Nimble, Responsive, Proactive, Creative, Woke!

I am not in any way discounting the dangerous and dire straights we are in these days with the global pandemic and how it is affecting our health and economy.  But it occurred to me when I was not doing anything this weekend (which happens a lot these days) that we are a nation of innovators, and that most of the tech innovations and discovers came from the U. S.  If ever there was a time to “think outside the box” (why do we use that expression?  Why don’t we think outside the parallelogram or the rhombus?) it is now.

Businesses are closing down by the hundreds.  How to fix this?  What can we do?  And just as I was musing/obsessing about this, we drove by a billboard on the 101 in San Francisco for Salesforces’ new product “Work.com”.  Full disclosure, my son works for Salesforce, so I am not completely objective, but my thought was “that’s brilliant”  Work.com, is described as “providing all the latest thinking, models, advice and all new work.com solutions.” Some of the things you can do with the new system are quoted as follows:

• Get products to support your return to the workplace
• Find thought leadership content from renowned experts
• Access all the latest COVID-19 data
• Learn through inspiring stories
• Extend with guidance from our ecosystem

Brilliant!  A solution, instead of a worry or obsession.  I began to look for other exciting new solutions to our current state and I found another.  The whole movie industry has been turned on its head, with the closure of cinemas.  New releases and summer blockbusters, so important to viewership at theaters, are being scheduled for first run on television private services.  One proactive solution, the reemergence of drive-in theaters!  Anyone over 30 remembers going to the drive in first with your parents when you were a kid, and then with your friends as you got older and were able to drive.  I remember getting in the trunk at the drive-in gate, with some of my friends, so we didn’t have to pay as much.  Morning Consult provides an amazing array of data on topics important to all of us.  Their entertainment sector report this morning presented data from another completely nimble solution, the return of the drive-in movie theater.

This gorgeous picture is an aerial drone view of a temporary drive-in movie theater at the Rose Bowl stadium, known for its spectacular Fourth of July fireworks which were canceled this year to reduce large public gatherings due to COVID-19 concerns. The latest polling of 2000 adults over 18 in the United States shows the following fascinating results:

Results indicate that the majority of Americans (55%) are interested in returning to the theater in a safe fashion.  The bravest is Gen Z, (aged 10 to 25 years of age) including 66 percent of Gen Z adults. Adding to the potential draw of the drive-in is that audiences are 12 percentage points more likely to be comfortable with watching a film outdoors than inside, according to separate Morning Consult polling.

Drive-in or picnic style movies are simple to set-up and earn revenue on food and beverage.  Some drive-ins have even tried offering upscale sandwiches, picnic baskets, small-batch microbrewery beers, and designer wine brands curated by a sommelier.

For commercial real estate owners, business is not good right now.  But what if we thought new:  Let’s host art shows, turn our parking lots into drive-ins (Walmart is doing this!), offer our locations for COVID testing!  Let’s have a “can do” attitude and turn around our dire situation right now! Maybe we can even give our clients and customers something to smile about!

Let me know what you’re doing creatively in your spare time.  We always love to hear from you and right now, nothing is more important than sharing ideas and innovations!

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It’s Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime!

This is our first article in a series of three regarding the fun summer unfolding and the way we will spend it.  To make it more interesting, we’ve divided our expected spending and behavior patters by the major spending generation.  Baby Boomers are now 55 to 73 years of age.  Gen X is 40 to 54.  Millennials, our largest group are now 24 to 38.

With summer-time upon us, the travel season is hitting the peak.  Consumers are hitting the roads and taking to the skies in droves in order to do everything from working, to visiting family, and even just taking the time to do something as simple as creating a memorable and educational experience.  With schools out for the summer, many families are taking summertime as the usual opportunity to create multi-generational memories.  And with Atlanta being the busiest airport in the world, with more passengers coming through per day than any other airport (and Chicago a close second), Atlanta is perfectly situated not just for domestic travel, but for international travel as well.

