Happy young couple riding on a scooter together.

Diversification is hard. Here’s how to strategize.

As a visitor experience planner, market analysis is part of what I do. That is to say, I help parks, museums, aquariums, zoos, and historic sites to identify who their visitors are, and who their visitors might be in the future. And I help them figure out how to reach out to them and how …

a group of men in the street dressed mostly alike

Understanding Audiences: The Downside of “Falk Types”

About twenty years ago, Dr. John Falk and Dr. Lynn Dierking did a body of research on why people visit museums and other informal learning institutions. It’s fascinating and valuable stuff, and if you get a chance to read their work, you really should. They discovered that, broadly speaking, people have a handful of different …

man gazing right

Twenty(ish) Good Questions About Your Markets

What benefits are they seeking when they travel to an attraction like yours? This article is part of a series, Understanding Our Audiences, on market segmentation for interpretive planners and other visitor experience professionals. You should probably start at the beginning, here.   Here are some things you probably need to know about your visitors in order …

woman in traditional dress, Kota Kinabalu

Spray and Pray: The Fear of Excluding A Market

The point of market segmentation is not to make visitors unwelcome; it is the opposite. This article is part of a series, Understanding Our Audiences, on market segmentation for interpretive planners and other visitor experience professionals. You should probably start at the beginning, here.  Managers and boards of directors are sometimes reluctant to focus their …

Segmentation, Profiling and the Role of Free Will

Editor’s note: This is part two of a series, Understanding Our Audiences, intended for anyone who does planning in the interpretive or visitor experience sectors. You can find the first instalment here.  It all sounds like marketing-speak. In fact, it’s pure old-school interpretation. Market segmentation is based on the idea that your behaviour and your tastes …