The “Surban” Millennials Trend: What We’ve Learned and Where It’s Going

July 26, 2018
, , , , , The Invisible Customer

Millennials – where are they going?

Up to now, millennials, the generation born between 1981 and 1996, have favored city living.  Nine in ten millennials currently live in metropolitan areas.  However, a problem has arisen, and as a result, a new trend has started to emerge.  As millennials – roughly ages 22 to 37 – begin to marry and raise families of their own, they are faced with higher and higher housing costs, as well as poor public schooling.  These factors have begun driving millennials increasingly to move to the suburbs.

What do they want?

In moving to the suburbs, however, millennials want to take a number of key elements of urban living with them to their new homes – walkability and access to public transit, as well as close proximity to amenities such as restaurants, grocery stores, day care, health care/fitness centers, and community events and entertainment. This is giving rise to a new type of suburb called a “surban”.

What is a “surban”?

“Surban”, a term coined by John Burns Real Estate Consulting in California, is a suburban area that has the feel of an urban area, with walkability to great retail (like stores and restaurants) from a house or apartment.  Ideally, these communities offer the best of both worlds – larger, more affordable homes in safer environments with good schools, but also a sense of community, convenience, and in general, a sense of place.  It’s a suburb that is designed with a kind of village mentality in mind.

In the Philadelphia area, an example of a “surban” can be seen in the Village at Valley Forge in King of Prussia – a newer development that bills itself as a place to “live, shop and dine.”

What does this mean?

As millennials continue to move out of the city and find new homes and communities in which to live, this shift in the population will create new opportunities for variety of businesses, such as food markets and household furnishings stores, as well as for institutions like healthcare providers that are seeking to develop and expand their reach.

Want to continue the conversation about millennials and surban living?  Contact Sharon Hackenbracht at [email protected] or 215-545-0054 x112, or Linda McAleer at [email protected] or 215-545-0054 x104.

define a brand

The 5 Aspects That Define A Brand

June 8, 2017
, , , , The Art of Research, The Invisible Customer, The View From Walnut St.

In our work with brand development and tracking of branding effectiveness, we have to accommodate the five aspects that define a brand.  We conduct research to understand whether there is congruity between what the brand is – and says it is – and the perceptions of the various targeted market segments.  This research can be conducted with both internal stakeholders (employees, board members, “friends,” professionals) and external stakeholders (customers, consumers, opinion leaders, other professionals).

The 5 aspects are:

  1. Brand promise: what consumers will actually get interacting with you and the feelings they will have in the “relationship” with you.
  2. Brand elements: the tangible and the intangible components that work together to clearly and consistently communicate the aspects of your brand.
  3. Brand persona: how consumers judge and evaluate you before doing business with you and, subsequently, establishing a relationship.
  4. Brand perceptions: how consumers comprehend your brand… and does it actually reflect/represent what you want it to.
  5. Brand expectations: every interaction with the brand matters, and must be what consumers expect.

We believe that a brand must be clear, reliable, consistent and believable to both internal and external constituencies.  The branding research that we conduct explores these aspects with that in mind; we then make recommendations for minor and major shifts based on the perceptions of all types of stakeholders, and work with clients to refine and/or refresh the brand.

For more information, contact Linda McAleer at [email protected] or 215-545-0054 x104.

melior education higher education marketing

College Brochures (And Traditional Marketing Strategies) Do Not Cut It

June 26, 2015
, , , , , , Higher Education, The Invisible Customer

Is your marketing to prospective students modernized? The answer might be “Yes” if it involves much more than just brochures. I recently watched a webinar on marketing strategies for prospective students. Aimed towards admissions professionals and delivered by a data collection firm specializing in enrollment marketing and information for printed materials, it was no surprise they presented the brochure as the central focus of a college marketing campaign.

However, the overarching conclusions were simple – and known to smart marketers for some time:

  • Colleges that want to maintain or increase their admissions and enrollment numbers need to think like marketers.
  • The mentality of “build it and they will come” and “of course they’ve heard of us” no longer applies.
  • It’s important to take stock of your institution’s strengths and its reputation/brand identity, the landscape of prospective students and the factors that impact both of these.
  • Colleges that are using multiple channels (i.e. more than brochures) to reach prospective students see a higher ROI than those that use a single channel.