So who is traveling and where are they going?  We gathered up some interesting statistics from current studies to give you a glimpse of who might be coming to your neck of the woods and what they might be doing when they get there.  According to a survey by AARP taken in 2018 of more than 1,700 American travelers, we get a pretty good idea of where the three main groups  are going and why in the table below.

Base:  International and Domestic Trips in 2018: 
Data based on Total Responses, up to 5 trips discussed 
n = base number of responses; pink indicates most popular selections. 
Source:  AARP “Travel Research: 2018 Travel Trends” Report 
and JB Research Company

Millennials are traveling more than other generational groups, and they are taking more celebration vacations.  They are enjoying multi-generational trips, which is important because family size and expenditures are necessarily higher.  Baby Boomers also are planning multi-generational trips.  Gen X takes the most weekend getaways.

The primary mode of transportation for domestic and international travel are: plane (66% domestic & 87% international), cruises (5% domestic & 35% international), train (6% domestic & 16% international), rental car (24% domestic & 14% international), personal car (60% domestic & 13% international), and buses (2% domestic & 10% international) (AARP).

According to the same  survey, here is a more detailed look at why the three main demographic groups choose to travel in 2018:

Base:  International and Domestic Trips in 2018: Data based on 
Total Responses, up to 5 trips discussed

n = base number of responses; pink indicates most popular 
selections.

Source:  AARP “Travel Research: 2018 Travel Trends” Report 
and JB Research Company

Other reasons the three groups choose to travel are visiting family and friends, rejuvenating, and getting away from a busy life:

Source:  AARP “Travel Research: 2018 Travel Trends” Report

Many in each of these groups will choose not to travel this summer, with cost being the main impediment, as shown below:

Source:  AARP “Travel Research: 2018 Travel Trends” Report

Source:  AARP “Travel Research: 2018 Travel Trends” Report

All three generations plan to spend spend significantly more in 2018 than 2017, with Millennials planning to spend the most on vacations.

As suppliers of retail, dining and entertainment experiences, we should take note of these trends and make this the best and most profitable  year ever!

Sources:

• https://blog.accessdevelopment.com/tourism-and-travel-statistics-the-ultimate-collection
• https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/surveys_statistics/life-leisure/2017/2018-travel-trends.doi.10.26419%252Fres.00179.001.pdf

 

Young Adults

OUR MILLENNIALS

Some say Gen Y, or Millennials, are a lazy, over-parented, indulged cohort.  Being the mother of two Millennials, both parents, home-owners and extremely responsible young men, I tended to strongly disagree.  Are you sensing a “but” here?

I wanted to see if this is true statistically.  So I embarked on a study of current census data, and to my surprise and delight, the United States Census had already done this for me!  What I found is that there is striking statistical support for some of these beliefs.

Below is a summary table of some of the information collected and collated by the government.  What is most illuminating is that almost one third of this cohort lives with their parents, while only one quarter did a quarter century ago.  A huge number live in poverty, more than 13.5 million, while only 9.5  million lived under the same conditions in 1990.  This is not good news!

In 1990, 15% spoke a language other than English at home.  Now about one in four are brought up in a household in which English may not be spoken at home.  What we all know is true, these young people are 43% “minority,” whereas only 27% were in the “minority” in 1990.  This is a positive in our country, since we are all “minorities,” and we are all immigrants, but classifications have changed since we emigrated from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and other continents.

One great finding is that 22% have earned a Bachelor’s Degree or higher, while only 17% had this level of advanced education in 1990. And remember, many of these people are on their way to earning a Bachelor’s degree because they are still in college.

Analyzing these data in graphic form illuminates these findings.

1.  Median earnings are waaaay down in the past quarter century!

2.  This population segment is highly diverse.

3.  Asian Americans show about 60% of this cohort in college, while Blacks and Hispanics show increases in student enrollment, making up 30% of each of their population bases in this age range.

