Today we dissect the difference between marketing your menu and your food truck brand. We are going to double the work when it comes to targeting. We’ll look at targeting in two ways, demographics & psychographics. We are going to look at targeting from a menu perspective (demographics), and then from a brand perspective (psychographics). In this day of interactive, social marketing, you have to do both to understand and engage with your target customer.

I always say that a food truck owner’s job is never done. There’s no way that it could ever be done, if you think about it. Outside of preparing your truck for the next shift, there are the tasks involving accounting and marketing that cannot be ignored.

Demographics & Psychographics In Food Truck Branding

Just staying on top of a food truck’s marketing efforts involves enough work to be a full-time job. As marketers, food truck owners need to understand the attitudes and behaviors of your local market. Unfortunately these attitudes and behaviors are constantly in flux which makes marketing is a never-ending job to just keep up with your customers.

On top of all of that, you need to do more than just “keep up,” you actually need to understand these changes and properly adjust your marketing strategies.

The Menu

The first part of demographics & psychographics we’ll discuss is demographics. You have to know who your target customer is and who in the local area “needs” your menu.  This comes from demographics.

Demographics are the facts and figures about your target customer that make them especially attracted to your menu. They include sex, age, geography, income, education, etc. Demographics are the elements you need to know about your target customer to see if your menu makes sense for them.

The Brand

The second part of the branding equation of demographics & psychographics is psychographics.

You also need to know who your target customer is psychographically to know if your food truck brand is as good of a match as your menu. Psychographics are measures of how a target customer feels or behaves. While demographics are the facts and figures, psychographics are the emotions.

How your food truck brand connects emotionally to your target customer is largely built on the audience’s psychographics (how they feel and/or behave related to your food truck brand). It’s important to look at your targeting both ways, demographically and psychographically, if you are going effectively market your food truck.

Demographics will provide you with information about the type of person who frequents a food truck selling your style of cuisine: average income, education level, geographic location and perhaps a mix of gender and ethnicity. All the factors a food truck owner would need to understand to sell their menu items.

Psychographic information delves much deeper into how the food truck customer feels about community, relationships and spending time during the week and on weekends. This information is vital to building your food truck brand which goes further than your menu. It directs how to interact with customers past just what one of your entrees offers. It will guide you on how to get them to fall in love with your food truck brand.

RELATED: 5 Food Truck Branding Tips For The Beginner

The Bottom Line

To be a successful food truck owner you have to manage both menu items and your brand. Make sure you look at targeting both ways. It’s this two dimensional thinking that allow you to fulfill on both sides of the customer targeting equation, and do a better job engaging with your food truck customers.

Have you dealt with demographics & psychographics with your food truck? We’d love to hear what you found and how it helped your food truck business. Share your findings with us in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Twitter | Facebook