TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS... 1 INTRODUCTION... 2 THE CSC IMAGE AND AWARENESS OF WHAT THE CENTRE OFFERS... 2

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2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS... 1 INTRODUCTION... 2 THE CSC IMAGE AND AWARENESS OF WHAT THE CENTRE OFFERS... 2 VISITING THE CENTRE: MOTIVATIONS AND OBSTACLES THE CSC AUDIENCE: VISITOR PROFILE THE CSC AUDIENCE: REPEAT VISITOR PROFILE

3 INTRODUCTION The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of various sources of insight into the nature of the audience of the Copernicus Science Centre (CSC) in Warsaw, Poland, drawing together the most important findings of a sizeable number of visitor surveys taken over several years (see appendix). These survey findings have been presented in various reports, which as a rule were not cross-sectional in their nature. A wealth of such material has been assembled, and the data presented have not yet been fully tapped into. In addition to helping readers navigate through these various surveys and their results, this report also aims to formulate questions and recommendations for new, synthetic reports and analyses. We hope it will likewise be useful to those newly-employed at the Centre (especially in the departments responsible for marketing and promotion communication) as well as to external consultants seeking more in-depth knowledge about the CSC audience. In this report, we have focused on visitors of the permanent exhibitions. Nevertheless, we are fully aware of the existence and significance of the partially overlapping and partially separate audiences of the Planetarium, the Science Picnic, the After Hours Nights for Adults, the Night of the Shooting Stars meteor-watching event, and other exhibitions and events. The report is divided into four parts. The first, devoted to the public image of the Centre and awareness of what it has to offer, outlines the institution s potential to attract visitors, as depicted in the survey data. The second part provides an overview of what actually motivates people to visit the Centre. In the third part, we present a summary of what we know about our visitors. Finally, the fourth part contains an indepth analysis of a key group of visitors potentially even more crucial in the future, namely those who opt to visit the Centre on a regular basis. Artur Kalinowski THE CSC IMAGE AND AWARENESS OF WHAT THE CENTRE OFFERS Brand awareness The Copernicus Science Centre brand has been well-known in Poland practically since the exhibitions were first opened to the public. The factors that have contributed to this fact include the following: the high and unflagging degree of interest shown by the media, earlier activity engaged in even before the building s doors were first opened (such as the touring exhibition Experiment! ), the cyclical events that heralded the opening of the Centre, and the Big Bang the Centre s grand-scale inaugural event. We looked at the level of brand awareness as reflected in nationwide brand image surveys taken every year from 2010 to At operational level, brand awareness is measured using tests that gauge spontaneous awareness and prompted awareness. Spontaneous awareness is measured using questions that gauge awareness of brands from a specific category, for example What insurance companies do you know? Prompted awareness, on the other hand, is measured by means of straightforward questions, such as Do you know the insurance company Allianz? In our case, prompted awareness can be tested in the same way as for other brands, but the 2

4 situation is different when it comes to spontaneous awareness. First of all, the specific category is not so easy to posit: a direct question about a science centre, for instance, makes the task too easy for respondents, as the very phrase science centre makes up two-thirds of our institution s name. In addition, a question formulated in this way narrows the category to science centres alone, which are not numerous in Poland, and excludes other large and modern museums such as the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. In order to measure spontaneous awareness, we therefore asked about museums or other places to visit where you can touch the exhibits and play with them. The results of surveys measuring brand awareness in this sense, broken down into Warsaw and the whole of Poland (including the capital), are presented in the charts below: Chart 1. Awareness of the Copernicus Science Centre brand in Poland (data from a nationwide survey of the CSC s image from 2014) As is evident, the level of prompted awareness of the Centre has been very high since the survey was first taken and probably stabilised in Spontaneous awareness was likewise relatively high. Since spontaneous awareness is more elusive, however, it is not fully clear what the results would be today. Results of another survey, conducted by the Municipal Office of the City of Warsaw, are cited below, but they are not fully comparable, because the methodology was different from that employed in the CSC surveys. 3

