit:  Tom Billings, ECHO custodian at work, photo courtesy ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center

March 12, 2009

The Tour Bus: Cash Cow, Soon-to-Be Relic?

At many historic sites, they really start showing up in spring and the fall.  Pull into the parking lot at a major historical site and you will see a whole line of them.  Tour buses.  Typically, they are filled with older adults out on a day trip or perhaps on a multi-day swing through New England or the plantations of Virginia.  

They show up at art museums too.  And botanical gardens.  Some museums teem with them during the shoulder seasons—just after or just before the peak travel seasons—when retirees tend to travel and school is in session. 

But who takes bus tours?  And what does the future hold for them?

In our research for outdoor history museums and in the Connecticut Cultural Consumer research project (funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council), we asked Core Visitors to museums if they took bus tours. Turns out, not many do. In fact, hardly any.  Only 3% of respondents to both surveys said that a bus tour was among their primary means for visiting museums.  Three percent.  The audience segment that was most likely to take bus tours were women over the age of 60. 

Yet even with Core Visitors who are women over 60, bus tours are still pretty darn unpopular. In both studies fewer than 10% said they participated in bus tours. 

So what does this mean?  There are two big things to keep in mind here.  First, while tour buses can certainly help with attendance and revenue, the behaviors of people who go on tour buses do not correlate closely with Core Visitors, much less Museum Advocates.  Their primary purpose for taking a tour may not be visiting your wonderful museum, but something else—it might be travel, social or that stop before playing the slots.  Their levels of engagement will likely be generally lower than the Core Visitors, who made a choice to visit your museum rather than take a tour that just happens to include your museum.  Absolutely, you still should serve them well, and some participants will be highly engaged, but generally these tours are cash cows on the decline.  It is OK to admit it.

Looking ahead, we strongly believe that the tour bus is a relic.  The generational differences between those older than Baby Boomers and the Baby Boomers themselves are striking.  Boomers are generally much more confident planning and going on trips on their own.  With that independent streak, we cannot imagine large numbers of them will support the tour bus industry during their retirements. 

There may, however, continue to be a place for small, intimate tours led by curators and museum directors for their donors.  These tours will be expensive, exclusive and include behind-the-scenes access to your museum.  They will likely not be profitable for you, but when your museum runs its own profitable curator-led tour, favors will be returned and collections storage will be opened. 

But long-term?  The bus tour is a relic.  Milk that cash cow while you can and be prepared for diminishing returns long-term.

What are your thoughts?  Click on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

March 04, 2009

Men and Museums

When we run surveys, we can sometimes derive a lot of insight from more than just the results, but the inputs as well.  And there’s one statistic that we found perhaps more startling than any others.  When combining all of almost 30,000 respondents to our various field-wide museum surveys, only ¼ are men.   

Additionally, looking at it from another angle, only 1/3 of women in their thirties and forties report visiting museums often with their spouse. 

Where are the men?

To be honest . . . we don’t know and perhaps that’s the subject of another study.  But this is what we do know.

While looking at the overall picture of core visitors, only ¼ of our survey respondents are men, the percentage varies from survey to survey.  In both the study of outdoor history visitors and Connecticut cultural consumers, men comprised about 1/3 of respondents.  They were ¼ of science museum respondents, and just 11% of children’s museum respondents. 

A bit of this can be explained away by the general behaviors of men.  Men are less likely than women to sign up for e-mail newsletters, our primary vehicle for soliciting survey responses of core visitors.  Underlying this as well is that women are still the primary driver for museum visitation in most families, writing that membership check, and making the connection. 

This is reflected by the graph, below.  Men in their thirties, as you can see, have the lowest response rate, at only 13% of thirty-something respondents. 

Male Respondents by Age

In contrast, 38% of respondents over seventy were men, a response rate three times that of men in their thirties (and this despite the fact that women over seventy outnumber their male peers, demographically speaking). 

Men in their thirties, who are typically parents of young children, are just not responding.  And they are way outnumbered by women at museums across the country. 

The early indications from this preliminary data is that dads have, like moms, chosen to downplay their own needs and interests in favor of those of their children, and that when children are very young, moms are driving museums choices.  But as men age, they have more ability to drive which museums they visit, and hence, engagement increases in a straight-line progression with age.  There is, however, another nagging possibility that needs further exploration.  Is there an older generation of men that understand the value of museums in a way that younger generation of men simply won’t get? 

Bottom line?  Just like we have a challenge to engage moms, we have a double challenge with dads:  Reaching them and engaging them.  Clearly, this is an area that warrants further examination as we dig deeper with future research.  The gap is simply too big to ignore.

What are your thoughts?  Has your museum done something that attracts men (especially younger men)?  Click on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!


