The Audience Business observes the Code of Practice of the Market Research Society and qualitative recruitment best practice outlined by the Association of Qualitative Research.
Research enquiry
Are you interested in finding out what The Audience Business can do to help you understand your audiences?
Contact us today to find out more.
info@tab.org.uk or call 0131 243 1430
The Audience Business offers both quantitative and qualitative research services as well as a variety of other opportunities to assist you in reaching your marketing goals.
Do you want to know...
... how many people aged 25 to 34 came to the exhibition?
... how many people from East Lothian came to the festival?
... what proportion of the local Edinburgh population attended the
concert?
The Audience Business is currently expanding its portfolio of quantitative research services. Subscribers are welcome to contact us at any time for advice on clarifying objectives, methodology, questionnaire design, sample sizes, and preparing research briefings and costings. Our service covers preliminary proposals and briefings, project planning, on-going liaison with your staff and our fieldworkers, and full analysis and reporting in whatever way is most useful to you and your organisation.
Currently we can collate quantitative information as follows:
Face to face surveys
Face to face interview-based surveys are one of the best ways to probe some key target groups — non-attenders for example. We have extensive experience of designing questionnaires, and work with a specialist fieldwork team with comprehensive experience of conducting on-street, household, venue and event surveys.
Telephone surveys
Telephone surveys can provide quantitative responses quickly and cost effectively.
Web / email surveys
These are a fast and efficient way to reach a large number of people with a self-completion survey. One of the key benefits is that no matter how many people respond — even if it's thousands — it doesn't affect the cost of analysis because all of the data is ollated electronically.
Self completion and/or postal surveys
We can design a structured questionnaire to be mailed out to your audiences or handed to people at your events, and follow it up with a detailed analysis of the responses.
Do you want to...
... find the hidden meanings behind the statistics?
... discover how people really feel about your venue?
... use a group to test out new ideas, as a sounding board or to brainstorm?
Subscribers are welcome to contact us at any time for advice on clarifying objectives, methodology, sample sizes, and preparing research briefings and costings. Our service covers preliminary proposals and briefings, project planning, on-going liaison with your staff, and full analysis and reporting in whatever way is most useful to you and your organisation.
Currently we can collate qualitative information as follows:
Depth interviews
In-depth interviews involve one-to-one contact with respondents and are usually conducted face-to-face, or else by telephone. They are very different from the tightly structured closed question approach used in quantitative surveys — they are longer, more discursive, open-ended. The interviewer also has a greater level of flexibility to probe individual responses and so gain a much fuller understanding of their meaning and/or implications.
Focus groups
Focus groups are held to discuss more in-depth topics. The group, usually between 8 and 10 people, is facilitated by a moderator who ensures the flow of discussion keeps to a list of pre-determined research topics. Focus groups create a unique dynamic and invite really telling exchanges and discussion. The discussion is transcribed, and we then prepare full reporting and analysis of the outcomes against your research objectives.
Recruited visits
In order to find out how members of the public truly experience your programme of events, we can recruit 'mystery shoppers' across age bands and population base. They will attend your event, perhaps having been briefed to focus on predetermined aspects, and then be interviewed to find out what they did, how they felt, and why they behaved as they did.
Many arts organisations have data and information at their finger tips, or can access it from secondary ources through funding bodies. A lack of time and resources often makes it hard for them to make the most of it. We provide a range of services that can help.
Area profile analysis
We have access to area profile data sets for a range of Scottish population centres (30, 60 and 90 minutes drive time in most cases), which indicate the population's propensity to attend a range of art forms by postcode sector. This information is freely available to Scottish Arts Council clients as the data is created on their behalf using a combination of 2001 Census findings, ACORN analysis and omnibus survey questions (Target Group Index). Our customised analysis of the data can give you a strong indication of market penetration, including 'hot spots' for you to focus your marketing and audience development activity.
Media evaluation
We can analyse the content of your newspaper cuttings and media coverage and let you know how your organisation is being presented in the media eg. to track sponsors' credits, company profile, positive / negative news management.
Data processing and analysis
We offer a full range of data processing services either outsourced or else using SPSS, Access or Excel software, according to client requirements. We provide analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, from focus groups to complex questionnaires.
Box office data analysis
Box office data can be extracted and analysed to provide a comprehensive analysis of existing audiences as written reports, charts and maps.
Geographical mapping
The geographical dispersion of audiences, as well as a venue's overall catchment area, can be illustrated using a series of maps of the local region and beyond as appropriate. We can provide customised maps using Mapinfo software. Actual audiences for different artforms can be described clearly and concisely, and potential audiences can also be highlighted using commercially produced data. Maps of both audiences and the geographical spread of key target markets (eg. by social grade, ethnic minority, household income) can be overlaid to give and indication of your current and potential success in attracting the broadest possible audience.
