They say that you’re as good as the company you keep, and this sentiment finds resonance when it comes to the relationship between hospitality venues and their customer base.

If they love you, your people shall come.But besides being impressed by your ability to wine and dine them, customers' needs go beyond the superficial aspects of good customer service. In order to thrive and remain true in the hearts of your attendees, it pays to take the time to get to know who they are beneath the surface. Give them the thing that’s missing in their day-to-day, and you’ll have their loyalty for a lifetime.Here are a few reasons to make sure your demos are on point.

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Don’t be good, be great… at anticipating your clientele's needs.

Sure, at its core we all know that hospitality entails the enticement and reception of guests in the venues we call our homes. We entertain, provide service, and essentially offer patrons a reprieve from pouring the drinks, doing the dishes, and deciding what to cook for dinner that night. We offer a little getaway from work and the mundane, deliver options of immersion into local culture and cuisine, and give our communities a chance to foster relationships outside of their normal hub. The exuberance and joie de vivre are often found when sipping a beer at your local, listening to some bands, and then slipping off for a late dinner before heading home, and that’s just a Thursday.But how do we know that our customers are on Struggle Street by hump day and in need of a live music pick-me-up to get them to the end of the week? Or that Karen down the street needs a major time out from the kids to come and host girl's night on a Thursday but you guys don’t play any music she can dance to? Your customers love that you specialise in tapas but they just want to order a pizza from the guy down the street and drink your wine at the same time while listening to some music from the lounge a few doors down. This is where you come in with your hero cape and save the day.

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With great power comes great responsibility so get your demos ready

Not your demo mixtape but your demographics, which can be just as powerful if you take the time to do your research and better understand your audience. Besides the savings on ill-suited advertising and un-attended music shows, understanding what makes your clientele tick will help you provide them with better service, reach them efficiently, and entice them to spend time at your venue.Next to the diverse inner-city culture, suburbia can be a little tricky to navigate. If you take the time to get a snapshot of the land beyond your pocket of the woods, you'll be surprised by the untapped crowd just waiting for the right live music opportunity. Older generations with children will appreciate family-style table seating with menus catering for their kids, whereas the younger generation is happy to jump up to the bar, listen to loud, energetic music and appreciate a food and beverage offering as diverse as their music tastes. One demographic may be a little tamer than the other, but with the right information and overlapping interests, you could seamlessly bring together two worlds with the right formula.

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Define your demographics, then check your psychographics

Marketing research usually classifies consumer demographics by referring to attributes like age, gender, education, income, and other socio-economic factors. Psychographics will delve deeper into consumer attitudes and motivations behind their habits. The life experiences of the 25-35 year age group will significantly differ from that of the 40+ group, including how often they go out to eat and where their responsibilities lie.Since the younger generation dominates the hospitality scene, it pays to understand the evolving demands of Generation Z life. Not only are they navigating life through social media, but they are advocating for social change and gender identity, highly motivated by self-expression and immersive hobbies, and thrive in technological advancement. Gen Zs have a pretty flexible work/life balance because of alternative career paths and are more likely frequent your venue at odd hours, around a jam-packed social calendar that includes interests from networking events to rock climbing meetups. Knowing them, it’s probably a "network while rock climbing" event.

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Once you take all of that into account, compare your results to the motivations behind attending a venue.

Considerations such as the location of your venue, access to public transport, the other attendees who already frequent your haunts, the musicians who play for you and the crowds which they draw will help you to piece the whole picture together. Do you have students in your vicinity who like to blow off steam? Young work professionals who have just purchased their first homes and are looking to get more involved in their neighbourhood? Maybe you have the superrich mums clubs who come and take up space out the back on a weeknight in pursuit of a Thursday night disco once they’ve put the kids down at 7 pm.Once we understand the psychographics behind your demographics, we can find solutions to consumer conundrums around wanting to attend live music. Imagine the 40+ age demographic punter with family responsibilities, who would come out, but finds that live music starts too late in the evening for them, or there isn’t sufficient parking. Sometimes, what feels like an issue, actually sounds like an opportunity.Across the board, the Live Music Office: 2017 study found that music was a priority for attendees if there was a way to fit it in amongst their initial responsibilities. Factors such as awareness, feeling encouraged to participate, and the choices in the area were driving factors for attendance.And don't forget to use your social media and online analytics tools to help you get the whole picture.

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Regardless of the rise and fall, music and venues will remain irreplaceable

The glue that holds us all together is our shared love for music, with 64% of the population attending free music events regularly and 79% from Live Nation’s 2017 study stating that their live music experience extends past the actual event.Statista recorded a debilitating drop in the live music market from an $862M industry to $86M in 2020. The predicted increase to $203M by the end of 2021, and an estimated full recovery by 2024 shows the speed at which the industry can start to snowball. If we set aside social distance and travel restrictions, we can still find measurable growth as more venues turn to live music. Before COVID, the UK industry had grown 11% in 2019 according to findings from the UK This Is Music 2020 report.

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Most live music attendance happens locally

You're not flying under the radar, as the live music sector is the largest stakeholder in hospitality, and 80% of attendees will check out live music locally. Yes, that's right. The bulk of live music attendees spends their time in small venues. Live music is a lifestyle, and while concert tickets continuously escalate in price and the industry grows by about 30% annually, across the board, small venues will never go out of style because live music entertainment is considered a way of life. To further illustrate the point that "if you have it, they will come," punters interviewed in a Live Music Office 2014: Cultural Impact of Live Music Survey viewed live music as an investment. They were not afraid to travel for music or incur extra costs surrounding an experience. Damn, that’s dedication.

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Spoiled for choice; across the board, all genres are popular

Contemporary music will never die, and record-holding shows in the past years include Paul McCartney, Guns N Roses, and Ed Sheeran, which cross over with classic rock and pop music genres as dominant favourites. Younger crowds are the driving force behind music genres like hip hop and electronic music. Meanwhile, classic rock and associated genres share equal dedication from young and older generations, according to current data from Statista on global consumer listening preferences.

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Your customers view music as "the vibe" for life

Customers listed reasons such as health, wellbeing, social capital, optimism, and inspiration to achieve goals as reasons which motivate them to participate in live music events as a lifestyle. This confidence and sense of community is also a driving force behind why venue owners push live music in their venues, likening it to the fabric of society, which they believe they have the responsibility to support, regardless of profits.Live music makes us all feel good; it helps us foster relationships and fuel our individualism. When you walk into a live music event, the vibe is infectious and unparallel in bringing us joy and automatic stress-release responses.A study from Kai Fikentscher, 2000 went as far as to define the concept of "a vibe" because it was so relevant when consumers described the atmosphere and their feelings about an event within a venue space. The vibe is crucial, but what constitutes the feeling is different for every demographic, and the one common factor goes beyond the size of the crowd. Venue owners agreed that overall, what they rated as a great night in the industry far beyond tickets sold and dollars pocketed was the vibe in the venue.Ain’t no thang, so get those demos on point and cement your spot as Kings and Queens of your neighbourhood. Your loyal subjects will thank you by dancing, being merry, and carrying on the way into the nights. Yes, we mean nights plural because this is how much we believe in you.

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Joining the next generation of venues taking local music to the forefront of Australia's entertainment scene? Check out our Complete Live Music Rundown for Venues to help you get started.

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At Surreal we help venues, agencies and entertainers manage live entertainment more efficiently through software - learn more here!

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