Segmenting Audiences by Science Identity at the Science Center of Iowa
Client: The Science Center of Iowa | Location: Des Moines, IA
We helped the Science Center of Iowa deepen their understanding of walk-in visitors’ experiences at the museum, setting a baseline for future planning and growth.
OVERVIEW
In 2018, we led an audience research study at the Science Center of Iowa (SCI) focused on walk-in visitors. The goal was to provide SCI with reliable information about current visitors’ experiences as a first step in the long-term process of building a holistic understanding of who is visiting and, at the same time, consider who is not visiting.
Our work came at a time when SCI was openly rethinking how to best allocate resources for interpretive planning and how to grow relationships with and best serve its audiences (current and potential).
APPROACH
We designed a comprehensive exit survey of walk-in visitors to understand:
Visitors’ demographic characteristics
Visitors’ motivations to visit and their relationships to SCI
How walk-in visitors used (or did not use) various areas, exhibits, programs, and activities
What visitors value about their experience at SCI
We applied a K-means cluster analysis to the survey data to segment visitors’ into four personas—each with a different relationship to science and the museum—to help SCI understand the various and nuanced ways their visitors differ in motivation, prior knowledge, and expectations.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Our analysis suggested four distinct audience personas—Science Enthusiasts, Science Socials, Science Independents, and Science Reluctants—each with a unique relationship to science. We also learned that, for the most part, current visitors view SCI as a highly entertaining and welcoming place, as well as a trustworthy source for current science.
The survey data helped set a baseline and provided SCI with an opportunity to leverage the trust visitors already have in the organization to experiment with new strategies for engagement and to potentially reinvent how their community views SCI and science centers in general.