4.  We need more Millennials in the STEM fields!

5.  Student debt is a big problem for our college students.

6.  About half of college students are working, a bit less than in 1990 when that total was about 60%.

7.   Women are out-pacing men in Bachelor’s Degrees conferred and with some Graduate School.  It has been this way since 1994!

8.  As always, with this generation, the higher the level of education, the higher the average household income.

9.  And for older Millennials, long unemployment as a percentage of total unemployment is higher than ever, up from 15% in 1977 to over 40% in 2014.

10.  Millennials are marrying older.

11.  Educated Millennials are having kids later.

12.  And almost a third still live with parents.

My conclusions from these data is that Millennial issues stem more from  the Great Recession, and the fact that they are dogged by student debt rather than their lack of ambition.  They entered the workforce at a terrible economic point in our history.  As REAL wages increase, and the economy improves, they will quickly be absorbed into the grown-up population.

Tell me what you think.  I always love hearing from our readers!

THE POWER OF GLOBAL GENDER PARITY

I am just back from ICSC.  Besides much discussion of the demise or denial of the demise of  bricks and mortar shopping opportunities, I saw a presentation about this “Gender Parity” study completed by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI).  Take a look!

Click Picture to Download Report

“Narrowing the global gender gap in work would not only be equitable in the broadest sense but could double the contribution of women to global GDP growth between 2014 and 2025. Delivering that impact, however, will require tackling gender equality in society.

“MGI has mapped 15 gender equality indicators for 95 countries and finds that 40 of them have high or extremely high levels of gender inequality on at least half of the indicators. The indicators fall into four categories: equality in work, essential services and enablers of economic opportunity, legal protection and political voice, and physical security and autonomy.  We consider a “full-potential” scenario in which women participate in the economy identically to men, and find that it would add up to $28 trillion, or 26 percent, to annual global GDP in 2025 compared with a business-as-usual scenario. This impact is roughly equivalent to the size of the combined US and Chinese economies today. We also analyzed an alternative “best-in-region” scenario in which all countries match the rate of improvement of the best-performing country in their region. This would add as much as $12 trillion in annual 2025 GDP, equivalent in size to the current GDP of Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined, or twice the likely growth in global GDP contributed by female workers between 2014 and 2025 in a business-as-usual scenario.

“Both advanced and developing countries stand to gain. In 46 of the 95 countries analyzed, the best in-region outcome could increase annual GDP in 2025 by more than 10 percent over the business as-usual case, with the highest relative boost in India and Latin America.

“MGI’s new Gender Parity Score, or GPS, measures the distance each country has traveled toward gender parity, which is set at 1.00. The regional GPS is lowest in South Asia (excluding India) at 0.44 and highest in North America and Oceania at 0.74. Using the GPS, MGI has established a strong link between gender equality in society, attitudes and beliefs about the role of women, and gender equality in work. The latter is not achievable without the former two elements. We found virtually no countries with high gender equality in society but low gender equality in work. Economic development enables countries to close gender gaps, but progress in four areas in particular— education level, financial and digital inclusion, legal protection, and unpaid care work—could help accelerate progress.

“MGI has identified ten “impact zones” (issue-region combinations) where effective action would move more than 75 percent of women affected by gender inequality globally closer to parity. The global impact zones are blocked economic potential, time spent in unpaid care work, fewer legal rights, political underrepresentation, and violence against women, globally pervasive issues. The regional impact zones are low labor-force participation in quality jobs, low maternal and reproductive health, unequal education levels, financial and digital exclusion, and girl-child vulnerability, concentrated in certain regions of the world.

“Six types of intervention are necessary to bridge the gender gap: financial incentives and support; technology and infrastructure; the creation of economic opportunity; capability building; advocacy and shaping attitudes; and laws, policies, and regulations. We identify some 75 potential interventions that could be evaluated and tailored to suit the social and economic context of each impact zone and country.