5 Chart 2. Awareness of the Copernicus Science Centre brand in Warsaw (data from a nationwide survey of the CSC s image from 2014) Prompted awareness of the CSC within Warsaw itself has been close to 100% from the outset. Spontaneous awareness, despite being also high, has exhibited a downward trend, which could be related to the fact that the Centre s novelty has already worn off. On this view, people still do know the institution, but its mental representation is cognitively no longer as accessible and they cannot recall it as easily from memory. An alternative explanation might be that the level of spontaneous awareness dropped as a result of the emergence of a different, partially interactive institution in Warsaw, namely the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. In the most recent wave of the brand image survey, spontaneous awareness of that museum has reached 10%. Here it is worth citing a survey conducted by the Marketing Department of the City of Warsaw s Municipal Office to measure awareness of cultural institutions. It was taken after the surveys described above, more specifically in The respondents were asked questions about the broadly defined category of cultural institutions in general, for example Please name all cultural institutions you know, even if you have only heard about them. Moreover, the survey was taken only in Warsaw. One point of congruence is again the number-one position of the Copernicus Science Centre in terms of awareness, even in a specific category that is not very obvious to respondents, namely all cultural institutions, a category in which we compete not only against other museums but also against various other institutions, such as theatres. 4

6 Chart 3. Spontaneous awareness of cultural institutions in Warsaw (data from a survey conducted by the Municipal Office of the City of Warsaw, 2016) Chart 4. Prompted awareness of cultural institutions in Warsaw (data from a survey conducted by the Municipal Office of the City of Warsaw, 2016) 5

7 Awareness of the CSC s offerings However, although the Centre as such is a well-known institution, the same cannot be said about various individual components of the wealth of attractions it offers. Knowledge of the CSC s offerings, even among Warsaw residents, is superficial and not very thorough. While respondents do have some general notion of what is on offer, they fail to differentiate between its individual components. The Centre is above all seen as a set of permanent exhibitions featuring interactive exhibits. However, the results are even poorer in terms of respondents ability to name any of the individual components of the Centre s offerings. The few exceptions are the Planetarium and two events organised by the Centre, namely the Science Picnic and the Night of Shooting Stars. These flagship events of the Centre are familiar to a considerable share of residents of Warsaw, although the Science Picnic is not always identified with its organiser (i.e. some people do know the Picnic, but not that it is co-organised by the Centre). The degree of public awareness of the CSC s various offerings was the subject of two surveys carried out in 2015: a survey among Warsaw residents and another among Warsaw teachers. The charts below show spontaneous awareness of the Centre s particular attractions on offer, as compared to other events in Warsaw. Chart 5. Spontaneous awareness of cultural events and/or science popularisation events in Warsaw (data from a survey of awareness of the CSC s offerings in Warsaw, 2015) 6

8 Chart 6. Spontaneous awareness of selected components of the CSC s attractions (data from a survey of awareness of the CSC s offerings in Warsaw, 2015) Here in this report we deliberately omit discussion of the results obtained in this particular survey regarding prompted awareness, which turned out to be misleading. For example, the respondents often reported familiarity with a temporary exhibition that they did not actually recognize, but merely associated it with the Centre based on the exhibition s name (for example, Accelerating Science ). Moreover, a substantial share of the respondents indicated that they were familiar with the non-existent Copernicus Academy, a fictional component of the Centre s exhibitions that had been introduced into the survey to measure acquiescence bias, which is frequent in surveys and results in part from the fact that respondents are reluctant to admit they do not know something. For these reasons, we concluded that those findings were not sufficiently reliable. In a certain aspect, however, they are valuable: they showed, in an indirect way, that respondents were confused about the specific attractions offered by the CSC. The findings were quite similar among teachers, a special target group of visitors who in a sense are linked to the Centre through their profession. When designing the survey for teachers, we decided to test only prompted awareness. In this case, too, the respondents evidently confused certain exhibition components. For example, many teachers claimed that they had personally visited, either privately or with their pupils, a non-existent temporary exhibition invented for the purpose of the survey. Much like in the aforementioned survey taken among residents of Warsaw, the highest awareness levels were found for the Planetarium and the Science Picnic. Responses from teachers showed that they were also aware of the laboratories, an element of the Centre that best meets the needs of teachers, as demonstrated in qualitative surveys. 7

