Museum Audience Insight

Research Request: Admission Fees and Attendance Trends

Based on a wave of recent inquiries about attendance trends and pricing optimization, we're sensing that attendance levels are becoming bigger concerns for many museum leaders.  For some museums, it's about stemming attendance declines, while for others, it's about rethinking how pricing can be restructured to address attendance and/or financial challenges.  As a result, Reach Advisors is launching a quick survey for museum managers to dig a bit deeper into attendance trends and pricing issues.   What concerns you about attendance trends and pricing issues?  What's been working or what's been challenging?  How can the experiences at other museums help inform upcoming decisions?  We'd love to hear from you in this 10-12 minute survey!   We will be combining these findings with some of our prior data from our previous studies, as well as in conjunction with a few projects currently underway.  We will share some of the key findings from this survey on the Reach Advisors Museum Audience Insight blog , although those who respond to this survey will be invited to participate in a deeper exchange about the findings from this survey.  (Note that all individual responses will be kept fully confidential, and only aggregate results will be shared.)    To take the survey, click here.   We'll be examining the survey data starting this Wednesday the 29th, so a prompt response would be appreciated!   If you have any additional questions or thoughts, please do not hesitate to contact Susie Wilkening at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.   Thanks so much and we look forward to sharing the results with you later this spring.     (And if you received a similar e-mail via your e-news subscription, we apologize for the duplication!)

For Curious Observers of Society . . . Reach Advisors Announces a Research Fellowship Program

Curious about something?  Noticed something new lately and wondered why it appeared?  Or have you suddenly noticed different people around you?  Different life styles?

Have you recently started doing something in a different way, and not sure why that is?  Or maybe you have noticed some trend, but cannot explain it?

If any of the above apply to you, and you just wish you had the resources to dig into it and find out why something has suddenly hit your radar screen, well, maybe a Reach Advisors Reseach Fellowship is for you.

So think about your idea and how it is affecting the consumer landscape.  It can be about museums, or not.  We're looking for perceptive individuals, and since we are all curious folks, we're open to topics from a variety of fields. 

For more information, go to http://reachadvisors.com/working-with-us/employment. 

Got MAP?

Back when I was the director of a small historical society in New York State, I was always looking for help from whatever sources I could find it.  Consultants, books, you name it and I pursued it.

Fortunately, the American Association of Museums (AAM), through a cooperative agreement with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), has a terrific program designed to help small and medium-sized museums strengthen and grow. And I am going to quite shamelessly promote it to you, our dear readers, because yes, I think it is just that important.   

The Museum Assessment Program (MAP) is designed to be a cost-effective (as in, for really tiny museums, as inexpensive as free!) way to improve museum operations and reach via three assessment programs:

• Organizational
• Collections Stewardship
• Community Engagement

In the program, museums conduct a self-study and consults with a museum professional, all to gain expertise, knowledge, and tools to help work through things from how to get your organization’s governance and operations ship-shape to advice on what to do with that collection of arsenic-laden stuffed rodents you have in the back room.  And the people I know who serve as MAP assessors are fabulous.  The best.  Curious, interested, friendly, and pragmatic. 

So no excuses.  If you are a small or mid-sized museum and could use some help, check it out.  All museum types welcome.  Go to www.aam-us.org/map to learn more, and if you want to apply, the postmark deadline is Feb. 18^th.

MAP staff at AAM are available to answer any questions at map@aam-us.org or 202-289-9118.

- Susie

Visitors? Or Audiences? Or Both?

A few days ago I was asked to distinguish between a museum's visitors and a museum's audiences.  I have to admit, the question caught me a bit short, because I (perhaps lazily) tend to use the words interchangeably.  And as a field we talk about "visitor studies" and we also talk about "audience research." 

Yet it may be important to distinguish, and so I submit to you my first draft definitions, and ask you to agree, improve, or tell me I have it completely wrong. 

