JAM 33 - AMA - Arts Marketing

> Qualitative research

ISSUE 33 | JANUARY 2009

Exploring qualitative research In conversation ...

An essential guide

> Fun for all the family?

> Using qualitative research to inform a segmentation system

> Think outside the white cube

Contents

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> Regulars Spotlight ………………………………………………… 3 www.a-m-a.co.uk

Research round-up ………………………………… 4 Resources ……………………………………………… 23 © Sugarfree Design > Qualitative research Exploring qualitative research ……………... 6 Case study: Fun for all the family? …… 10 Case study: Using qualitative research to inform a segmentation system …… 12

Not just focus groups

Exploring qualitative research

Fun for all the family?

Using qualitative research to inform...

In conversation...

Think outside the white cube

An essential guide to getting the best out of qualitative research … 16 Case study: In conversation ... ………… 18 Case study: Think outside the white cube …………………………………………… 20 Are we doing ‘qual’ well enough? ……… 22

This issue of JAM was guest edited

by Lisa Baxter e lisa.baxter@virgin.net JAM is published by the Arts Marketing Association 7a Clifton Court, Cambridge CB17BN t 01223 578078 f 01223 245862 e info@a-m-a.co.uk w www.a-m-a.co.uk Designed by Sugarfree Design t 020 7619 7430 www.sugarfreedesign.co.uk

JAM is published four times per annum.

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ISSN 1474-1172

Make JAM for the AMA JAM is always on the lookout for new writers with good ideas for case studies and features, especially from some of those smaller organisations out there. If you would like to contribute, please e-mail andrea@a-m-a.co.uk

JAM is available in large print or electronic format. e andrea@a-m-a.co.uk t 01223 578078 JAM is also available on the AMA website at www.a-m-a.co.uk/publications.asp

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> EDITORIAL

It’s a people thing

Spotlight on Sarah Wells

hen I was first approached to guest edit an edition of JAM focusing on qualitative research, I must admit to feeling both daunted and excited by the proposition. Daunted, because it’s such a huge topic and how on earth could I adequately cover it in one journal, and excited because now more than ever, the value and potential contribution of qualitative research to explore the question of (dare I say it) the ‘relevance’ of the arts and cultural sector has never been more real.

Now, more than ever before, we are beginning to attune ourselves more to the experiences, motivations,

I recently took over as Finance Manager of the AMA. I’ve been doing this type of work for the last five years and have a fine track record in managing finances from the inside of many an arts organisation. Before going freelance I was Executive Director of the Arches in Glasgow.

This was a tough but fantastic job, managing a busy all-year-round programme of theatre, music and clubs and keeping the building open for business during a £4m capital development. As well as dealing with shirty promoters, leaking toilets and sceptical licensing committees, I also managed the finances and I enjoyed what was often a much more straightforward and less noisy aspect of the business.

I chose to go freelance and to focus on this side of the business, still working within the cultural sector, offering practical advice and support and making sense of figures that normally make artistic eyes mist over.

I’ve been lucky to work with some great companies since then – NVA who create ‘happenings’ in the middle of nowhere, Giant who do wonderful work with children and Zentropa (Lars von Trier’s film production company) who co-produced a number of films in the UK including Manderlay and After the Wedding. I was also a specialist adviser at the Cultural Enterprise Office, running workshops and offering one-to-one advice to artists and arts practitioners setting up in business.

Here at the AMA I oversee a busy financial operation, working with the Executive Director on annual budgets and cash flow, providing the board with regular accounts information and making sure that our internal systems are effective. Things have been left in great shape so I’ve got a good starting point and a great team to work with.

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needs and perceptions of our audience. We are beginning to perceive them as the human beings they are – exploring the place, value and impact of culture in their lives and developing empathy with them and their arts experiences in order to generate resonance in the way we create, co-create, programme and market the arts.

We still have a long way to go (page 22), but as you will discover in this issue of JAM, there is some great work happening in the arts sector that I hope will inspire you to reflect on the potential contribution of qualitative research to every area of your business.

In the first feature I explore three core qualitative research techniques and how they might be applied in an arts context (page 6), Caroline Greener looks at taking a co-creational approach to mystery shopping and discussion groups with family audiences (page 10), and Gerri Morris shares the key insights gained from combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques for the Edinburgh International Film Festival (page 12).

Martyn Richards proposes an alternative approach to the commissioning process (page 16), Marge Ainsley talks to Kate Carreno about her experiences of undertaking qualitative research (page 18) and Adelaide Morris shares how she used creative techniques to generate empathy with the research proposition (page 20). Heather Maitland looks at the history and origins of qualitative research (page 4) while the spotlight falls on Sarah Wells, freelance AMA finance manager.

Lisa Baxter AMRS Arts Marketing and Qualitative Research Consultant e lisa.baxter@virgin.net w www.lisa-baxter.co.uk

Sarah Wells Freelance Finance Manager, AMA e sarah@a-m-a.co.uk JAM 33 > 3

Not just focus groups

Heather Maitland delves into the history of qualitative research

bet that when you saw the title of this issue of JAM, you thought ‘yeah, yeah, focus groups’.

Qualitative research is a lot more complicated than that. The Office for National Statistics defines it as ‘a naturalistic, interpretative approach concerned with understanding the meanings which people attach to actions, decisions, beliefs, values and the like within their social world, and understanding the mental mapping process that respondents use to make sense of and interpret the world around them’.1 The emphasis on interpretation is important – qualitative researchers don’t just report what respondents say.

Qualitative research is also a lot older than you might expect. One

I

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academic suggests that Joseph (the one in the Bible with the technicolor dreamcoat) was an early qualitative research expert: he interpreted Pharoah’s dream and from that developed a strategic marketing plan for corn.2 Historians, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, economists and ethnographers have always been interested in analysing how and why people consume stuff.