9 Overall, the responses in these qualitative surveys, both from individual visitors and teachers, signalled that they did not have sufficient knowledge of the CSC s specific offerings. In other words, they feel that a lot is happening in the institution, but reports of precisely what kind of events or initiatives were going on failed to reach them. This was stressed especially clearly by teachers. Temporary exhibitions Survey work has paid special attention to awareness of temporary exhibitions among CSC visitors and their impact on attendance. This is partly due to a need to verify to what extent the money and effort put into organising a temporary exhibition do yield direct results in the form of increased attendance numbers. At the same time, it is necessary to remember that the respondents are the potential target of promotional campaigns, whose reach is typically limited to residents of Warsaw or possibly the surrounding region (the Mazowieckie Province). As it turns out, awareness of temporary exhibitions, as measured during the promotional campaign associated with their opening, varied among the CSC visitors. The highest results were reported for the exhibition Mirrors, whereas the exhibitions Scent, Microlife and Good Vibrations stayed at relatively similar levels. Meanwhile, the impact on attendance (the share of visitors who came to visit because of the exhibition) varied from around 3% to around 15% among individual visitors from Warsaw and the Mazowieckie Province. Mirrors proved to score the best result also in this respect. We do not know what these results would have been among participants from organised groups, but they would have been probably much lower. Table 1. Awareness of temporary exhibitions and their impact on attendance (data from surveys conducted to measure awareness of temporary exhibitions and their impact on attendance in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015) Mirrors Microlife Scent Accelerating Science Good vibrations Awareness 44.4% 30.9% 28.4% 15.9% 24.2% Impact on attendance 14.8% 11.8% 7.9% 3.3% 6.5% Image The potential of any specific brand or product is largely determined by the commonly shared perceptions of that brand or product; the same holds true for a cultural institution like ours, open to the public in the broad sense. This is why we consistently examined this issue in the aforementioned brand image surveys, which have consistently revealed an extremely favourable 8

10 reception of the Centre in the social environment and even a certain dominance over the institutions to which we compared ourselves. Roughly speaking, the image of a brand is commonly analysed in terms of rational (based on a system of opinions and beliefs about a certain brand and its functional attributes) or emotional (based on a network of associations and emotions related to the brand) aspects. In the most recent wave of the survey, we took into account both aspects by asking respondents one set of questions related to the Centre s rational image and two sets related to the emotional image. Since the survey was quite extensive, we will not cite all the findings here; more details can be found in the relevant report itself. A significant element of the CSC s rational image is the belief that the Centre is a place for everyone, but above all for children. It appears that people categorise the CSC as something similar to a family film: theoretically for everyone, but kids will ultimately enjoy it most. At the same time, respondents indicate that a visit to Copernicus provides good entertainment and brings educational benefits. However, the cost of these benefits includes certain inconveniences, such as long queues to buy tickets and crowded exhibitions. Chart 7. The CSC s image, selected rational attributes ascribed to the CSC (the share of respondents who answered yes to the question of whether a specific attribute matched the CSC), data for Warsaw residents (data from a nationwide survey of the CSC s image from 2014) As for soft associations, all the institutions against which we compared ourselves have a good reputation, but the Centre s image still comes out best, in a sense appropriating certain attributes. 9

11 The characteristics associated with the Centre include above all innovation and modernity. Those surveyed also indicated two attributes that respondents saw as characteristic of the Centre: the institution is visitor-friendly and what it offers is aimed at children. It is worth noting that despite a certain continued dominance in terms of its image, the Centre s once nearly exclusive association with certain characteristics mentioned earlier is on the decline. For example, when asked to indicate an interesting institution respondents are decreasingly likely to cite Copernicus alone, instead growing more likely to indicate that there are several such interesting places, including the CSC. Chart 8. The CSC s image, selected emotional attributes ascribed to the CSC compared with other institutions included in the survey, data for Warsaw residents (from a nationwide survey of the CSC s image from 2014) 10