• Museum visitors can be defined as individuals who physically visit a museum, participate in a program off-site, or visit virtually by viewing a website, Facebook posting, or Tweet.  These three types of visitors should be counted in three separate categories (on-site, off-site, virtual).
• A museum audience can be defined as individuals who have an interest and engagement with a museum and its offerings.  And a potential audience can be defined as individuals who may have an interest and engagement with a museum now or in the future, depending on awareness, life stage, resources, etc.

That is, I think a visitor is not necessarily an audience member, but an audience member is also a visitor.  Visitor is broad, audience is narrower, but can be expanded to include potential audiences. 

(This brings to mind the recent articles in the New York Times about how the Brooklyn Museum of Art's attendance is down, though they have made significant progress reaching out to younger, and more diverse, uhm, audiences.  Perhaps they are receiving fewer visitors but have a stronger audience base?)

What do you think?  Have I nailed it?  Want to call me out for my total ineptness in defining these terms?  Or does it really not matter?  Let me know by simply 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

Quick Reminder - Friday Deadline for Applying to Our Free Research Project

Just a quick reminder that applications to our upcoming research project are due by Friday, January 15.

If you have already applied, thank you  and we'll be in touch next week.

To apply, click here to go to our enrollment form.

And to recap what's going on:

Purpose of Study: We are digging deeper into the fundamental motivations of core visitors to museums. We want to know more about who Museum Advocates are compared to the broader audience of core visitors that we track.  And we want to know what the triggers are that bring about that lifelong curiosity and affinity for museums. How can we deeply engage our visitors to create more Museum Advocates, both now and in the future?

Research Scope: To find out more, we are launching a large-scale survey of core visitors to museums. We are looking for a lot of respondents, from a wide variety of museums, including:

• art museums
• history museums and historic sites
• natural history museums
• children's museums
• science centers
• zoos and aquariums
• botanical gardens and arboretums

How Your Museum Can Participate: Survey your e-mail list for us at the end of the month, we'll compile the data, share the topline results back with you, and provide you with your museum's results as well.

Cost to Your Museum: Nothing.

Timeline: Surveys will launch between January 26 and February 4. Results will be shared in May 2010.

Pretty much, it is that simple.

To apply, click here to go to our enrollment form.

Application must be received by Friday, January 15, 2010.  It takes about 3 - 4 minutes to fill out the application.

Participation Criteria: We will include as many museums as possible in this project, but as this is a pro bono study, we do have to limit participation. The following criteria will be utilized to create a balanced, national sample: museum type; geographic location; and museum size.

For the stability of individual museum results, we are asking that applicant museums have at least 1,000 contacts on their e-mail lists.

Questions? Contact Susie Wilkening at Susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.

Free Research Opportunity for Your Museum!

Now is your chance to participate in one of our field-wide studies. For free.

Here is the scoop:

Purpose of Study: We are digging deeper into the fundamental motivations of core visitors to museums. We want to know more about who Museum Advocates are compared to the broader audience of core visitors that we track.  And we want to know what the triggers are that bring about that lifelong curiosity and affinity for museums. How can we deeply engage our visitors to create more Museum Advocates, both now and in the future?

Research Scope: To find out more, we are launching a large-scale survey of core visitors to museums. We are looking for a lot of respondents, from a wide variety of museums, including:

• art museums
• history museums and historic sites
• natural history museums
• children's museums
• science centers
• zoos and aquariums
• botanical gardens and arboretums

How Your Museum Can Participate: Survey your e-mail list for us at the end of the month, we'll compile the data, share the topline results back with you, and provide you with your museum's results as well.

Cost to Your Museum: Nothing.

Timeline: Surveys will launch between January 26 and February 4. Results will be shared in May 2010.

Pretty much, it is that simple.

To apply, click here to go to our enrollment form.

Application must be received by Friday, January 15, 2010.

Participation Criteria: We will include as many museums as possible in this project, but as this is a pro bono study, we do have to limit participation. The following criteria will be utilized to create a balanced, national sample: museum type; geographic location; and museum size.

For the stability of individual museum results, we are asking that applicant museums have at least 1,000 contacts on their e-mail lists.