This means that market research can borrow from a treasure trove of tried and tested methods – psychological economics, anyone?

It’s not just methods that marketers borrow but whole theories, too. We use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to help us understand consumer motivations but that wasn’t what it

was intended for. Albert Maslow was a psychologist working in the 1950s to develop a humanistic framework for understanding personality, in part using studies of concentration camp survivors.

A lot of qualitative research methodology is rooted in anthropology and ethnography. In 1948, Audrey Richards wrote Hunger and Work in a Savage Tribe, exploring attitudes to food and nutrition in Bantu communities in Africa. Thirty years later, Sydney J Levy wrote Hunger and Work in a Civilised Tribe: or The Anthropology of Market Transactions which used the same methods to look at food and social status in the US.3 Ethnography is usually thought to have emerged in the first couple of decades of the twentieth century but early studies are often criticised because they take a colonial (racist) perspective. Even so, their observation-based approaches are still in use as they allow marketers to see what people actually do in a reallife context rather than what they say they do when shut in an interview room. As Philly Desai says, ‘if we’re researching toothpaste, let’s get in the bathroom’.4 The key difference between studies then and now is that researchers acknowledge that their work is just one possible interpretation of reality rather than the objective truth.

The field of linguistics has had an impact on how researchers approach observation. Peter Finch argued that we can never fully understand someone from another culture speaking another language. This means that cultures can only be

> RESEARCH ROUND-UP

explained in their own terms and any attempt at comparison just distorts them. Researchers deal with this by analysing the client’s perceptions and understanding as well as those of the consumer. By exploring the differences between them, they can help bridge the gap.5 Researchers trained in Freudian psychoanalysis played a key role in developing motivational research methodologies that explore how consumption decisions are shaped by unconscious psychological impulses.

Jungian psychoanalysis contributed the concept of the brand archetype.

Gestalt psychology has given us a better understanding of ‘insight’ – the researcher’s goal of understanding the relationship between things.6 So, ethnographic methodologies allow researchers to understand what people do. Interview techniques developed by psychoanalysts and, more recently, educational and clinical psychologists allow them to understand why they do it. Semiotics seeks to decode the signs and symbols of contemporary culture, providing the researcher with tools to understand the context that shapes those behaviours and motivations.

There has always been a tension between qualitative and quantitative research in the social sciences as well as in marketing. We want a rich, deep understanding but we also want statistical reliability and the two don’t easily mix. In the 1940s and 1950s, the focus was on the market researcher as an objective analyst trying to define the average consumer. Qualitative research therefore looked at measurable behaviours. As society developed an

understanding of individuals as diverse and differentiated, clients and researchers demanded insight, which Peter Cooper defines as ‘intuitively sensing the inner essence of things’. At the same time, complexity theory meant a shift away from ideas of linear cause and effect towards an understanding of the world as a network of relationships.

This has meant a return to motivational research methods, but this time informed by brain science.7 Technological developments such as MRI brain scans have shown us that decision-making is much less rational than previously thought. The process is largely unconscious and the senses and emotions play a key role.

Quantitative research methods tend to be better at measuring the rational and qualitative research is better at exploring emotions. This is where the projective techniques developed by psychologists come in. They use drawing, modelling, role play and story telling to bring hidden emotions to the surface – to project them.

Focus groups are just the most obvious thing that we see qualitative researchers do. They are important – Peter Cooper suggests that around half a million are carried out every year8 – but behind them is a raft of analytical techniques, all with an impeccable academic pedigree. The editor of this issue of JAM, Lisa Baxter, suggests in her article that the problem in the cultural sector is our tendency to take a narrow view of qualitative research that simply reports back to us what our audiences, visitors and participants say. We need a much richer understanding than that.

1. Definition derived from J Ritchie and J Lewis (eds), Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers, Sage, London: 2003, consulted at www.ons.gov.uk/about/ who-we-are/our-services/data-collectionmethodology/what-is-qualitative-research2. Sidney J Levy, ‘History of qualitative research methods in marketing’, The Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, Russell W Belk (ed.), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006, p. 3 3. Sidney J Levy (2006), p. 4 4. Philly Desai, The Future of Qualitative Research, Turnstone, consulted at www.turnstone-research.co.uk/ clientUpload/pdf/14.pdf 5. Philly Desai, ‘Truth, lies and videotape’, In Depth, Association for Qualitative Research, 2004 downloaded from http://www.aqr.org.uk/indepth/autumn2004/ 6. Peter Cooper, In Search of Excellence: The Evolution and Future of Qualitative Research, ESOMAR, 2007, p. 10 7. Peter Cooper (2007), p. 10 8. Peter Cooper (2007), p. 15

Heather Maitland Consultant and author e hmaitland1@aol.com JAM 33 > 5

Exploring qualitative research Lisa Baxter showcases three core qualitative research techniques and how they might be applied in an arts context 1. Focus groups A focus group involves a group of participants of similar demographics, attitudes or purchase patterns who are led through an exploration of a particular topic by a trained moderator. The aim of the encounter is to reveal insights that cannot be obtained by other research methods.

• An exploration, not an interrogation From my experience, clients who commission focus groups think they will achieve better value for money by trying to cram in as many direct questions as possible. The results might be useful in certain contexts, but the insights gained would be shallow as the researcher might only skim over the surface of the issues with no time for real exploration or insight mining.

The challenge of qualitative research is how to ‘go in deep’ to access richer insights into your user and potential user groups.

Focus groups are very good at exploring the hidden drivers critical to decision making and exploring the nature of your audience’s relationship with your organisation that they might not be cognitively aware of.

Scientists generally agree that up to 95% of decision making emanates from the unconscious mind.