“Tackling gender inequality will require change within businesses as well as new coalitions. The private sector will need to play a more active role in concert with governments and non-governmental organizations—and companies could benefit both directly and indirectly by taking action.”

http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/employment-and-growth/how-advancing-womens-equality-can-add-12-trillion-to-global-growth

 

MILLENNIAL MOMS

Scrolling through the generations, we have finally come up with a new demographic cohort that has real influence, buying power, and hasn’t been studied to death.  This collection of diverse, affluent, educated women were born between 1980 and 1994, making them 22 to 36 years of age.  Of the almost 80 million of these consumers, about 9 million are moms, quick math, about 11 percent.  They also account for 90% of the new mothers in 2016, about 1.5 million.

So, what should we know about this important, influencer group?  Here are 10 facts to embrace for your retail and entertainment businesses to grab their attention and keep this business:

1. These ladies are highly connected with their social media accounts.  They spend 17 hours per week with Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
2. On that same not, 83% use video-sharing sites to keep connected with friends and family and to show off their adorable offspring!
3. Less than half are stay-at-home moms, at 45%, (according to a BabyCenter.Com survey).  However 60% think a parent should stay home to care for children, compared to 55% of Baby Boomers.  Not too much of a difference with these two cohorts Millennials are teaching their kids to be open-minded and encouraging them to find ways to develop their own thinking skills and unique personality.
4. Millennial parenting is all about experiences!!!!! This means they will play, shop, work and eat with these kids.  What an opportunity for our industry!
5. Roughly 90 percent share information about a purchase they have made and services they have used.
6. Millennials believe their careers do not mean 9 to 5 cubicle work.  They embrace working from home, cutting down on office costs and commute times.
7. One in five moms survey by BabyCenter have started a blog with substantial followers and half report plans to start their own businesses.
8. A Nielsen study shows that 62% of Millennials prefer living near amenities associated with urban centers, so maybe they aren’t all moving to the burbs!
9. These moms are very health conscious.  They are switching fast food for more healthy, fresh local sourced food.
10. They are not tied to one form of parenting including a “baby-wise parent”, “a metric parent”, or a “free-range parent”, or a “helicopter parent”.  For every type of parent there are meet-up groups, online forums, blogs or communities that offer support and advice.

Based on these trends, who is doing a good job in terms of marketing to these ladies?

The Best Job I Ever Had

Ten years ago, in about 2004, I got a call from a prospective client, a newly hired director of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences museum project, asking if I would be interested in conducting some market research for a new attraction/museum themed on the Academy Awards.

Would I Ever!!!

I had been the one lucky enough to do the work for the Dolby Theater at Hollywood & Highland where the ceremony takes place, so it seemed a good fit and logical that I continue on to do the museum feasibility.  But my joy, my heart, for Hollywood, no one knew that!

No One Had Ever Known That:

• My family had always been in the entertainment business, with my father involved on the business side, having been a pioneer in the cable television industry.
• My aunt always working for this or that movie star as an executive assistant.
• I was lucky enough to visit the back-lot of 20^th Century Fox before it was Century City!
• I spent countless hours watching movies being filmed, then sitting in theaters watching them roll by me on the big screen.

Would I be interested?  Heck, yea!!

Since that time, I have been the consultant called upon to do the background market research, analysis and financial projections for the site selection, sizing and operation of museum.

I learned a thing or two during those years like:

• I gained a deep knowledge of large museums and what keeps them thriving.
• How an endowment can shrink during a deflation.
• Money earmarked to never-be-touched has a way of disappearing in hard times.
• I learned about the conundrum of keeping things fresh so that resident visitors will keep returning, time and again.

I am thankful that my job always changes and that I always learn, no matter the engagement.