12 Chart 9. The CSC s image, selected emotional attributes ascribed to the CSC, changes over time, data for Warsaw residents (a nationwide survey of the CSC s image from ) VISITING THE CENTRE: MOTIVATIONS AND OBSTACLES It appears that the Copernicus Science Centre has successfully managed to tap into the modern trend towards a greater focus on the educational aspects of raising children. The Centre is an ideal choice for the parents who want to feel that inspiring and valuable entertainment is a great complement to formal education (various courses and additional activities). On the other hand, the Centre s grand-scale inauguration and very favourable publicity from the media have earned it the reputation of a must-see attraction. To put it somewhat trivially, it is a place you simply need to tick off your list. In this way, Copernicus has become one of the most important, if not the most important tourist attraction in Warsaw. When analysing the Centre s attractive power, we should take into account these two perspectives, which are not mutually exclusive. Both the sophisticated visitors who look for places where they can spend quality time and those simply interested in any interesting novelties find it important that the CSC is the only science centre in Warsaw. In qualitative interviews commissioned by our Department of Research, the respondents were sometimes asked to categorise various places that they could visit in their free time. The Centre was usually categorised through the prism of the perceived themes, for example together with the Museum of Technology, or (a lot more frequently) through comparisons to other modern museums such as the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the Chopin Museum. Sometimes, the respondents indicated the unique nature of the Centre, which made it impossible to compare it with any other place in Warsaw. Nevertheless, when an actual choice 11

13 needs to be made regarding the distribution of free time, Copernicus naturally competes against other, very diverse institutions. The charts below illustrate how the respondents who live outside of Warsaw decide on where they should spend their free time in the capital. In a brand image survey, we first asked respondents what place they would visit alone or with a partner by presenting a list of various places and asking them to choose three. After that, we asked them to say which of these places they would visit as the first. We then asked the respondents where they would spend their free time with a child using questions formulated in the same way. The latter question was asked to respondents who were at least 29 years old and had children who were at least 12 years old. The respondents who were the same age and had no children were asked to imagine that they should spend their time in Warsaw looking after a friend s 10-year-old child. Chart 10. Selection of attractions in Warsaw ( choose three ) among respondents from the whole of Poland (data from a nationwide brand image survey from 2013) 12

14 Chart 11. Selection of Warsaw attractions (the choice of the most important attraction) among respondents from the whole of Poland (a nationwide brand image survey from 2013) As we can see from the charts above, Copernicus is the number-one choice for those who want to spend their free time in Warsaw. Its leading position is especially visible among those who visit Warsaw with a child. Also, Copernicus turns out to have some strong yet not very obvious rivals, such as the Łazienki Park, the Palace in Wilanów, and the Warsaw Zoo. It is worth noting how the preferences change depending on whether the respondents are expected to visit Warsaw with or without a child. For families, the Zoo visibly holds a strong position. Respondents expected to visit Warsaw without children are eager to choose such attractions as the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The POLIN Museum s poor result should be attributed to the fact that the survey was taken in the first year of the Museum s operations, when it had no permanent exhibition and was not widely known among the Polish public. Qualitative interviews among parents of children of various ages and seniors show that what attracts respondents to the Centre is not only their curiosity but also the Centre s rich offerings (despite the fact that their knowledge of what s on offer is poor and they cannot differentiate between its individual components). The Centre is perceived as a place where something is constantly happening and the possibilities of participating in various events are much broader than anywhere else. This wealth of options, combined with the modern building and a large space filled with vibrant exhibitions, tempts the respondents with the prospect of diverse experiences. Also, those surveyed clearly stressed the need for educational benefits (for parents, these are chiefly educational benefits for their children). Another thing is that these educational benefits are not fully defined for respondents. Nevertheless, some of them do realise that they include something more than the absorption of new knowledge. 13

15 The reasons why people decide to visit the Centre were also examined in a quantitative visitor profile survey. There, we assumed that the motivations of individual visitors might be somewhat different than those in organised groups. We decided to focus on the former group. We also assumed that those who visit the Centre with children are guided by two types of motives: motivations dealing with the respondents themselves, for example they find a certain topic interesting, and those dealing with their children, for example they want their kids to have fun. Respondents were asked to rate motivations on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 meant that the reason was not important at all and 10 indicated that the reason was very important; the results are presented in the charts below. Chart 12. Motivations to visit the CSC (motivations related to respondents themselves), individual visitors aged 15+ (data from the Visitor Profile Survey, 2013) 14