Contrary to what most of us would like to believe, decision-making may be a process handled to a large extent by unconscious mental activity. A team of scientists has unravelled how the brain actually unconsciously prepares our decisions.

Even several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain.1 Therefore, if we want to try to understand people’s motivations and behaviours, we need to go beyond the conscious, rational responses that are the domain of straight Q&A-style discussion groups. In order to achieve this, a qualitative researcher has a wide variety of projective and structured techniques designed to access the more intuitive, emotive, feeling part of the brain and bring to awareness insights that have not been previously accessed.

Using an iceberg as an obvious analogy, straight Q&A-style discussion groups ‘harvest’ rational thoughts from the surface of the mind. Focus groups are more like a submarine exploring the submerged depths, shining a light on the previously hidden, ‘mining’ for insights.

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> FEATURE

• Putting you in touch with the humanity of your marketplace Focus groups can be used to explore people’s attitudes, perceptions, needs, beliefs and values. They can help you understand your audience’s personal cultural map, motivations and barriers to attendance, and provide insights into your organisation’s place in their world and where you sit in relation to the competition. They can help you appreciate what role the arts and your work in particular plays in the creation of their social world and personal identities. The resulting insights provide you with a much more sophisticated user focus, putting

you in touch with the humanity of your marketplace. You can use that knowledge to build stronger, more resonant relationships with your audience, shape their arts experience and influence behaviour.

Focus groups are an important business tool that can be employed to inform many areas of your business such as branding, programme development, segmentation, customer orientation and communications.

They can work hand in hand with quantitative research too, either by scoping issues prior to or fleshing out issues that arise from a survey.

• It’s not about specifics Of course, nothing’s perfect and focus groups do have their shortcomings.

For a start, they are unquantifiable and as such cannot provide statistical validation. Their value is indicative rather than definitive, exploratory rather than conclusive. They are largely ineffective at exploring the specifics of a past experience because people remember things in different ways and what they say they do might be different from the reality.

JAM 33 > 7

> FEATURE

2. Observational research Observational research involves observing a location and what people do in that location. It really comes into its own when the focus needs to be on actual rather than remembered behaviour. The value of observation is its immediacy, bringing you closer to the context of the user experience, at the time and place it was intended.

Used extensively within the museums and galleries sector, observational research can be used to plot the movement and flow of people through a gallery or museum space. It can also be used to observe behaviours, group dynamics and degrees of involvement with a particular activity, label or exhibit.

Observers could sit in a fixed location to study how visitors move and behave within a given space or they could be ‘attached’ to an individual or group and observe the dynamics and journey of their whole visit.

• Jumping to the wrong conclusions While observational research offers valuable information about visitor behaviour, the results offer only a partial, ‘external’ and highly subjective picture. Observers could draw the wrong conclusions because while they can plainly see how people behave, what they cannot appreciate is why.

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What can you observe here?

Have a think and then see below.

Were you right?

• It’s good to talk A simple way to find out about the ‘whys’ behind behaviour is to combine pure observation with subject interaction. Talk to the people you are observing. Test out your assumptions and explore their behaviour and experiences from their point of view. You can do this very simply using visitor intercepts, post-visit discussions or accompanied visits. Exploring a person’s experience in situ enables you to ‘get into their head’ rather than taking what you see at face value.

With the museums and galleries sector, observational research has been used to inform a wide variety of issues such as museum layout, exhibition design, the intellectual and physical access of exhibits and interpretation, revenue maximisation through retail outlets, and customer orientation, and, increasingly, to evaluate the degree and types of visitor engagement. Its potential applications within a performing arts venue could include positioning of display and sales information, flow management at busy times and improving the audience’s ‘social’ experience of the venue.

3. Creative idea generation Creative idea generation usually involves one or more facilitators working with a group of people (staff, stakeholders, users) to apply fresh thinking to an organisational issue or opportunity. The goal is applied innovation.

The six key steps to a productive creative idea generation session are: Incubation: a pretask that gets participants in the correct frame of mind for the day so they are not coming into a creative session cold.

Define the problem: achieve clarity about what the key objective of the session is to inform relevant idea generation.

Idea generation: using the key ‘rules’ of traditional brainstorming,2 generate as many ideas as possible.

Cluster, theme and select: organise the ideas into relevant themes or clusters in order to identify the most promising ones.

Evaluation: evaluate the best ideas against agreed criteria.

Action plan: preparation of action plans to carry the idea forward, starting with ‘What can I do tomorrow to make this idea happen?’

Most idea generation sessions start to slow down after about 10–20 minutes when participants ‘hit a wall’.

This ideas ‘impasse’ is where the real creativity begins. A skilled facilitator

will have a toolkit of stimulus techniques designed to jump-start fresh ideas and get everyone’s creative juices really flowing.

The value of creative idea generation is that it revitalises your thinking by giving you the space and time to approach an issue or opportunity creatively and arrive at innovative solutions. In the process, it can energise your organisation, encourage team building and provide a dynamic forum to co-create ideas with stakeholders and user groups.

• Giving insight the best start in life Most importantly, creative idea generation can be used to bring insight to life. Every research project would benefit from culminating in a creative idea generation session designed to think laterally around the lessons learnt and develop innovative strategies to put those insights into action. You can use it to inform programme and service innovation, shape and develop exciting brand experiences, solve practical and strategic problems, develop inspiring values, missions and aspirations, strengthen your competitive advantage and devise imaginative, creative marketing campaigns. The sky’s the limit.

In conclusion What I hope I’ve achieved through this introduction to some aspects of qualitative research is to demonstrate how different techniques can be used to deliver different kinds of insights and results, and how valuable they are when applied as decision-making tools. What is important in all of these is the role of the participant as an active agent in the research process, helping to shape our understanding through joint exploration rather than treating them as respondents you throw questions at or subjects you gaze at from afar.

1. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/ 2008/04/080414145705.htm 2. www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/ brainstormingrules.html

Lisa Baxter AMRS Arts Marketing and Qualitative Research Consultant e lisa.baxter@virgin.net w www.lisa-baxter.co.uk

JAM 33 > 9

Fun for all the family?

Caroline Greener takes a co-creational approach to mystery shopping and discussion groups with family audiences udiences North East (ANE) was commissioned by Arts Council England, North East in May 2007 to coordinate a regional family-friendly initiative, with a particular focus on visual arts organisations. We developed a programme of research, training and consultation which took place over twelve months and involved cultural organisations throughout the area.

Each strand of the project had a co-creational perspective, aimed at equipping organisations with the skills and knowledge to build strategies that foster the development of products and services in conjunction with family audiences.

Central to the project was Arts Council England’s family-friendly toolkit, which contains case studies, examples of good practice and an audit template that can help an organisation as a mapping and planning tool.

The first phase of the project was dissemination of the toolkit, including training in its use. We conducted internal audits with participating organisations, asking them to look closely at what they offered families in terms of customer care, access/ facilities, marketing/communications and programming.

It was important then to ‘test’ the results of the organisations’ internal audits. Mystery shopping, combined with discussion groups, would mean that we would be left with a compelling set of individual reports, as well as a broad overview of what families want and don’t want from cultural experiences, which we could disseminate widely as a piece of regional market intelligence. The audit

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In addition, the co-creational approach meant that the families felt more invested in the process, not just as ‘respondents’ but as advisers and advocates for family friendliness

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template within the family-friendly toolkit was adapted into a mystery shopping questionnaire, so that the internal and external perceptions could be easily compared.

Adopting a broad and inclusive definition of ‘family’, we spread the net wide when it came to recruiting our mystery shoppers, in order to attract a wide socioeconomic and geodemographic variety of people.

Using our extensive network of regional community group contacts and our listings website whatsonnortheast.com to advertise the project, we soon had twelve families eager to take part, ranging from single-parent families to extended families including grandparents, aunts and uncles.

The families were initially invited to introductory sessions, which involved training in mystery shopping techniques. They were also provided with opportunities to engage in detailed discussions about what families want and don’t want from a cultural experience. Children and young people were placed at the centre of the process and made aware that their opinions were valued. As far as possible, we split the families into age groups and planned introductory sessions with programmes suitable for the age ranges in attendance.

The training strand of the project included practical skills workshops which were themed around creative consultation techniques for children and young people, and we also used these techniques in the introductory sessions for the qualitative research strand. In retrospect, we could have made even more use of creative

> CASE STUDY

Family-friendly activities take centre stage at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland © Colin Davison

consultation techniques such as graffiti walls, giant doodles, creating dream catchers, ideas trees and so on.

We found that these methods were more empowering and engaging for our younger co-researchers than more traditional discussion techniques.

Each participating organisation received visits from three mystery shopper families during the summer months of 2007. Most families visited three or more venues, so it was quite a big time commitment to then attend final debriefing sessions about each venue.

Overall, however, the feedback sessions were well attended by our enthusiastic and committed families.

A logistically easier alternative would have been to hold feedback sessions on a family-by-family basis but, despite the benefits of this methodology, it would have meant the loss of the cross-familial debates that took place and added so much to the research as a whole.

The depth of the feedback discussions meant it was possible to highlight key findings and areas for consideration, both for individual organisations and the sector as a whole, thereby widening the impact of the work.

‘It was very useful to have the mystery shopper part of the process as this confirmed some items we expected but crucially threw up a number that we had not considered ...

Most of these items we are already acting on and others, as a result of involvement in the FF initiative, will now add into our projected future programme.’ Peter Sharpe, Curator, Kielder Art and Architecture In addition, the co-creational approach meant that the families felt more invested in the process, not just as ‘respondents’ but as advisers and advocates for family friendliness.

Equally, arts organisations recognised the value of this approach and the deeper insights it provided into customer behaviour.

Although time consuming and logistically challenging, the ANE family-friendly mystery shopper exercise provided a wealth of qualitative intelligence, and has resulted in a dedicated, enthusiastic and knowledgeable ‘bank’ of trained mystery shopper families – a valuable resource for the North East’s cultural sector that’s already being tapped into by venues keen to find out how to attract and retain family audiences.

The Family Friendly Toolkit is available to download from the Arts Council England website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/ publication_detail.php?rid=0&sid=&br owse=recent&id=578 Audiences North East has published a report on the North East Family Friendly initiative and this is available to download from the ANE website: www.audiencesnortheast.org.uk/ audience-developmentdownloads.html

Caroline Greener Marketing Manager, Audiences North East e caroline.greener@ audiencesnortheast.org.uk JAM 33 > 11

Using qualitative research to inform a segmentation system Gerri Morris shares the key insights gained from combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques for the Edinburgh International Film Festival orris Hargreaves McIntyre is an arts management and research consultancy.

We have an in-house research facility and are unusual in that we deliberately combine qualitative and quantitative research.

Traditionally the sector makes a distinction between qualitative and quantitative research. Quantitative surveys are robust but limited in scope. Qualitative techniques produce rich but unquantifiable insights. Many of our projects require that we make sense of our clients’ world for them, providing them with insights into their market that enable them to plan strategically from a position of deep understanding of their audience’s motivations, needs and wants.

In order to provide this insight Morris Hargreaves McIntyre’s approach deliberately breaks down the artificial divide between quantitative and qualitative data.

We use a process that enables us to synthesise the qualitative views, or motivations, of many visitors into a range of quantitative measures.

