How Museums & Attractions Are Using Data to Reinvent Their Membership Programs

When was the last time you took a critical look at your membership structure? If you’re like most museum & attraction professionals we speak with, it’s probably been a while—and you’re not alone. Many organizations are finding that membership programs that were successful in the past now feel disconnected from what today’s visitors actually want and need.

A well-designed membership program should make it easy for new visitors to join, give existing members compelling reasons to renew, and generate the revenue your institution needs to fulfill its mission. And ideally, it shouldn’t be an undue burden on staff to administer.

If your current program isn’t hitting all these marks, it may be time to consider restructuring. Updating your membership structure can feel like a daunting task—and there’s no doubt that it’s a big undertaking—but JCA has guided many museums, zoos, aquariums, and cultural attractions through this process using a proven methodology that we’ll walk you through below.

Start with What You Already Know: Understanding Your Members

Every successful membership restructuring starts with understanding who your members are and how they’re engaging with your organization. This is best accomplished through a Member Behavior Analysis; a deep dive into the membership behavior data in your CRM.

Before you can confidently make changes, you’ll want solid answers to some fundamental questions:

• Who are your members? Demographics, geographic distribution, and household composition
• What was their journey to membership? Previous visits, donations, or engagement activities
• How do they interact with renewal cycles? Renewal rates, timing patterns, and communication preferences
• What upgrade/downgrade patterns exist? Movement between membership levels and triggers for changes
• Which benefits drive value? Usage data for exclusive events, discounts, and member perks
• What benefits are actually being used? Which membership perks are popular, and which are going unused

Understanding the answers to these questions is crucial to identifying where changes to the membership structure might be needed. For organizations only looking to make small changes to pricing and benefits, this behavior analysis provides the information you need to make confident, data-driven updates.

When You Need to Go Bigger: The Power of Conjoint Analysis

However, if you’re looking to make more sweeping changes, you may want use another incredibly valuable tool: Conjoint Analysis. Conjoint analysis is a survey-based form of primary research. It uses choice architecture to simulate a purchase experience, asking respondents to choose a membership given varying sets of benefits and costs.

This decision modeling allows us to identify which benefits potential members value in a membership, and how much they are willing to pay for them. The results from a conjoint analysis are not only directional, but also quantifiable, so that you can predict the exact impact that making a change would have on your membership numbers and income.

The results from a conjoint analysis provide specific insight into the intentions of your visitors and concrete, actionable information to guide the creation of your new membership structure.

• Pinpoint the benefits that truly drive membership decisions and prioritize them in your offering.
• Uncover precise price sensitivity to identify the optimal price points for maximizing either revenue or membership volume.
• Identify key patron segments to serve as the basis for marketing and messaging, to ensure that you’re approaching the right people with the right message to drive action.

What we love about this approach is that it transforms membership restructuring from “we think this might work” into “we know this will work because the data shows us exactly what our members value.”

Turning Data into Results: End-to-End Support

Research findings are only as good as your ability to act on them effectively. JCA’s approach goes well beyond delivering a final report. We work alongside you through every phase of this transformation:

• Membership Research: We conduct the specific analysis you need, from a deep-dive Member Behavior Analysis of your historical data to a forward-looking Conjoint Analysis that tests new concepts and pricing with your audience.
• Strategic Planning: We help you translate research findings into a membership structure that actually works for your institution.
• Implementation Support: Navigate all the technical and operational details that can make or break a program launch.
• Marketing Strategy: Develop messaging that resonates with the different member segments you’ve identified.
• Ongoing Success: Set up the metrics and processes you need to track performance and spot opportunities for continued optimization.

Membership restructuring isn’t just about changing price points or shuffling benefits. It’s about creating a program that genuinely serves your audience while driving sustainable revenue. The right research makes all the difference in getting there.

Ready to transform your membership program? JCA has worked with organizations nationwide to optimize their membership structures using this proven, research-based approach. We’d love to explore how these insights could guide your organization’s program.

Let’s Talk!