Museum Audience Insight

Ultra-Fun Moms and Museums

Last week, we began a series of posts about challenging and complicated moms, and we introduced the concept of the “Ultra Moms.”  These four types of moms, comprising about half of all moms in our latest study of museum-goers, were consistent in providing reasons for visiting both the museum whose survey they responded to and for visiting museums in general. (Please keep in mind that this was a study of regular museum-goers, not infrequent or non-visitors.)

 Let’s first take a closer look at what we call the “Ultra-Fun Mom.”  These moms consistently gave “fun” as a reason for visiting the museum they responded to as well as museums in general.

Of our 13,000+ moms responding to the survey, 9% of moms are Ultra-Fun Moms.  But when we examine the results by museum genre, we find some differences, with Ultra-Fun moms being:

            12% of responding children’s museum moms
            8% of science center moms
            6% of art museum moms
            5% of history-based museum moms

In an open-ended follow-up question, we asked these moms why fun at museums was important to them.  They said things like:

            “They provide a fun way to experience new things.”
            “Interactive exhibits for kids to learn, seeing my child smiling and enjoying herself."

When we examined their responses in more depth, there were certain buzzwords we kept seeing, including:  engaged, entertained, new, interactive, learning, play, and interesting.

Because respondents could choose more than one reason for visiting the museum whose survey they responded to, we can identify the secondary motivations for visiting, which for Ultra-Fun moms include learning opportunities for her children, her children love it, and family time. 

Ultra-Fun Moms are a bit younger than the average mom respondent, but she has the youngest children; over half have a child under 5.  And, like we would expect from a parent of a preschooler, she visits museums the most often of all. 

Generally, compared to other moms, these moms are happier visitors.  These moms are also more likely to say the museum is a good value, and of all moms is the least likely to be cutting back on museum visits due to the economic downturn (as we would expect again, given that the majority are parents of preschoolers). 

When visiting museums, like all other moms, she is looking for hands-on activities for her children.  But of all moms, she is the least likely to enjoy programs and events (they don’t appear to want to set their watches by activities so much as simply drop in).  Their favorite museums to visit are children’s museums, zoos and aquariums, and science centers. 

We asked respondents to tell us about their childhood museum experiences, and we found that the Ultra-Fun moms, of all the Ultra Moms, visited museums the least often as children.  Their memories of museum visits were more likely to be positive, and tended to include interactive experiences and play.  Most Ultra-Fun moms remembered visiting with one or both parents, but a third had memories of school field trips. 

Overall, we like the Ultra-Fun moms, because they come to museums often with a positive outlook that museums are fun.  If they infect their children with the same fun bug, then that is a great thing.  But we do have some concerns that these moms are coming to museums for their children to have fun, and they may not be that engaged themselves.  We’ll talk more about this in upcoming posts.

What do you think?  To share, 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.)

What US Census Data Tells Us (and What It Doesn't) . . .

In meetings and calls, we constantly hear people say how they are anxious to hear what Census 2010 will tell us.  The problem is that Census 2010 won't tell us too much more than we already know.  As you may recall when you filled it out, it was a rather short form that does little more than fulfill the Congressional mandate to get a count of the American population in an attempt to allocate government spending and representation more equitably.  It will provide a pretty accurate count of how many people live in the US, their ages, race, ethnicity, and household composition. 

The deeper stuff, however, is not found in Census 2010, but is found in other work the US Census Bureau conducts on a regular basis.  This includes the American Community Survey, an ongoing survey sent to a sample of the population that goes into much more detail than the decennial head count of Census 2010.  It also includes estimates of populations today, and projections for the future.  All of this other information is worth acting on now, rather than waiting for the release of Census 2010 data. 

 

This week brought us a wakeup call when we had to review some Census data on the Northeastern US.  You may have heard us in presentations talking about demographic shifts over the next 25 years, but here's an interesting snippet of what's highly likely to take place in the course of the current decade for one region of the country:

 

For the Northeastern US, between 2010 and 2020:

 

- The population of people between the ages of 15-24 will likely drop 11%

- The population of people between the ages of 40-49 will likely drop 17%

- The population of people between the ages of 60-74 will likely increase 29%

 

That kind of shift will unquestionably rock many markets.  The good news is that most museums aren't as dependent on audiences between the ages of 15-24 and 40-49 as other sectors are.  Even better news is that many museums are hugely dependent on audiences between the ages of 60-74.  But...will that generation have the same kind of expectations and relationship with museums as the current generation that dominates that age cohort?  If not, how will their expectations be different?  These are questions we are asking as we continue to examine museum audiences of today . . . and in the future.

 

Because future shifts in the population will have a big impact on museums, such as the continual shift to a majority-minority population, or the aging of America (such as in the example above, we’ll continue to share insights we glean from the work of the US Census Bureau. 

 

What do you think?  To share, 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.)

Moms: A Tough Audience

If you have been in any Reach Advisors’ presentation in the past few years, you probably learned that, of all visitor segments, moms with young children are the most negative.  We have been tracking this result consistently over several studies, and overall moms have been:

• Least likely to feel their needs are met
• Least likely to be a member, and when they do join, do so to save money or pay for services received
• Focused on the needs of their children, not considering their own needs, or those of their spouse/partner
• Cycling in and cycling out of museums based on what she perceives to be age-appropriate for her children
• Not engaged herself

When we pull all of this data together, it paints a picture of women visiting museums for their children, feeling it is something she has to do for her children . . . yet another chore to be done.  We even had one mom call museums “a necessary evil.”  Necessary for her children, but horrible for her to cope with. 