Our bridge between the two types of research is modelling. Essentially, we gather as many qualitative responses as possible using a battery of creative techniques. We then analyse, pattern, classify and structure this data into models of visitor motivation, behaviour and response.

We then use these models to generate quantitative survey questions that can accurately measure these

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Quantitative surveys are robust but limited in scope. Qualitative techniques produce rich but unquantifiable insights.

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motivations, behaviours and responses. This intelligence is used to distil and clarify findings into realworld strategies to help our clients develop new and existing audiences.

An example of this merging of qualitative with quantitative data is the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Several years ago we were asked to undertake a full audit of the festival’s marketing activity which included conducting research into their existing and potential audiences. This entailed using a battery of techniques which included an attender survey, a population survey, depth interviews and focus groups. The quantitative and desk research helped us identify a number of behavioural factors that seemed to point to important strategic issues in relation to marketing the festival and selling tickets. It was obvious that we needed to understand the differences between people who booked in advance and people who bought tickets on the door, and between highly frequent attenders and one-off attenders.

Depth interviews and focus groups with festival attenders disclosed that the essential difference between groups of visitors, which determined their levels of frequency and the way in which they engaged with the festival, was their attitude towards taking risks.

The openness to taking risks as opposed to a cautious mentality or risk aversion emerged as the main definer in a segmentation system that we developed for the festival.

> CASE STUDY

The openness to taking risks as opposed to a cautious mentality or risk aversion emerged as the main definer in a segmentation system that we developed for the festival.

Risk segments Risk level

Segment

Segment description

High

Risk Taker

Willing to try films without knowing what to expect and without much prior recommendation

Medium

Cautious Gambler

Willing to choose films without necessarily knowing what to expect but where there is a familiar actor, director, studio etc., or friends or reviewers have recommended it

Low

Safety First

Willing to only choose established films, where they know what to expect, and stick to familiar names that have been consistently recommended

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> CASE STUDY

The segmentation system presented eight distinct audience segments.

1999 / 2003 segments Attitude to risk

Segment

Segment description

Risk Takers

Vocationals

Customers with a professional or personal involvement in film

Avids

Customers with a very high frequency attendance (11+ screenings)

Confident Selectors

Customers aged 25+ with high frequency attendance (3–10 screenings)

Conscious Image Builders

Customers aged under 25 with high frequency attendance (3–10 screenings)

Mainstream Selectors

Customers with high frequency attendance (3–10 screenings)

Open Minded Samplers

Customers with low frequency attendance (2 screenings)

One-Off Incidentals

Customers with very low frequency attendance (1 screening)

Arthouse Strangers

Customers who had not attended any arthouse screenings in past 12 months

Cautious Gamblers

Safety First

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By combining the qualitative data with the quantitative data we were able to measure the size of these segments and their relative value to the festival

The risk-taking segments saw more films and booked further in advance than their more cautious counterparts.

By combining the qualitative data with the quantitative data we were able to measure the size of these segments and their relative value to the festival.

A marketing strategy was developed that had the objectives of boosting income by selling more tickets by encouraging more advance booking and increasing average frequency by encouraging more people to take more risks with the films they booked for.

The qualitative research helped the festival to understand what the various segments needed from the festival: Cautious Gamblers needed helpful signposting to the more obscure films in the brochure; matching of obscure films with more mainstream films; a website that helped bookers make a selection that included films they might not otherwise consider; helpful sales staff who encouraged them to see more films on the basis of what they were choosing.

In monitoring the impact of the new marketing strategy over the next few years the following results were apparent: 59% of bookers influenced by ‘If you like this then try ...’ approach in brochure and website; people booking for 3–10 films up by 87%; people booking for 11+ films up by 97%; ticket sales up 47%.

The strategy had worked and the key to this was deep insight into

the audiences, their motivations and their needs.

This year the festival has moved from its August slot where it formed part of the general orgy of festivals in Edinburgh to a solo slot in June.

This has generated the need to revisit the segments and explore the extent to which these have changed and whether any new segments have emerged in the interim or as a result of the move.

This required a new mixture of qualitative research to explore motivations, behaviour and attitudes towards the festival and the programme.

The result was a slightly modified segmentation system with a new group of locally based ‘Social Dabblers’ who had a more casual relationship with the festival. The qualitative research ensured that we challenged a number of assumptions regarding the audience, which we were then able to confirm through the quantitative data.

This insight, borne of a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, will inform the new marketing strategy for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

‘The method of psychographic profiling has become embedded as the norm ... it continues to work for us and for our audiences.’

Ginnie Atkinson, Edinburgh International Film Festival

Gerri Morris Director, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre e gerri.morris@lateralthinkers.com w www.lateralthinkers.com

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An essential guide to getting the best out of qualitative research Martyn Richards proposes an alternative approach to the commissioning process 1. Turn the accepted model on its head Currently, the accepted wisdom in terms of commissioning any kind of research is: • identify your problem • write a brief • send it out to tender • select an agency or research consultant on the basis of their proposal.

The real danger of the current modus operandi is the supplier gets told what to do; the client gets an anodyne set of findings; the supplier walks away, job done; leaving you to try to fit what’s been given to you to the needs of your business. I suggest turning the established model on its head. Select your researcher first.

2. Select your researcher first By choosing who you want to work with up front, the process of defining a brief and working up the research design can be done together.

Through you, the agency or person you select will understand the culture of your organisation, and the context within which the research is to be set.

If they’re good they will be feeding into your marketing thinking long before the first debrief.

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3. Sourcing potential researchers Ask others in similar roles to you.

