Please help me research consumer demographics.

June 1, 2011 3:06 PM

I'm looking to research consumer demographics for a couple of specific businesses. For instance, Who goes to Disney World or Cirque du Soleil (age, race, income, city/state of origin, etc.)? I realize this is pretty basic stuff, but it is not anything I've done before and I'm coming up empty.

I'm thinking theme park or live entertainment attendees (and their demographics) have been studied and a report created for "public" consumption via a marketing database or other. I've tried redbooks and mintel, but I'm really new at this sort of thing. (Also, redbooks subcription is too expensive at the moment.) So other than those and google, I'm at a loss. I'd really appreciate hearing from any marketing/advertising experts on this. My new job sort of depends on figuring this out.

I'm working on strategy for an advertising client and wanting to understand these competitors' audiences first.

Thanks so much for your help.

posted by brynnwood to work & money (7 answers total)

My guess is that this is well-guarded proprietary information. Disney likely has this information on their customers, but would use it for their own marketing purposes, and therefore keep it secret from Universal, etc. Universal probably collects the data on Disney's customers as well, to help their own marketing efforts, but it likely isn't as in-depth. I doubt any company would release that sort of data to their competitors (like your client?), not least of all because it's really expensive to collect.
posted by supercres at 3:22 PM on June 1, 2011

You're absolutely right. However, some companies (such as Mintel) do research on categories such as live entertainment or theme parks. They, too guard this information in a sense. They sell it via subscription database. I don't need the research Disney, for example, has done internally. But I'm looking for sources other than Mintel that may be out there that gives a sense of who visits the major theme parks, say.
posted by brynnwood at 3:27 PM on June 1, 2011

Have you looked at research available from IAAPA? No idea how extensive it is, but it's basically their goal in life to help inform members of the amusement park industry about how to keep themselves afloat, so I'd assume they've got something available.

And yes, the real way to get the raw goods as far as this data is concerned is to work for one of the big players in the space, I'd think.
posted by troublesome at 4:17 PM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

You might check with Orlando's Convention and Visitor's Bureau to see if they have some stats that will meet your needs. They likely collect some of this although it might not be granular or specific enough for your purposes.
posted by mmascolino at 4:19 PM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks a lot for these suggestions!
posted by brynnwood at 6:09 PM on June 1, 2011

See Also the Richard K. Miller annual tourism data compilation entitled The 2011 Travel & Tourism Market Research Handbook which is published each May by MarketResearch.com. Theme parks is Chapter 83; IIRC it reprises the IAAPA data.
posted by carmicha at 7:27 PM on June 1, 2011

Oh and TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) used to partner with [a wonderful firm since absorbed by a global conglomerate] to assemble some annual data. Scroll down on this page to the section entitled "Global Attractions Attendance Reports" and you can download their 2008 and 2009 figures if you don't mind your data a little aged and you can sign up for the 2010 version: all free. I know the guys who used to gather the data; memail me if you want to be put in touch with them.
posted by carmicha at 7:35 PM on June 1, 2011