In a recent conversation with a client, the topic of the target consumer was raised. In general, brands have a target, or ideal, consumer in mind for their product. While our consumer exit surveys aren’t designed to capture the in-depth psychographics often found when building a target profile, we are able to get a demographic match by capturing gender and age. Often times, we see field teams reach the target demographic about a quarter of the time. This fluctuates based on specificity of target as well as the venue where events are being executed. Our data shows events often range from 9% to 45% when it comes to target reach.
What does target reach show?
Our client inquired about what the target reach was really showing. Is it a reflection of the consumers at the event? Or is it a reflection of consumers willing to take the survey? It was a great question, and I’d love to be able to say it is an accurate reflection of consumers at the event. However, it’s not that cut and dry.
Know your target.
Through research we know that women are more willing to participate in surveys than men. If your target consumer is a male, you might be concerned if our data shows that only half of the consumers engaged were male. However, we rely on a system of checks and balances which help us to determine if this is an accurate concern. We often start off by looking at the types of events executed.
Venue matters, always.
In a previous program, we consistently saw a high rate of engagements with female consumers while the target was male. When we looked at the events being run, we discovered many of them were taking place at paint and sip nights…not a common attraction for the target. Our client used this data to redirect events to new venues that attracted more of a male audience.
Is your field staff trained?
In addition, we worked with the field staff to ensure that they are surveying a cross-section of event attendees. This helps boost confidence that the demographics and target reach are a reflection of overall event attendance. It also gives us a healthy sample of consumers outside of the target demographic we can compare. Knowing that the purchase intent for a particular brand is 80% among the target consumer is good. But knowing that the purchase intent for those outside of the target profile is 94%? That provides insight in to an untapped market for the brand and might help the brand adjust its target consumer profile.
The target reach is meant to be a barometer of sorts. We recognize it might be influenced by self-selection bias. We do make sure we are analyzing all other facets of the data in order to tease out any other factors that might be contributing.