Site selection involves not only understanding whether or not a specific site will be successful, but also understanding what it will take to be successful in that trade area. Because customers of your brand aren’t created equal, your top customer base at one location may differ significantly from top customers at another location. 

Locate’s data-driven site selection process is designed to help you navigate these differences, so you can serve your top customer base intentionally and appropriately at every location. We recently analyzed Whole Foods Market customers in a defined trade area of Austin, Texas. Today, we’re taking a look at how well Equinox, one of the most popular luxury fitness companies, is serving its customers in Austin. 

Using Locate’s mobile data technology, we geofenced Equinox locations in Austin and studied the behavior patterns of mobile devices tagged as Equinox customers. Our mobile-data driven trade area encompassed 6 minute drive time, on average, for each store based on where the customers were before and after visiting Equinox. 

Breaking Down Demographics and Psychographics

We identified four primary types of Equinox customers in Austin, defined as Esri LifeMode classifications, or markets that share a common experience. Read more about each of these groups here.

1. Uptown Individuals, young, city-living singles, are the highest educated market, comprising 14% of customers and 40% of the trade area population. From this data, we see that Equinox is under-indexing in this customer category. With Uptown Individuals making up such a high percentage of the trade area population compared to the percentage of Equinox customers, it’s very likely that the fitness locations are missing opportunities to better reach this desirable group.
2. Ethnic Enclaves are up-and-coming families and American dreamers with an average yearly income of $32,000 to $72,000. They comprise 12% of customers and 0% of the trade area population. Equinox isn’t serving this customer segment in the defined trade area.
3. Affluent Estates describe highly educated, well-traveled married couples with established wealth. They’re the wealthiest consumers in the U.S. and comprise 11% of Equinox customers and 0% of the trade area population. Like Ethnic Enclaves, this customer segment isn’t being served in the defined trade area.
4. Middle Ground are millennials, most of whom attended college, “in the middle.” They’re single/married, renters/homeowners, and middle class/working class, and comprise 11% of customers and 18% of the trade area population. Our data shows that Equinox is serving this customer base appropriately and effectively.

Next, we examined the primary Equinox customer types further, breaking them down based on psychographics. We identified the top two psychographic groups in Austin to be Metro Renters and Young and Restless, followed by Up and Coming Families and Emerald City (in Esri terminology): 

1. Metro Renters make up 10% of customers and 28% of the trade area population. This is a highly mobile, educated group that includes people who either live alone or with a roommate in an older building or condo, often located in a city’s urban center. 
2. Young and Restless make up 8% of customers and 25% of the trade area population. They are well-educated, young workers in professional and technical occupations, along with sales and office/administrative support roles. They’re not established but are striving to get ahead and improve themselves.
3. Up and Coming Families comprise 8% of customers and 0% of the trade area population. This is a transitional market with residents who are younger, more mobile than the previous generation, ambitious and motivated.
4. Emerald City comprise 5% of customers and 15% of the trade area population. These young and mobile consumers live in lower-density neighborhoods of urban areas. Half have a college degree and professional occupation.

Our analysis reveals that Equinox locations in Austin are under-indexing (or underperforming) on three of its top psychographic segments (Metro Renters, Young and Restless, Emerald City), but capturing Up and Coming Families well outside of their defined trade area. This analysis highlights that retailers should not only examine who’s going into their locations, but also understand the capture rate of those segments in their trade area to fully understand how effectively they’re capturing customers around the location.  

The Customer Data Retailers Need

Using mobile data technology, along with demographic and psychographic data, gives retailers valuable insights into consumer behavior. Armed with this data, retailers can open new stores in locations that have dense pockets of consumers with an affinity for their brand and make informed decisions about markets where they’re under-indexing or over-indexing.

Locate is the only tech-enabled brokerage leveraging millions of mobile devices to help retailers determine sites with confidence. 

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