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Ideal Customer Profile

Who we serve. Most of this is a working hypothesis: the current base is loosely observed, but the target archetype and which segments to prioritize are bets. The segmentation frame and the altitude ladder live in brand.md; what customers come from lives in positioning.md. Each section carries its status.

Observed (Locked)

Status: Locked (operator observation, not survey).

  • The current base skews rock and rock-adjacent, shaped by the founder's background and the referral network it built.
  • Bands are typically 3 to 5 people; about 25% of memberships are individuals.
  • The best customers stay 3-plus years, with high practical lock-in once gear is set up.
  • The price fits a band: $300 to $500/mo splits across members (about $100 each on a four-piece).
  • Hourly is new (launched 2026, Cherry City only); its customer and lifecycle are not yet known.

Caveat: there is no structured age, gender, instrument, or genre data yet. The above is operator observation, not a survey.

The working archetype (a bet)

Status: Working bet (strong and reasoned, but untested).

The current organizing target: a drummer in their 30s in an established band, who has aged out of an apartment, garage, storage unit, or basement (or never had a space), and can pay $300 to $500/mo for a permanent room.

The rationale, which is reasoning rather than proof:

  • The drummer is the hardest-constrained member. A kit is loud, big, heavy, and expensive, so the drummer's need forces the whole band to find a real room. Sell to the drummer and you tend to get the band, and once the kit is set up, leaving is expensive, so retention follows.
  • The 30s is when the cheap alternatives stop working, and someone still serious will pay for stability.
  • An established band has proven it shows up and has shared sunk cost, which is the likely driver of the 3-plus-year tenure.

Sub-bets inside this: that the drummer is the right wedge; that the archetype generalizes across markets (Salem's mindset differences are a reason to doubt one-size-fits-all); and that the 30s-established-band slice is the highest-value one to target first.

Segmentation: the seams

Status: Locked (the frame; which seam to prioritize is a bet).

We do not serve one archetype, we serve a grid. Segmentation is multi-dimensional, and mindset is its own axis:

  • Age and life stage.
  • Affluence and price sensitivity.
  • Mindset and demeanour. Independent of the above: a homeowner with a kid can hold a scrappy, anti-establishment, "coming from nothing" mindset, and someone young and broke can be aspirational. Do not infer mindset from demographics.
  • Origin. From a failing space, or from no space at all (see positioning.md). The no-space group is a different story: a place for the first time, not an upgrade from something worse.

The drummer archetype above is one strong hypothesis within this grid. Mindset and affluence cut across it, and the brand altitude ladder is written per segment, not once for all.

Adjacent fits (secondary)

Status: Working bet.

These convert and retain but are not who marketing is organized around: the full band as the using unit (sell to the drummer, serve the band); solo musicians who want a permanent setup; working or semi-pro musicians who treat the room as a workshop; teachers who use it as an office. Each is real, lower priority, and unproven as a primary target.

Hourly is its own game (and maybe a ramp)

Status: Working bet (unvalidated; launched 2026).

Hourly is not a junior version of monthly. It is its own product, and probably more than one customer:

  • The casual or pre-band user: often younger, does not own gear, frequently "nowhere to play at all," one-off or occasional. Hourly studios come with a full backline, so they need to bring nothing.
  • A high-SES, older, recreational user: treats it like TopGolf or Dave and Buster's, an occasional paid outing for fun rather than a step toward anything. The furnished backline is what makes this work, you show up and play. This overlaps the affluent, aspirational mindset in brand.md.

Two open bets sit on top:

  • Whether hourly is a ramp into lockouts (an hourly user graduating to a monthly room) or a separate destination. Probably both, for different people.
  • Which hourly segment is larger and worth marketing to, and how.

Market hourly as its own product, with its own segments, not as monthly-lite.

Who is not our ICP (current exclusions)

Status: Working bet (reasoned, revisitable).

Chasing these is expensive and low-yield, and copy that tries to also catch them dilutes the message:

  • Teenagers and college students: price-sensitive, with free alternatives.
  • Once-a-month hobbyists: will not justify the cost, churn.
  • Touring acts in transit: want a one-off hourly booking, not a monthly room.
  • Recording-focused producers and podcasters: want treated isolation, not raw loudness.
  • Wedding or corporate event needs: wrong product.

Gaps

Status: Stub (what we don't know yet).

  • No structured demographic data (age, gender, instrument, genre); the archetype is operator intuition. A one-time survey would help.
  • Mindset distribution is unknown: how much of each market is authenticity-minded versus aspirational.
  • Which segment to prioritize per market, especially outside rock-heavy Portland.
  • The hourly customer profile (which segment is larger: casual or recreational high-SES), and whether hourly ramps into lockouts.
  • Acquisition attribution: when a band signs up, who actually found us first (drummer, bandleader, partner).
  • brand.md — the altitude ladder, segment seams, and voice
  • positioning.md — what customers come from and the positioning bet
  • glossary.md — vocabulary
  • goals-and-kpis.md — LTV and pricing anchors
  • mg-voice skill (.claude/skills/mg-voice/) — voice for copy tooling, conforms to brand.md