Using and Understanding Your Demographic

July 19th, 2010   Posted by tyler in Business, Featured

So you’re a manager of a restaurant and you decided you need to advertise online. We might have a discussion like this:

Me: “That’s great! Online advertising is the best way to reach a huge customer base.  So, Imaginary Restaurant Manager, who do you want to advertise too?”

Manager: “How can I reach everybody?”

Mr. Imaginary Restaurant Manager might seem crazy but for his business he actually has the right idea.  He should be diversifying his marketing strategy.  One of the biggest challenges I face when meeting new clients is to get them to think about the demographics they want to reach.  I worked for a movie theater promoting a local midnight film festival.  They spent lots of money on newspaper ads and a large display at a local county fair.  While they might catch some eyes, the odds are those aren’t going to catch the audience going to the movies at midnight.  If they had done a little more market research they could have used their ad budget in much smarter ways.

So what does Mr. Restaurant Manager do when he wants to successfully go after a diverse market?  If you can afford it, focus grouping is a great way to see if things are working.  If you don’t want to shell out the cash, social media can be a great tool.  You can use Twitter, and Facebook to get people to take online surveys and even do some in house surveying of customers.  If you can get a broad spectrum of people to take the survey you can compile the data into the standard 4 quads, Woman under 35, Woman over 35, Men over 35, Men under 35.  This is how advertising agencies and focus group managers see you.

C compile your data into these quads and look at a few basic questions. For restaurants and hotels it’s “Would you recommend this establishment,” and “Would this be a first choice to go in the future.  For retail it might be, “Is this place your first choice to go for (insert product).”  Look at 100 people, 25 in each quad, and take a look at that big question.   That’s the bottom line that advertising people look at when they decide how to change their ad strategy.

Your main goal is to reach double digits in the “first choice” question.   If you have successful 4 quad advertising the odds are you are doing pretty well in your business but that’s a difficult thing to accomplish.   (Neither the NFL or NBA have double digits in all 4 quads.  The only sport to do it is major league baseball.)  Double digits in all four quads means your advertising is working.

The most likely scenario is that one or two of your quads can are a little bit lower than the others.  If you are a restaurant and Women over 35 is low you might want to gear your advertising to represent your place as a family restaurant since that demographic is also where you get a good idea of what kids are seeing.  (Kids are notoriously difficult to track considering they are spending through their parents and don’t usually have great internet access)  If you are lacking the Women under 35 range then you could try some ads that show how your place would be great for a “Girls Night Out.”  Advertise some drink specials on Facebook or Twitter.

On the other side if you find yourself lacking in the men under 35 demo you may want to show less ads about families and children and start advertising your place as a little more hip.  You could start a funny video contest on Facebook and YouTube for example.  If you have trouble getting the Over 35 guys you could try showing that your place has a traditional feel.  That’s when you try some newspaper ads, and maybe some radio.  It’s all about picking the right medium and the right audience for your message.

Former New Line Cinema executive and current online publisher Jeff Kats (www.geekweeklive.com) said, “All this tracking data is the biggest tool an advertising exec has and is what they use to figure out what needs to be changed.”  Thanks to social media and the internet you can now have this data in the palm of your hands and adjust your advertising accordingly.  All it takes is 100 survey takers, 25 in each quad, for you to take your advertising to the next level.

www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/restaurant-marketing/demographics

gossmark.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-take-on-restaurant-demographics

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_41_39/ai_n15727597/

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2 Responses to “Using and Understanding Your Demographic”

  1. Porter Mccaddon  July 22nd, 2010

    Thanks for sharing this. We’re always looking for valuable resources to share with clients and my colleagues, and this post is definitely worth sharing!

  2. john paulson  July 23rd, 2010

    “Cop: Hey kid are you using?”

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