Client Endorsements & News
MEDIA & FEATURES
>•blog.syracuse.com representatives from 42 organizations meet with consultant Surale Pillips at an afternoon workshop; with the goal to expand and understand audiences and explore target-marketing and opportunities to pool resources. read more >>
>• ArtsMarketing.org featured Surale's thoughts on Market Research Collaboration & Getting a Bigger Bang for Your Buck! >>
>• AmericansfortheArts.org article
Surale was responsible for all the research for the Audience Development Initiative for the iPhone mobile calendar app, click here to read more. >>
• Smart City Radio Features Surale Phillips
Americans for the Arts - A new study from Americans for the Arts claims that each year in America the nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166 billion in economic activity. Our guests this week are leading efforts to make sure their cities get a big piece of that action. Surale Phillips shares how arts organizations are finding new audiences.
Download Quicktime audio file (3.4MB) >>
endorsements
Terri Harmon
Chief Operating Officer, The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City
The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City has been working with Surale Phillips and Decisions Support Partners since the fall of 2003. As the principal consultant for our Collaborative Cultural Audience Development Initiative, her research skills and marketing insights have guided each phase of this important project.
For Phase One, Surale helped us to recruit 56 different arts and cultural organizations to submit data about their audiences for a geodemographic analysis of the cultural market in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The resulting study was one of the largest of its kind ever undertaken in the country, and its findings and information about arts and cultural audiences here has not only helped to shape arts marketing decisions, it has influenced community leaders as they consider ways to increase funding for the arts in the region. The potential for increasing arts audiences from segments of the market that are currently underserved already has encouraged new outreach and audience development efforts.
It was the expressed desire of the participants in Phase One that the Arts Council re-engage Surale Phillips to continue her work with them. In Phase Two, which began in January of 2005 and continues through June of this year, Surale Phillips returned to Kansas City to work with organizations to expand their audience base, to increase their earned revenues, and to use their marketing resources more efficiently. Using the foundation of research and data from Phase One, Surale Phillips assisted on seven audience development projects which involved twenty different arts organizations. The evaluation and reporting on Phase Two are underway, and the preliminary results look promising.
Working with Surale Phillips has been an extremely positive experience for the Arts council staff, and I am pleased to recommend her heartily for your consideration as a consultant. We are looking forward to working with her again on Phase Three of our initiative; her combination of creativity, commitment and common sense make her an invaluable resource.
Darcy Minter
Communications Director, Western Folklife Center, Elko, Nevada
I have worked closely with Ms. Phillips on some very key research over the
last year and a half. In January 2005, we conducted a values-based survey
with our National Cowboy Poetry Gathering audience. The information we
gathered has helped us articulate our brand, develop a communications
strategy, build new development tools, create a new interactive website,
and shape our programming to be more meaningful to our audience. Ms.
Phillips was instrumental in turning our vision into a practical reality
by putting quantitative measurements on emotional information. The result
was data we could easily interpret and put to use, rather than on a shelf.
Ms. Phillips is extremely creative in her approach to research.
Recognizing that each organization has unique needs, she is able to tailor
her strategy accordingly. She also has the ability to sift through what
seems like mountains of information and distill the critical nuggets of
data that will be most meaningful to the organization. She is deep thinker
who is also responsible, capable and loads of fun to work with. She brings
joy and enthusiasm to every job.
Susan Johnson
Director of Development, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee
Through a members’ survey conducted by Surale Phillips, the staff of the
Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee was able to identify the
strengths of our program as well as areas that needed revision as we
entered the strategic planning process in 2007. Surale deftly guided us to
create a series of questions that would determine exactly what we needed
for membership growth and program strength. Her professionalism, accuracy,
and judgment made this a positive first step toward our goal as we
welcomed a new director and two new educators to the galleries and
gardens. With her leadership, we continue to use the results of the survey
as a living document to guide our planners in the creation of the most
compelling programs possible. We will definitely contract with Surale for
potential initiatives to ensure that our program is fresh, challenging and
favorable in the eyes of our current and future members.
Carol McCollum
Board Secretary, Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts
In 2006-2006 the Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts contracted with Surale Phillips, President of Decision Support Partners, to prepare a Market Study to support planning efforts for the proposed Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts. In collaboration with Surale, 13 arts organizations in the Asheville, NC area submitted their audience databases to her for analysis. They would not have been willing to do so without having complete confidence in Surale’s ability, professionalism and knowledge their records would remain completely confidential.
As Surale’s primary AACPA contact, I found her to be a genuine pleasure to work with. She did not hesitate to call Executive, Artistic and Marketing Directors when they needed additional information or had questions regarding their database transfers. She was flexible throughout the process and willing to include data in the report which would best meet our needs. The final report (and individual reports to each of the participating arts groups) was a wealth of information, professionally and clearly presented. In August, she presented her findings in person to the AACPA Board and representatives from the participating arts groups. The quality and amount of information Surale generates from databases and presents in a final report is truly remarkable.
Read about Surale's market study under "Market Demand": http://theperformancecenter.org/community.htm
Diane Mataraza, Inc.
Organizational Development and Management
There are several reasons why I will always collaborate with Surale Phillips when it comes to research. Surale has the ability to analyze a potential project, advise on the most helpful information to support and inform project results, design research methodology within budget parameters, execute data collection with ease, and then assemble findings in ways that are thoughtful, comprehensive, clear and extremely helpful.
I’m proud of the quality of work we have done together:
Surale built the data base and data collection system for ARTSCLASSifieds, an online directory for the Greater Columbus Arts Council which today houses information for more than 300 organizations in three languages. The assessment preceding this Franklin County project took the form of a 236 page report to inventory arts education offerings of 197 arts providers and 16 school districts (216 school buildings). This project was part of the Ohio Arts Council’s Wallace Funds initiative and we collaborated on it in 2002-2004.
Surale has provided market research and assessment for my cultural planning projects with the Cultural Council of Sonoma County, West Valley Arts Council (Phoenix’s West Valley 1.2 million people), and currently in Salina, KS. For these projects she’s developed surveys for artists, arts organizations and a variety of public opinion instruments.
Surale has provided me with market research to inform performing arts center projects in Richmond, Virginia and Santa Cruz California.
She conducted the full data inventory of all arts education offerings in Broward County, Florida with a final report available on line at www.broward.org. Surale has provided organizational assessment surveying to support a six year capacity building project of the Cultural Council of Greater Tacoma and the Community Foundation of Greater Tacoma.
Surale is a true professional, delivers high quality product on time- all the time. Clients enjoy working with Surale and, if it’s not obvious by now, so do I.
