CMO Club May '08: Pinpointing customer wants

Mark Mattia, CMO at Liberty Science Center offered a not-for-profit case study that focused on uncovering the "wants" vs. the "needs" of visitors to their science museum.

Identifying guest wants: Mattia asked, "What's a visitor's motivation to come to the science center?" Sure they wanted fun, but they also asked, "How do I personally identify with it? I want the experience at the science center to connect with me and my kids." This kind of behavior is not a need, it's a want.

While customers won't say, "Make it relevant to me" it is what they want. Conducting a study of visitors, the Library Science Center looked at all motivational factors that determined why someone visited the museum. Once they collected that information, they charted it on a scale in terms of high, moderate, and low motivational benefits.

Next, the science center segmented customers using the Net Promoter Score. Read this post to understand what the NPS is and how it can uncover who your company's "promoters" and "detractors" are.

After they charted all visitors motivations, they repeated the process only looking at "promoters" (according to the NPS). They discovered three motivational factors (good choice, sensitive to family needs, and good value) that were unique to "promoters."

Mapping into a CRM System: How much are the promoters worth to you? Unlike Deb Eastman's findings from Satmetrix, Library Science Center promoters don't outspend others, but they do come more often than everyone else. Then the issue becomes where do they find them? He admits they're not easy to find.

After the study, Mattia made the following conclusions:

• Consideration of consumer wants was novel for a museum.
• Statistical and research approaches to clearly identifying these wants from a benefit perspective are available and can be cost efficient
• There are many ways to segment a market but among those factors considered for the science center case study, Net Provider provided the highest correlation with expected behavior
• This segmentation can be mapped into actual sales data for further analysis leading to more specific marketing action
• The science center is currently analyzing correlations with "mission impact"

Ultimately, Mattia learned that satisfaction is where it starts. It's a top priority and it's key to make sure all of your exhibitions, or at least 95%, are working. Not so easy when kids are coming to your museum and tearing them apart. :)