Over the years, we have wrestled with all the issues associated with new development including disagreements about what it should look like, what its mission should be, where it should be sited, who is its targeted audience (please, don’t say everyone!), and what’s the best way to keep the project on-time and on-budget.  To be clear, these issues are complex and are made more difficult when there are many masters to serve.  Still, when the project is to reflect the points of view, hopes, dreams, and legacies of America’s most important cultural export, (which I believe is cinema) there must be the most careful consideration to each one.

This was my best job ever.  Write and tell me about yours in the comments below.

WHICH GENERATION TO TARGET?

We are all fans of the newest consumers to come of age, the Millennials. These young adults, who are now aged 19 to 33 and number almost 70 million, are the darlings of the marketing world. But in their rush to capture the hearts and minds of these young consumers, who are now forming their first real households, many brands are forgetting about the other generations.

To help our colleagues drive sales to adults in various life stages, we created an easy chart to start the conversation. A discussion of these groups is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.

Generational Market Segments

· Swing and World II Born between 1909-1945 33.7 Million 69 or Older 14% of Adults Health Care Consumers “Grandchildren” Spending Delayed Gratification Moderation Discipline

· Baby Boomers Born between 1946 – 1964 74.9 Million Ages: 50 – 68 32% of Adults Multi-generational Consumers Drivers of Growth in Leisure/Hospitality Still Individualistic and “Rebels” Starting to think about retirement Forever Young 45 Million Grandparents

· Gen X Born between 1965 – 1980 60.4 Million Ages: 34 – 49 25% of Adults Boomer Parents Divorced Parents Insecure Practical in Consumption Diversity Responsible Use Web Extensively

· Gen Y / Millennials Born between 1981 – 1995 67.9 Million Ages: 19 – 33 29% of Adults Ethnically Diverse Tech Savvy Multi-Tasker Need Lots of Input Prefer Health to Wealth Prefer Mobile Communication Omnicultural

· Gen Z Born between 1996 – 2010 46 Million Ages: 5 – 18 Structured Schedules Over Managed Info in Short Grabs Multi-Tasker Tech Savvy/Omnicultural The “I” Generation

Source: JB Research Company

(For a Printable Chart, Click Here.) 

Each generation has a special way it likes to be approached, and each responds differently to messaging. For example, Boomers still shop in department stores, although certainly not as much as when the oldest boomers, now 69, were kids. Gen Y rarely shops in department stores unless it is one of the “cool” ones, which include Nordstrom’s or Barney’s. Or when they are shopping for their parents’ Christmas gifts, so they can be easily returned to a convenient location.

In terms of amount spend per visit to the mall and department store, the 45-54 age group cuts across two generations, Gen X and Baby Boomers. Department store spending, however, is highest among Boomers, while all other spending is highest again across Gen Y and Boomers. Teenagers visit the mall most frequently, but understandably, do not spend much per visit.

In terms of wealth, an interesting analysis indicates that Gen X, a sector largely ignored by great brands, is a real contender when it comes to income, net worth and wealth. The difference between income and wealth is that income is what you earn every year, and wealth is the totality of your assets minus your liabilities. According to the United States Department of the Census Current Population Survey, net worth and total income is as follows in 2013:

In terms of net wealth, Baby Boomers hold the highest percentage of net worth dollars at 34% and the highest share of total income dollars, at 39%. The second highest is held by Gen –X at 29% of net worth dollars and 31% of total income dollars. Millennials hold 21% of net worth, and about 18% of total income dollars. Again, markets with the most money are Boomers and Gen-X.  But that is because Gen Y is young, and on their way to being the consumer heavyweight in the next 20 years.

Some salient characteristics of each of the largest buying generations, Boomers and Gen-X include the following:

.  Gen- Xers have money! They make up 25 % of all adults, but hold 29% of all net worth and 31% of all annual income earned. Half of them want to provide for their kids’ college, and almost all want to save for retirement. Two thirds plan on traveling for pleasure in the next year, and half will buy one or more luxuries.