Yet within this group of beleaguered moms, there has always been a sub-group of moms that are engaged, interested, and relatively happy at museums.  These moms, which we have been calling “Museum Advocate Moms,” are more likely to give for philanthropic reasons, are omnivorous cultural consumers, and visit a wider variety of museums with their children.  And unlike the other moms, when her children grow up, she still goes to museums on a regular basis, instead of cycling out of museums when her children become busy with other activities. 

We have been puzzling over the challenges of engaging moms, and hypothesizing about moms (and dads as well).  So when we designed our latest study of 40,000+ museum goers, we included a specific line of questioning designed to further segment moms, helping us better understand what is going on with them.  

What did we do?  We asked respondents (including non-parents) a series of two questions.  The first question asked respondents why they visited the museum that solicited them to take the survey.  Respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer.  Then, about five questions later, respondents were asked why they visit museums in general, and were only allowed one answer (so we could learn their core motivation). 

We then filtered the responses, looking for moms who consistently gave the same reason for visiting both the museum they responded to and museums in general.  About half of moms were consistent, and we call these moms the “Ultra Moms.”  (So, for example, if a mom said she visited this museum for learning opportunities for her children, and that she visited museums in general for the same reason, we categorized her as an “Ultra-Learning Mom.”)  Overall, the ultra moms broke down as follows:

•             Ultra-Fun Moms:  9% of moms
•             Ultra-Family Time Moms:  11%
•             Ultra-Learning Moms:  22%
•             Ultra-Curious Moms:  9%

 

Over the next several posts, we’ll be exploring each mom segment in greater depth.  We’ll also touch on the other half of moms who were not consistent in their responses.  Finally, we’ll get to dads, who appear to bring a different set of values to the table.

At a museum that is not focused on serving families?  We are not forgetting about you . . . . half of our sample of 40,000+ were not parents of young children, so there will be loads more coming out about adult audiences. 

What do you think?  To share, 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.)

Kimchee Tacos and Mainstream Culture in America

One of the best questions that came out of an AAM conference session on “Reaching Latino Audiences” reflected on the accelerating pace of change of the American population.  The question was from a white woman who was clearly tuning into these issues.  Her question was something like:  "Given how the population around us is changing so quickly, what does this mean for the future of mainstream culture in America?"

 

Well, the next day, we got a taste of the future.  Dan Yaeger of the New England Museum Association, Jennifer Caleshu of the Bay Area Discovery Museum (and one of our 2010 Reach Advisors Fellows) joined Susie and me for lunch at a roving Korean taco truck.  Started by a Mexican cook and a Korean cook, the Kogi trucks (there are four, total) have managed to turn the Los Angeles culinary community upside down by blending cultures and taking it to the people.  (They park at places ranging from office complexes in the suburbs to parking lots in Koreatown during the day, to bars and bowling alleys at night.)  This may not be everyone's taste, but it's grown well beyond a little 'niche' business.  I'm guessing that these guys have built up a business approaching the $10 million/year mark, with a tiny fraction of the cost structure of most restaurant organizations serving at that culinary standard.  They’ve also triggered a lot of knockoffs up and down the West Coast (e.g., Punjab Burrito in the SF Bay Area). 

 

The audience for this specific truck ranged from Hispanic families to Korean mothers to white guys in ties.  I was only half-way kidding when I started off saying that this was a taste of the future of mainstream culture in America.  As I travel extensively across the country, I'm seeing that the last two years or so have ushered in a dramatic acceleration of a multi-ethnic presence in mainstream America.  I used to notice this in only a very small number of cities, but now, it's to the point where in most metro areas, it's starting to feel curiously odd when I'm not seeing it.  In some of our continued research on Generation Y (young adults under 30 years old), we're certainly seeing an increased attitude that ethnically homogenous environments are considered "old school" and "not real world"...even among young adults that live their physical lives in a homogenous community. 

 

We'll continue to track the trajectory and potential implications of this attitudinal shift in ongoing research and sharing snippets along way in this blog, but for those wanting to dig deeper right now, there are a few good resources worth consideration:

 

• In the AAM's continued effort to identify changes that will shape the future of museums, the Center for the Future of Museums released their latest report on Demographic Transformation and the Future of Museums at the annual conference.  This report cogently explores the implications for demographic change, and the disconnect with traditional patterns of museum visitation.  (Also, go to the CFM blog for their latest post, which also talks about the Kogi trucks!)
• Salvador Acevedo of Contemporena served on the same AAM panel that prompted the question on the future of mainstream culture in America, and he did a nice job at recapping some of the key points raised in the panel on the National Arts Marketing Project website. 
• If you want a copy of our slides that laid out some of the key points in Salvador's summary from “Reaching Latino Audiences,” just email james (at) reachadvisors.com.
• And finally, when I got back from the conference in LA, I whipped up some kimchee tacos for my half Korean, half Irish/Italian kids.  They loved them.  Just email if you want the recipe. 

What do you think?  To share, 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.)

- James