This article is written by Kevin Dunphy, a Business Development Officer with the City of Hamilton.
Businesses that understand their customers may be able to improve marketing and make more customer-centric products and services.
In part 2 of the Know Your Customers series, the Community Market Profile for the Concession Street Business Improvement Area (BIA) is explored. You can read the first article here, to catch up on the series.
This profile contains information on people living within a 15-minute walking distance east, south-east, and west of Concession Street BIA, while including some nearby neighborhoods north of Hamilton Mountain. Such information may be useful to businesses within and around the BIA who wish to better understand local customers.
Knowing where customers visit online is important for businesses planning social media advertising campaigns. Although the most used social media platform in the area is Facebook, with 81.5% of residents using an account, the rate of community members who use Facebook daily is 20 percentage points less at 60.3%. YouTube, on the other hand, is used by 68.2% of community members.
If business owners are interested in funding for marketing initiatives on social media platforms or other digital initiatives, consider applying for the Digital Transformation Grant 4.0 (while funding lasts).
Concerning customer segmentation, 27.33% of the local population is made up of a segment called “Middle-Class Mosaic”. This segment is characterized as being typically aged 35-64, urban middle-income homeowners, and made up of diverse ethnicities. Many in this group are first-generation or second-generation Canadians.
A top leisure activity for this segment is attending fitness clubs. They also enjoy family restaurants and favour budget-friendly alternatives.
That said, despite being budget conscious, this segment will consider paying more for brand-name products. A 2021 poll by Ipsos found that 79% of Canadians either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed that they would pay more for a trusted brand, which helps explain why a budget conscious segment will consider paying more for branded items. Concession Street BIA businesses may find success in appealing to the Middle-Class Mosaic segment by offering some budget friendly products or services, while also building brand trust to sell more expensive options.
To learn more about building a brand, watch My Main Street’s “How to Turn Your Brick-and-Mortar Store into a Brand”.
What is of particular interest in the Concession Street profile is how two high-scoring community values oppose each other – “aversion to complexity” and “introspection and empathy”. Aversion to complexity is defined as feeling “threatened by the changes and complexities in society” and a desire to avoid “complexity as a learning experience”. Introspection and empathy, in contrast, is defined as having “an interest in understanding life and others”, which can be viewed as complex topics.
The community scoring high on two contrasting values shows how it is made up of more than one segment of people, who may respond differently from one another to marketing messages (see page 7 of the Community Market Profile for a list and description of the segments making up over 65% of the Concession Street BIA community).
Lastly, Concession Street BIA households have a lower average income than the Southern Ontario average. Nearly a quarter of households are lone-parent families, which may be contributing to this lower than average income level. Such observations further cement a demand for budget-friendly options in the community.
In sum, the Community Market Profile for Concession Street provides insightful information that could be used by creative entrepreneurs to better understand, attract, and cater to local customers.
Follow the Hamilton Business Centre to catch the next installment in this series.
