Tastes and Preferences Survey

The Tastes and Preferences Survey examines patrons’ tastes and preferences within your organization’s specific discipline(s). In the media and around boardroom tables, many assumptions are being made about the kinds of artistic work that audiences want. In offering this survey we hope to replace unfounded assumptions with actual data. While we would never assert that arts organizations should acquiesce to audiences’ tastes, we do think that clarifying preferences for formats and types of artistic programs can be a valuable input to organizational thinking about programming (i.e., one of many inputs).

Artistic and marketing team members are key stakeholders in this survey. Three different versions are available:

1.     The dance version of the survey provides dance presenters and dance companies with information about their audience’s preferences for styles of dance, their interest in seeing work by companies they know and they don’t know, and their interest in alternative formats.

2.    The classical music version of the survey focuses on classical music preferences and paints a picture of growing diversity in music preferences and appetite for alternative formats.

3.    The theatre version of the survey delves deeply into knowledge of playwrights, what pushes people out of their comfort zones, and interest in a range of theatrical forms, formats, etc.

The survey covers these and other topics:

• Cultural interests (i.e., countries or regions of the world) and folk traditions

• Past involvement in the art form

• Interest in attending specific types of live programs within the discipline

• Interest in specific genres and subgenres within a discipline

• Drivers of purchase decision

• Satisfaction with your organization’s selection of program offerings

• Interest in adventurousness work

• Preferences for different presentation formats

• Interest in thematic programs (if applicable)

• Interest in immersive experiences (if applicable)

Level of Customization

This is a highly discipline-specific protocol, only available for specific disciplines within the performing arts. Otherwise, no customization is involved, although several questions are optional.

Results

To maximize learning, research partners must agree to share their results with other participating organizations through the WolfBrown dashboard. After the survey concludes, aggregated results may be shared with the larger field through the Audience Outlook Monitor community.

Questions

For more information about this survey, contact Alan Kline, Director of Audience Research Programs at WolfBrown at alan.kline@wolfbrown.com.