From a vendor working with museums in different fields.
( art - science - history - cultural heritage )

The most frequent museum visitor would look like this.
( this is a generalization )
Female - 60/65 - College Educated - Upper Middle/Lower Upper income
Most previlant form of advertising among this group is word of mouth.


As for the family visitor.
( these hold true for most vacations, and entertainment attractions as well )
Mom is the one who normally makes the decision to go out.
She'll research most often times online, followed by the newspaper. Billboards work well as a 
reminder to go to the museum, but not so much as a 'get them in the door' tool. Think of the 
billboard as branding more than marketing.

Survey's vary as to the event related to the survey, the willingness to participate in a survey, or the 
value added to the survey. Often times incentiveds tied to the survey bring 'amazingly skewed' 
results (thankful for the gifts they have been given.) A survey for an event will give good results 
for the audience that was interested in the show, other results are often luke-warm. General 
surveys to the attending audience are 'generally' good. But often it's thought to boost the good 
results to make the outcome bright, rather than look at the negative feedback as an opportunity to 
grow. - Remember that a pat on the back is only a foot away from a kick on the ass.

I hope that this (generalization) helps. I'd give more specific examples, but I'd rather not hang out 
the laundry of different clients.

Best of luck to you in your search!

Micah Zender
Zender + Associates
http://www.zender.com/museums
[log in to unmask]

>I am working on my master's in art history and museum
>studies and am currently working on a paper that is
>investigating the evolution and impact of the
>exhibition review (in secular, general publications to
>those more specialized). I was wondering if anyone
>(particularly those in visitor services) knew of
>resources that charted  results of visitor studies.
>I'm looking for statistics that detail what specific
>types of PR bring visitors into the museum. (i.e. the
>results of those "Where did you hear about us?"
>questionnaires)
>
>Any direction would be extremely helpful.
>
>Best regards,
>Reagan Duplisea

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