buy local santa monica member survey results final report december 2011

Buy Local Santa MonicaMember Survey

Results

Final Report

December 2011

* Confidential *

Survey Overview

Survey Demographics

Perceptions of Buy Local

Efforts to Attract and Retain Customers

* Confidential *

Survey Participation – By BID

Buy Local Member Survey n = 104

Santa Monica Place

32%

67%

33%

28%

26%

17%

0%

PIO

Montana Avenue

Downtown Santa Monica

Other

Main Street

Pier Conservancy

Percentage Complete By BID

Complete104

(27%)

Not Complete279

(73%)

Survey Participation

Potential Survey Participants: 383

14

25

37

8

0

16

4

104

# Complete

* Confidential *

Survey Participation – By Chamber Membership

28%

72%


Chamber Member

Non-Chamber

Percentage Complete By BID

Complete104

(27%)

Not Complete279

(73%)

Survey Participation

Potential Survey Participants: 383

29

75

104

# Complete

* Confidential *


Sub-category Count % Total Completed % CompletedOther 49 13% 16 33%Professional Services 41 11% 14 34%Clothing & Apparel 45 12% 13 29%Retail products 28 7% 9 32%Health & Medical 20 5% 7 35%Art, Framing & Gallery 20 5% 6 30%Jewelry 15 4% 6 40%Bars & Restaurants 55 14% 5 9%Coffee shops 14 4% 5 36%Food - general and specialty 22 6% 5 23%Salons & Spas 15 4% 5 33%Auto 12 3% 3 25%Entertainment 11 3% 3 27%Fitness 16 4% 3 19%Home furnishing 11 3% 3 27%Sporting Goods 9 2% 1 11%TOTAL 383 100% 104 27%

Survey Participation – By Industry Type

* Confidential *

Headquartersin Santa Monica;

1 location71%

Survey Participation – By Business Type*

Buy Local Member Surveyn = 104

* Q16 – Please select the option below that best describes the type of business establishment you represent in Santa Monica

Headquarters in Santa Monica;

multiple locations

11%

Headquarters not in Santa

Monica; (i.e. branch

office)8%

Locally-owned franchise of

regional/national chain

2%

Home-basedBusiness

9%

* Confidential *

Owner69%

Survey Participation – By Respondent*

Manager28%

Employee3%


* Q17 – Please select the option below that best describes your role at your business:

* Confidential *

Q1 - What were the Top 3 Reasons you decided to join Buy Local?

To increase my visibility in the community

31%

72%

83%

47%

31%

30%

4%

3%

To help raise awareness in the importance of supporting local

businessesTo increase sales

To stay informed about local events that are important to my businessTo build my professional network

with other local merchants

To reinforce/strengthen my brand

To take advantage of negotiated group discounted rates (e.g.

advertising)Other


* Confidential *

Q2 - Based on your experiences to date or how important you believe it would be, please rate the effectiveness of each of the following Buy Local initiatives in helping your business:

Social Media


14%

15%

15%

15%

16%

19%

21%

21%

23%

32%

30%

35%

47%

33%

43%

38%

39%

36%

17%

13%

21%

14%

15%

12%

16%

15%

14%

38%

42%

29%

23%

36%

25%

25%

25%

27%

Advertising Campaigns

Community Outreach

Events

BuyLocalMarket.com

Buy Local SM Website

Negotiated Discounted Advertising

Business Training & Education

B2B Networking

Very Effective Somewhat Effective Not EffectiveI Don’t Know/Never Heard

* Confidential *

Q3 - Please rank the following potential target audiences for Buy Local marketing campaigns by order of importance to your business:

* 1 = Most Important; 6 = Least Important


Target AudiencesTarget Audiences Weighted

Average*Santa Monica Residents 1.5

Employees of large local employers(e.g. Santa Monica College, City of SM, Saint Johns, Activision)

3.4

Other Santa Monica business owners/managers (e.g. Think Local First/Business-to-Business)

3.6

Local institutions (e.g. schools, religious institutions)

3.8

Visitors to Santa Monica 3.9

Associations(e.g. Chamber of Commerce)

4.8

* Confidential *

Q4 - How valuable would the following events be to you and other Buy Local members?