Ring a few up and ask them who they’ve used, whether they would recommend them and why. Type qualitative market research and your local city/town name into Google and see who comes up, or search on the Association of Qualitative Research (AQR) or Independent Consultants Group (ICG) websites.1 4. Check credentials Your potential researchers will probably have a website. Look who they have worked for and give them a call.

Are they members of the AQR or Market Research Society (MRS)?

As member-organisations you won’t get specific endorsement but membership at least shows application to the industry.

There is no ‘stamp’ that guarantees a quality of consultancy. What you get with an MRS trademark assigned to your research provider is a confidence that the researcher or agency you use is committed to professional standards, aware of guidelines in key areas, personally bound by that strict Code of Conduct, kept in touch with industry trends and developments and compliant with the Data Protection Act of 1998.

5. Good recruitment If recruiting from your own database, ensure your data collection and usage are compliant with data protection guidelines. For example, have your users provided informed consent to be contacted for market research purposes? Is your organisation registered as a data processor with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)?2 If recruiting external to your own database, there are a number of professional agencies who can provide recruitment services for you.

Try the AQR website www.aqr.org.uk for details.

6. Don’t cut corners Arts organisations have historically spent as little as they felt they could ‘get away with’ in terms of commissioning research. While this is understandable with limited budgets, the paying of incentives should not be scrimped on.

The accepted practice in qualitative research is to incentivise or reward respondents for their participation.

Most often this is in the form of cash, at a level that represents a ‘Thank you’; the going rate for focus group attendance is around £30. The provision of an incentive gives the researcher greater confidence that

the respondents will attend on the night and the ability to control the size of the group, by ‘paying off’ additional attendees, recruited to ensure a full complement.

Beware the corner-cut which is giving vouchers or tickets for your organisation. It may appear to be a cost-saver, but not if it fails to ensure attendance by all, especially if you are wanting to learn about the feelings and attitudes of non-attenders.

7. Overview In the world of qualitative research, the key elements to providing you with a good job are: • knowing that the respondents in the survey are the people you want to hear from: – good researchers will use reliable recruiters who are fastidious in ensuring they get the right people for the brief • peace of mind that the respondents used in the survey do not feel in any way taken advantage of or misused before, during or after the process • knowing that the researcher understands the issues and has the skills required to use the interviews with customers to aid the requisite business decision.

1. www.aqr.org.uk www.indepconsultants.org 2. www.ico.gov.uk

Martyn Richards FMRS, Qualitative Research Consultant e martyn@martynrichards research.com w www.martynrichards research.com

JAM 33 > 17

In conversation ...

Marge Ainsley talks to Kate Carreno about her experiences of undertaking qualitative research

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our years ago when the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA) was closed to the public for major refurbishment, it wasn’t just building work happening behind their closed doors. Taking advantage of the space available, part of the SCVA became a test bed for evaluating the physical and intellectual accessibility of the former and proposed displays. Coincidentally, the planning for the redisplay and research took place as the Disability Discrimination Act (2005) was coming into force, which made it an even timelier piece of work.

The redisplay was being designed

by George Sexton Associates (GSA), an international museum, exhibition and architectural lighting design practice which had worked on Sainsbury Centre displays since the building first opened in the 1970s. For this research, GSA mocked up display cases, complete with 3D ‘life-size’ models of objects of various shapes

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and sizes, wall-mounted cases and shelving, and a table case and chairs.

OPERA, a Norwich-based market research agency, was commissioned to consult with a range of key audiences, to test whether these new designs provided ‘access for all’.

Led by Martyn Richards, now a qualitative consultant, the research featured a number of respondents from members of the public and representatives of specialist organisations. They were allowed to wander through the display, during which photos were taken to illustrate key behaviours. Afterwards, they were interviewed, both in terms of their attitudes to the display cabinets and the reasons for their behaviour.

I talked to the then Deputy Director, Public Services and Administration, Kate Carreno (now Assistant Director, Central Services, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) about her experiences of qualitative research.

James Dexter, Disability Co-ordinator at UEA, ponders the proposed new display cases (GSA)

Have we got the height right? (GSA)

> CASE STUDY

An innovative solution to displaying very small objects in an accessible way (GSA)

MA: What benefits did you gain from choosing this particular methodology?

KC: As we were in the unusual position of being able to do the research onsite while closed (albeit in a corner of what was still a building site at that point), we benefited from ‘real’ testing.

We could observe how the participants reacted in the actual space, as well as interview them. We gained a lot from just watching their behaviour.

MA: Were there any concerns held by staff prior to the research?

KC: Design and display are part of the SCVA’s original vision and lie at the very heart of our identity. There was some nervousness that the research results might undermine or even threaten this. I worried that we might not be able to implement some of the recommendations if they were at odds with the core design vision.

I have to say these concerns were never expressed by the designers, GSA, who were really happy to engage with the process.

MA: Was there anything that surprised you about the research findings?

KC: One of the most pleasant surprises was how positive the participants were about our decision to stay with the original vision. They were also pleased we were doing the research into accessibility in the first place.

MA: What impact did the research have on the redisplay and the organisation?

KC: As well as providing a better experience for those visiting the new

displays and helping us to identify improvements, it got the team to think more about the needs of visitors. Putting visitors at the heart of what we do is now an important concern in the design of our current temporary exhibitions.

MA: How did you disseminate the research findings? What worked best?

KC: The research agency presented to the SCVA management team, Chair of the SCVA board and the redisplay steering group. An article about the research was included in Exhibit, the magazine that we produced and distributed to our visitors and stakeholders while we were closed.

The research findings were also shared with our new front-of-house team as part of their induction. This helped them answer any questions from visitors once we reopened about why we’d done certain things with the redisplay.

MA: Did you learn anything new as a client about this kind of research?

KC: Focusing a visitor research project on aspects of display and design was new territory for us.