In essence, the webinar presenters noted what The Melior Group has been seeing for the past five years — with budgets being slashed and demands to meet admissions and enrollment targets increasing, traditional marketing strategies no longer cut it.

  • Broad-based generic messages in all formats (brochures, mailers and across social media) only work for institutions with large budgets and little regard of ROI.
  • ROI on segmented and targeted marketing strategies is much higher, but it means getting more sophisticated in how various marketing techniques are used.

I was reminded of the adage “know your customers.” In this case, it’s “know your prospective students,” but it still applies.

  • Understanding the type of student your institution attracts is critical. But even more vital is understanding the type of student you want to attract and ensuring you develop strategies to recruit them specifically.
  • Parents’ opinions are very important to millennials and colleges should have targeted strategies to reach this audience. We wrote a blog post about this just last year. Some colleges have created “parent-to-parent” groups on facebook and other social media that will allow prospective parents the chance to ask questions they might not get the answers to from their children or from a brochure.

The webinar did provide a few interesting statistics I thought I would share.

(source:InfoTrends)

The prospective college student’s attention span is decreasing while channels increase:

  • The average attention span for a high school student is 8 seconds… down from 10 seconds just five years ago… so there’s less time to make that all-important first impression than before!
  • High school students tend to have more than one email address (typically 3-5!) and they don’t use email all that frequently; but social media reigns supreme… and if you’re not using social media to target prospective students (and parents) you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Marketers of prospective students fall into three big categories:

  • One-third of college marketers have a segmented approach to marketing.
  • Another third used personalized marketing or communications plans.
  • One third are still using a mass marketing strategy to reach prospective students and are likely missing out on opportunities.

For years, The Melior Group has been supplying in-depth information and working with university clients to help them to think strategically about their marketing efforts.

We have found that marketing strategies are most successful when they include: assessments of brand equity and reputation among key audiences, intelligently designed research to develop messaging that will resonate with prospective target segments and critical insights on how to target and attract the students they want.

To learn more about our work with colleges and universities, visit our Education page or please contact Elizabeth Foley at [email protected] / 215-545-0054 x111 or Linda McAleer at [email protected] / 215-545-0054 x104.

You think they don’t know you, but companies have never known you better…

December 12, 2013
, , , , , , The Invisible Customer

Invisible Customer, very valuable to companies

By Reshma Bennur

It is easy to believe in this world of impersonal online transactions that companies you buy from don’t really know who you are – they don’t recognize you by face or voice.  The truth is companies have never known their customers better.  Companies might reduce customers to account numbers, lumped in a database with several thousand other account numbers – but with one click, they can access or buy all sorts of information about a customer – purchase history, personal information, financial credibility.

Business sense dictates that companies that have the wherewithal to gather all this “private” information, use the data to further their financial gains – use it to predict future purchases, identify cross sell opportunities and inform marketing initiatives. While gathering customer data is effective when used for marketing, it only works well when customers don’t know this strategy is being employed.

Take the recent example of Target – the big box store swamped select customers with discounts and coupons on baby products.  These were not customers who had babies or baby registries, but customers whose purchase behavior indicated that they could perhaps be pregnant. Target conducted extensive data mining and predictive analysis to identify who these customers might be.  Not surprisingly, customers reacted negatively – it disturbed people to think that Target somehow thought they were pregnant. Customers felt manipulated, spied on, and angry.

When Target became more subtle in its marketing efforts, continuing to promote baby items to select customers, but this time intentionally mixing up the ads for baby items with ads for unrelated items (like ads for a lawn mower next to coupons for a crib), customers no longer felt spooked. And they happily used the coupons.

Customers want to believe that the discounts, coupons and privileges they are being offered are a reward for their loyalty, not a result of calculated purchase predictions.  In Melior’s research on the invisible customer, we learned that only 9% of customers value receiving customized recommendations of products/services of interest, while 50% of customers value receiving discounts and coupons on products and services.  Why? Customized recommendations are considered akin to “selling” – making customers wary by highlighting the fact that their behavior was tracked, analyzed and used for possible financial gain.  The same recommendations repackaged as discounts and coupons are seen as a benefit – as a special opportunity to buy.

So in the enthusiasm to implement marketing strategies based on data mining and predictive analytics, keep in mind that customers want to feel valued for their loyalty not openly targeted for promotions based on their behavior without feeling that the reward came with a price – no longer being “invisible” to a marketer.