· Boomers on the other hand, buy things for themselves and their grandkids. They are omnichannel and know their way around the Internet of Things. They expect hype in their advertising because they invented it (Mad Men, anyone?) They are early adopters of smart medical devices and are very critical about experiential retail, again because they invented it.

While we’re at it, here are some characteristic of Gen Y and Gen Z.  Gen Y is completely omnichannel, and have said that they will pay for responsible products, although this has not yet been proven in the market. They will be early adopters of smart wearables, especially sport gear such as watches. They want a seamless shopping experience and they DO NOT WANT HYPE. Because of all the information thrown at them by their various smart devises, they want their lives simplified, so they have invented “curated” everything from experiences, to vacations, to cooking, shopping, to putting together furniture, to decluttering their lives. Think  YouTube, Yelp, H&M and Zara (fast fashion), shopping sites, and Pinterest. Because there are so many of them, and because they are just starting to become a force as couples, they are the generation that will take over next.

Gen Z is a whole other puzzle. They are not old enough to have much money of their own, but they will in the next ten years. They are overscheduled, but they are completely omnichanneled, cutting across every platform of technology. They are extremely entrepreneurial and want to be heard. They also want to try out products before they buy. In order to appeal to them now, you have to continually innovate and evolve digitally because they live on their devices.

The world is complicated today and is becoming more complicated as we evolve and innovate with our shopping methods and choices. The Internet of Things, such as magic RFID tags, augmented reality, delivery drones, curated experiences, wearable technology and life hacking are among the many new experiences we must excel at and then change our products and communication as they change. It is a brave new world!

Entertainment Evolution Experience

Happy New Year Friends!

I can’t believe so much time has passed since I last wrote.  We have been very busy and had a lovely holiday.  Hope all is well with you and your family.

We are reminding you to come and join us at an exceptional conference “Entertainment Evolution Experience” to be held February 18th and 19th at LA Live! in Los Angeles.  I will be speaking on a panel entitled, “Open Air Projects – Pushing the Envelope,” where we will discuss, among other things, the need for human contact and fresh air!

We would be thrilled to see you there!

Here are the details:

Shopping Center Business and InterFace Conference Group are pleased to highlight the following panel for the Entertainment Experience Evolution Conference, February 18-19, 2015 at LA Live in Los Angeles. The multi-day conference will focus on what developers, owners, restaurants, retailers, cinemas, designers and entertainment venues are doing to evolve the consumer experience and create vibrant places to spend time.

Featured Panel:

Open Air Projects –
Pushing the Envelope

Arguably the most active type of multi-tenant retail, open-air centers have grown beyond service retail to become true community environments. Find out how amenities, restaurants, landscaping, hardscaping, and placemaking are changing open-air retail. See case studies from developers and architects on the transformation of open-air centers, from regional lifestyle centers to power centers to small community centers.

For a complete agenda, click here.

To reserve your spot today, click here.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

If you are like most Americans, you feel better this year, but there is still a nagging doubt in the back of your mind, “is this as good as it gets?”  True, the economy has picked up, spending is up, the recession is no more, but we are still feeling the pinch.  How shall we shop for Christmas this year?

We did some digging to find out how much has changed and how much has stayed the same.

The following figures provide some context for the economic growth since before the recession until after, with per capita GDP not yet recovered to pre-2008 levels:

The gross domestic product increased from $13.3 trillion in 2007 to $15.1 trillion in 2012.

GAFO retail sales seem to be slowly recovering from the recession, and consumers are spending again.  Consumer confidence is back up to about 73 percent of what it was in 2006, but spending at shopping centers is ACTUALLY DOWN in real constant dollars (adjusted for inflation):

GAFO retail sales in the nation increased from $968 billion in 2002 to $1,032 billion in 2010,  for a compound average growth rate of 1.1 percent.  However, from 2007 to 2010, compound average growth was  -.03 percent nationally.