February 27, 2009

Hands-On: We Mean Really Hands-On

We recently ran into one of the sacred cows of the curatorial world: touching and using artifacts.

In our recent survey of Connecticut Cultural Consumers (funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council), we asked, “If you could do whatever you wanted at a historic house museum, with no restrictions, what would you do?”  A significant number of respondents wrote in that they wished to step behind those velvet ropes, get up close and personal, and touch or use artifacts.  As one respondent wrote (in all caps), “TOUCH, PICK UP, LOOK AT THE MARKINGS, SIT ON THE CHAIRS, FEEL THE FABRIC, LOOK AT THE BOOKS - TOUCH HISTORY.”  Another observed, “Isn’t it everyone’s fantasy to try out the furniture?”  

Starting to feel queasy yet?  Our "inner curators" sure did as we were analyzing the results of this survey question.  Traditional prohibitions against handling and using collections items exist for a good reason:  to prevent or slow deterioration . . . or worse.  Thankfully, at least some of our survey participants recognize this.  One wrote, “Too much handling by too many people, some of whom may not be very careful, would be ruinous to many pieces.” 

Yet we also know all too well that those prohibitions can also be barriers, as physical access is important to a well-rounded learning experience.  As one survey participant noted, “By touching, I get a better sense of the history and craftsmanship.” 

Of course, many museums have been inviting visitors to “please touch” for years via interactives, teaching collections, hands-on activities, and reproductions.  But if the results of this survey question taught us anything, it’s that museums may not be doing enough to satisfy visitor demand in this area, especially in historic house museums. 

Can we do more of what we are already doing?  For instance, lots of museums have teaching collections or reproductions available for school groups and families to explore.  But fewer institutions have similar interpretation for adult visitors. 

Can we find some middle ground?  Can we offer special access opportunities, limited to a few people at a time, that allow visitors to get a little closer to some artifacts, so they can experience them at closer range?  How about rotating a few artifacts out of their settings and displaying them where visitors can get closer to them?  What if we carefully selected some artifacts that can be handled by the public?

Maybe it is time to rethink the "Rembrandt Rule," as Jim Vaughan of the National Trust so thoughtfully suggested last year in Museum.  Unless, of course, we are actually talking about a Rembrandt!

What are your thoughts?  Are there additional methods we could be using to safely satisfy tactile visitors?  Do you have any stories from your museum?  Or do you think we are crazy to even bring this up?  Click on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

February 25, 2009

My Green Dogs

IMG_0204 Ok, my dogs are really brown, white, and black.  But they are also green. 


Green as in Green Dog members with The Trustees of Reservations. 

 

We have talked on this blog before about dogs and their ability to bring community together.  And we are big fans of making museums more accessible to people and their mutts (of course, not the galleries, but grounds, yes). 

 

So there are a number of reasons why I absolutely love the Green Dogs program of The Trustees of Reservations (which has both historic sites and nature sites).

 

I enrolled our dogs in the Green Dogs program because it gave us access to a number of properties that dogs are not normally allowed to visit.  To enroll, my husband and I had to be members (hmmm . . . . members), our dogs had to be licensed in our community, and we had to sign on the line that, yes, we would be responsible (a nice way of saying we would pick up their poop).  And if we did not follow their simple requests, well, our Green Dogs would be kicked out of the program.  Fair enough.

 

But this is why I love this program:

 

First – you have to join to enroll your dog.  While we think The Trustees does really fine work, the Green Dogs program is what sealed the deal.  It made us join.  It made us go from “yeah, we really should be members” to “yes, we are members.”  Why?  Because of doggie access.  How many people would join your museum or historic site in order to get to walk their dogs there?  Perhaps more than you think.

 

Second – they make you sign on the line that you will be responsible.  We would be anyway, but for those who might not, this forces the issue.  Don’t pick up?  Dog going rogue?  Lose access.  Period.  

 

Third – they gave us tags for the dogs.  They say “Green Dogs” on them.  Think what you could name your program!  And every time the owner sees that tag on their dog, well, guess what they will think of?  Your museum.  Sweet. (Heck, if a museum came up with something really creative, I would probably join just to get the cool tags for my dogs.  And I am not embarrassed by that.)

 

Fourth – they gave us this dorky-looking pass to wear.  It identifies us as all as Green Dogs members .  . . . and when we see other Green Dogs members we greet them.  We say hi.  Our dogs sniff each other’s, well, you know.  It starts conversation.  It makes it personal.  It creates community.  We don't even care that the pass is dorky-looking.  It works.

 

Fifth – they gave us a reason to renew.  Access.  Community.  On top of their great work.  Pretty compelling

 

- Susie


Photo:  The incomparable Shadow, left, and the incorrigible Macie, right, at a Green Dogs property of The Trustees of Reservations.

