Section 6:Segment Profiles

Participation in the Arts Research, 2006 Page 2

• Significantly more likely to be a female, White collar professional/associate professional or in the service industry, to be childless or to never have had children.

• There were significantly more people in the Interested group who were 25-29 years of age. There was a slight trend for the Interested to polarise into younger and older age groups. This may be the result of migration into and out of segments as lifestage changes.

• Although, the factors above contribute to inclusion in one segment vs. another, there is considerable overlap between the segments. The nature of barriers to participation in the arts are largely attitudinal and cannot be explained by demography alone. For example, income levels and educational attainment did not segregate the sample at the quantitative stage. There was some hint that education may moderate participation in the higher arts but there were insufficient numbers of the sample overall who had participated in any “Art” to draw inference from.

• They Interested rate the arts as significantly more personally and socially valuable than the Disinclined.

• At the qualitative stage a view expressed that may explain the value ratings was that the arts, besides being a source of entertainment, is a valuable vehicle for cultural expression and for maintaining diversity.

• A qualitative finding was that cost was a major participation barrier across both segments, but in comparison to the others this group was less likely to cite cost as a barrier to participation. At the quantitative stage the Interested also showed a trend to estimate pricing more accurately than the Disinclined.

• The qualitative stage highlighted that the biggest barrier to Arts participation for this group was competition from busy social lives. The Arts are seen as a luxury. This group has spare money for entertainment, but it is limited and if pushed, they will opt for the safe option that they and their friends will definitely enjoy.

• This was substantiated at the quantitative stage by the finding that the Interested are generally more socially active than the Disinclined, and significantly more involved in the popular arts, but there was no significant difference between the segments in terms of their low levels of participation in the higher Arts (<7% participation). At the qualitative stage however, they all agreed that they were open to going to more ‘risky’ Arts like the Ballet, Opera or Art Exhibitions if conditions were right.

Segment Profiles: WHO ARE THE INTERESTED?

Participation in the Arts Research, 2006 Page 3

• The males showed slightly less general involvement and objective enthusiasm about the Arts (e.g. were less likely to enthuse about their educational value) than the females at the qualitative stage, but still agreed that if the opportunity arose they would go along to the Ballet to ‘try it out’.

• They said the major advantage to engaging in their regular forms of entertainment is that the Arts do not accommodate the same social opportunities these other activities do. They would happily go to free events but said they don’t see any advertised.

• At the Qualitative stage, perceptions of social elitism or Gender Specifism did not emerge as major themes in this group. With some prompting the group revealed that there were people who tried to intellectualise Art and they were dubious about the credibility of, rather than intimidated by, this aspect of the Arts.

• The quantitative research revealed that proportionately, there were significantly less males in the Interested group (26%) than in the Disinclined i.e. of the males in the group they were more likely to be Disinclined. The failure to achieve a 50% split of males and females in the sample (this is normally achievable) suggests that males were screened out of the survey at the start, this in turn, suggests a higher tendency to be disengaged from the arts.

• They said at the qualitative stage that the best way to reach them with information about last minute deals is via email. They dislike SMS promotion, as this mode of contact is by personal invite only. They seek information from the internet and newsletters or booklets and are happy to receive these in the mail. The quantitative stage reaffirmed that this group use email and websites sources of information significantly more than the Disinclined. Also, they are much more likely to have accepted permission marketing.

• At the quantitative stage the Interested were significantly more likely to nominate electronic forms of communication as one of the range of information sources used to keep in touch with the arts, but confirmed the qualitative finding that people are not keen to be contacted by SMS with information about the special offers or events (<2% total sample). They use all the information channels the Disinclined do, but use more sources on average.

Segment Profiles: INTERESTED (cont.)