Holiday Shopping Update: And the Winner is…The Internet!

December 6, 2013
, , , , , , Financial Services, The Art of Research, The Invisible Customer

Online Shopping is an important part of holiday shopping

By Susan J. Levine and Elisa Foster

Last week, we asked you to take a quick poll about your plans to go shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  While a large majority of those who took our poll said they would not shop on either day, retailers lured big crowds into the stores with aggressive marketing and steep discounts.  The National Retail Federation estimates that a record 141 million people took advantage of the holiday sales over the four-day weekend that began on Thanksgiving and ended on Sunday.  For many Americans, Black Friday shopping – and recently Thanksgiving Day shopping – has become a holiday tradition. We all know families who finish Thanksgiving dinner then immediately start planning their trips to the local malls and standing in line outside of big box stores.

However, “the economy spoke loud and clear over the past few days,” according to the CEO of Belus Capital Advisors.  People flocked to the stores, but they didn’t spend much money.  Shoppers spent an estimated 1.7 billion dollars less than they did last year and physical stores saw their first decline in spending on Black Friday weekend since 2009.

While brick and mortar stores suffered a decrease in spending, consumers flooded the Internet over the weekend and on Cyber Monday.  In fact, Cyber Monday shopping increased by 18% compared to last year.  And notably, mobile shopping (from smartphones and tablets) accounted for 30% of all online traffic.

This drastic increase in online shopping and use of mobile technology is a sign of the times.  Americans across age, income and ethnic lines are becoming more comfortable conducting business and making purchases online.  For instance, in a recent survey conducted by Melior, 70% of respondents said they pay bills online.  The increasing success of Cyber Monday is just another sign that technology and online shoppers (a.k.a. Invisible Customers) will continue to impact our economy in future years.

Now that we’ve talked about holiday spending, it’s time to focus on holiday giving.  Stay tuned for our update on Giving Tuesday and how we can all give back this holiday season.

Invisible Money?

September 4, 2013
, , , , , Financial Services, The Invisible Customer
Bitcoin, an example of invisible money

Bitcoin.org

By Elisa Foster

Invisible customers can now pay with invisible money (a.k.a., digital currency). With the emergence of Bitcoin, consumers have the ability to make transactions from their computer without an intermediate financial institution.  Bitcoin has been getting an incredible amount of attention over the last year and people are starting to wonder how it will affect the financial services industry.  Head over to American Banker for an interesting discussion on Why Banks Should Care About Bitcoin.

Health Plans Preparing for “Visible” Customers

August 23, 2013
, , Healthcare, The Invisible Customer

health plans insurance form

By Elisa Foster

The landscape of health care will see drastic changes in the coming months.  As commercial health plans start selling to consumers directly through exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, consumers will have a lot to learn as they navigate through the maze new health care policies.  As a result, insurers are ramping up advertising and popping up at brick and mortar locations to enroll and educate consumers.

Medicare and Medicaid plans have been selling direct to consumers for years – how can commercial health plans benefit from the lessons learned in Medicare/Medicaid health plan marketing?  And how can they ensure that consumers will make informed decisions?

Do you have Invisible Customers?

July 16, 2013
, , , The Invisible Customer

Picture of invisible customers

By Elisa Foster

The Internet has certainly made life easier for consumers and businesses; purchases and transactions can be made from the comfort of one’s home or office.  However, there is a downside to this trend: customers who once had to be physically present and conduct business face-to-face (e.g., at a department store or bank) are rendered virtually invisible by the conveniences of modern technology.  We like to call them “invisible customers.”

In this series of posts, we will explore the impact of invisible customers on retail businesses, service providers and the overall economy.  We will also give some advice to those businesses that want to reach beyond the computer screen, build a relationship and reconnect with their invisible customers.

First, we’d like to figure out which industries are seeing the most growth in their invisible customer market.  At a brainstorming session of Meliorites, we realized that the possibilities are endless.  However, we decided that the banking industry is a great example: over the past several years, we’ve seen a huge push to get bank customers to handle their business online.

Stay tuned for details about our research on this topic.  In the meantime, what industries do you think are seeing an increase of invisible customers?  Is this a good or bad trend?  Feel free to discuss in the comments below!