The Census Paints A Picture Of The Average Australian, But Your Customers Are Not Average

Crowd - James Cridland - //flic.kr/p/Wd54U Knowing your customers provides your business with valuable insights. Do you remember the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2016 Census, conducted online on the night of August 9. it didn't go quite go so well. It crashed, no it was terrorist or was it a cyber attack. No hold maybe it's just a stuff up. Who knows?... It's Good to hear. The Govt managed to squeeze out a couple of million dollars in compensation from IBM's role in the survey fiasco. Don't fret they still managed to collect a bag full of cash. Fortunately, they told us, that enough people managed to complete the Census. I know you been perched over your computing just waiting for these Stats to change your life Hooray, We the results are in. Now Hang on if your run a business these could tell a picture of where Australia is going. Or maybe not. So numbers have been crunched But what do it all mean.

So this what the Average Australian looks like.

“Who was the ‘typical’ Australian in 2016?”

“Thanks to the 2016 Census, we know that the ‘typical’ Australian is a 38 year old female. Let's call her ‘Claire’. A decade ago, the ‘typical’ Australian would have been a year younger. Australia's population has changed a lot over the past 105 years - in 1911, when the first Census was taken, the ‘typical’ Aussie was a 24 year old male, but women have outnumbered men since 1979. The ‘typical’ Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person is also female, but she's younger: 23 years old, in fact. Looking across the country, the Census tells us the ‘typical’ Australian male or female was born in Australia, has English ancestry and parents also born in Australia. But there are plenty of local differences. For example, a ‘typical’ person from New South Wales, Victoria or Western Australia has at least one parent who was born overseas. Want to know more? The Census also tells us the ‘typical’ Aussie is married with two children, completed Year 12 and lives in a three bedroom house with two motor vehicles.” Who was the ‘typical’ Australian in 2016?

Meet The ‘Typical’ Australian

  **Median Age**    **38**   **Sex**   **Female**   **Country of Birth of Person**   **Australia**   **Country of Birth of Parents**   **Both parents born in Australia**   **Language Spoken at Home**   **English**   **Ancestry 1st Response**   **English**   **Social Marital Status**   **Married in a registered marriage**   **Family Composition**   **Couple family with children**   **Count of All Children in Family **   **2 children in family**   **Highest Year of School Completed**   **Year 12 or equivalent**   **Unpaid Domestic Work: Number of Hours**   **5 hours for males - 14 hours for females**   **Number of Motor Vehicles**   **2 Two vehicles**   **Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling**   **3 bedrooms**   **Tenure Type**   **Owned with a mortgage**   —  

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people

**Median Age**    **23**   **Sex**   **Female**    — 

Persons born overseas

**Median Age**    **44**   **Country of Birth of Person**   **England**   **Language Spoken at Home**   **English**   —  This only snapshot of the full result. Small Business Minister Michael McCormack said the 2016 full results would be released only after being cleared by an independent panel. The full results get released on June 27. It's easy to get caught up with all the froth fervour from the media, highlighting the mythical Average Australian. I just checked I walked down to my local shopping centre, to see if I could spot Mrs Average. I must be looking at different Bell Curve because I have to say Dee Why, was not crowded with any average people. Mrs Average didn’t Stand out from the crowd. She may have been there but so was a whole cross-section of Australian Society. You see those who filled in the Census, helped to compile the viewpoint of the Average Australian. 

Where was the ‘typical’ migrant born?

The ‘typical’ migrant in Australia Australia has a growing proportion of people who were born overseas. The ‘typical’ migrant in Australia was born in England and is 44 years old (a change from 46 years old a decade ago). I'm not sure where the ‘typical’ migrant in Australia all live, but it's not Dee Why I didn't see many people dressed in a bowler hat walking their Corgies, sipping a Pimms. ( Sorry I was just stereotyping the British Expat from the 60's. My mistake I was channelling the census results.) Not sure how many people actually managed to complete this Census. So I don't know how much value it offers business.

So here's my definition of Average

If you put one foot in boiling water & the other in freezing water, you should have an average body Temperpertuare. Yea right. The Census could have been useful to help you make good decisions in your business. But this wasn't helpful as it could have been. Let's face it most people struggled to fill in this because it crashed. If that wasn't enough the questions weren't exactly probing or even attempting illicit any useful info, that they could get from Google. So if we were basing our menus on The Average Australians, it would be pretty bland. We would be still serving Meat & 3 Veg. You also don't want to have an average Restaurant. You want to stand out from the crowd. Being average or looking for the average is boring and bland. You don't want to be boring, do you? We live in an incredible melting pot of diverse peoples, cultures & cuisines. With us gives a diverse range of flavours & tastes, we enjoy. We are all different, and so are your customers.

So Who Are Your Ideal Customers

Knowing your customer is your biggest leverage point for all your marketing, product development and improvements, sales and profitability. It's really the primary factor in growing your business. The Census Paints a Picture of the average Australian but your customers are not average...

How to get to know your Customers with having do a Census

Knowing your customers provides your business with valuable insights. So how do this, without worrying about getting such an expensive dud result like the Census? If you don't have $100 of millions to organise a Census then let me show a quick & free trick which give you a much more granular customer info for your local Restaurant. To think the Govt could use this as well and given us heaps more useful info than what they just dished up in their Census Snapshot.

So we're going to use Facebook Audience Insights

So let's dive in.

People on Facebook in Dee Why - 9K - 10K monthly active people

Age & Gender

Relationship Staus & Education Level

Job Title

Do see how simple this is? Ok this good start to getting a better understanding of your customers.

Can you see power in getting to know your Customers?

So you want to dig deeper to get know your customers

You should know the answer to these Questions

What does your prospect deeply want? How does your prospect feel right now? How do they want to feel? The more you know about your Customers, the better the experience you can offer them to serve their Wants.

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