Imagine you're looking for love and your cousin wants to set you up with someone from her office. After she describes him to you, you wonder why she ever thought he'd be for you. However, just to be polite you agree to meet him for coffee.
Why didn't your cousin's set-up work? Because instead of simply telling her you wanted to meet someone, you needed to be very specific in describing the attributes of that someone you wanted to meet. Just because she's trying her hand at matchmaking doesn't make her a mind-reader.
It's the same when it comes to your salon/day spa. You want to bring more clients through the door and keep them coming back. Only this time it's your marketing, instead of your cousin, having to do the work.
How can you expect your marketing to work effectively to attract the type of clients you want, if you haven't identified you "ideal" client for your target market? When we talk target market, we talk about the demographics and psychographics or lifestyles. Demographics include characteristics of your target market including age, income, marital status, etc. Psychographics include how people think and what they value.
Why is it important to analyze the kind of people who are already coming to your business as well as those clients you want to attract (it may turn out they're one and the same). Because only when you can describe the target in explicit detail, you'll be able to focus your marketing (advertising, direct response, and promotion) to connect with them and woo them in.
So how do you determine the demographic profile of your business' target market? You do this by observation and by having them fill out questionnaires with five or ten basic questions when they first come to you, or you can systematically and strategically, ask more questions during their second visit.
What does the psychographic or lifestyles component to understanding your clients mean? Lifestyle measurements include interests, opinions, and mindsets. To find out more about these components you can ask questions that deal with peoples reading and media viewing habits, consumption patterns, attitudes, and so on.
By working this way—collecting and studying this information about your target market, you'll discover new ways to reach more people like them.
As for your cousin, she's bound to become your family's #1 matchmaker.
By Andrew Finkelstein, The Beauty Resource www.thebeautyresource.com