Buy Local “Sidewalk Sales”


23.10%

31.70%

33.70%

33.70%

34.60%

56.70%

43.30%

48.10%

51.90%

38.50%

20.20%

25.00%

18.30%

14.40%

26.90%

Business-to-Business networking events

Buy Local Customer Appreciation Day

Buy Local “Expo”

Training and education seminars

Very Valuable Somewhat Valuable Not Valuable

* Confidential *

Q5 – If you had the ability to co-market with other local businesses, please rank in order of importance which of the following co-marketing opportunities would be most beneficial to you:

* 1 = Most Desirable; 3 = Least Desirable


Co-Marketing Opportunities Desired Weighted Average*

By Location(e.g. Montana Ave, Main Street)

1.96

By Business Category(e.g. restaurants, retail)

2.02

By Complementary Business Category(e.g. cafes and bookstores, florists and jewelers)

2.11

* Confidential *

Q6 – On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 equals highest), how likely are you to recommend Buy Local to another business in Santa Monica?


10

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

9

39%

15%

10%

5%

13%

1%

1%

3%

1%

12%

Scale % Responded

Average

* Confidential *

Poor Sales39%

Taxes9%

Gov’t Regulation

8%

Cost of Labor

9%

Other*25%


* Includes lack of customers (8%), fears about economy (5%), parking (2%), rent (2%) and miscellaneous (8%)

Q8 – What is the single biggest problem facing your business today?

Cost/Availability of Insurance

5%

Inflation3%

Interest Rates1%

Quality of Labor2%

* Confidential *

Q9 - Over the next 12 months, I believe our sales will be:

Much Higher

57%

14%

25%

4%

0%

Somewhat Higher

No change

Somewhat Lower

Much Lower


* Confidential *

Attract New Customers

Increase Existing

Customer Sales

Raise Prices

69%

30%

1%

‘Most Important’ (%)


Q10 - To increase gross sales over the next 12 months, please rank the following activities by order of importance:

28%3%

66%4%

6%93%

2nd Most Important3rd Most Important

* Confidential *

Morethan Half1

71%

Less than Half2

25%

I Don’t Know4%

1 Sales breakdown as follows: 51-75% (44%) and 76-100% (27%)2 Sales breakdown as follows: 1-25% (8%) and 26-50% (17%)


Q11 – Approximately what percentage of sales comes from existing (i.e. repeat) business?

* Confidential *

Facebook

Email Marketing

Twitter

Referral Discounts

Blog

Loyalty Cards

19%

30%

58%

21%

15%

10%


Q12 – Which of the following do you undertake to engage your existing customers?

Direct Mail

Other

None

28%

43%

69%

* Confidential *

Effective 31%

Very Effective15%

Q13 – How effective have your marketing efforts been at generating repeat business?

Somewhat Effective

37%

NotEffective

8%

I Have No Idea

9%


* Confidential *

Email address

Full name

Telephone

Address

Product/Service purchased

36%

49%

71%

39%

12%


Q14 – What type of customer information do you currently collect (if any)?

Dollars spent

Visit frequency

We don’t collect any information

48%

60%

87%

* Confidential *

Social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)

Email marketing

Online advertising

Print advertising

Customer referral programs

13%

26%

37%

13%

3%


Q15 – In the past 12 months, which of the following did you undertake to attract new customers?

Daily deals (e.g. Groupon, LivingSocial)

Trade shows

We don’t collect any information

25%

29%

72%

34%

55%

60%

Business networking (e.g. Chamber)

Direct mail

Other

* Confidential *

Satisfied27%

Extremely Satisfied13%

Q16 – How satisfied have you been with your Daily Deal experience(s) you have implemented?

Neither Satisfied/

Dissatisfied37%

Dissatisfied20%

Extremely Dissatisfied

3%


* Confidential *

buy local santa monica member survey results final report december 2011

Documents

local member surveyn

local events

local efforts

local businessesto

local marketing campaigns

santa monica residents

headquartersin santa

santa monica place32g3