Attentive business owners, especially those who operate a physical location, understand their market in terms of a well defined local area. That is, they see the lions' share of customers coming from within a few miles/kilometers of that location. And they look at portrait of households and consumers within that radius. There are various ways to define that local area of which the two best are the local zip code(s) and a circle of a given radius around the business address.
Each has its strengths. It all depends on how the data are used.
Zip Code based data are best when paid advertising is being purchased. Print media usually think in terms of zip codes and can sell to selected ones, although direct mail would be most likely to cherry pick one or a few codes. In evaluating the print media's effectiveness a zip code report can be compared to reported demographics and your own typical customer.
Radius based data are best when applying some kind of door-to-door strategy, or its equivalent. And the radius will give a clear and comprehensive sense of who lives immediately around your location---something you want to do when deciding if you are effectively reaching your target customer. In every case the radius report will cover.
No matter what, it makes great sense to keep both of these data reports on file. The wise business owner continues to explore the local market and understand it. Let me know if I can help you find these critical data!
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