Bringing museum audience segmentation to life
Museums Victoria (MV) categorizes their visitors into "segments" based on their motivations for attending the museums. This can help staff better understand and address unique visitor needs. The organization needed an engaging way to train employees about segmentation, so our group researched the process of segmentation generally and in MV specifically; investigated practices for creating effective training videos; created content for six videos through categorizing and interviewing museum visitors; designed explanatory graphics; and then produced the six videos and graphics, which will be used in staff training sessions. An Interactive Qualifying Project submitted to the faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science Audience Segmentation: The Future of Museums Museum employees keep the museum running smoothly, but more importantly, they serve as the face of the museum, connecting visitors to the organization (Figure 1) In order to strengthen the museum's connection to its visitor audience, the staff has to be well educated on what their visitors need. They must know how to engage each visitor based on his or her unique reasons for visitation. One effective way of understanding this is by grouping visitors according to their motivations. Museums Victoria, an organization comprised of three museums in the greater Melbourne region (Figure 2) has conducted its own visitor studies. Museums Victoria discovered that treating the visitor audience as a single unit is ineffective, as the audience is too diverse. The organization developed a method of understanding and classifying their visitors according to their unique needs, a process known as "audience segmentation." Through extensive research on Melbournian visitors to Museums Victoria, the museum created six segments called Easy going, Connected, Obligated, Informed, Curious, and Elite based on each visitor's most meaningful engagements. Many museum staff interact regularly with visitors (Figure 3) Ideally every staff member, from docent to security guard, should understand the basic audience segments, so they can more effectively respond to each visitor's needs. This helps to ensure that the staff work as a fluid, cohesive unit. At the start of this project, some Museums Victoria staff members were unfamiliar with the visitor segments, so Museums Victoria needed training material in the form of videos and infographics to educate current and incoming staff about its specialized method of audience segmentation. The goal of our project was to help the Museums Victoria staff better understand the broad range of visitors at Museums Victoria venues through videos and infographics. We had devised three main objectives that helped us achieve our goal: understood Museums Victoria's audience segmentation; conceptualized and designed training materials; and collected and developed training material on Museums Victoria's audience segmentation. Page 1 Figure 2. The three main museums of Museums Victoria 5,6,7 Figure 3. Museum staff interacting with visitors Figure 1. The museum visitor connection The expanding purpose and audience of museums The purpose of museums originally was to preserve and protect rare objects, often kept in static displays or "cabinets of curiosities" intended only for observation. With developments in learning theory and museum studies, museums today have evolved, and galleries and displays have become more interactive to invite exploration and social engagement (Figure 4) As an essential part of this process, museums have begun to evaluate their visitors to gain insights about their preferences and expectations. Museums must accommodate multiple visitor needs by designing multi faceted exhibits, facilities, and programming. This allows museums to compete among growing edutainment options. Preservation: The original museum Formed from the private collections of the royalty and the wealthy, museums were initially an indispensable place of knowledge used to preserve and protect precious artifacts. People of distinction were allowed to view these privately owned collections to gain knowledge that could not be found elsewhere. Valuables acquired by the elite were collected for selfadvancement and satisfaction, and later donated after people realized the importance of preserving knowledge. Static displays such as artifacts kept in glass cases ensured proper safeguarding of collections. Museum employees started to more actively respond to visitor input in the 1900's when they began to formally conduct and publish studies on visitor experiences. Education: Extension of the museum's purpose During the twentieth century, the educational role of museums evolved. The World Wars contributed to major advancements in science as countries shifted their efforts to gain a technological edge. Realizing that knowledge can translate into power, societies recognized the need for "public education" and to make knowledge more accessible. Museums ignited the interest of the general public rather than just among the intellectual elite. Along with rising museum attendance, the number of museums also increased, with 35 of the 8,200 reported museums in the world founded between 1950 1970. Indeed, museums became a popular choice for public leisure. Visitor evaluation studies became increasingly important as museums placed greater emphasis on public education. At first, these studies were conducted to determine how well knowledge was being transferred from the exhibit to the visitor. Objects in museums at that time period were typically exhibited in static displays with labels explaining key facts, such as origins, cultural and scientific significance, and the like, as designated by the exhibit curators. This form of teaching is known as the didactic approach. Here, key facts are 'transmitted' in one direction from the curators through the museum objects and interpretive materials to the visitor regardless of visitor interests. Experience: Museums of today Increasingly, museums want to provide an experience that will captivate visitor attention. Because the information in museums today can be conveniently researched through search engines online, museums have to go beyond the transfer of knowledge and find innovative ways to encourage visitation. Thus, the role of museums is shifting to provide visitors with a unique experience alongside the basic acquisition of knowledge. Museums of today want to provide a unique experience for every type of visitor. Curators are drawing upon the talents of specialized professions such as scientists, educators, marketing professionals, and designers to provide insight into the visitor museum relationship. Rather than having the same message for every visitor contained in static displays, museums now provide a variety of displays, activities, and events and allow the visitor take in what they want and need. This constructivist approach leaves exhibits open for the interpretation of the visitor, and Page 2 Figure 4. Museum transition: From preservation to an entire experience