16 Chart 13. Motivations to visit the CSC (motivations related to children), individual visitors aged 15+ (data from the Visitor Profile Survey, 2013) Characteristically, adult visitors above all seek entertainment for themselves and interesting ways to spend their free time. When they visit the Centre with children, they seek entertainment and, to an equal degree, want to inspire and interest the little ones with science. The values of weights in the group of child-oriented motivations are higher than in the motivations of the adults, which indicates that visits to the Centre are largely centred around the needs of kids. The aforementioned study was the first attempt to quantitatively measure the motivations of visitors. At present, a much more extensive survey is being conducted that goes deeper into the psychological needs of visitors. These needs are fulfilled through visits to museums or science centres. Inspired by J. Falk s work, we assumed that the motivations may vary greatly in nature: they may be educational, related to curiosity and interests, but also social, related to the need to spend time with other people, emotional, related to the need to experience something, as well as aspirational, related to the efforts to build one s own image through visits to various places. Importantly, the survey is being conducted in various cultural institutions in Warsaw, because we assume that those who visit such places largely belong to the same audience. A comparison of the results may be likewise valuable. The first wave of the pilot study was taken only in the CSC and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The findings were interesting and very promising, but we decided to modify the tool to a certain degree and conduct a pilot study at other museums, as well. At the moment, we are conducting the second wave of the pilot study in the Copernicus Science Centre, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Zachęta National Gallery of Art and the Chopin Museum. 15

17 THE CSC AUDIENCE: VISITOR PROFILE Those who visit cultural institutions, just like users of any product or service, can be described in many ways. The simplest one uses demographic variables such as age, gender, education, place of residence, and so on. Such data are very useful, but the picture they present is not always full. In market research, it is therefore common practice to examine values, interests, and lifestyles ( psychographics ), as well as the usage of a certain category (in our case, the frequency of visiting cultural institutions) and motivations. Through to periodic surveys, we have identified the demographic profile of CSC visitors quite well. We have partly identified their motivations and have launched a major project dedicated to this issue. The Visitor Profile Survey also touched upon the issue of their ways and frequency of visiting cultural institutions. Before we present these findings, we should start with the most basic division of visitors, namely individual visitors vs. groups. The chart below shows changes in the ratio of visitors from the two segments in the total number of visitors of permanent exhibitions over the years. Since 2012, we have observed a certain downward trend in visits by organised groups (their percentage share in the total number of visitors is on the decline). Chart 14. Individual visitors versus groups (ticket sales data) When we write about our audience, we mean those who visit the permanent exhibitions. However, it is necessary to note that, with the exception of the aforementioned ticket sales data, our surveys examine and focus on adults and young people. As a rule, the respondents who can 16

18 take part in such surveys should be at least 15 years old. We know significantly less about the youngest visitors. Selected demographic characteristics of the CSC visitors from 2015 are presented below. Chart 15. Visitors by age as compared to the general population in Poland (data from a visitor satisfaction survey for 2015 and from the Central Statistical Office) As the charts above show, the most distinctive feature of the CSC audience is the overrepresentation of children from primary school (7-12 years) and the relative absence of seniors. 17

19 Chart 16. Visitors by gender as compared to the general population in Poland (data from a visitor satisfaction survey for 2015 and from the Central Statistical Office) Characteristically, we can see that women are more likely to visit the Centre (and this gap continues to widen every year). There is nothing unusual about such results: among visitors of many other cultural institutions, women outnumber men to an even greater degree. Chart 17. Visitors by level of education as compared to the general population in Poland (data from a visitor satisfaction survey for 2015 and from the Central Statistical Office) 18

20 Most of those who visit the Centre hold a higher education diploma. As we can see from the chart above, they account for over 60% of all visitors. Likewise, note that most of those who are listed as having primary and lower secondary education are young people who will obtain higher education diplomas in the future. One distinctive characteristic is the absence of people with vocational education, who make up nearly one-fourth of all Poles. These findings are consistent with the following chart, which shows how the CSC visitors describe their financial situation as compared to results in the general population in Poland. The CSC visitors are not only better educated but their financial situation is better as well. Chart 18. Self-described financial situation of the CSC visitors, as compared to the general population in Poland (data from a CSC visitor satisfaction survey for 2015 and from a nationwide survey of the CSC s image from 2014) The demographic profile of the CSC visitors is complemented by data regarding their place of residence. Here it is worth looking separately at individual visitors and participants of trips, given the considerable differences between these two groups. It is no surprise that individual visitors are largely residents of the Mazowieckie Province. However, there are also numerous residents of other provinces who decide to take a trip to Warsaw and visit the Copernicus Science Centre. The CSC is visited by school trips from the whole of Poland, and the number of children from each province is proportional to its population. In other words, distance poses no barrier to a visit to the Centre. What may pose an obstacle, in turn, is the absence of a convenient transport link, or insufficient funding. Such conclusions can be drawn from the results presented in the chart below. 19

