Advertising is all very well. But for it to be effective, it's best to target the people who are likely to come into the store.
Advertising is all very well. But for it to be effective, you need to target the people who are likely to come into the store. In fact, even before knowing their age group, sex, profession... we need to know where they come from. All the more so since, with the future disappearance of cookies, targeting the right people close to your point of sale is becoming a very important priority... How do you find out? Thanks to catchment areas.
A catchment area is the usual or estimated geographical zone whose variable size determines where a sales outlet's actual or potential customers come from.
It is generally designed according to several criteria:
- Distances
- Journey times (main criterion prior to store opening)
- Competition nearby
- Store appeal
- Type of business (Florist, Superstore)
It can be represented in various ways:
- Isochronous (curves delimited by travel times)
- Isometric (curves delimited by distances)
- IRIS (islets grouped together for statistical information)
This is what tools like The Ramp allow you to do through the platform. For each point of sale, you can define the precise zones where your ads will be displayed, to ensure you reach the right people in your catchment area.
In certain situations, such as a network of sales outlets with several outlets in the same town, there is also the notion of contractual catchment areas, enabling each party to divide up the areas, and thus avoid cannibalization within the same network, which would prove unprofitable. This aspect is also managed by a platform like The Ramp.
Once the store is up and running, and has a qualified customer file with addresses, the above criteria change, as does the catchment area.
We speak of a catchment area, but in reality there are several catchment areas, because within a catchment area there are several: a primary, a secondary and a tertiary one, corresponding to circles of distance or time from the sales outlet. It can also be divided into several zones according to the share of the population within each zone who frequent the outlet.
A study of the catchment area is very beneficial when segmenting your advertising purchases. It enables you to delimit the areas in which you'll broadcast your ads.
The main aim is obviously to optimize sales by adapting your offer and communication.... to the clientele of your point of sale.
If your business is already established, it will help you calculate your margins for progress and the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. If your business is not yet established, you can use it to preview your potential sales, the communication zones to prioritize...
A catchment area is the geographical zone from which a sales outlet's actual or potential customers come, based on a number of criteria (distance, travel time, etc.). Catchment areas can be determined by isochronous, isometric or IRIS zones. This is a decisive criterion for relevant advertising targeting.
The Ramp is the #1 solution for managing local digital advertising for network retailers and FMCG brands.
By simplifying access to all digital inventory, The Ramp enables the network headquarter, or each individual outlet, to launch local campaigns in line with the brand's catchment areas, creative assets and audiences.