(I meant to do this last week, but I was visiting family in Asia, and damn it, Firefox ate my post again. Sorry about that. - DD)

We left off talking about how important it is to know your client:

When you are doing research for someone, they are entrusting you to discover what they need to accomplish their goals. It's an incredible responsibility, and not one that you should take lightly.  In order to understand their needs, you have to understand them.  You have to understand their organizational mission, their history, their resources in addition to the parameters of your specific project.  Unless you know your client, all the time and resources you put into it will be for naught.

The goal was to leave off and use the absence to see what we could find.  We'll see what we found out under the flip.

(Now, obviously, this tutorial isn't going to simulate the full research that a pollster would undertake. I don't expect you to have come up with binders and binders worth of research, so this will really just be a small sampling of what we could have found.)

So, where were we going to look?

So, how do you come to know your client? The first step is to visit their website and see what they say about themselves. If you want to understand your client, you should see how they understand themselves, and how they present themselves to their customers.  Take any information you can get - press kits, FAQ's, mission statements, etc.  At this point, you're going to want to get a big, big D-ring binder, lots of highlighters and some dividers.  Do you feel like you're in eighth grade again yet?

It sounds silly, but you should really understand how your client understands himself. The best source for this is from their website and what they tell the media. Let's check out their media kit:

The concept for a museum and archive dedicated to rock's vital heritage was initiated in 1983, when a group of influential figures in the music industry created the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation to honor the men and women who have made unique contributions to the energy and evolution of rock and roll. The Foundation undertook a nationwide search for an appropriate location, and in 1986 Cleveland was selected as the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

In addition to supporting the development of the Museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation organizes the annual nomination, election and induction of new members into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The nominees are chosen by a committee of historians and musicologists, and are eligible if they have released a record at least 25 years prior to induction. They are then voted on by an international group of music industry professionals, including producers, broadcasters, journalists and performers. Since 1986, over 225 artists, as well as members from the non-performer and early influence categories, have been inducted into this pantheon of rock greats.

Sounds like an interesting mission, no?  The scholarly mission of the museum is to promote the study of one of America's great art forms, and to try and honor figures who would otherwise be lost to the tides of history and media.  Aside from certain university programs, it doesn't look they really have much competition, either, so they're in a good position to dominate the arena. 

Now, here's a good way to check whether or not people see them in the way that they'd like to be seen.  Look at Wikipedia.  While Wikipedia is generally not good for scholarly or journalistic research, it's a really good way to check and see what the common view and consensus on any given topic is. That being said, let's check the entry to see what we find:

The main criticism is that the nomination process is controlled by a few individuals who are not even musicians, such as founder Jann Wenner, former foundation director Suzan Evans, and writer Dave Marsh, reflecting their tastes rather than the views of the rock world as a whole. A former member of the nominations board once said:

At one point Suzan Evans lamented the choices being made because there weren't enough big names that would sell tickets to the dinner. That was quickly remedied by dropping one of the doo-wop groups being considered in favor of a 'name' artist ... I saw how certain pioneering artists of the 50s and early 60s were shunned because there needed to be more name power on the list, resulting in 70s superstars getting in before the people who made it possible for them. Some of those pioneers still aren't in today.^[6]

Petitions with tens of thousands of signatures were also being ignored and some groups that were signed with certain labels or companies or were affiliated with various committee members have even been put up for nomination with no discussion at all.^[6]

Another criticism is that too many artists are inducted, allowing for several lesser acts to make it in. In fifteen years, 97 different artists have been inducted. A minimum of 50% of the vote is needed to be inducted, although the final percentages are not announced and a certain number of inductees (5 in 2007) is set before the ballots are shipped.^[7] The committee usually nominates a small number of artists (9 in 2007) and they are coming from an increasing number of different genres. Several voters, including Joel Selvin, who himself is a former member of the nominating committee, didn't submit their ballots in 2007, with the reason being that they didn't feel any of the candidates were truly worthy.^[8]

The Sex Pistols, inducted in 2006, refused to attend the ceremony, calling the museum a "piss stain."^[9]

<SNIP>

 

On March 14, two days after the 2007 induction ceremony, Roger Friedman of Fox News published an article claiming that The Dave Clark Five should have been the fifth inductee, as they had more votes than inductee Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. The article went on to say "[Jann Wenner] used a technicality about the day votes were due in. In reality, The Dave Clark Five got six more votes than Grandmaster Flash. But he felt we couldn't go another year without a rap act."^[10]

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would later deny fixing the vote, although they didn't deny that late votes were received, saying, "No. There is a format and rules and procedure. There is a specific time when the votes have to be in, and then they are counted. The bands with the top five votes got in."^[11]

The Dave Clark Five was subsequently nominated again and then inducted the following year.^[12]

Uh-oh, now we see the trouble. Even though they're the major scholarly group in the country on this subject, their academic objectivity, methods and credibility are being questioned.   Scholars and museums live and die by their credibility. If people don't find them credible, then they have nothing.  If they're already having credibility problems within their primary demographic, things can't be too good for them.

So, what about young people?  Well, given the Cleveland economy, who really wants to go to Ohio? And given that the focus of the museum is mostly on things that young people consider to be oldies, classic rock or their parents' music, how are they going to generate interest?  Also, how can a museum possibly compete with sites like All Music and Pitchfork Media for immediacy of coverage?  Even magazines like Rolling Stone are mostly read by people in their thirties and above instead of younger people.  What's a venerable dinosaur like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to do?

What  about media coverage? It looks like they got some good coverage for the opening of their NY annex, but there's not much else out there.  They definitely don't just need good press, they need press, period.

So this is the situation that our client is facing, and why they're trying to poll. They want to know what they can do to rekindle the flame with their existing supporters and get ahead with a new demographic. They're afraid of losing relevance, and, ultimately, like every NGO out there, they're worried about losing the money to keep their mission going.

Now that we know this, we're in a better position to understand what we're doing for our client. We can construct our poll with more knowledge, and better help them accomplish their strategic goals.

DD