As everyone knows, brick-and-mortar stores are in competition with internet retailers for market share.   With the ease of shopping online in the comfort of your home or office, and the ability to compare sale prices amongst retailers, the brick-and-mortar stores have to come up with creative ways to appeal to the consumer as the better way to shop drawing them to their retail store locations.  Some retailers are offering free shipping, extended hours along with other special promotional items available only in stores.

Electronic shopping and mail order retailers suffered only a mild set back during the recession and bounded back with sales for the twelve months through February 2012 accounting for $308 billion.  The overall sales market rose 30 percent since the peak in 2008 as reported in an article, “Retail Sales Recover, Mostly, From Recession”, written in The New York Times, by Floyd Norris.

One of the biggest impacts of the recession on the retail market is the change in the behavior of shoppers.  People are bargain shopping and looking for the biggest bang for their buck.  They are more interested in products or items that are reliable and have lasting value rather than purchasing the latest gadgets.

Consumers are looking to save money where possible, which has increased on-line shopping as well as sales at discount and dollar stores such as Wal-Mart, 99 Cent stores and Target.  Not only are shoppers finding better bargains, they are saving time and money especially when factoring savings of not having to drive with high gas prices.

The recession has also caused a spike in sales at thrift shops/resale stores,  as  the number of resale shops opened within the last year increased approximately seven percent.

According to comScore.Inc,  holiday retail spending over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend was estimated at $59.1 billion dollars nationally, up nearly 13 percent over last year.   Black Friday online sales exceeded $1 billion, rising 26 percent to $1.04 billion.

How do you feel this year?  Let us know if your pocketbook feels lighter or if you are back to normal.  Have we stabilized at the new normal? We are anxious to hear from you!

Understanding Your Market – By the Numbers

Analyzing demographics and psychographics is an incredibly useful tool to assist in every aspect of feasibility testing, new product development, and simple site selection.  The process used to be cumbersome, and not for sissies!  But since the advent of MapPoint, almost anyone can do a simple version of a demographic exercise.

The Beneficial Business Features of MapPoint:

• MapPoint has an incredibly easy demographic feature.  Choose up to 16 different demographic points at once – such as population, income, household size, and age – and  then instantly  MapPoint arrays these features by state, county, city, MSA, zip code, or even Census tract.
• A shaded map will show the various areas by any single demographic chosen – such as number of businesses per zip code, teenagers in a particular census tract, or household expenditure patterns for any city in the United States.
• Once the demographic factor is selected and mapped,  a radius of any number of miles around a site can be created and then instantly exported to an Excel Sheet.  With the numbers in Excel, manipulating data to get a clearer snapshot of the type of customers  in or around the site is simple.
• Radii can be adjusted, expanded or a second radius created and then re-exported  for a new area into another Excel Sheet.  By simply copying and pasting new numbers into the first Excel sheet and repeating for other locations or radii, an instant comparison of multiple locations is created.
• MapPoint can also find and map competitors.  The map will not only list a fairly accurate number of competitors within a preselected distance from your business, but it will also pinpoint the exact distance of a business from your site, as well as their address and phone number.
• You can import data from an Excel Sheet, and thus map multiple addresses.  This is an ideal tool  to determine where the customers on a  mailing lists are actually located.
• Another useful feature in MapPoint indicates expenditure per household  for various products such as electronics, books, food, etc.   This information can also be narrowed to a particular radius and census tract, thus allowing a better picture of how much money people in your area spend in a year on your products.
• Plus, on top of all that, MapPoint offers a GPS tool, and driving directions can be created based on shortest distances, preselected locations, and fastest routes.  It can also calculate the cost of gas required to visit those locations.

BELOW IS A MAPPOINT INCOME DIAGRAM FOR A LOCATION IN GLENDALE

Glendale Income Map

Very simple.  But you might have some questions.  If you do, call or email me. (jill@jbresearchco.com, 805-640-1060)  I’ve been doing this for 20+ years, with or without MapPoint!