A Quick Guide to Understanding and Usage
When conducting market research, one type of data that you come across fairly often is demographic data. This data is usually easy to gather but has potent growth applications in marketing.
We will explain what demographic data is and the best time to use it.
What is demographic data?
Demographic data, also known as demographics, are used to define people within a wide population. The data may include some attributes like age, sex, income level that has been attained educationally, marital status, race, ethnicity, and many others. Demographic market research data are often used for STP (segmentation-targeting-positioning) marketing purposes.
Here is one example: A company is looking to launch a new Diapers brand. Based on the demographic data, the company decides to target women who are married, new born baby, aged 25-40, and have an annual household income above $70,000.
How to obtain demographic data
The ease with which demographic data can be gathered commonly depends on the method applied. Nowadays, there are two broadly used methods among research agencies.
Surveys
The gold standard for collecting demographic data is still through surveys, whether online or offline.
It is important to use multiple choice questions regarding demographic data, and to limit the response for each question to just one answer. Almost all businesses can exploit surveys in the collection of demographic data.
Analytic tools
Another possibility of obtaining demographic data exists through using analytic tools: such as Google Analytics and Meta Business Suite. Such an approach is usable for businesses that rely on website visits to convert them into sales, like e-commerce businesses.
By tracking visitor data on users who visit the website, the analytical tools collect demographic data. For example, if a user earlier made Google searches for “baby slings” and “dating sites for dads”, Google Analytics will recognize such user as “males”, “divorced or widowed”, and “with children”.If you are interested in using this, you will need to do some reprogramming of the tracking code, particularly with Google Analytics, to have accurate figures for your users’ demographic data.
When should I use demographic data?
There is a whole lot demographic data can help with in a business setting. For example, a pilot market research study can provide a good deal of insight on which demographics to target in your marketing efforts for a product.
But most importantly, demographic data is crucial in advertising. Whether by sampling products or using online advertising targeting potential customers, demographic data helps a great deal in reaching the right kind of people effectively.
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