Overview
The Customer Insights Package is a SCOUT subscription add-on that provides additional insights into selected competitors and their customers. For competitors selected from Buxton's available library, the package includes observed customers, observed customer profiles, and observed trade areas.
Use these insights to better understand competitor customer characteristics and geographic patterns. This information can provide additional context for competitive analysis, site selection, marketing, and other market planning decisions.
What's Included
For each selected competitor, Buxton deploys an observed customer profile and observed trade areas to SCOUT. These insights allow you to visualize concentrations of observed competitor customers and identify other households that share characteristics with those customers.
The Customer Insights Package provides three primary types of competitor insights:
Competitor Customer Profiles identify households that match the characteristics of a competitor's observed customers.
Observed Competitor Customers show concentrations of customers observed visiting a competitor.
Observed Competitor Trade Areas visualize the geographic areas associated with observed customers for individual competitor locations.
Data Sources
Customer profiles are derived from mobile GPS data and Mosaic segmentation data. Observed trade area definitions are derived from mobile GPS data.
Important: Customer Insights are based on observed customers whose home addresses are within 120 minutes of the study location. For businesses that commonly attract customers from greater distances, such as hotels, the results represent local visitors within this range rather than the business's complete customer base.
Access Customer Insights
The Customer Insights Package adds several types of competitor information to SCOUT. How you access the information depends on whether you want to analyze a competitor's customer profile, observed customers, or observed trade area.
View Competitor Customer Profiles
Competitor Customer Profiles allow you to visualize households that share characteristics with a competitor's observed customers.
To view a competitor profile:
Select Customers from the left navigation menu.
Select Potentials.
Under Other Profiles, locate the competitor you want to analyze.
Select the checkbox next to the competitor profile.
Households that match the selected profile are displayed on the map.
View Mosaic Segments in a Competitor Profile
To understand the characteristics represented within a competitor's profile, select the Information icon next to the applicable profile.
The information window displays the Mosaic segments included in the profile. Select
Learn More to open the Segmentation Guide and review additional details about the characteristics associated with each segment.
View Observed Competitor Customers
Observed Competitor Customers allow you to visualize concentrations of customers observed visiting a competitor. You can view customers across a competitor's locations or focus your analysis on an individual location.
View Observed Customers Across a Competitor
To display observed customers for a competitor:
Select Customers from the left navigation menu.
Select Actuals.
Under Rooftops, locate the competitor you want to analyze.
Select the checkbox next to the competitor.
The observed customer data for the selected competitor is displayed on the map.
View Observed Customers for a Specific Location
You can also focus your analysis on the observed customers associated with an individual competitor location.
Right-click the applicable competitor location on the map and select Show Actual Customers. Then, select the competitor you want to analyze.
SCOUT displays the observed customer concentrations associated with the selected location.
View Observed Competitor Trade Areas
Observed Competitor Trade Areas allow you to visualize the geographic area associated with the observed customers of a particular competitor location.
Before accessing an observed trade area, display the applicable competitor's locations on the map. Select Stores from the left navigation menu, then select the checkbox for the competitor you want to analyze.
Once the competitor locations are visible:
Locate the competitor location you want to analyze.
Right-click the location icon.
Select Drive Time / Ring.
Select Actual Drive Time.
The observed trade area for the selected competitor location is displayed on the map.
Using Customer Insights in Your Analysis
The three components of the Customer Insights Package provide different perspectives on competitor activity.
Use Competitor Customer Profiles when you want to understand the types of households that resemble a competitor's observed customers. Use Observed Competitor Customers when you want to understand where observed customers are concentrated. Use Observed Competitor Trade Areas when you want to understand the geographic reach associated with a particular competitor location.
Together, these insights can provide additional competitive context when evaluating markets, potential sites, existing locations, and marketing opportunities.