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MKTG 381: Group Assignment #1: Using Secondary Data

Target Market Profile Analysis using Simmons Catalyst

Question 5 and Question 6 are tied together. In these two questions you will use Simmons Catalyst to define your target audience and then compare your findings to the Census profiles of two cities. 

Simmons Catalyst is a database of American consumer purchasing habits, viewing habits, demographics, and psychographics. Their information is based on in-person and mail-in surveys of more than 26,000 households.

Using the Market Segment with the highest rating from Q#2, develop a target market profile using Simmons Insight to define the user or consumer. Use the data in Simmons to identify the following segmentation variables for your target market profile:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Income
  • Education
  • Occupation
  • Media Habits (Consider ALL media, not just social media)

You can focus on more than one age group, income level, and education level. In some cases it makes sense to combine age, income, education or occupation categories to include multiple categories that find the clients product/service attractive.

These demographics will be used to evaluate locations using the Census data in Q#6 so don't forget to use this data to analyze the locations in Q#6.

Screenshots of data from Simmons Catalyst should be included in the Appendix with relevant data highlighted in yellow.

The table displaying media habits shown below is an example of how you translate the complex data found in the Simmons Database into a simplified data visualization. This is only an example of how you can organize the data and is not meant to be exhaustive of all options for demographics or media habits. It also is not meant to "prescribe" all of the illustrated media types. The target market you describe may NOT use one of the sample media types below so don't include media types just because they are in the sample. Only include media types IF your target market uses them.

Sample Data Table to illustrate organization of data from Simmons database.

 

How to Read a Report

Report for who drink energy drinks based on brand, gender and age.

Simmons Crosstab Table looking at Who drinks Energy Drinks: Highlighted: Men between 22-24 who drink Red Bull

How many Men, age 22-24 drink Red Bull 

 

Unweighted: The number of people who responded to the survey and meet the criteria. 

  • 120 men between the ages of 22-24 drink Red Bull.  

Weighted (000): The projected number of people that fit your criteria. The number is expressed by thousands.

  • Simmons Insight estimates that 1,700,000 men between the ages of 22-24 who drink Red Bull 

Vertical %: The percentage of those with a given characteristic as defined by the Column heading. In this case, it tells you who is drinking Red Bull.

  • Reading Down the column: Of all the adults that drank Red Bull, 68.9% are men between the ages of 18-24.

Horizontal %: The percentage of those with a given characteristic as defined by the Row heading. In this case, it tells you how many men between certain ages are drinking Red Bull. 

  • Reading Across the Row: Of all the adults between the Men between 22-24, 1.4% of them drink Red Bull. 

Index: The likely hood of all of your criteria intersecting. The index is always 100. If the number is above 100, your group is more likely to do something. If it is below 100, they are less likely to do something.

  • Index: The index is 136. Men between the ages of 22-24 are 64% more likely than the average to drink Red Bull in the last 6 months.

* or **: If you see When you see an asterisk (* or **) this means the sample used was small.

  • This means the data is unstable and may need more research. 

How to use Simmons Catalyst

This video (23:00) outlines how to build two crosstabs in Simmons. The first search is looking at how much is buying a product. The second crosstabe looks at who is spending the most and looks at what brands they are buying. 

  • To create a Crosstab, click "Crosstab" under Analyze. This creates a space where you can build multiple Crosstabs. Be sure to name your file before closing.
  • Click on Composer to build the Crosstab. Reading the results will be the same. 
  • You can create multiple Crosstabs under one name, similar to creating multiple spreasheets in an Excel file. If you are looking for the media habits of adults who buy Nikes, you can create one crosstab, name it Nike media Habits, and use it to compose multiple crosstabs looking at different aspects of Nike customers.

Other Simmons Tutorials

Creating a Cross Tab Report: Restaurants visited by fans of NBA and MLB

Finding Movie Theatre Demographics

Demographic Profile of Healthy/Natural/Organic Food Customers