Consumers Are All Different … Or Are They?

Zeroing in on target markets.

All financial institutions can agree – behind every credit union with substantial membership growth is effective marketing. And behind every marketing activity is a consumer receiving your message. The challenge then – according to many marketing executives – is that each market is different. Truthfully, however, this is only partially correct. Yes, markets differ from one another, but consumers who live in different markets may actually be more similar than you realize. What this means for financial marketers is that you don’t necessarily have to live in the market you’re trying to effectively and successfully communicate with. You can still predict how consumers of that area will engage with your organization, despite being in a different geographical location.

To create stronger marketing strategies, marketers are now using “urbanicity,” or cluster modeling, whereby they use data and technology to identify behavior patterns that can be commonly applied to other markets. This concept is not a new one. In fact, organizations like Nielsen have been helping marketers for some time now, creating models that identify psychographic indicators in different types of consumers and predict their behavior.