Frequently Asked Questions
We don’t guess. You don’t have to either. Here are a few answers to some of our more popular questions.
Why market research? What’s the benefit of research that doesn’t measure our specific organization?
Many organizations conduct visitor research (i.e., asking their visitors questions about why they visited, who they are, and what they thought of the visit). That is essential research, but risks missing some very important people—those who aren’t current visitors. Market research provides comprehensive intelligence, including information about public attitudes towards the organization and important data about trends in the local, regional, and national markets. To be data informed, we advise organizations to use both visitor and market research.
Why is this data unique within the visitor-serving industry?
IMPACTS Experience is constantly in-market collecting information about how people make decisions and why. This data is primarily gleaned through the National Awareness, Attitudes, and Usage Study, believed to be the largest survey of perceptions and behaviors surrounding cultural organizations in the United States. Not only does it have a high sample size, the NAAU is designed to be representative of the United States population in terms of demographics, psychographics, and behavioral attributes. The same percentage of respondents are from Michigan as the percentage of the US population, to give a very basic example. This allows us to understand the US population with high confidence and statistical significance.
Additionally, IMPACTS data is largely informed by a process known as “lexical analysis.” Instead of asking participants to choose survey responses, we pose open-ended inquiries and advanced technologies then categorize and weight responses. Answers are informed by the words of survey participants themselves. Read more about our data here.
What we need doesn’t fit easily into one of these formats. What should we do?
Please contact us. We have listed common topics for presentations and data services on this website, but we are also happy to talk to you about your unique needs and let you know if we have helpful data.
We are facing a specific decision (considering an expansion, investing in a major technology, etc.) and need guidance. Do you have data on these types of investments?
Yes, we have data on these topics and many, many more. Our data is especially helpful for organizations contemplating major expenditures. These important strategic decisions can expose an organization to serious financial risks, and we believe they should be informed by high-confidence data. Please see our Data Services for more.
What kinds of institutions does IMPACTS Experience monitor?
IMPACTS conducts ongoing data collection efforts around 224 visitor-serving organizations in the United States. These organizations range from various museum types to zoos, aquariums, theaters, botanic gardens, parks, symphonies, and other performing arts entities. Monitoring these organizations helps us spot trends and allows for deeper dives into visitor behaviors and perceptions when considered alongside the National Awareness, Attitudes, and Usage Study.
How often is the research updated?
The NAAU is continuously in-market, meaning that new responses are being added all the time. To ensure a representative sample that meets a 95% or higher confidence level, analyses published on Know Your Own Bone are most typically current through the most recently completed quarter of the calendar year. Research shared in January, February, and March will generally cover the entire calendar year preceding the date of publication or presentation.
My organization is not in the United States. Is data available for our region?
Although research published on Know Your Own Bone primarily features US data, IMPACTS Experience is in market in select international locations. Please contact us to see if we have data available for your area.