February 20, 2009

Older Men are Awesome . . . But Yet Not Always Engaged?

In our recent e-newsletter, archived here, we shared that older men are “awesome.”  And, indeed, in our studies of outdoor history museum visitors and science museum visitors, they emerged as the most engaged, happiest audience segment at those types of museums.

 

But does that mean they are highly engaged at all types of museums?


The answer is. . . . . no. 

 

In our recent study of Connecticut Cultural Consumers, funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council for Connecticut Landmarks, men over the age of 60 simply did not “pop” like in the other studies.  Women over 60 responded at twice the rate of men over 60, and were clearly more engaged by visiting more often, and enjoying a wider variety of cultural activities. 

 

But why is this?  We believe the primary reason is subject matter.  Older museum-going men, as seen in our research, are very self-motivated to explore topics that are of great interest to them.  Outdoor history museums and science museums are natural places to immerse oneself in the topics that older men tend to gravitate towards, such as blacksmithing, construction, and engineering. 

 

In contrast, the organizations participating in the Connecticut project included art museums, historic house museums, historical societies, history museums, and a performing arts group.  These organizations tend not to as naturally provide those types of opportunities that men seek out.

 

Yet there may be opportunities for these types of museums to reach out to older men and engage them.  In those previous studies, older men did indicate that what they enjoyed about outdoor history museums and science museums was the time and ability to work with their hands, and with others, doing the kinds of labor that they did not do in their professional lives.  As retirees, they are seeking out those opportunities.  Creating those kinds of opportunities may help museums better attract, and engage, older men.

 

Has your museum had particular success with older men?  To share your stories or questions, simply click on “comments” below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

February 18, 2009

Mystery Shopping at the Art Museum

Last fall Susie Wilkening was invited to guest lecture for a museum studies class at Tufts University.  Upon learning that students were asked to "mystery shop" the visitor amenities at a local museum, and write up reports, she invited the authors of the best papers to write up their experience on our blog.  Welcome to our guest bloggers, Tufts students Jeanne Koles and Sarah Marcoux.

 

The mission:  Visit the Currier Museum of Art, located in Manchester, NH, incognito and secretly analyze their visitor services.  Is it easy to find? Does it make you feel welcome?  Is the staff nice?  Are the restrooms clean?

 

The Currier Museum of Art passed our secret test with flying colors. Its use of architecture and exhibition design make visits fun and enlightening, the staff is friendly and welcoming, and yes, the bathrooms are clean. 

 

Secret shoppers are notoriously nitpicky, so in the name of over-analyzation, we have a few (very minor) complaints because greater awareness of visitor comfort, interests, and knowledge, specifically for its constituents who may be less at ease in museums, would make any museum visit even better for everyone. 

 

Getting to the Museum

Getting to the museum by car is easy, with excellent signs and directions.  The parking lot can fill up, but there is some on-street parking as well.  If you prefer public transportation, bus service is infrequent, so plan ahead.

 

Facilities

The Currier provides many amenities to make visiting easy and comfortable.  When we think of ease and comfort, we think of three things:  restrooms, food services, and seating. The two main bathrooms available in the lobby are handicapped accessible “family bathrooms”While clean and fully stocked, one did not have a changing table and it was a challenge for one surveyor to change her one-year old’s diaper. 

 

For visitors ready for a break, the Currier operates the colorful and visually exciting Winter Garden Café, a casual and comfortable in-house restaurant that offers vegetarian and kid-friendly options at affordable prices.  

 

Seating in the galleries was spotty, however.  Constant standing is uncomfortable and may be a deterrent to lengthy visits, especially for the elderly, handicapped, or those who are simply tired; the museum should consider adding more seating.

 

Staff

The Currier provides a high level of customer service.  Most staff persons with whom both surveyors interacted behaved in an incredibly welcoming and friendly manner.  The front desk employee greeted visitors with eye contact and a smile. Security guards, while an obvious presence, were unobtrusive and pleasant.  In fact, during one evaluation, more than one security guard held the door to walk into the galleries.  There was only one sour note concerning the staff.  A tour guide did not introduce herself, spoke quietly even after a visitor asked her to talk louder, and did not take off her sunglasses during the tour.  This was the exception in an overwhelmingly polite and pleasant group of people, who should be commended for their attention and thoughtfulness. 

 

Presentation of Information

The visual identity of the Currier is simple, strong, and consistently used in the website, in printed materials, on signage, and more.  The visual identity is much like the museum itself:  creative and professional without being stuffy.

 

The Currier’s website is a fantastic introduction to what the museum has to offer.  It is easily navigable and has a wealth of useful information–everything from hours and driving directions to an online database of its collections.  The website also includes a family guide with suggestions for how parents can make their visit exciting and less stressful.

