Defining An Audience

By Dylan Packebush and Becky Dunlap

Who is your audience? Before we begin, the answer is not, “Everyone.” While this may seem like the obvious answer for agencies that provide services to demographically diverse communities, it is impractical to think that an agency can speak directly to an entire community through its channels of communication like a brochure, online media, flyers, or advertisements. The end result of this type of strategy of indirectly communicating with everyone is that you won’t communicate with anyone.

The marketing mix and the four P’s of marketing (place, price, promotion, and product) are basic strategies that are often used and taught in the recreation industry. While they can be effective—and are certainly valid tools to use in developing communications—it is often lost that a targeted audience is at the center of it all. Without a target for the 4 P’s to shoot at, they don’t mean anything. Therefore, the first step in marketing has to be defining the target market.

Agencies can segment behavior both online and within the community. When you start to understand where the target spends its time, energy, and money, you can be better prepared to serve. Surveys, research, and in-person communication can provide valuable information to create a marketing campaign or plan.

A Fine Point
The other marketing mistake within the industry is that, even when a target market is defined, agencies arbitrarily base their communications on assumed information. Even though there are certainly consistencies across demographics, an agency will fail to become authentic if it isn’t finding and highlighting what makes the targets unique. How do you find this information? At the end of the day, marketing is simple. Ask what the community wants and how it wants to be communicated with, and supply it.

Think in terms of communicating during an activity. Is it easier to say:

“Will someone get me the basketball?” OR ”Susie, will you get me the basketball?”

You will find surprising amounts of information and ideas when polling the community. It is not your responsibility to cater to all of the needs, just the ones where an agency’s strengths can provide a benefit. For example, if an agency decides that the main target market is moms and tots—that is, new mothers with young children—then reach out to mommy bloggers and ask them to review your parks and programs. Cover the cost of admission in return for an honest review on their popular blog or website. It’s a win-win for them (they have a free, awesome experience), for you (free publicity), and for the core audience (they now know what to expect from your programs).

What’s The Point?
As representatives of the community, agencies have to provide broad-based programming to meet a wide range of demands, but they don’t have to actively communicate or market all of these programs in order to be viewed as an authentic service provider. With limited resources dedicated to marketing, it is more valuable in the long term to provide multiple opportunities, but only actively communicate to a target audience. It is not coincidence that the lifetime value of a consumer and the product life cycle are both represented on a bell curve. Over time, as the small group of early adopters begins to champion a program, service, or agency, more people become participants and users, increasing the lifetime value and return of each consumer.

Too fundamental? Maybe. But it’s more effective and efficient than shooting at a moving target by trying to communicate to everyone.

Defining Effective Marketing
As technology continues to evolve at a rapid rate, the ways in which departments view change must evolve as well. Whether the target market is the aging boomers or millennials, these user groups are changing quickly and you’ll need to keep up.

Seniors in the 21st century are focused on staying active. Many are incentivized through their insurance plans to join community centers and gyms for exercise. Appealing to this audience means first understanding their personal needs. This group tends to communicate in person and on paper. They are more willing to write suggestions on comment cards than will younger generations, but they do expect a follow-up. Seniors would rather shake hands with an employee than read something online. This information gathering is old-school. It’s simple to understand, and you’ll probably receive more feedback than anticipated.

Many recreation centers are realizing the specific needs of seniors, which may include posting large type on flyers, creating specific senior guides, providing personalized tours of a facility, and offering senior-specific fitness classes.  It would also be wise to consider catering to SilverSneakers or other insurance-sponsored memberships.

Millennials, on the other hand, are a different audience that wants to communicate in an online world. Before visiting, they will research facilities and programs in every possible way online, from observing an activity on Facebook, to reading reviews on Yelp, to checking a Twitter feed. If they can’t find the information they need—or if they don’t feel like they are being specifically welcomed—they will most likely move on to someone who does.

Some gyms specifically cater to millennials, and it might be time for you to jump on board. Spin classes are one way to appeal to a younger crowd. Businesses, such as FlyWheel and Spin Revolution, are second-generation cycling gyms with an atmosphere like no other. The music is loud, the lighting is low, and you leave feeling like you just had a party in the middle of the afternoon. Want to talk about a target audience? Flywheel also has a series of classes for brides-to-be to get women in shape before the big day. For $480/month, and with locations in New York to Dubai, it’s clear that this targeted business model is working.

So remember, before developing marketing approaches, think about why you are using them. Should you spend the time to develop a social-media platform that communicates programs intended for seniors? At the same time, should you spend the time to put fitness boot camps in the community brochure? There is no right or wrong answer to these questions, and in your community, the answer may be, “Absolutely!” It’s important to remember that, just because an agency provides services to the entire community, it doesn’t mean the marketing goal can’t be communicated to targeted audiences over specific channels.

Dylan Packebush is an educator for GP RED, a non-profit organization, and a Project Consultant at GreenPlay, LLC, a consultant in parks, recreation, and open space. He is a proud Alaskan living in Denver, Colo. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Recreation from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Master’s Degree of Business Administration with a concentration in Sports Business from the University of Oregon. Reach him at dylanp@greenplayllc.com or (303) 483-1850.

Becky Dunlap works for the City of Boulder, Colo., Parks and Recreation Department, and as a Marketing, Trends, and Demographics Assistant for Greenplay, LLC, where she enjoys researching and analyzing data to help shape the future of parks and recreation. As an East-Coast transplant and Natural Resources graduate of the University of Georgia, she now lives in Boulder, Colo., where she explores the dynamic Front Range trails on bike and on foot.