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caminator
Oct 25, 2012, 12:16 AM
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I'm in the process of doing market research for my area for the possibility of a bouldering gym, and was curious as to how you would describe your target market and your given demographics of the surrounding area.
Appreciate any feedback.
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djlachelt
Oct 25, 2012, 1:46 AM
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Age, gender, socio-economic status, location (where they live, where they work), kids. Those are some normal ones. But, as for any business, it could be anything that helps you distinguish your possible customers (e.g. young working moms with kids). You might have a few target markets, but probably want to focus on just a couple (or maybe only one).
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caminator
Oct 26, 2012, 7:48 PM
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Hey thanks for the comment. I was interested in what gym owners actual target market was with their respective demographics of the surrounding area.
For instance given my area, the fact there is a university in close proximity and the gym would be geared towards bouldering, I would designate my target market as 18-24, white, college student.
For demographics there are approximately 8000 white 18-24 year olds within a 5 mile radius of the target location and 29k within a 15 mile radius.
I'm looking what others may experience in their areas so I can make comparisons and help determine feasibility, size of gym/climbing wall, ect.
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guangzhou
Oct 27, 2012, 2:20 AM
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My target market is anyone who can afford to climb in our gym.
My marketing is aimed at convincing people they should try it out at least once.
My staff's job is to make the first time so enjoyable, people want to come back again.
My remember and my staff all work on making the place social and pleasant.
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jgross
Oct 27, 2012, 9:47 AM
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Our target markets were:
- experienced climbers
- young active professionals (18-30)
- parents (mainly moms) with kids 7-14
and we planned the gym and the business around that:
- enough hard routes for experienced climbers, but at least half the gym suitable for 5.9 or easier routes
- clean, bright, spacious
- large change rooms with lots of lockers
- some separation between kids climbing and more advanced stuff (but not a complete divide between beginner and advanced areas)
- intro & lead lessons (into lessons offered every hour on the hour)
- range of programmes for kids, including day camp
Government census data provided details of population, average income etc in the ridings (districts) surrounding the gym
One question I almost don't want to ask but have to:
Why target only white students? Does your local university only admit white students? I thought that had changed in the last few decades. We find that people of all races, genders, religions, political affiliations and sexual orientations enjoy climbing, so we don't narrow our target market by any of those attributes.
John Gross
Owner, True North Climbing
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guangzhou
Oct 27, 2012, 1:25 PM
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Sounds like our gym.
Nice catch on the target audience. Made me laugh.
Depending on the community, college student provide a nice membership based but not long term members.
I also find that gym make more income from non-climbers than climbers. Climbers buy a membership, take care of themselves. Beginners and non-climbers are more likely to take the other stuff.
On offering the intro class, I am surprised more gym don't offer it more. So many gym have the intro class on certain days at certain time.
Our is more like your. Actually, we offer intro class anytime, not just on the hour. If one class is in session, we can explain to the person that the class is currently full, but the next class will begin in XY number of minutes.
Good luck with your project.
caminator, did you participate in apodcast with Eldorado Walls a few months back?
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caminator
Oct 27, 2012, 2:04 PM
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No I did not. It's not that I don't expect other races races to climb, but in this area, in my experience, other races are extremely underrepresented in climbing versus actual population percentages. It would make sense then to get the data on who is most likely to climb instead of collecting data for all 18-24 year olds, which gives us a much narrower focus on an effective marketing program and budget and gym facilities rather than trying to just please everyone.
I could also narrow our target market down further to environmentally conscious and left leaning on the political spectrum. Again this doesn't mean I don't expect others outside of these demographics to climb, it's to give me a focal point for more bang for my buck.
Anyways, this area is not a climbing community. The closes climbing gym is about 50 miles away. There was an Eldorado wall about 1000 sq ft that went up back in Jan at a large fitness place but it has no maintenance and sees little traffic. The University of Notre Dame is the target location, as close as possible anyways. They have a climbing club, perhaps 15-20 members and a very small bouldering wall.
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guangzhou
Oct 28, 2012, 2:11 AM
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John,
Thanks, it pays to know your market for sure. I also find that your market changes and evolves. The longer you are in business and the more self collected data you have, the more refined your marketing plan can be.
Building in Indonesia was fun and challenging. Census data is available for the type of research we needed. They are also no other climbing gym in the country, so we sort of creating the concept here.
Climbing here is still seen as the extreme sport and even extremely dangerous by Indonesian. Indonesian who are 25 often think they are to old to start climbing. Amazing. We're finally making a bent in the mind set, but it takes time and effort.
We also have some other fun factors:
We have lots of ex-pats here. (Day use or members) Each has a different need. Japanese, Korean, Europeans, Chinese) In many case they is an extreme language barrier. Last Sunday we had 12 Taiwanese ladies show up, non spoke Indonesian or English. The lesson was very much hands on.
When we opened we predicted a larger male population, but our membership is 60% women. We now need to develop a marketing plan to attract more males.
I could go on and on, but....
Eman,
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