Creative Consumers, Extremely Creative Consumers, and Museums

 

We are delighted to welcome the inaugural article of Sally Johnstone, Senior Consultant at Reach Advisors.  Sally has extensive experience in marketing strategy and works with a variety of economic development, tourism, and community building clients at Reach Advisors.  She is also an amateur musician and enjoys taking her son, Dalton, to children's museums.  You can look forward to more posts by Sally on creativity, the arts, and Generation Y, as well as other topics, in the future.

Museums are wonderful places that share our cultural, and creative, histories.  They are also places of creative inspiration.  And so when we began the analysis of our Generation Y lifestyle research results this summer, we were intrigued to discover a very interesting group of young women (and a few men) setting new standards for creative expression.  Armed with a bedazzler, a fistful of multicolored Sharpies, and tech savvy that would put a NASA engineer to shame, this imaginative group represents 25% of Generation Y (members of the generation born after 1980).  Labeled Creative Consumers, this segment stands in sharp contrast to those at the other end of the spectrum - a segment almost as large that we've dubbed the Plain and Practical, who aren't even likely to draw a smiley face on a notebook.  As we will see, our Creative Consumers are tremendously important to museums.

The first thing we noticed was that Generation Y's definition of creativity has definitely expanded.  Creativity includes traditional activities, such as knitting, but it also includes spending hours to make a MySpace page have a very specific look. 
 
First, the attributes of the Creative Consumers:

Creative Consumers are into customization.  All of them have hand-crafted items themselves, or customized items in ways that go way beyond off-the-shelf options (by off-the-shelf, we mean a commercially available iPod case, computer wallpaper that came with the operating system, a standard MySpace template, etc.).

 

 

• Creative Consumers leave their own trademark on their belongings.  They adopt a signature icon such as Betty Boop, or a color that they consider their own, such as purple, that they use to reflect their own personal style.  They are likely to integrate photos of family, pets and friendsor with their own name into their creative works all in an effort to make everything a reflection of their unique personality
• Over 90% of Creative Consumers think that the things they own should reflect their personality, in stark contrast to just 55% of the Plain and Practical who feel likewise.  
• The Creative Consumers are three times more likely than the Plain and Practicals to want their 'stuff' to look different from everyone else's.
• The Creative Consumers are twice as likely to feel that their home should be an expression of who they are.

Creative Consumers are active and extroverted and eager to experience life:

• In their hang-outs, Creative Consumers are more likely to want to pick their own music, be outdoors, and do work or homework in the hang-out.  They are most definitely more social.
• They are twice as likely as the topline to be looking for public space to meet up with those sharing their interests and hobbies.
• Three-quarters meet up with friends somewhere other than home but indoors, compared to two-thirds of the topline, and only half of the Plain and Practical.
• Creative Consumers are nearly twice as likely to be into fitness, team sports and individual sports as the Plain and Practical.
• They are nearly three times as likely to do some form of art or craft; twice as likely to sing or play an instrument; three times as likely to blog as the Plain and Practical.
• If they are parents, their kids are twice as likely to do crafts as the Plain and Practical
• They are more likely than any other segment to enjoy visiting museums in their leisure time:  30% of the Creative Consumers do so, compared to 19% of the Plain and Practical.

Creative Consumers are more connected and active online: 

• Two-thirds of Creative Consumers are socializing while online (IM'ing, updating social networking profiles, checking on friends, emailing) compared to just half of the topline and only a third of the Plain and Practical.
• They are twice as likely as the Plain and Practical to be downloading music, etc.
• They are twice as likely to be visiting news sites online as the Plain and Practical.

 
Creative Consumers like to shop, yet are also greener:

• They are twice as likely to go shopping or travel as the Plain and Practical.
• So it is not surprising that they are twice as likely to be shopping online.
• They are twice as likely to purchase organic or local food; twice as likely to purchase things that help the environment.

 

There isn't much of a difference when comparing the Creative Consumers to the topline for most demographic measures (except gender, which skews female, like many things Gen Y).  They do not differ greatly from other Gen Ys in:

 

 

• Household income
• Education
• Age (within the parameters of Generation Y)
• Parents' education
• Marital/relationship status

 

For all that Creative Consumers are attractive and engaging young women, there's an even more interesting subset that we decided to call (in a particularly uninspired moment) the Extremely Creative Consumers.  For Extremely Creative Consumers, all of the above observations apply, albeit they feel even more strongly; for example, 97% of the Extremely Creative Consumers think that the things they own should reflect their personality, compared to 90% of the Creative Consumers.

The Extremely Creative Consumers (representing about 15% of the Generation Y women in our study) go even further to be especially artistic, unique, and original in everything they do. They draw, decoupage, collage, tear clothing apart and re-make it to express their personal style, sculpt, write poetry, blogs, fiction, create music, design websites - their activities run the gamut of creative expression accessible today.
 
Even an individual Extremely Creative Consumer's interests are truly wide-ranged, from performing arts to crafts like knitting and sewing.  Check out the list of hobbies enjoyed by this young woman from Hawaii (full disclosure: I am a card-carrying member of the International Society of Bassists).
 
Some Extremely Creative Consumers have figured out a way to profit from their creativity. Ashley Qualls, a teenager who parlayed a gift for creating custom graphics for MySpace pages into a million dollar business, was recently profiled in this case study from Fast Company magazine.

Other extremely creative consumers are not just creating their own works - they're creating documentaries and books about what others are making.  A September 3, 2008 article in the NY Times discusses Faythe Levine's upcoming feature-length documentary "Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design" and book.  (An eight-minute teaser from the documentary is available online at her website.)
 
Where is this shift coming from?  Some of it may be the democratization of expression afforded by the Internet.  Some of it is today's relative ease and cheapness with which anyone can acquire the materials needed for art and craft.  And, some of it may be a new Renaissance of creativity sparked in this generation by a multitude of technical, social, and cultural factors.
 
In the end, we have to come back to that museum number: 30% of the Creative Consumers enjoy visiting museums in their leisure time.   These bright young adults are Museum Advocates and the parents-to-be of the next generation of Museum Advocates. What can museums do to help them expand their creative horizons and foster their love of the institutions?  Some ideas:

 

 

• Provide an opportunity to gather with like-minded creative people: Creative Consumers like to gather together to practice their craft, share ideas, and socialize with others who enjoy their art. Etsy, an online marketplace for crafters, hosts a weekly Craft Night at their EtsyLabs headquarters.  Young crafters flock to Brooklyn to meet each other, learn from one another, and have a great time.  Museums could do likewise.
• Provide training: Many of the Creative Consumers are at an apprentice phase in their development.  Where else but a museum would the masters be found?  Are there programs and classes that you could offer in both historic and new techniques that would attract these young creatives?
• Provide gallery space:  Recognize their creativity by allowing them to share their work with others in your museum. 

Are you already working to engage this group of creative group of young women?  We would love to hear what you are doing!  Or if this article sparks new ideas for programming, share them as well!   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.)

 

- Sally