Zoots Audience Segmentation Case Study
In October 2010, at the BOLO Digital Media Conference, Susan Baier of Audience Audit met Christine Tieri, President and Creative Strategist at Idea Agency (formerly smith&jones). It was a match made in heaven.
Susan and Chris share a passion for audience-based marketing, and in July 2011 they undertook a stem-to-stern marketing reboot for Zoots, an East Coast dry cleaner. The process began with audience segmentation research and resulted in new marketing strategy, creative direction, messaging and integrated marketing initiatives for the brand.
The project was a fascinating exploration of what makes Zoots customers tick. With the client’s permission, Susan and Chris are proud to offer a “behind the scenes” look at this project. Enjoy!
Meet The Collaborators
- Susan Baier: Susan champions the cause of audience relevance through her consultancy Audience Audit, which combines a unique mix of marketing strategy, custom research and business acumen to help organizations understand their customers and prospects better.
- Christine Tieri: President and Certified Brand Strategist at Idea Agency, Christine spent the first part of her career in NYC advertising agencies before starting her own. 20 years later, her agency is known for its big-picture thinking and creative marketing solutions.
BOLO Case Study Presentation
Choose the Right Client
While virtually all organizations can benefit from audience segmentation, the best candidates for an Audience Audit project share some characteristics:
- Starting Something: The best time to incorporate a segmentation project is BEFORE a client begins developing a new strategy, building a new website, or setting their agency loose on personas. Attitudinal segmentation will affect every initiative you pursue, so gaining insights up front is smart.
- Committed: The best clients are those willing to incorporate the insights we gain into their strategies, interactive marketing, traditional marketing, sales, customer service and even operational activities. Not all at once, probably, but considering the possibilities across an organization unleashes the full power of a segmentation project.
- Open-Minded: This research inevitably uncovers motivations that weren’t expected, preferences that surprise, plenty of “aha!” moments — and not all of them are easy to hear. A willingness to hear to new information and consider new possibilities is key.
Big Wins for Agencies
- Better Information: No more guessing, no more planning based on the opinions of 8 people, no more extrapolating motivations based on demographics. The answers are right in front of you, and they’re based on reliable data custom-collected for your client.
- Better Process: Your client’s audiences, their motivations, demographics, purchase behavior — you’ll have a virtual “motivation map” that will save you time and money as you create personas and plans for your clients.
- Better Work: Gone are the days of the email “blast”. Targeted marketing is just better marketing — and with an Audience Audit you will have the confidence to recommend targeted programs that will make each of your client’s audience segments sit up and take notice.
- Better Results: Armed with better insight into what motivates your clients’ audiences, you can achieve better results with your efforts while reducing waste on tactics that aren’t a good fit for the segments you’re trying to reach. Better results mean happier clients, and happier clients mean a more successful agency.
Creative developed based on the research