21 Chart 19a. Individual visitors vs. organised groups by place of residence (province), as compared to the general population in Poland (data from a CSC visitor satisfaction survey for 2015 and from the Central Statistical Office) Chart 19b. Individual visitors vs. organised groups by place of residence (province), as compared to the general population in Poland (data from a CSC visitor satisfaction survey for 2015 and from the Central Statistical Office) 20

22 The next chart shows that inhabitants of rural areas are notably absent among the CSC visitors. The disproportion is largest in the group of individual visitors, but is also very strong among organised groups. For individual visitors, the reasons behind their not visiting the Centre seem to be quite intuitive. We assume that, in addition to earnings and poor transport links between rural areas and Warsaw, other barriers may play a role: inhabitants of rural areas are less mobile and their education levels are lower. As demonstrated earlier, this is a significant factor that determines attendance in this group. A similar explanation may be valid for school trips, although those responsible for taking the initiative and organising such trips are teachers. The reasons why schools in rural areas less frequently organise trips to the CSC include the following: the less affluent financial situation of parents, who simply cannot afford to finance the trip, the absence of support and initiative on the part of parents, whose education levels are statistically lower, poorer transport links to the capital, and possibly the fact that travel agencies, which serve to organise many such trips, do not operate in many rural areas. Chart 20. Individual visitors vs. organised groups by the size of place of residence, as compared to the general population in Poland (data from a CSC visitor satisfaction survey for 2015 and from the Central Statistical Office). We have also gained certain information about other places that the CSC visitors tend to go to. In the Visitor Profile Survey, respondents were asked how frequently they visited cultural institutions. The question was formulated in such a way as to compare the results with a survey taken among Warsaw residents (the survey Cultural Life of Warsaw Residents from 2011, commissioned by the Warsaw cultural institution Stołeczna Estrada). This way, we could compare the results and analyse the habits of the CSC visitors in terms of visits to cultural institutions 21

23 against the backdrop of the habits of average residents of Warsaw. Sample results are presented below (more data can be found in the survey report). Chart 20. Frequency of visiting cultural institutions among Warsaw residents in general vs. CSC visitors THEATRE (data from the Visitor Profile Survey from 2013, the survey Cultural Life of Warsaw Residents from 2011) Chart 22. Frequency of visiting cultural institutions among Warsaw residents in general vs. CSC visitors MUSEUM (the Visitor Profile Survey from 2013, the survey Cultural Life of Warsaw Residents from 2011) 22

24 Chart 23. Frequency of visiting cultural institutions among Warsaw residents in general vs. CSC visitors CINEMA (data from the Visitor Profile Survey from 2013, the survey Cultural Life of Warsaw Residents from 2011) As we can see, statistically speaking a typical individual visitor of the CSC visits cultural institutions a lot more frequently that a typical resident of Warsaw. It is worth bearing in mind that access to many of these places in Warsaw is free of charge, for example open-air theatres and free admission days in museums, so it is impossible to cite the lack of money as a reason for inactivity in this field. The aforementioned difference is especially visible for theatres and museums, somewhat less so for cinemas. THE CSC AUDIENCE: REPEAT VISITOR PROFILE Visitors returning to the Centre are a group that deserves special attention. Such individuals are clearly convinced by what the Centre has to offer, which evidently meets their needs, and are clearly not discouraged by any objective or subjective barriers. Such regular visitors appear important in terms of both attendance and the Centre s mission. CSC attendance has remained at a very high level for the past several years. However, we should not rule out that this may change in the near future, in particular due to a certain saturation of the market. Many people visit the Centre out of curiosity, as a place that, as we noted earlier, is sometimes considered the main tourist attraction in Warsaw. However, in general such visitors will likely have no need or possibility to return soon. If we take into account the fact that the permanent exhibitions attract 23

25 over 700,000 visitors every year and the certain demographic characteristics of such visitors, most of them may indeed conclude at some point that they have already ticked Copernicus off their list. In this case, it could become a crucial issue for the Centre to build and sustain a large group of devotees eager to visit more often. In addition, it would seem that after several visits the exhibitions stand a better chance of exerting an influence on people in accordance with the Centre s mission. For that reason, regular visitors will naturally be a group more exposed to this influence. At this point, however, the question arises, what does it mean to avail oneself of the services provided by a science centre on a regular basis? Most probably, this frequency is lower than for cinema visits but higher than for the popular traditional museums. Over years, surveys taken among the CSC audience have tackled this issue somewhat differently, entailing certain adjustments made to the research tools. This unfortunately makes it impossible to compare the data very precisely. The following charts show changes in the share of repeat visitors since the opening of the CSC. Chart 24a. The number of earlier visits among CSC visitors (visitor satisfaction surveys from ) 24

26 Chart 24b. The number of earlier visits among CSC visitors (visitor satisfaction surveys from ) To take into account all the years in which the surveys were taken, we must assume that regular visitors are those who, when surveyed, had already visited the Copernicus Science Centre at least twice. The share of such visitors did not change much over time, in particular in the period from 2012 to 2015, and ranged from 10% to 13% (looking at the sum of the shares of the answers yes, twice, yes, three times, and yes, four times or more from the years ). The more detailed questions that have been asked since 2014 also make it possible to measure the group of most loyal devotees, i.e. those who answered yes, four times or more, who have so far accounted for around 4.5% of all visitors. We next sought to further characterize this latter group of regular visitors, using the demographic variables at our disposal. To do so, we applied classification tree analysis, a method that involves splitting a data set according to a specific criterion using different variables so as to find sub-groups with the highest level of the criterion in question. In our case, the criterion will be regular attendance (defined as applying to those who chose the answer yes, four times or more to the question Have you visited the CSC before? in the visitor satisfaction survey) and variables used to split the data set are those demographic factors which the algorithm found to be the most differentiating. The data set may be split in this way multiple times, based on successive variables. We performed such a classification tree analysis twice, using two different methods: the CHAID method (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) and the CRT method (Classification and Regression Trees), which employ somewhat different algorithms. 25

27 Diagram 1 below shows the first classification tree so created, using the CHAID method. For greater clarity, the diagram has been somewhat simplified: the consecutive splits do not describe the distribution of all answers and indicate only the share of regular customers. Regular visitors account for 4.7% of all individual visitors over 15 years of age. In terms of their place of residence, the results indicate that the share of regular visitors is 12.1% among those living in Warsaw, and at 5.7% among those living in the Mazowieckie Province (the region surrounding Warsaw). If we further split respondents from Warsaw into those who visit the Centre with a child and those without a child, it turns out that the share of regular visitors among the group with children is as much as 20.6%. If they are further split by age, this algorithm ultimately identifies the segment of individual visitors characterised by the largest share of regular visitors (25.7%) as the group of Warsaw residents aged over 36 who visit the Centre individually with children (not in organised groups). However, note that the segment defined in this way accounts for 8.8% of all individual visitors. When the CRT method, in turn, is used, the segment of individual visitors that is characterised by the largest share of regular customers shows a higher percentage of the later (namely 35.3%), but in the case of this algorithm this segment itself is much smaller, accounting for just 3.1% of all visitors; moreover, here the segment is defined in a somewhat more complex way: it is the group of individual visitors from Warsaw who visited the Centre with children aged 0-2, 6-8 or 9-11 years and described their professional status as directors/executive officers, members of the liberal professions or teachers. 26

28 Diagram 1. Classification tree, split of individual visitors based on the frequency of visits to the CSC (CHAID method) Have you visited the Centre before? - yes, four times: 4.7% (REGULARS) - yes, three times: 2.4% - yes, twice: 4.7% - yes, once: 16% no: 72.2% province Warsaw REGULARS: 12.1% A visit with a child? Mazowieckie Province REGULARS: 5.7% education other provinces and countries REGULARS: 1.2% YES REGULARS: 20.6% NO REGULARS: 4.4% higher, primary/ lower secondary REGULARS: 7.5% upper secondary, post-secondary, basic vocational REGULARS: 1.9% age of respondent age of child in respondent's care years REGULARS: 25.7% REGULARS: 10.6% 0-11 years REGULARS: 12.1% years REGULARS: 3.3% 27

29 The next diagram shows a similar analysis for organised groups. Diagram 2. Classification tree, split of visitors from organised groups based on the frequency of visiting the CSC (CHAID method) Have you been to the CSC before? - yes, four times: 4.7% (REGULARS) - yes, three times: 2.4% - yes, twice: 4.7% - yes, once: 16% - no: 72.2% province Mazowieckie, Lubelskie REGULARS: 9.2% Podlaskie, Łódzkie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie REGULARS: 6.4% Zachodniopomorskie, Pomorskie, Wielkopolskie, Lubuskie, Dolnośląskie, Opolskie, Małopolskie, Podkarpackie, Świętokrzyskie REGULARS: 2.7% professional status teachers, students, members of the liberal professions REGULARS: 10.3% other professions REGULARS: 3.9% For organized groups, the classification tree diagram created using the CHAID method shows that repeat visitors are most frequently participants of trips from the provinces of Mazowieckie and 28

30 Lubelskie. Regular customers account for 9.2% of the group. The share is smaller (6.4%) in trips from the provinces that border on the Mazowieckie Province, which means the provinces of Łódzkie, Podlaskie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie, and Kujawsko-Pomorskie. The smallest share of regular customers was found in the remaining provinces (2.7%). If we divide respondents from the Mazowieckie and Lubelskie Provinces into sub-groups based on their professional status, it turns out that regular visitors make up 10.3% of the sub-group of teachers, students, and members of the liberal professions. As for teachers and students, this outcome comes as no surprise: they visit the Centre on school trips. However, the presence of members of the liberal professions in this group may mean that they as parents are more likely to participate in organised trips, as chaperones to help teachers watch over children. 29

31 Appendix 1. Audience research in the CSC, list of selected surveys Survey Content Comments CSC brand image survey Visitor satisfaction survey (separately for the CSC and the Planetarium) Surveys measuring awareness of temporary exhibitions Mystery visitor style survey Survey of After Hours Evenings for Adults Visitor Profile Survey Audience surveys: the Discovery Park, the Transit of Mercury, the Night of Shooting Stars Awareness and strength of the CSC brand and comparable institutions, eagerness to visit again Visitor satisfaction, visitor demographics, eagerness to visit again Awareness of exhibitions and impact on attendance, awareness of promotion channels Service quality, compliance with procedures, the perspective of visitors Demographic data and satisfaction with the event Motivations of visitors, data regarding the frequency of visiting cultural institutions, the demographic profile of the CSC visitors compared to the general population in Poland and in Warsaw Audience demographics, visits to the CSC and the Planetarium Surveys taken in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, with a nationwide sample and a sample of Warsaw residents (though only Warsaw residents in 2010). Periodic survey. Quarterly reports and an annual report (still on a monthly basis in 2010 and 2011). Substantial changes in the CSC audience research tool in Surveys taken during promotional campaigns. Currently, such research excludes awareness of promotional channels and is conducted as part of visitor satisfaction surveys. Conducted on a regular basis from 2010 to 2012; after that sporadically, depending on the needs. Some editions were designed with a specific topic in mind, for example explainers. A periodic survey. No decision concerning 2017 has been made. Audience surveys: the Discovery Park, the Transit of Mercury, the Night of Shooting Stars 30

32 Audience research in the CSC, list of selected surveys ctd. Survey Content Comments Qualitative surveys among target groups: parents, seniors, teachers Price elasticity of demand survey Awareness of the CSC offer among Warsaw residents Awareness of the CSC offer among Warsaw teachers Qualitative survey among members of the Copernicus Club A survey of visitor motivations Motivations and barriers to CSC visits and a broader context of visits; for individual visitors ways of spending free time and visits to similar institutions; for teachers the organisation of school trips. In addition to its fundamental goal (to gain insight into sensitivity to changes in ticket prices), the survey also included modules pertaining to the criteria for the selection of venue for such a science centre or a museum as well the attractiveness of various places in Warsaw for tourists Awareness of and visits to cultural institutions in Warsaw as well as awareness of the CSC s additional offer. The results were crossed with media consumption data. Organisation of school trips (where and how often). Awareness of the CSC offer. Satisfaction and motivations for participation in the Club. The topic is fully complemented by the report The World of the Young, purchased from IQS. The report discusses the values and lifestyles of teenagers. Visitor motivations. A survey conducted in consultation with other cultural institutions. No report, working results available. 31

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