With Clair’s track-record in research on audience behaviours and opinions in the cultural sector, we had no doubt she would be the best person to work with us to establish some crucial public feedback on a new brand for the in-development Perth Museum. Her expertise informed our approach to the project, working with us to establish the right questions to ask to get meaningful, actionable feedback for ourselves and our client. Clair managed the process from start to finish, finding interview candidates who fit our requirements, then arranging and conducting interviews to gain vital feedback on our brand concepts and planned activations. Her report on these interviews teased out clear answers as well as interesting, unexpected areas to consider, explore and develop further, and provided our client with some baseline marketing insights to help inform their launch and rollout plans. Clair’s work helped us finalise our approach to the branding project and helped reassure our client on the strengths of our direction — all in all an incredibly useful piece of work which enabled us to confidently proceed. Clair will be our first port of call for any audience research needs in future! 

— Lewis Camley, Accounts and Marketing Manager, Tangent (Branding and Art Direction).

Clair is wonderful to work with. She approaches the project with an interest and enthusiasm, as if it were her own and she goes beyond her remit by highlighting various other resources  that link to both the specific and broader theme of the project at hand.  Clair is very always very timely and concise in her communications, making meetings and electronic interactions straightforward, efficient and productive.  The all-important end product was high quality, well written and easily digestible. She also created the summary version, of greatest interest for wider readership, as well as the more detailed version that is of great benefit to me, as the appointing client.  I would not hesitate to recommend CG Research.  Ruthanne Baxter - Museums Services Manager, University of Edinburgh 

We worked with CG Research in 2022 on a major survey of our digital users and their experiences with us during the pandemic. Clair’s careful background research on our organisation meant that we could hit the ground running and start to formulate a survey quickly. Clair’s understanding of what we needed our survey to do kept us on track as we developed questions, and her in-depth knowledge of the way the public engages with surveys meant that we ended up with a survey that not only gave us what we wanted to know, but that was easy to engage with. Clair also advised on promoting the survey to maximise engagement, and we were delighted with the response rate and the quality of responses we received when the survey went live. Clair presented findings to us in a workshop format, which was really helpful for seeing the meaning behind the statistics. She questioned us about what jumped out at us, or what might be behind the results we were seeing, and this was extremely valuable is helping us get to grips with the results. We also received stylishly presented, clear reports that we could return to and share across the organisation. Clair’s extensive experience within the arts and heritage sector meant that she could answer all our questions quickly and effectively, and was able to steer us towards a result we were really happy with. This made the whole process enjoyable and efficient. Clair’s interpersonal skills and time management meant that the project ticked along perfectly alongside our other commitments, which was so valuable for a busy organisation like ours. Clair’s work with us is going to make us a stronger and more responsive museum service in the unsettled post-Covid cultural landscape. We can’t recommend CG Research highly enough, and look forward to working with Clair again in the future.

Vicky Garrington, Project Lead for Museum & Galleries Edinburgh Digital Engagement Strategy project 

In the run up to The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s return to concert halls, the Orchestra commissioned CG Research to undertake audience research to test audience sentiment around Covid confidence, and to delve deeper into the makeup of the SCO’s audience to assist with future planning. Clair devised an online survey that was sent to the SCO’s database and posted through all other SCO digital channels asking a series of wide-ranging questions that would help us, firstly with some of the short-term decisions that needed to be made to welcome our audiences back to our concerts after an 18-month break, and secondly with some of the longer-term strategic decisions that have been front of mind during the pandemic. Clair was organised, professional and flexible and produced a hugely useful piece of research, the recommendations of which have already been disseminated across the organisation and are influencing planning in a really positive way. On a personal level Clair has always been a delight to work with and I would highly recommend her.

Derek Gilchrist, Marketing and Communications Director, Scottish Chamber Orchestra

I have been extremely fortunate to have Clair working alongside me as the Inverclyde Great Place Scheme project developed and evolved during the Covid-19 pandemic. Clair made sure that the method for collection and evaluation adapted and continued to meet the approved purposes for the project funders.  Clair’s focused approach guided me through the evaluation process and I looked forward to our virtual meetings. Her enthusiasm was infectious and her engaging, friendly manner hugely supportive making each meeting a positive and enjoyable experience.  Clair’s professional attitude and desire to produce high quality work resulted in a well written, insightful evaluation document presenting the results in a clear factual manner.  I have tremendous respect for Clair. Her skills, knowledge and experience were of huge benefit to the success of the project. It has been a privilege to work alongside her and I highly recommend working with Clair.  Grace McKelvie - Inverclyde Great Place Scheme

I worked with Clair on a number of occasions during my time with the National Theatre of Scotland and found the experience to be highly beneficial to my skills development and confidence in customer research. My understanding of audience surveying, research, analysis and best practices were greatly expanded by working with Clair and I would not hesitate to recommend CG Research to any organisation looking for consultation or guidance.  Fergus Weir

I worked with Clair during my time at Edinburgh International Festival. The project appeared at first to be a daunting and complex task but Clair approached it with great ease making the whole project a truly rewarding and positive experience. The service Clair offered was very attentive and answered all questions quickly and efficiently. It was evident Clair has vast amounts of experience in this area and I would highly recommend Clair to anyone.  Louise Hutson -  Individual Giving Manager, Social Bite

Clair delivered a bespoke, 2-session market research training course for us. Our attendees were from a variety of services – from advice centres to bars – and were mostly not from marketing or research backgrounds. Clair worked to craft a training experience which resonated with all attendees and covered a great deal of information in an engaging and accessible way; by weaving in a plethora of real life examples from her career and from high profile case studies. CG Research has left us empowered and inspired to get out and conduct some good quality market research!  Emma Robertson-Werner, Director of Marketing and Communications - Edinburgh University Students’ Association 

Clair’s unique ability to synthesise complex organisational issues into actionable research projects was a huge asset to the arts organisations we worked with.  Clair’s collaborative spirit and deep understanding of the arts sector makes her an ideal partner for any organisation looking to understand its audience. If you want to understand your organisation from a sector positioning down to individual audience motivation I would highly recommend working with Clair.  Adam Matheson

Having worked with Clair over many years in her capacity as an arts audiences researcher I would really recommend her skills & expertise.  Cerin Richardson

Thanks so much for coming in and presenting your findings. I’ve had some great feedback from people across the teams already who have said they found it really interesting and liked your insights –ie. that you didn’t just quote stats but actually gave us relevant points to consider and think about. So all good!

Amanda Barry, Head of Marketing & PR, Edinburgh International Book Festival