"Are you guys market researchers or program evaluators?" It’s a question we hear often, because there has traditionally been a line between research that supports audience development and evaluation that supports program development and assessment.
In fact, we’re busy on both sides of that line, serving marketing and development departments as well as educators, program staff, and others responsible for the core “mission experiences” of learning or culture that their institutions offer. The result is better integration across internal “silos” and a shared, strategic vision of how the organization as a whole is — and how it could be — engaging its current and potential audiences.
For a more specific look at what we offer organizations like yours, skip to the corresponding page for museums, performing arts, or higher ed.
Audience Development Studies
Who’s currently attending, and what motivates their choices? Who’s not — and what’s keeping them away? Where are your highest-potential segments for growth, and how do they perceive your organization? What trends are emerging over time? How can you cultivate the next generation of donors?
- Identifying target audiences
- Awareness and perception surveys
- Social media usage & engagement research
- Psychographic and behavioral segmentation (what's this?)
- Motivation and barriers studies
- Lapsed patron/user studies
- Member/subscriber research
- Donor studies
- Underserved audiences research
- Data mining and geo-mapping (what's this?)
- Customer lifecycle research
PROGRAM Development Studies
How are people experiencing your programs and services? What measurable impacts are your offerings achieving, and how can they be strengthened? What do participants think of your next big idea — and what ideas of their own do they bring to the table?
- Satisfaction and engagement studies
- Outcomes assessment
- Feasibility studies and needs assessments
- Exploratory/"front-end" research
- Concept testing/formative feedback
- Audience brainstorming sessions
- Ethnographic research & observation (what's this?)
- Staff and stakeholder interviews
- Peer best-practices profiling (what's this?)
- Literature reviews (what's this?)
The methods we use to conduct these studies include surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and other qualitative and quantitative techniques. For more information, visit our Learning Center or give us a call.
