 City administrator Sue McLaughlin introduced Hill and reminded the
council that one of the goals the city has set for itself is to
build up the local retail sector. In the past the council has talked
about conducting research to find out what kind of businesses would
find the city of Lincoln attractive.McLaughlin said the city had
budgeted money this year to conduct market research. Buxton is one
of two companies that will be vying for the opportunity to sell
their research program to the city. McLaughlin said the second
company is planning on making a presentation to the council in July.
Hill opened by saying her company is considered to be a leader in
this field. The company represents over 2,000 national retailers,
including several popular restaurant chains and retailers. She noted
that in the retail sector they work with businesses like big-box
stores as well as smaller retail chains.
She said the company is working with several communities the size
of Lincoln. In her slideshow presentation, the list of clients
included towns such as Bloomington and Clinton.
Hill said their research is based on what they call
psychographics, and they look at specific information about the
people who are the consumers in the area.
She gave a hypothetical example using a middle-age male named Tom
King. Later in the meeting she would tell the council that real
names are not part of the information that would be given to the
city.
In her example with Tom King, she said that Buxton could tell the
city that he just moved into the community. She said they knew this
because they had gleaned the information from the United States
Postal Service. She said once they have that, as soon as King begins
receiving mail, Buxton can start building his consumer profile.
She said that also from the mail being delivered, Buxton could
trace him back to his previous address. She told the council that in
their research, the information they have on King includes the facts
that he is independently conservative in the way he votes, he's on a
company medical plan, shops at Barnes & Noble and dines at Pei Wei,
plus 75,000 other variables associated with his lifestyle and
purchasing habits.
In addition, she said Buxton has the ability to separate King's
consumer habits from those of his wife and his next-door neighbor.
She called the firm's research "granular" in the amount of
information it is able to gather about one person.
Hill said her company has exclusive rights to Visa credit card
information that helps them see what is being purchased by the
hypothetical King, as well as information from Equifax, a credit
reporting company. They are also able to track use of various
"rewards card" programs, magazine subscriptions and TeleChecks.
Gathering this type of information about the consumer assists
communities in determining which businesses will do well in their
area.
"The value of understanding that type of intelligence is that we
can then quantify the dollar amount of each one of your core
customers, back to retail concepts," Hill said. "So we are able to
tell them (the prospective retailer) not only that they are a fit to
your market but also what each one of the consumers within the
market is worth on an annual basis, a quarterly basis, a weekly
basis, and that is very important for them in making their
decisions."
Hill told the council that Buxton is the largest purchaser of
consumer spending habits in the nation, with approximately 250 data
sets. Their information updates every eight weeks.
She said the research they can provide to the city will include
how far consumers will drive to make their retail or restaurant
purchases, which consumers are leaving the area to spend their
dollars and in what type of businesses. She said they could easily
identify the gaps in the market in Lincoln.
She talked about creating a fingerprint of the city's consumers
and how that print can be matched to business models of various
businesses.
Hill said her company can also do analysis on the businesses that
are already in Lincoln. She said the information Buxton gathers can
be very detailed. Buxton can tell the business what brands they are
and are not selling well, and can assist them in deciding what items
they need to stock in their businesses and what brands they should
not be carrying.
She showed the council information from a "Consumer Propensity
Report." She said the report was divided by specific categories so
that retailers could see what items were being purchased. She showed
them an example of a Jane Eyebrow Pencil in the health and beauty
section of a retail store. She said information Buxton had collected
showed that in this example, the consumer was 309 times more likely
to buy the Jane pencil than other brands. She went on to add that
this information is based on tracking the consumer spending habits
in a given area, and that the report offers very specific and
detailed information.
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She said that many big companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and
Lowe's are now using Buxton's research to make their merchandising
decisions.
In terms of what the company can do for Lincoln, Hill said that
as the city's consultants, the company will help research the market
gaps in the area, will offer information regarding what businesses
would be attracted to the city and will assist the city in making
contact with those businesses. The company offers a complete package
that includes marketing studies in three specific areas, profile
matching between consumers and potential retailers, a data program
called SCOUT, and support services.
Hill said SCOUT is a vital tool in that it offers over 250 data
sets and works in the cloud so it provides mobile access to
information. She said with SCOUT city officials could generate
reports "on the fly," will have information on geographic market
information, can compare Lincoln to any community in the United
States, can see labor statistics, health care information and more.
SCOUT will be included in the package offered by Buxton in the
first year and is available by subscription in the years after at a
cost of $15,000 per year.
During discussion, McLaughlin asked how quickly the data gathered
goes out of date. Hill said if the city keeps SCOUT long-term, the
data would never go out of date. She said otherwise, without SCOUT,
the data has a three-year shelf life.
McLaughlin asked if Buxton had the ability to track workforce
information. She wanted to know if the company can track education
and job training in the community. She noted Lincoln has lost
$11,000,000 in adjusted gross income to other areas such as
Springfield.
Hill said the company could offer information on that by doing a
gap analysis similar to what is done with retail. She said the
company can look at what is going on locally and regionally.
McLaughlin also asked if Buxton could track tourism information
such as hotel stays. Hill said they can. She noted that hotels are
normally willing to share this information, but it can be collected
through credit card information.
Bruce Carmitchel asked what the support from the company would
be. Hill said that once Lincoln becomes a client, the company will
assign five people to work with the research and consultation for
the city.
She said Buxton will assist the city in making contacts, but the
city should be the one to reach out to retailers. She said there
were conferences where Buxton has booth space that the city could
use.
She said that the city should expect an 18-month to two-year
turnaround time for seeing results of their efforts.
McLaughlin asked if the cost of Buxton's services was based on
population or service. The price of the package was not disclosed
during the meeting, but Hill did say it was priced based on
services, not population.
Hill also told the council that as a client of Buxton, the city
will have connection to other communities that are Buxton clients.
She said the cities they are working with are happy to share their
best practices, information about what has worked for them and what
has not.
Mayor Keith Snyder also mentioned the city is working to
revitalize the downtown. He asked if Buxton could provide
information about businesses that would be attracted to downtown.
Hill said they could. She noted that many national chains don't love
downtown areas because they want stand-alone locations, but there
are some, and those can be identified.
Brian Bergen of the Lincoln & Logan County Development
Partnership was in the gallery to hear the discussion. Snyder asked
if he had any questions about the presentation.
Bergen said at the moment he did not. He commented, though, that
the data Buxton is proposing to put together for the city would also
be data he could use in his work, and that he liked what she had
presented to the city.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about Buxton can access
information about the company on their website,
http://buxtonco.com/.
[By NILA SMITH]
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