Economist Bill LaFayette points out Columbus stands out from the rest of the U.S. by several measures.
“We are better educated than average; we are somewhat younger than average,” says LaFayette, owner of Regionomics, a Columbus-based economic and workforce strategy firm. “Our household composition is somewhat different than average. For example, we have a smaller percentage of family households and more people living on their own.”
That’s important because marketers aren’t always just looking for a market that best resembles the rest of the U.S. They’re looking for a certain group of people for whom the product is designed.
“In a broad brush, our market may look unusual,” says Paul Carringer of Caring Marketing Solutions. “What you find within that little pie of Columbus is a variety of groups of people that do fit up well with other parts of the nation. That’s why marketers lean to target markets. They’re not as interested in the broad brush as they are with the specific group.”