It was initially quite a scary prospect to be championing it in a very design-led environment. However, it gave staff much more of a sense of shared ownership of the redisplay, and also meant that we could refer back to it when we got the (very occasional) negative comment from visitors. There certainly isn’t anything I would have done differently if I was to do this type of research again.

MA: What tips would you give others who are thinking about whether to do qualitative research?

KC: 1. Go for it! 2. Include costs for conducting qualitative research in the overall project budget. 3. Select a researcher who understands your organisation. 4. Reassure those who might be nervous about it by involving them in the planning of the research, writing the brief and the selection of the consultant. 5. Share the results with stakeholders.

MA: Have the benefits of the project justified the financial investment in the research?

KC: Definitely, the cost of this research was a small percentage of the overall cost of the redisplay, and worth every penny.

Links SCVA www.scva.ac.uk GSA www.gsadc.com Martyn Richards www.martynrichardsresearch.com DDA (2005) www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2005/ ukpga_20050013_en_1 With thanks to Kate Carreno, Sally Goldsmith and Martyn Richards.

Marge Ainsley AMRS Freelance arts marketer and AMA’s Northwest Member Rep e marge@margeainsley.co.uk JAM 33 > 19

Think outside the white cube Adelaide Morris shares how she used creative techniques to generate empathy with the research proposition

he Arts Service at Hampshire County Council has recently begun the process of writing a visual arts strategy. It wants to create a thriving environment for the visual arts and in order to do this it is investigating the three key areas of the sector: exhibition space, artist and audience. amh has been working with Arts Service to review the ecology of current visual arts provision and to begin to explore the role of non-gallery spaces in delivering to existing gallery visitors (engaged) and in developing new audiences for visual art (unengaged).

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So, how was this done?

An intrinsic part of the exploration was to understand, through qualitative research, what relationship the engaged and unengaged could have with exhibitions in non-traditional venues. Thus tasked, I turned to Wendy Gordon’s work in this field1 for inspiration and guidance – added the instinct that flies from experience – and a plan emerged: a creative 20 > JAM 33

projective technique to access the participants’ intuitive emotions, to awaken and access new insights. The research participants would be invited to create their own sculptural artworks, then discuss potential non-gallery spaces where they would like them exhibited. The aim was to encourage a deeper level of engagement with the notion of art in non-gallery spaces through an indirect projective technique which would access deeper, more intuitive responses.

But why, if a client was interested in understanding an audience perspective, would participants be invited to become artists? I found the answer embedded in the question: to move them from being passive receptors to active participants; – active participation being the key to creating empathy with the subject.

And that is where the crux of this article lies – in the absolute faith that we all, as arts professionals, need to place in instincts that are founded on training, experience and knowledge of our own abilities. In qualitative research, confidence is best applied

in breaking through the surface tension that exists between thinking and doing, participant and facilitator.2 As Gordon says, ‘there are no hardand-fast rules as to how to introduce projective and enabling techniques’.3 But what is significant in gaining insight is that we have the confidence to use techniques that access the more emotional, intuitive responses and move away from models of direct questioning that may not give us authentic responses. It is OK to try new things, not because they’re new but because they are the right thing for a particular research problem.

What made it work?

The groups were run in a new white cube gallery at Winchester Discovery Centre; – a creative space hosting a Crafts Council touring exhibition, Object as Muse. A private view in these attractive modern surroundings engendered a growing confidence in the participants. This added to the sense of value they felt was being invested in them as gradually the outside world faded away. Thus a

> CASE STUDY

context was set for the evening’s work. So, armed with confidence in their sense of value, they moved on to ‘the projective technique’.

The exercise was designed to elicit views on how they perceived an imaginary audience would receive their work in different settings, which of course would be self-reflexive of their own views. One of the aims of inviting these ‘inner stories’ was to entertain and relax the participants but, more usefully, to create empathy with the subject, to act as an example of personal thought. The fiction of the inner stories that participants told created the consciousness of a new perspective simply because they’d been asked to think about the situation in this indirect way.4 And what were the outcomes?

Speaking about the findings, Jo Montague, Arts Project Officer, Hampshire County Council says: ‘The findings of this research are a starting point in ascertaining which non-gallery sites might be suitable spaces for exhibiting visual art and

what the challenges might be in exhibiting outside the gallery. One of the key findings from this work is that the participants felt that any art work not in a white cube space should be site specific and refer to its surroundings as the art work will always be interpreted in relation to its context.

Furthermore, others felt that there could be a conflict between the art and the building or site and that the artist’s involvement was considered to be fundamental to the success of an exhibition. It also highlighted that some participants felt that the gallery can hold potential barriers to making the visual arts more accessible but suggested ways in which these barriers could be managed.

This information is extremely valuable in understanding the audience and gives us an important structure in which to build part of the developing strategy which is looking at opportunities to programme outside of the gallery.’

1. Wendy Gordon Good Thinking: A Guide to Qualitative Research, Admap Publications, 1999.

2. Adherence to Market Research Society’s rigorous Code of Conduct ensures integrity is built into the process through rigorous preparation which removes undesirable variables.

3. While respecting the individuals who have given up their time to help you solve a problem.

4. Often having symbolic and psychological significance for the teller.

Adelaide Morris AMRS Research Manager, amh e adelaide.morris@hants.gov.uk w www.amhonline.org.uk JAM 33 > 21

> FEATURE

Are we doing ‘qual’ well enough?

Lisa Baxter touches on some of the issues facing qualitative research in the arts ecent developments in Arts Council England’s priorities bring with it a shift in focus towards understanding better the nature of the audience’s relationship with the arts. Qualitative research has a vital role to play in this, but are we up to the job as commissioners of research and research practitioners? My contention is that we are not . . . yet.

