The first day of each month (and a lot of Mondays) I break down the demographic data of those who “like” comics on Facebook. With about 32 million people this past month, the data represents those with an interest in comics (over 100 terms made up of publishers, generic terms like “comics,” and comic specific terms like “one-shot”). These are not necessarily purchasers or subscribers, they’d be a subset of this group, these are folks who are interested in comics, graphic novels, trade paperbacks, or publishers. That 32 million is the first audience we as a community should be reaching out to to push comics forward. They are the most likely to be interested in comics, and become regular readers and customers.
But, any good marketer knows, that demographic data is just one small portion of who a “customer” is. To truly get the whole picture of who these individuals are, and get even better bang for the buck, you also need to understand their interests and habits.
With the call to “push comics forward,” I’ve dug further into the data showing what else individuals might like, allowing marketers to better target potential comic fans. Last month was the first post of this type looking at the general comic Facebook fandom. For the second one, it felt appropriate to look at just women to kick off “Women’s History Month.”
Why is this important?
Someone’s age, gender, or ethnicity is just a small part of the equation when figuring out who to market to or what to market. A person’s history of purchases in this case, or what else they’re interested in helps to not only target to the individual, but find others like them. Gender, age, and ethnicity is the broad categories and helps with messaging, but now we’re getting into the specifics!
The Specifics
Again, we’re able to dive into Facebook for this data, using the exact same terms used for the monthly reports. The only difference is this data is for those 18 and up, while our monthly demographic report is 13 and up. Facebook data is enhanced using available data warehouses giving us a better idea as to who these people are.
And now, the data!
Age and Gender
Without the men, this data isn’t quite as useful, but we can see almost half of the fans are under the age of 35.
Lifestyle
Surprisingly, women are very close to the general Facebook population. For none of the lifestyle categories do women really stand out.
Relationship Status and Education Level
The general comic fan population were more likely to be single or “in a relationship” compared to the Facebook populace. Women on the other hand are less likely to be single, and more likely to be married. When it comes to education, they’re more likely to be in grad school when the general comic populace is very much less likely.
Job Title
For the general comic populace, the healthcare industry was a tthe bottom. When it comes to women, those professions are at the top along with administrative positions. It’s almost the exact opposite of the general comic fandom on Facebook.
Page Likes
When it comes to the types of pages female comic fans on Facebook like, it’s health, beauty, clothing, and accessories that are at the top spot. For the general comic fandom, Manga, and a comic blog sit at the top of the list. In this list, the most “comic” related category is in Product/Service where Hello Kitty is listed.
Marvel has been heading to The View to promote comics, but they might do better to target the viewers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Also, putting comics in a big box store like Target might be worth it too. IDW has done so with their Micro-Fun Pack line, and found success.
Location
Comic fans are located in big cities according to this and women aren’t an exception. The top spots are flipped though.
Interestingly though, comic fans also over represent in smaller cities and towns. The cities are very different though compared to the general comic population. Having worked a comic shop in Buffalo, I can vouch for that.
They’re also underrepresented in larger cities. But, it’s a very different set of large cities. Bellevue, Washington has the distinction for being at the bottom for women and the general comic populace.
Frequency of Activity
Female comic fans also like more pages than the general comic populace, but it’s half as many. Female comic fans are even more likely to like posts or click ads compared to the general comic fandom.
Devices
Women interestingly really stand out as iPad users, though are pretty much in-line with the general Facebook populace for the rest of the devices used.
Household
Female comic fans seem to make a bit more than the general Facebook population, but are slightly more likely to rent their home.
Spending Methods
Female comic fans almost line up exactly the same as the general Facebook populace. Where general comic fans are more likely to primarily use cash and less likely to primarily use credit cards, you don’t see that with the women.
Their online purchasing habits are pretty similar to Facebook users, but they’re a little bit more likely to spend money at retail, unlike the general comic Facebook fans who are slightly less likely.
They also are slightly more likely to purchase kids products, household products, and health and beauty products. This should be no surprise based on the pages liked. What it does tell me is that I might run an ad campaign targeting this population which features a comic book where kids are the main audience.
And that wraps up our second look at the affinity and actual interests of our monthly comic fandom! Expect for even more of a dive in and explanation of how one would use this data in the coming weeks and months!
Most importantly, to really build the comic market, we need to understand who the fans and purchasers are. By doing so, we make our job easier. The above is a piece of that puzzle.
