Article: Market demographics.

When collecting demographic data from and about consumers, how do you decide which technical options to employ and how implement the information you collect ? As your business grows so do the costs and effort you invest into marketing, managing your demographics allows you to channel your resources towards a more targeted sector.

Your first priority is to establish the more static elements of your Demographics, what defines your target audience geographic segment, Age range, Income range, Gender, Other details (owns a Home, owns a pet, has a particular hobby, etc.). Next you should determine what elements effect your Demographics, changes in demographic, calendar / seasonal buying habits, economic/ political climate, events or advances and changes effecting your specific product or services. Now you have an Idea of what you think your demographics are, Its important to verify this information by collecting this data from your existing users in addition to information such as like's and dislike about your product or services, how did they find you and what would motivate them to buy, buy more, buy again or refer others. By collecting this data not only can you confirm your demographics before you act on them, you may also identify potential additional Markets.

Now collecting data can be done in a Varity of ways one of the best sources for this information will be your existing customers as you will be targeting them already to add to your customer data base and they are the most relevant source for this information. Now you don't want to inconvenience your own customers so we suggest the following methods:

Make use of 'ethical' monitoring and tracking software some of the information can be collected without the customer even noticing the most obvious being geographic segment, source origin and tracking site movement all of which can be easily implemented into your pages code. A noticeable none obstructive voluntary option ie suggestion box, competition, member signup, blogs, newsletter registration or short survey could be made available. Post Purchase Surveys the best know option being the product registration card (for the warranty) ok not everybody wants to register lets say a bottle of wine for instance however the principle idea is the same and usually involve an incentive of sorts. A good example I noticed was the Build a Bear Website were in order to Print of a Birth certificate for your teddy you just purchased you need to go through the registration process. Ordinary day to day Customer Interactions anyone representing your company employees, partners and resellers deal with the customers and have the opportunity to get feedback make sure your have the infrastructure in place to motivate, equip, collect, pass along and follow up. Focus Groups: host symposiums, user groups, Blogs and other forums to get to know their customers. External Sources: This would mostly involve researchers and third party survey company's.

Collection tips: Lots of information is collected through what can be considered as an accepted routene process so try avoid asking for the same details more than once and never use unnecessary Questions. Keep it fun, simple and unobtrusive. Word the questions clearly and as sensitively as possible . Ensure anonymity explicitly and implicitly. Having an good demographic profile at your disposal not only is key to producing a effective marketing strategy, it also allows you to concentrate your resources and funding where it counts, address customer relations dead on, directs the design of the advertising,packaging, artwork, layout and branding not to mention maintains an detailed customer data base for your other marketing needs. No matter the size of your company, understanding your demographics is always a better option than simply blanket marketing.