SPA Segmentz
Britain's first standard, multi-dimensional, classification of retail outlets
When SPA first launched Segmentz, the paper describing it won an award – it was one of the top 40 business articles of the year. This raises two questions:
Why is it such a clever idea?
Why have I never heard of it?
THE IDEA: Classify ALL retail outlets on the SAME four dimensions
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THE IDEA: Classify ALL retail outlets on the SAME four dimensions
Segmentz classifies every branch of all Britain's big retailers – in fact every retail outlet with a Postcode – using the same types across the board. With it, you can compare antique shops, banks or C-stores, pizza restaurants, petrol stations or pubs – any or all of them! Since there’s no learning curve for new sectors or clients, advertising agencies love Segmentz. Why wouldn’t they?
- You may be familiar with standard GeoDems analysis – looking at the kinds of people who live near each store.
- But Workplace analysis – focusing on the kinds and numbers of people who work nearby – may be new. For more information see the Workplace Dimension.
- Now imagine a third dimension: the type of Retail Environment locally – High Street, Retail Parks, Car Sales, the Local Parade, or whatever it happens to be around the outlet.
- Finally, add a fourth dimension: Competition – Who’s there? How many? And how close?
What is Segmentz for?
Very quickly you can:
Analyse your retail sales by branch to find out which environments you currently do best in and to see whether performance in other segments could be improved by changing the merchandising or even rebranding. Segmented retailing starts here.
Assess potential new sites to see what segments they are in, whether you perform well there, and how they might affect the overall balance of your branch network
Evaluate major competitors or acquisition targets and understand how their branches are positioned and how they compare with yours – or which cherries are worth picking! Segmentz is particularly good for benchmarking portfolios of branches one against another – showing not only how an acquisition target’s sites compare with your own, but whether the acquisition as a whole would redress or reinforce any imbalances in your estate.
Profile sales through retail outlets to improve the targeting of distribution – identify the top performing segments and pinpoint new stockists with the greatest incremental potential.
Segmentz helps you tackle some of the big questions. Why are branch X sales so much poorer than branch Y? Why is sales growth so variable - and what can we do about it? Should we close branch X? Where should we open new outlets? How do we find more "winners"? Should we merchandise some stores differently? Where would the new premium range do best? Which branches should we re-brand? Where would the family promotion work?
In a nutshell, Segmentz helps you to spot patterns and trends and work out what they mean so that you can do marketing – and business – more effectively.
So Why Have I Never Heard of It?
In developing Segmentz, SPA had to be able to classify large numbers of retail outlets very quickly – batches of over 200,000 were normal. The pace of change in retailing made updating essential and never-ending. Rather than work out which stores were still there, which new, and which had amended Postcodes, it was simpler to reclassify the lot. And no sooner had we done this than a new client would pop up with six new branches that we hadn’t classified and two with different Postcodes! So we speeded up processing even more. We now have the technology to extract data for huge numbers of outlets and classify them into types – on several dimensions – lightening fast.
Even if you have exactly the same objectives as Segmentz, a bespoke classification for a specific client or purpose inevitably works better than the bog standard original. If you don’t need to cater for garden centres, petrol stations out in the Styx, and C-stores on Scottish islands, your classification of pet shops will be more focused. And if we have to reclassify everything anyway – to pick up new branches and other wrinkles – a bespoke classification may not cost too much more.
That opened the flood gates. For one project, we ditched proximity to competitors in favour of proximity to students at Universities & Colleges with courses in Performing & Creative Arts – a key target for our client. In another project, proximity to cemeteries and crematoria was crucial. Whilst the workplace dimension in standard Segmentz looks at the mix of local jobs across all industries, the needs of another client meant focusing on professional employment and on key sectors like health, education and the media. Finding the key target market is often the name of the game.
And since the demands of target marketing aren’t neutral, you’re less likely to need a bland, off-white, off-the-peg Segmentz than something made to measure and much more colourful. Something very much more to the point – your point, picking out all the nuances relevant to your business!
Segmentz classifies over 200,000 branches of all the big UK retailers to show we can do it, and to prove it works. We climbed it because it was there! Now you know we can, we’d like to the real job.
At the drop of a hat, we can build a version of Segmentz just for you!
If you’re interested in learning more Email us at info@spamarketing.co.uk or Contact us and fill in our Enquiry Form.