Data has a better idea...
We're living in unpredictable times and the events industry is no exception.
Probably more now than ever before is it necessary to understand your target market, your competitors and of course your own business.
It seems confusing but it doesn't have to be.
Shorter lead times, smaller events (and budgets) but more of them and more venues competing for the business means there are a lot of moving parts.
Probably more now than ever before is it necessary to understand your target market, your competitors and of course your own business. You need to get all your own ducks in a row with your own data sets. As you will know from reading a number of these blog posts, my mantra for 2019 (and possibly beyond) is "data has a better idea" and that is never more so the case than with industry benchmarking and measuring your venue's performance. It will also start the process (if it hasn't already started) of Digital Marketing. Marketing, targeting, performance and ROI based on data rather than creativity alone.
The Hotels industry does it and they have excellent benchmarking partners. They don't just look at total room revenue, they look at improved performance by using strategic benchmarking. And those different types of benchmarking drive their digital marketing strategies. They've been doing it for years and is possibly why so many of them are now owned by Private Equity companies and money folk as opposed to the good old days of family hoteliers. But think about this. The hotel business produces excellent returns that can be measured.......Accurately. And that's why the money folk have moved in. Hotels use RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) and GOPPAR (Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room). Why shouldn't the Venues market use similar methodologies? Maybe you already are? If you're not then maybe you should......at least start looking into creating some of your own benchmarking processes as well as just looking at total revenues generated.
If you'd like to know more about how the hotel does benchmarking, you might want to check out Hotstats - the Hotel benchmarking specialists. They're the hotel industry standard when it comes to benchmarking
It's all very well knowing (and understanding) your own data, your own performance, your own KPIs and how you have compared against your own budgets and last year's results but what about what's happening in the bigger, wider world?
- What's happening outside your organisation?
- What are the market trends?
- How are your competitors performing?
- And how do you compare?
For some, knowing and reporting that data to the board is a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas.
If you know you're not in control. If you know you don't know or understand your own data sets. If you know that you are not performing as well as you possibly could/should be, then you're possibly not going to hold your numbers/performance up to the shining light of industry benchmarking. And then show your boss who, in turn, will show the board.
But guess what. Your Boss and The Board are thinking about it so it's only a matter of time...........Christmas is coming, like it or not!
Of course, there is another way.
Some of the greatest advice I've ever been given is simply:
"take responsibility".
taking responsibility is hard and it involves some tough decisions but ultimately it's the right thing to do. You know it, everyone knows it.
2 fascinating facts I read recently give indications of what good data tell us about what's going on. And both articles are from the hospitality market.
Firstly, the high street. Well, guess what Britain. When hospitality is embedded in the high street, the town/city performs better. Simple.
Check out these two articles from the Caterer:
Hospitality at the core of high street growth as retail shifts online, report shows
Now we have the data may be the government and planners will be able to address some of the solutions as opposed to simply reporting the problems?
A third of diners admit to no-showing
Restaurants can see where they're losing money - thanks to data - so now they can do something about it. Without that data, they simply wouldn't know what to do.
It's fascinating what data can tell you, isn't it?
Industry Benchmarking for your venue?
Now there's a good idea!!
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