3 Steps to Consider Before Diving Into Demographics

November 5, 2008 By Heather Fletcher, Senior Editor, Target Marketing

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To do their jobs well, marketers know they must understand their audiences and address them accordingly. Some make assumptions. But others do their homework and learn about audience demographics.

What marketers may not know is that before embarking on demographics research, they have a little preparation to do. 

While demographic solutions are among the business services Orange, Calif.-based data services and technology company SRC provides, Executive Vice President, Marketing Olivia Duane-Adams says marketers are best served by first considering this checklist:

1. Profiling and defining existing best customers
"There are different levels of profiling that could lead into predictive modeling for defining best customers," she says. "Retailers, for example, often have a lot of data collected that helps them understand the profiles of their best customers (SKUs purchased, frequency of purchasing, amount spent, etc.) and how to find more like them. Marketers need to take a closer look at this valuable information and think about what medium their customers are likely to respond to."
 
Based on the company's existing customer base, as well as external data (to inform any new target markets), marketers should ask and be able to answer these questions about their customers:

• Who are they?
• Where are they?
• What are they likely to respond to?
• What is their response?

2. Predictive modeling
"This involves your customer information and demographic insight as to which target customers are most likely to respond to a specific promotion and what method are they likely to respond with," Duane-Adams says. "Another type of predictive modeling is about responding to [a] particular promotion and what method of that promotion (e-mail, direct mail, newspaper coupons) gets them to come in the door and shop."

3. Data is a commodity
"The real value of addressing these four areas is understanding how to look at demographic information to answer your questions throughout the entire process," she says. "Without a tool that helps you analyze it visually, then you only have a collection of data. It's all about information accessibility. The right people need to have access to the right information to make smart marketing decisions. The information gathering and analysis process should be in an automated business environment that allows data to be analyzed, accessed and deployed."

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