MOSI

MOSI

Client: MOSI
Industry: Destination Marketing/Hospitality

Challenge:

MOSI’s 60th anniversary was approaching, and with that milestone in sight, the management team was very eager to put in place a series of systems and improvements to reinvent the brand equity and facility for the future. Yet, they had minimal research to use as a basis for change.

Solution:

HCP Associates devised a comprehensive, mixed-medium research plan that gathered insights from employees, volunteers, walk-in guests, donors, members, lapsed members, the board of directors, and the general public and then devised a series of recommendations in response to the overarching common needs identified.

The Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI) in Tampa solicited HCP Associates’ help to analyze the science center’s operations and viability. This project aimed to pinpoint recommendations intended to prepare MOSI for the integration of STEAM and its public launch in celebration of the 60th anniversary. HCP Associates’ analysis aimed to renew the visitor base to attract, engage, and retain visitors so that they may become ambassadors of MOSI’s mission. It was critical to bring in a third-party to complete the analysis to disrupt the status quo and remove bias, historical preferences, and predispositions from entering the recommendations.

There were a variety of methodologies exercised by HCP Associates in this effort. The first phase included secondary data collection on various science center peers across the United States. Peers were analyzed on a wide variety of features for a total of 9 individual museum profiles. The second methodology utilized in this phase was primary observation via secret shopping by the research team members. All members attended the museum and documented offerings as they appeared during normal museum operating hours without notifying the museum of their presence. The final portion of this phase involved reviewing data provided by the museum, including visioning documents and third-party reports and studies.

Upon completing the initial phase, HCP Associates had a strong basis for understanding the status and the potential—a critical basis to develop before launching into internal interviews and discussions.

The second phase represented the largest segment of the project, involving various primary research efforts. These included both external and on-site data collection methods. External research encompassed online surveys of members and lapsed members and phone surveys of donors and the wider local market. On-site data collection took two forms. One was via GoPro recordings conducted by seven groups of visitors documenting an entire museum visit. The second was numerous focus groups conducted with MOSI staff from various departments.

Overall, the stakeholder groups surveyed included frontline staff, education staff, volunteers, unaffiliated visitors, members, lapsed members, donors, and the general local market.

When HCP Associates began this process with MOSI, the organization faced an uphill battle to reinvent the brand and position the facility for the future. The museum lacked solid data to justify and affirm the changes it sought to implement, and what evidence did exist was disparate and difficult to understand. The completion of this project changed that. The myriad of elements brought together within the results gave MOSI a solid, evidence-based foundation to build a visitor base for the next 60 years and beyond. They offered internal and external recommendations into how the organization can be elevated in the community’s eyes and ways it can expand its mission to integrate STEAM in a positive and collaborative way while leveraging local partners and remaining a core Tampa Bay institution well into the future.