1 Demographic characteristics
䊉 Age
< 3 3–5 6–11 12–19
20–34 35–49 50–64 65+
䊉 Sex – male, female
䊉 Family life cycle – Bachelor (young, single), split into dependants (living at home or full-time student) and those with their own household; Newly married (no children); Full nest (graded accord- ing to the number and age of children); Single parent; