The rise of the survey
The survey is the front end of market research, and very few
businesses start up without reading in depth market research
tracts about their intended markets. From the 1930s Hollywood
employed the market research techniques of George Gallup to
poll movie goers and test the 'brand' loyalty of movie stars.
But market research isn't confined to multi-million dollar
block busters. Arts Council England works to get great art to
everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic
experiences that enrich people's lives. One of the ways it does
that is through segmentation, a market research method where
a given market is broken down into distinct groups of people
that behave in similar ways or have similar needs. An organisation
can use a segmentation to better understand its market, to identify
groups that it would like to target and to develop products
which anticipate their needs better.
You don't need to look too far before you come up against some
sort of survey. Most of our everyday live require some sort
of feedback form to validate our existence. On a scale of 1
to 10 how would you rate this article so far?
The survey as art
Surveys are increasing while art budgets are being cut. So
why don't the arts organisation pay arts to devise interesting
surveys? And the curator could justify the decision by referencing
a 1970s conceptual artist. Don Celender
created a series of questionnaires about art or esthetics, and
sent them out to people in all walks of life, which he would
post in the gallery as artworks.
While the professional pollster's ''accurate sampling'' is
not the goal here, Mr. Celender's mailing list could use some
cross-generational freshening. Still, the kind of opinions this
survey plumbs tend to come from a lifetime of working, looking,
watching and sometimes waiting. ROBERTA
SMITH
The survey is an interesting vehicle for creative ideas.
The various tests and quizzes on this page offer a breadth and variety to the sampling of consumer citizens. |
