Lincolnshire Tourism Conference

Success through Quality 2010

Marketing Workshops

Customer Profiling & Marketing Planning

Summary

Make your marketing more effective by knowing who your customers are, where they come from and what type of short break they are looking for

Key themes

1. Collecting visitor information Different ways of collecting information from your visitors

2. Different profiling methods

• CAMEO / ACORN / MOSAIC – geodemographic postcode profile analysis

• Arkenford segmentation – lifestyle profiling for the tourism industry

3. Using visitor profiling to shape your marketing campaigns How up to date visitor profiling can help you to adapt your marketing to meet your visitor needs

Introduction –

• Welcome to the Customer Profiling Workshop

• Introduction – session run by Alan Darby, Consumer Marketing Manager

• What we will cover in this 20 minute session

1. Collecting visitor information

2. Different profiling methods

3. Using visitor profiling to shape your marketing campaigns Collecting visitor information So how do you collect your data?

• Registration Form - with full address and contact details (probably required by all accommodation providers)

• Basic Registration Form with limited data captured (Name, postcode & e-mail) • No data capture – some businesses do not capture any visitor information

Which method is best for you? This all depends on what you intend, and can afford, to do with the information once you have it. Post If you have the budget to keep in touch with your customers and potential customers by post then you will of course have to collect full name and address details – this however is a very expensive means of contact. E-mail This is a much more effective means of sending special offers, late availability, and news to your contacts. This is also a much easier way of collecting data as it is quicker and less detailed than collecting their full address details. A combination of post & e-mail If you don’t have the budget to constantly post offers to your database you may still want to have some postal details to track where your visitors are coming from. With this in mind you could consider collecting only their name, postcode and e-mail address. Your forms will be simple and quick to complete hopefully increasing the number of people prepared to complete the registration form.

Whichever method you choose you must make sure you let people know what they are signing up for and give them the opportunity to ‘opt in’ to future communication. Example 1

Name: ………………………………………………………………………………...

Address: ……………………………………………………………………………...

……………………………...…………………………………………….……………

….…………

……………………………………………….…………………………..

.

ss: ……………………………………………………………………...

………….

……………….............................…………Postcode: ……….………………….

Telephone: …………………………………………………………………………..

E-mail Addre

Where did you hear about us? …………………………………………

Opt in question 1 …………………………………………………………………….

For this example you may feel inclined to ask additional questions about the types of activities, holidays etc… that they prefer. Unless these details will change and inform the way you communicate with them in the future consider whether you really need to include them…

Example 2

Name: …………………………………………………………………………….…..

E-mail Address: ………………………………………………………………..…….

Where did you hear about us? …………………………………………………….

Opt in question 1 …………………………………………………………………….

This is a much simpler form for visitors to complete and allows you to capture vital information for keeping in touch with your customers via e-mail. For this option you could have a double sided form with this simple version and a longer more detailed one on the reverse.

Example 3

Name: …………………………………………………………………………….…..

E-mail: …………………………………………………………...……………..…….

Postcode ……………………………………………………………………………..

Opt in question 1 …………………………………………………………………….

This is a similarly simple form for visitors to complete. It still allows you to capture the information for keeping in touch with your customers via e-mail however this also allows you to capture their postcode for profiling purposes. For this option the ‘Where did you hear about us?’ question has been removed as this is often difficult for consumers to recall where they originally found out about your business.

Different profiling methods With your data collected it is important to ensure you keep it in a useable and easily accessible format. Collecting lots of information and simply keeping it on paper will not let you use it effectively. Try to get into the habit of adding all contacts to a central database or spreadsheet on your computer. Remember to add the date they contacted you along with any other information you might know about them. What else can I do with the contacts I am keeping? As well as being an invaluable source of potential visitors / customers these contacts can be analysed and profiled to tell you a bit more about who they are, where they are and what they are looking for in their short breaks and holidays. There are 2 main ways of profiling your customers: - GEODEMOGRAPIC PROFILES CAMEO / ACORN / MOSAIC These systems use a person’s individual postcode to make some general assumptions about the type of household they represent, their likely affluence, their purchasing habits etc…

They will also allow you to geographically map your visitors / potential visitors to see where they live, how far they are prepared to travel and as such where you might be able to advertise to attract more of them – there is no point in spending your valuable marketing budget advertising to consumers who may not be interested in what you have to say.

Profiling your data using one of the above systems is generally quick and less expensive than other profiling models. With a minimum list of 1000 contacts you will be able to build a great picture of who your customers are. If used on an annual basis these systems allow you to track changes in your visitor profiles and change your messages accordingly. Visit Lincolnshire uses the CAMEO classification system can provide a quote for getting your data profiled. LIFESTYLE SEGMENTATION MODELS - Arkenford The other profiling system we use is called Arkenford – a bespoke model developed for the tourism industry and the preferred system adopted by Visit Britain. Instead of categorising consumers according to their postcode, Arkenford asks some more general questions about your purchasing choices and values. This removes any geographical bias to the individual and instead classifies you according to the values you hold true in life. Instead of over 50 different categories as we see in the CAMEO model, Arkenford has only 8 different options – Cosmopolitan, Style Hound, Discoverer, High Street, Traditional, Habitual, Functional & Follower.

Independent Market

Style Hounds

Followers

Functionals

Discoverers

Traditionals

Cosmopolitans

High Street

Habituals

Mass Market

Innovators

Sustainers

These systems are often considerably more expensive then the geodemographic models. They will tell you more about the types of experiences your visitors are looking for allowing you to tailor your offer to suit. They will not however tell you where they are so it is often best to employ both systems if your budgets allow.

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Mass Market

Independent Market

Innovators

Sustainers

HABITUALSLargely inactive, low spending groupVery traditional, strongly

resistant to changeRisk adverseValue relaxation, peace and quiet

FUNCTIONALSSelf reliantPrice drivenValue function over styleTraditional values, but interested in

new experiences, not risk advers

STYLE HOUNDS‘Young Free Single’, impulsiveFashion countsBrand countsLooking for fun with friendsMost not seriously sporty

HIGH STREETMain stream early adoptersFollowers of high street fashionCare what others thinkHappy to buy packaged options

FOLLOWERSStrongly influenced by what others will thinkDon’t want to be seen as old fashionedLess active Slow to adoptAvoid risk

COSMOPOLITANSStrong, active, confidentStyle & brand important, but as an expression of their self

made identity.High spenders especially on innovation and technologyLooking for new challenges, new experiences,

Globetrotters

DISCOVERERSIndependent in mind and actionLittle influenced by style or brand but interested

in new optionsBuy on function and value to themLooking for new and educational experiences

TRADITIONALSSelf reliant internally referencedSlow to adopt new options Strong orientation towards traditional valuesValue individual attention & service

Using visitor profiling to shape your marketing campaigns How up to date visitor profiling can help you to adapt your marketing to meet your visitor needs… If profiling your visitors is something that you already do then you will know how this can help to make your marketing more effective. Overall …

• It allows you to geographically target your advertising and promotions to maximize the return.

• It allows you to tailor your messages to ensure they will be of interest to your visitors. • And as part of growing your visitor numbers it can allow you target new geographical

areas. Questions and answers