Advertising, Marketing & PR

North East England Domestic Customer Profiles

Knowing who comes here, in marketing terms, helps you decide who to focus on. Our page Key Facts gives you a good idea of who comes here, how and what they do when they get here. But what about the lifestyles, aspirations and motivations of these people? These are subtler concepts, but understanding them can give valuable clues as to how to effectively target these customers.

This page gives you an overview. You can link to the full profiles for different types of North East customer (segments) by clicking here.

Use national and regional research

VisitBritain (our national tourism organisation) and One NorthEast Tourism (our regional organisation) have conducted extensive research into who holidays in England, what their holidaying habits are, what motivates them and what they value. Having these insights can help you target certain customers and adjust the style and tone of your marketing accordingly.

UK domestic visitor 'segments'

The word 'segment' in marketing terms just means a particular group of customers who share similar characteristics. Domestic means from the UK, as opposed to overseas visitors.

2004 research by VisitBritain identified that there were eight main 'types' of UK customers who holiday in our own country. To help us identify with them and understand their characteristics, the researchers gave each type a name. The chart below shows these main types and the proportions of the overall market (the total number of UK holiday makers) they represent:

Broad characteristics

Each segment has its own characteristics, which are summarised below, or you can link to the full profiles of the main North East customer types by clicking here.

High Street - the largest segment with 22% of the population, they are aged between 26 - 35 and their average income is £22,150. They care what others think and are trend followers, rather than setters, although they like new experiences (new to them, as opposed to cutting edge). They'll pay for quality but only if it's tried and tested. More likely to take long holidays abroad but are attracted to bargain short breaks in the UK and are unlikely to go off the beaten track. A third have children. They are moderately interested in art and culture.

Cosmopolitans - the second largest segment at 15% of the population, they are relatively young (although a third of them are post holiday) and their average income is about £26K. They are independent and willing to try new things to get new experiences and challenges, both mental and physical. They like to be active but also appreciate peace and relaxation, and art and culture. On average they take over 4 short breaks a year and they enjoy a wide variety of things, especially activity/themed holidays.

Discoverers - they represent 13% of the population, are most likely to be between 26 and 35, have children at home and be high internet users. They are independent and not influenced by style of brand but they are keen on value for money and rate good service highly. They are much more likely to take a bargain break/late deal than a planned, packaged holiday and are also more likely to weekend in England than abroad.

Style Hounds - representing 12% of the population Style Hounds are young (most are 15 - 25) and heavily influenced by brands, fashion and trends. Their average income is £23,000. Half have no children (so have a high disposable income) and 45% have a young family. They are motivated by fun and excitement and are not very interested in cerebral or cultural pursuits.

Traditionals - also representing 12%, this is another mainstream segment. Aged between 56 and 65 with an average income of £20K but fewer demands on their income, Traditionals rate good value highly, and are willing to pay for service, especially individual attention. They are not driven by brands or fashion, but are aware of brands in terms of quality. They like intellectual and cultural pursuits and hold traditional values.

Followers - 10% of the population, with an average income of £17,000 and aged between 56 and 65, followers are strongly influenced by those around them. They don't like risk, although will try new experiences if these are tried and tested (and popular). They value service, but not necessarily individual attention. They are not very interested in art, culture or intellectual pursuits.

Functionals - 9% of the population, with an average income of £16,000 and aged between 56 and 65, functionals are resistant to spending and value function over style. They are not driven by fashion or trend, but are willing to try new things, if they are worthwhile. They enjoy intellectual challenges, art and culture. Service is something they expect, not something to be paid for.

Habituals - aged 66 - 75 with an average income of £9,000 they represent 7% of the population. They have and spend little money and are not influenced by brand, fashion, art, culture or intellectual pursuits. They show little interest in new experiences and purchases are made on function, not style.

The main North East England segments

How do these segments translate into the people that come here? Well, all of these segments are leisure visitors for day trips and overnight stays. Do you recognise your particular customers amongst them? The most active segments, in terms of spending money on day trips, short breaks and longer stays are the High Streets, the Cosmopolitans and the Discoverers and these three groups particularly are targeted by national and regional promotional activity.

One NorthEast for example, particularly focuses on:

• Families with children under 12
• Couples without children and groups of friends 25-50
• Empty nesters 50-65

and targets them with the following marketing themes and campaigns, designed to appeal to the characteristics in these segments:

• Family fun: Families with children under 12 holidaying in the UK
• Great outdoors: Couples and groups of friends 25-55 (crosses two demographic audiences)
• Rest and relaxation: Young couples (urban based), older couples with grown up children (who have left home) and younger couples who have left their children behind for some 'me' time
• Urban culture: High spend couples 25-65 and 'ladies who lunch'
• History and heritage: Empty nesters (older couples with children who have left home), Nifty 50's (active, stimulated people in their liberated middle years) and seniors

What does it mean for you as a business?

Ultimately you decide what products and services you are providing and who you are aiming them at. But information like this is useful because it can give you insights into developing the things you offer and tailoring your marketing to appeal to known characteristics. Being aware of the campaigns that are being run nationally and regionally also helps you to 'echo' them and pick up spin off benefits.

For example, if you are looking to fill quieter, off season months then you clearly want to focus on winning customers without children who aren't tied to school holidays. These boil down to older visitors whose children are now grown up, younger visitors who have yet to start their families and 'urban' visitors who are over 25 but don't have children. By checking the segment characteristics and the themes actively being used to bring visitors to the region you could conclude that you might make some offers and promotions around:

• History and heritage: teaming up with other businesses or providing itinerary ideas or places to stay that have some historical or heritage attraction.
• Urban culture: works well if you are a city or near city business and you can team up with other businesses or provide itinerary ideas or places to stay that revolve around shopping, nightlife, culture, arts, theatre or music.
• Walking, cycling, mountain biking or other activities: all the segments with the exception of the Seniors respond well to adult activities as individuals, couples or groups so again, teaming up with other businesses, providing itinerary ideas or places to stay that respond to these themes can work well.
• Rest and relaxation: again, all the segments, including the seniors respond well to rest and relaxation themes which can be teamed with one or two gentler activities, cultural, heritage or artistic pursuits or 'well-being' activities like massage, spa, health therapies and so on.

Not only does this help to give you ideas about how you might create packages or themes and promote them, but by tuning in to the main campaigns run by the national and regional tourism organisations you will also be ideal 'fulfilment' for customers responding to those promotional activities.

Spotting the niche

This isn't to say that you should only organise your business and marketing around these segments and ideas. Another benefit of understanding the main audiences and chief promotional activities is that you can spot the gaps: who isn't being targeted, what needs aren't being met? Think about what you offer and who your current customers are. Do they fall into these broad segments? If not, can you identify what separates them out? Can you target more of these?

For more ideas on niches, and adding more specialised services or themes to what you do, visit our Niches and Themes page.

Further information and resources

The full customer profiles
These are the profiles for the North East segments, in full.

VisitBritain's research pages
VisitBritain (VB) publishes a host of research material about visitors to Britain. Check their 'Country Profiles' for more information about UK domestic segments.

UK Market Profile
VB's booklet on the profiles and habits of UK domestic visitors - well worth a read, it covers segment types, booking and information methods, future trends, and many other useful research pointers.

International and Domestic Profiles
VB's larger, more encompassing booklet covering the profiles of the UK, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.