For the purposes of my research, as to how to market to a millennial generation in Eugene/Springfield, OR, I have decided to look at informational interviews and surveys as potential avenues for conducting my overall research. In using these methods, I intend to find gaps in the marketing strategies of area performing arts organizations by speaking directly with those involved with the organizations and then reaching out to their constituents who are between the ages of 25 to 35 by use of either mailed or online surveys.

To ensure the scope of the interviews are not too time and monetarily consuming, I will assess three organizations that offer programming and market those who are in the designated age range. To aide me in my understanding of these chosen methods, I have selected Arlene Fink’s How to Conduct Surveys A Step-by-Step Guide and I.E. Seidman’s Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences as reference material for my two forms of research methods.

At first glance of Interviewing as Qualitative Research, there is a distinct intent to help those conduct interviews in the education field but the overall topics covered in the text have a lot of applicability to researching the social sciences like arts administration. Several chapters are devoted to developing your proposal and selecting your participants for the interviews.   Though we have recently covered these types of topics with O’Leary, Seidman’s text goes more in-depth and will be an excellent resource as I conduct future interviews for data collection and research purposes.

Generating surveys that are accessible in various platforms and can provide the necessary data for my research will be critical. The most important part will be how to do I construct the survey? While there are a number of available software programs that I can access through the University, being able to shape them to meet the needs of my question(s) is imperative.

Fink’s How to Conduct Surveys is a most definitely a guide that demonstrates various styles of surveys and how effective they are when structured appropriately. Similar to Seidman, Fink discusses consent as part of the guide and also how to create an appropriate selection of participants by various sampling methods.

I am eager to utilize both of these texts as their focuses give me ample information to build off of as I continue to envision my own research project. My confidence is so strong with these texts that I want others in class to know about them as well, should they be considering similar research methods as myself. As an example of how I would use the techniques discussed in these texts, I will use Fink’s How to Conduct Surveys to draft a potential survey to be sent to those identified as 25-35 years of age performing arts attendees.

Process Notes:

The questionnaire will focus on the participants’ experience of the performing arts and/or how they feel when seeing certain forms of marketing. To evaluate these experiences, open-ended questions will be included but close-ended questions that ask to rate the level satisfaction experienced by the participant, will potentially garner the most information necessary for analysis.

Sample Questionnaire:

1. The best way I like to find out about a new play is_______.
   1. Poster
   2. Radio/T.V. ad
   3. E-mail Blast/Facebook
   4. Word of mouth
   5. All of the above
2. The last play I saw was ______.
   1. Less than 3 months ago
   2. 3 to 6 months ago
   3. 6 to 12 months ago
   4. More than 12 months ago
3. I am more likely to attend a play on a _______.
   1. Weekday night (Monday through Thursday)
   2. Weekend night (Friday through Sunday)
   3. Weekday afternoon (Monday through Thursday)
   4. Weekend afternoon (Friday through Sunday)
4. The most I am willing to pay for a ticket at [Oregon Contemporary Theatre] (including any fees) is ______.
   1. Less than $10
   2. $10 to $15
   3. $15 to $20
   4. $20 and above

Initial Assessment:

As the sample shows, there will need to be some specificity as to which theatre[s] are being compared to, for the purpose of the surveys. I will need to tailor the surveys to the organization’s participants as I did not think of it at first but with questions discussing cost, each theatre may have differing pricing scales. What may be more effective is to base the questionnaire on a previously seen production and start with a few questions asking how did they find out about the show, what were they willing to pay, were they satisfied with their purchase of the experience, and to find out their level of frequency to that particular organization or if they visit others.

Another aspect of the survey to be cognizant of is language, or rather, how do others interpret some terms. When I used the word “weekend”, I included Fridays as some participants may consider Friday a part of the “weekend” even though it may technically be a weekday as Fridays are generally a business or work day. Will I then have to format the question differently or would the side notes next to provided responses be sufficient?

For this to be an initial start into exploring potential research methods, I am feeling really confident in executing surveys to achieve the desired data for my research project and to also learn how to utilize them effectively for strategic planning purposes, audience development, or marketing strategies.