Cultural heritage organisations work hard to enhance audience experiences and present cultural heritage in a way that is relevant, immersive, and personalised. Personas are a method that can aid in this goal as well as promote wider engagement and inclusivity. With the use of personas, your organisation can develop relevant content and strategies based entirely off your audience’s real interests and needs. It also allows you to understand why people engage with your organisation or use your services.

Personas defined by motivations

Defining a range of audience’s motivations is one way you can outline your personas. In The Museum Experience (1992) John Howard Falk and Lynn Diane Dierking describe three main motivations for people to visit museums or art galleries. The first is for social activity: they found that people wanted to spend time with their friends and family in a safe environment where they could be entertained. The second was for education and learning: this was a broad motivation and encompassed both individual learning and teaching children but also to satisfying personal curiosity. Reverence was the third motivation: people searching for a place that will inspire their imagination, enlighten them, and where they can escape their daily routines. These motivators are directly based on what the visitor believes they will get out of attending the museum. It is rooted in what they think they know about themselves and their identity. Motivations can also change based on a specific day, situation, or circumstance.

Personas defined by culture segments

The Audience Atlas developed by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in association with Creative NZ can help your organisation define its personas and delve deeper into audience motivators and needs. This guide is used by various New Zealand GLAM sector organisations including Christchurch Art Gallery. The Audience Atlas was formulated with the help of comprehensive questionnaires (qualitative analysis) and census data (quantitative analysis). It provides elaborate information about audiences so that potential, active, or even lapsed markets can be identified to improve your organisation’s marketing and communications strategies. Eight “culture segments” are defined in Audience Atlas and they can inform your organisation’s personas. The segments are essence, expression, affirmation, enrichment, stimulation, release, perspective, and entertainment. Each holds a different set of deeply held beliefs centred around the role that the arts and cultural heritage have within people’s lives.

‘Essence’ people vs ‘entertainment’ people

‘Essence’ people are thought to be most interested in the arts and cultural heritage: it is an integral part of their identity, they are knowledgeable about it, and seek out emotional connections with it. Essence people veer away from more generic or popular models of the arts, thinking it is “unsophisticated.” A segment that rarely engages with the arts or cultural heritage are “entertainment people”: they think it has little relevance to their lives and will only participate during mainstream events or activities. They seek leisure activities that are fun and entertaining, those that offer a type of escapism from their day-to-day lives.

Cultural segments can help you understand the needs of your various personas, allowing you to implement appropriate public programming and services that will appeal to a diverse range of people. Personas enable cultural heritage organisations to develop strategies that will increase audience engagement and encourage return visits. When used effectively, personas can help you plan a selection of customised marketing strategies so you can communicate with audiences who are avid visitors as well as those who do not usually engage with cultural heritage.