For effective marketing to take place, it is essential that the marketing managers know about their target audience. By making a keen demographic marketing analysis in which marketing managers use the demographic variables such as gender, age, status and occupations of the population this is possible. These variables then disclose the demographic profile of their potential consumers and give the managers an idea about the growth of their market.
Demographic analysis, by definition, is a process in which the population is closely analyzed regarding their age, sex, race and income and how that is influenced over time. This information is usually very beneficial to the marketing team who have no specific ideas about their audience or are trying to find out how a particular change in the market will affect the population.
Components of the demographic analysis:
To gather information about their potential consumers, marketers use several variables that direct their marketing analysis.
If the customers are industries, then the variables used are sales, employees, type of enterprise, etc. However, if the customers are individuals then variables such as age, gender and income are used.
For individuals the most important variables are:
Age
Customers of different age ranges have very different taste in the type of products they purchase. Moreover, the purchasing power also varies according to the various age groups. For example, people in their early twenties will be employed and would have a higher spending capacity whereas an individual in his sixties would probably be considering retirement and thus have limited expenses.
Lifestyle
The demand for a particular product would also depend highly on the lifestyle of the customers which is also interrelated to the purchasing power of the person. For example, people who own pets form a substantial part of the pet market. Similarly, married couples would have a different set of product demands, making it easy for the industries to target them.
Other Variables
Other relevant variables include gender, occupation, income status, level of educational qualification, and purchasing habits. It is crucial that the managers ensure that they refer to the correct form of data to obtain accurate data about their potential audience.
Even though demographic marketing analysis makes consumer targeting very easy and efficient, businesses should remember that in the process they should avoid generalizing their consumers. Stereotyping consumers can make them have the wrong kind of impression about a particular industry or company.
To learn more about how GeoMetrx can grow sales through a comprehensive demographic marketing analysis, contact us.