Understanding the potential customer base is an important part of evaluating any retail location, and betting shops are no exception. But identifying a promising area involves more than looking for a particular age group or assuming that one demographic characteristic defines the likely customer.
Customer profiles can vary considerably between locations, betting products and operators. The more useful approach is to bring several characteristics together and consider them alongside competition, footfall, accessibility and the wider make-up of an area.
Location Intelligence makes it possible to explore those relationships geographically and compare the characteristics of different catchments.
Start with existing customers
For an established betting operator, its own customer data can provide a useful starting point.
Looking at where customers come from and comparing patterns across existing locations can help reveal differences between catchments. One shop might draw heavily from its immediate neighbourhood, while another attracts customers from a wider area because it sits within a busy town centre or close to other destinations.
The important point is not to assume that the profile of one successful location will automatically apply everywhere else. Instead, existing customer patterns can provide evidence about the characteristics worth investigating when evaluating other areas.
Demographics provide context, not the whole answer
Age, employment, household composition and measures of income or affluence can all help build a picture of the population surrounding a location. However, individual characteristics become much more useful when considered together rather than treated as predictors of behaviour in their own right.
An area with a large population, for example, doesn’t necessarily represent a large potential customer base. The question is whether the characteristics of that population show similarities to the audiences an operator is trying to reach.
Consumer datasets can add another layer, helping businesses understand broader interests, behaviours and lifestyle characteristics within different areas. Combined with demographic information, this provides a more rounded view of the potential market without relying on simplistic assumptions about who a betting customer is likely to be.
Understand where customers and opportunity overlap
Customer profiling becomes particularly useful when it is mapped.
An operator can compare areas where it already has customers with the wider potential market, helping to identify places where customer penetration is relatively strong and others where there may be more opportunity to investigate.
This also makes it possible to look beyond the immediate area surrounding a shop. Catchments rarely follow neat boundaries, particularly in town and city centres where transport links, workplaces, shopping areas and other destinations affect how people move.
Understanding where customers are coming from, rather than simply who lives nearby, gives a much better picture of the market a location is actually serving.
Put the customer profile in the context of the location
A promising customer profile doesn’t automatically make somewhere a good betting shop location.
Competition needs to be considered too. Several operators within an area may indicate established demand, but the existing market may already be well served. An area with fewer competitors could represent an opportunity, or the lack of operators could reflect weaker demand.
Footfall adds another perspective. High pedestrian numbers may look attractive, but what matters is whether the people moving through the area are relevant to the business and whether the patterns of movement fit the way the location is likely to be used.
Accessibility, surrounding businesses and other local destinations can all influence this. A location close to shops, transport or leisure facilities may behave very differently from another site with a superficially similar demographic profile.
Look for patterns rather than a single characteristic
Perhaps the biggest limitation of traditional customer profiling is the temptation to search for one characteristic that identifies the ‘ideal’ customer.
In practice, the more interesting insights often come from combinations of factors. Customer data may reveal one pattern, demographics another and movement data something else entirely. Looking at them together can reveal similarities between successful locations or highlight important differences that deserve further investigation.
For betting operators managing an estate, the same analysis can also help compare existing locations. If shops with similar customer profiles perform differently, the explanation may lie elsewhere in the location, such as competition, footfall, accessibility or the surrounding mix of businesses.
Build a fuller picture of potential demand
Customer profiling is most useful when it helps businesses ask better questions about a location rather than attempting to predict behaviour from a handful of demographic characteristics.
Periscope® brings customer, demographic, consumer, competitor and location data together, allowing operators to compare areas, understand catchments and explore the factors that could influence potential demand.
Combined with an operator’s own knowledge and performance data, it provides a stronger evidence base for understanding existing locations and assessing where future opportunities may warrant a closer look.
See how Periscope® can help you understand your customers, catchments and potential markets.