Terms and Conditions: When you apply, you will be asked to agree to the following:

• If we are selected for this project, we agree to send the survey to our e-mail list (and other lists, such as Twitter feeds and Facebook fans, if applicable) between January 26 and February 4, and that the e-mail will be a stand-alone e-mail, not part of a larger e-newsletter, in order to increase the likelihood that we build a meaningful sample size.
• We understand that Reach Advisors may contact some of our respondents for further information, for further research phases, or to award survey incentive prizes. Reach Advisors will ONLY contact respondents that volunteer contact information and grant permission for such contact. Reach Advisors will NOT utilize any gathered contact information in any other way.
• Additionally, we understand that Reach Advisors will be sharing the overall results widely with the field, but our individual results will be kept confidential.
• Finally, we agree to the survey as presented by Reach Advisors. If, upon seeing the survey, we choose not to participate in the project, we will notify Reach Advisors immediately of our withdrawal from the project.
• In return for our participation, Reach Advisors will share the overall findings with us, likely via an invitation to a presentation at a major conference or via webinar (or via webinar recording). Additionally, Reach Advisors will provide us with our quantitative results via spreadsheet, so that we may compare our results with the overall findings. Reach Advisors will make their best effort to answer further questions in a timely manner, but we understand that this is a pro bono project and their resources are limited as well.  As a pro bono project for the museum field, the focus of this study is to share insight with the entire field, and the work delivered to any individual museum will not approach the same level of our more detailed client work.

To apply, click here to go to our enrollment form.

Application must be received by Friday, January 15, 2010.

Questions? Contact Susie Wilkening at Susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.

What Type of Museum Advocate are YOU?

It’s the first Monday after New Year’s.  And we saw all those Facebook posts this morning about heading back to the office, back to the regular workweek. 

To help ease you back into your normal routine, we came up with a little bit of fun. 

Among museum professionals, there appear to be four types of Museum Advocates.  So we developed a short quiz to help you find out what type you are.  Even better, we’ll analyze the results and share them with the field in a few weeks (and disclose what types we are as well).

And best of all?  We designed some nifty prizes that we will randomly award to respondents. 

So a fun quiz, chance of a fabulous prize.  Are you game?  It takes about three minutes.

To take the quiz, go to:

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22A2YE5M69F&MAIB=1

And don’t forget . . . . Wednesday we’ll be announcing our newest research project your museum can participate in.  Look for a blog post and an e-newsletter that morning. 

Free Research Opportunity (or at least some more details)

Over the past few years, we have worked with nearly 150 museums across the country, surveying over 30,000 museum-going households about their motivations, expectations, and experiences with museums.

This research, which we have shared widely through this blog, has told us a lot about our repeat visitors.  But it has also raised far more questions. 

Now, we want to dig deeper. We want to figure out if there are certain experiences in childhood that are crucial for the development of what we call Museum Advocates.  We want to understand the different types of Core Visitors, who visit museums often but don't seem to be as engaged as we would like.  Are there ways to engage them more deeply? 

To find out more, we are launching a nation-wide research project.  We'll be looking for a lot of museums, representing a wide variety of genres and from all parts of the country, to apply to participate.  Each participating museum will invite their e-mail lists (and Twitter feeds, and Facebook fans, etc.) to take a survey, and in return, each museum will receive their results, with the overall comps for benchmarking purposes. 

Best of all, for the museums it will be free.  Free data they can use about their museum, and we'll, of course, share the overall results widely with the field.  

Look for more information via this blog, and our e-newsletter, the first week of January.  Mark your calendars so you don't miss it!

Iconic Museum Photos

We need your help.

Reach Advisors is in the midst of redesigning our website, and are looking for a couple of iconic museum photos to feature on it.  You know.  That picture that just screams "museum."  Preferably with an inter-generational group in it.  And an exhibit, objects . . . anything that a typical person would look at and instantly think "museum." 

If you have one or more photos that fit this description will you send them our way?  While we won't be able to use all the photos submitted, if we do use your photo we will let you know and give appropriate credit on the website.  And send you a free copy of our book, Life Stages of the Museum Visitor.

Send photos by Friday, October 16 to susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.

And thanks!

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.