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In marketing understanding who your customers are means you’re better able to make marketing decisions aimed directly at those people who match our customer profile. We’ve already worked out where are customers are using customer geographics – so now lets find out who they are
Sometimes business owners like to think that their product or service appeals to everyone. This can be a costly undertaking, in order to market to everyone you’ll have to place advertisements everywhere. By using demographics you’re narrowing down your definition of your customer – the more precise you are about your customer the easier it becomes to market to them.
General impressions.
What’s your general impression of your customers? define them in broad terms, use age, education level, ethnicity, income level, profession, sex, marital status etc.
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Are the mostly male or female?
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Are they mostly teenagers, young adults, early retirees, senior citizens?
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Are they students, graduates, professionally qualified?
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What do they do – homemakers, teachers, professionals?
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Are they mostly single, couples with no children, families with children, grandparents?
Breaking your market into subgroups.
Perhaps your customers change depending on the time of day, or week, or season?
A local Sussex restaurant analyses its weekday customers using a simple questionnaire, both lunchtime and evening. This produces two very different demographic profiles. The restaurant learns that its lunchtime customers are primarily local business people from nearby, while its evening diners are largely tourist families. This marketing information is then used to create to different promotions: Lunch in 45mins or its free is aimed at nearby business centres and promoted through the local chamber of commerce newsletter or a similar low-cost local business publication; and a Children under 8 eat free which is promoted through reception desks of local hotels and tourist publications.
Ask your customers.
Verify your reasearch by incorporating some of your questions into your conversations with customers during the inquiry or sales stage.