The arts community needs to wake up to the realisation that the commercial sector has been aware of and capitalised on for over 50 years – that if you want a successful business strategy, create and provide appealing product, develop meaningful brands, nurture customer loyalty and maximise sales, you need to find out what makes your existing and potential audience tick. Qualitative research is the only form of public engagement that can access rich, deep, actionable insights about your audiences and stakeholders in this respect. So why do so few arts organisations seek it out and why are so many resistant to it?

From my experience, and that of my peers, a key factor is the apparent low understanding and appreciation of the role and value of qualitative research within the arts sector as a whole. This is largely because there hasn’t been a policy-driven need for it. Consequently, qualitative research has remained peripheral, perceived as an expensive luxury rather than an essential business tool.

The resulting price sensitivity means there are those who commission qualitative research on the basis of cost rather than value, opting for the cheapest rather than the best. What suffers in the long run is excellence, because without the

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demand for excellence, where is the drive to deliver it?

Qualitative research delivered from within the arts sector is in its infancy and there is a shortage of suitably qualified practitioners. Add to this the worrying trend of researchers and consultants offering ‘qualie-type stuff’ to clients (albeit well meant) when they don’t have the requisite skills, experience or training, and what you have is the very real danger of the ‘dumbing down’ of qual practice and the negative impact of that on the quality of the research delivered. We deserve better than that, and to ensure standards we need to focus on credentials, not cost.

So, if you have the credentials and competencies to conduct qualitative research (e.g. appropriate training, MRS membership or rigorously follow the industry standards compulsorily set down by the Market Research Society for its members through its Code of Conduct), state them and raise the bar of client expectations. If you don’t, don’t offer qualitative research. It’s an area of expertise, not an add-on.

More and more artists, programmers and curators are looking to their audiences for insight and inspiration.

Increasingly, marketing departments are seeking to understand how their organisation and outputs are experienced and perceived from the audience’s perspective. There are a growing number of fledgling arts sector qualitative researchers who are becoming switched on to the value and potential of ‘qual’.

With so much potential, and a policy shift that requires a more sophisticated understanding of audiences and publics, steps need to be taken,

through appropriate training and dissemination, to develop both practice and understanding so that researchers and arts clients can work effectively together through excellence in qualitative research practice. Potential advocates and/or training providers include the AMA, TMA, ITC and audience development agencies.

So who’s going to get the ball rolling?

Lisa Baxter AMRS Arts Marketing and Qualitative Research Consultant e lisa.baxter@virgin.net w www.lisa-baxter.co.uk

We would like to know what you think ... if you have any thoughts or comments on this, please e-mail helen@a-m-a.co.uk

> RESOURCES

Resources Wendy Gordon Good Thinking: A Guide to Qualitative Research Admap ISBN 1-84116-030-X

Russell W Belk (ed.) The Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing Edward Elgar Publishing

Hy Mariampolski Ethnography for Marketers: A Guide to Consumer Immersion Sage Publications ISBN 0-7619-6947-0

Philly Desai The Future of Qualitative Research Turnstone, consulted at www.turnstoneresearch.co.uk/clientUpload/pdf/14.pdf

David L Morgan and Richard A Krueger The Focus Group Kit Sage Publications ISBN 0-7619-0760-2

Peter Cooper In Search of Excellence: The Evolution and Future of Qualitative Research ESOMAR

Sheila Keegan Re-Defining Qualitative Research within a Business Context VDM Verlag DR Muller ISBN 3836474174

We are a design consultancy specialising in the arts and cultural sectors. We create great design which turns heads, grabs hearts and inspires audiences to attend the arts more often.

To find out more about our work or to order a copy of our brochure, contact us at: T. 0191 261 9894 anya@sumodesign.co.uk www.sumodesign.co.uk

JAM 33 > 23

ADVERTORIAL

Green light for Sustainable Communication Audience Engagement, Social Media Optimisation, Customer Relationship Management: just a few of the strategic terms now available from the lexicon of the modern arts marketer. or the last year London Calling has been roadtesting Sustainable Communication, a new, green addition to the marketing toolkit in partnership with the Arcola Theatre and the Arcola Energy project. Like all new initiatives this is a journey rather than a finished product, and it's our hope to share this story with you in this column over the next three issues of our sponsorship of JAM. In recent years the term sustainability has become synonymous with the Green movement, the challenge of managing current demand for resources and the need to ensure our actions now benefit the lives of future generations.

Arts and cultural audiences are increasingly aware of environmental issues. The idea of seeking new, greener ways to engage with those audiences is both a call to action and a strategy for influencing marketing operations and suppliers while ensuring there is no loss in effectiveness.

For example, London Calling handles about 24 million leaflets a year, and while we're not seeing any downward trend in volumes we are taking steps to minimise the carbon footprint of our services.

Working with Arcola Theatre's Executive Director Dr Ben Todd, who has successfully combined creative and sustainability responsibilities for this East London

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venue, London Calling is also devising and testing a package of measures that unite sensible green changes with audience knowledge to make every part of the marketing mix work harder and greener.

At the heart of this sustainability initiative lies the need to successfully deliver environmentally friendly marketing campaigns. We believe this is a commitment we share with our clients.

Communication is the key to this success, and you can follow our progress here in JAM and at www.londoncalling.com/sustainability and www.arcolaenergy.com.

We would love to hear of any thoughts, feedback or success stories from our peers as we go and look forward to continuing the story next issue.

Tom Hunter Head of Sales, London Calling e tom@londoncalling.com w www.londoncalling.com

The idea of seeking new, greener ways to engage with audiences is both a call to action and a strategy for influencing marketing operations and suppliers while ensuring there is no loss in effectiveness.

Let us know what you think about this and other topics on Have your say at www.a-m-a.co.uk