Rich man? Poor man? Customer?
Recently, a Chicago area drycleaner asked if I would assist him with a direct
mail project. Specifically, he wanted help in targeting.
He made it very clear up-front that he intended to contact rich prospects only
and needed a detailed analysis of his extended market in order to ferret out
the poor. His idea was to eliminate those who had no need of his services. This
would cut the number of pieces required for the mailing and thereby reduce the
cost of his ad campaign.
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Take medical care, for example. In the old days, medical treatment was reserved
for only the wealthy. And that probably saved a lot of poor people, since
medicine at that time was based on a
“kill or cure” Frankish system known as Heroic medicines. Here’s a treatment summary for King Charles II after he suffered a massive stroke:
“The King was bled to the extent of one pint in his right arm; his shoulder was
incised and cupped, an emetic and purgative was administered, followed by an
enema. The King
’s head was shaved and blistered and a sneezing powder was administered. A
plaster of pitch and dung was applied to his feet, followed by an oral infusion
of melon seeds, manna, slippery elm, dissolved pearls, quinine, peony and
lavender. When the King went into convulsions, pearl, julep and ammonia was
forced down his throat by his doctors, until he obligingly died.
”
This was the best medical treatment of the time… fit for a king. Compare this to what is available to you at this very moment
(probably in your medicine cabinet), and you
’ll realize how rich you are, even if you earn less than $20,000 a year.
Before the turn of the 20th century, life was hard, dirty, violent and unhealthy
even for those who could afford the very best. The daily conditions were harsh.
No toilets (or toilet paper), no running water, no refrigerators, no washing
machines, no toothpaste, no showers, no electricity, no air conditioning, no
transportation, no doctors, no medicines, no malls, no clothing stores, no
grocery stores, no fast-food restaurants, no TV, no radio, no phones, no
computers, no Internet. Most people worked in the fields from sun up to sun
down, and lived at near starvation level for most of their short lives.
Today, it’s a safe bet that the poorest person you know in America probably has a color
TV, phone, flush toilet, perhaps even a car, and who knows what else. Their
lifestyle would be the envy of any king or nobleman prior to the 20th century.
In addition, these modern conveniences are affordable to almost everyone in
society, so it
’s no wonder that the definition of rich and poor is not as clear as it once was.
After giving more thought to a definition of “rich” and “poor,” my drycleaner friend decided to restrict his mailing effort to households with
incomes of at least $75,000 a year. The results of the analysis were both good
and bad. On the good side, he wouldn
’t have to take out a loan to finance the mailing since it would only require 83
cards. But on the bad side, who can build a viable drycleaning business on just
83 potential prospects?
Like many drycleaners today, this individual knows very little about the people
in his market even though he has done business in the area for over 10 years.
He didn
’t know the household incomes of the residents. He didn’t know the average household age. He didn’t even know the number of households in his prime market. In fact, he wasn’t sure what his prime market was and didn’t even know what his own postal delivery route was. Do you?
Jim lives across the street from me. He owns a consulting business and earns
more than $350,000 a year. Few would argue that Jim qualifies as
“rich,” but Jim rarely leaves his home. Most of his consulting is done by phone and his
customers hardly ever see him face to face. Jim dresses in blue jeans, polo
shirts and sneakers and never responds to invitations to bring his clothes to
the cleaners.
On the flipside of the coin is my wife who works at a small private college and
earns less than $50,000 a year. The college requires all office personnel to
abide by a very strict dress code. The wind up is that she visits the
drycleaner at least twice a week and spends a small fortune on wardrobe
maintenance.
The question is this, who would you rather have as a customer, Jim or my wife?
If you didn’t know any details other than their income, you would mail your invitations to
Jim
… and you’d starve. But, if you could view the whole picture and were wise enough to
choose my wife, there
’s a good chance you could tap into a sizeable group of “lower income” wage earners capable of bringing in sizable drycleaning orders on a regular
basis
… just because they are close by and they have to.
Several years ago, I was asked to install a product in a drycleaning plant on
the south side of Chicago. The job required the transfer of every finished
order within the plant. In doing so I couldn
’t help noticing that a majority of orders were in the $50 to $75 range… quite large considering the average income for the area was less than $22,000 a
year. Sometimes it
’s easy to get fooled by definitions of rich and poor.
When comparing sites for a new location or when determining the best prospects
for a prospect mailing campaign, most cleaners tend to look primarily at the
income of the area residents and there was a time when this was a very good
barometer. Recently, however, the lines between rich and poor have become
blurred and in the process the need for drycleaning services have often been
reversed.
Nowadays, when considering a new site it’s important to take a close look at density and traffic flow. And if you are
planning a prospect mailing to your area, consider targeting prospects that
live in close proximity to your plant. Regular customers place a high value on
convenience. They don
’t want to travel a great distance to drop off and pick up.