 

Inside the galleries, the object labels are well lit and generally easy-to-read.  On the negative side, several of the more detailed labels are full of jargon and technical art terms.  For example, the labels include vocabulary like “organic or geometric forms.” Omitting a simple explanation in favor of a more complicated one may appear off-putting and difficult, or hold no significance for the visitor.

 

The Verdict

The Currier Museum of Art strives to offer a positive experience for its visitor before, during, and after the visit.  An appreciation for comfort, education, enjoyment, and inspiration is reflected in the design of the building, the warmth of the staff, and the exhibitions, programs, and amenities on offer.  Yet even a great museum can always be improving, and continue to be conscious of the difficulties of cracking the museum code.  The museum should continue to value visitor feedback and implement change as practicable in response to this feedback, thus keeping the savvy and critical visitor satisfied.

 

Overall, the Currier's commitment to a welcoming, enriching, fun museum experience should be applauded.  The verdict from these secret shoppers:  two thumbs up!


- Sarah Marcoux and Jeanne Koles


 

February 12, 2009

Moms, Older Men, and Audiences discussion, hosted by ASTC

Over the past couple of months we have been sharing some of our data on moms, who may not be as engaged as we would like them to be, and older men, who are highly committed (and, yes, awesome).  How can we keep core users like these happy and engaged?

To dig deeper into these critical audiences, as well as other audiences, the Association of Science - Technology Centers (ASTC) has asked Susie Wilkening, Curator of Museum Audiences at Reach Advisors, to guest moderate their February ASTC Dimensions Forum.  What does the research tell us about these audience segments?  Where do we need more research?  What are your questions?  What are your observations about these audience segments?  And have you had success engaging them? 

ASTC is inviting Museum Audience Insight blog readers to participate in the discussion, whether you work at an art museum or for history-based museums.  These audiences are important to you as well!

Discussion will run from Monday, Feb. 16 through Friday, Feb. 20, 2009, and takes place via the ASTC Dimensions Forum (which is a super-easy format for discussion). 

To enroll, contact Margaret Glass at mglass (at) astc (dot) org. And feel free to pass on word to any colleagues you feel may be interested.

February 11, 2009

The Love-Hate Relationships with Guided Tours

As we shared in a recent post, museum visitors are split right down the middle about the value of guided tours, and they have very strong opinions either way.  And while we think this issue has ramifications for museums across the board, it has the most impact on historic house museums, which tend to rely heavily on guided tours as a primary form of interpretation.

 

To delve deeper into this issue, we turned back to the results of our recent survey of Connecticut Cultural Consumers (funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council).  First, we found that Museum Advocates were more likely to prefer guided tours than Core Visitors to museums.  

 

Additionally, the type of museum on whose behalf respondents were participating made some difference; those who took the survey for historic house, art, or history museums were somewhat more likely to prefer guided tours than those who responded for science and children’s museums.  These results may have to do with visitor expectations for the kind of interpretation they often encounter at different types of museums.  However, we suspect the age of the respondent has even more to do with it.  Respondents to historic house, art, or history museums were overwhelmingly over the age of 50 – an audience that is much more likely to enjoy guided tours than younger respondents (though even here only barely more than half enjoy tours).  

 

In fact, visitors’ love-hate relationships with guided tours are most apparent among respondents of different ages and parental status.  Older audiences were far more likely to enjoy guided tours than younger ones and moms with young children were the least likely to enjoy guided tours, feeling they were not age-appropriate for their children (see graph, below). 

 

Guided Tours

 

What does all this mean?  If your museum relies on guided tours as a (or the) primary interpretation method, chances are that only a little less than half of your visitors are satisfied.  And widening your audience base to include families, for instance, may be more challenging.

 

What about the majority of museum visitors who dislike—even hate—guided tours?  What kinds of experiences might appeal to them instead of guided tours? When we asked our Connecticut respondents “If you could do whatever you wanted at a historic house museum, with no restrictions, what would you do?” among their top wishes were:

 

  • Experiencing the museum at their own pace
  • More hands-on, participatory experiences
  • Touching, or otherwise getting closer to, original artifacts
  • Consuming food and drink—historically appropriate or not
  • Participating in special or social events, either as a guest or a host
  • Extending visits to include full days, overnights, or even longer periods of time

 

A lot of these wishes are time-honored alternatives that are accepted in the field.  Some of them, on the other hand, may make the hair on the back of your neck stand up (we will be delving a little deeper into this when we talk more in depth about touching original artifacts in a later post). 

 

We would love to hear your thoughts and questions.  To share or ask questions, simply click on “comments” below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!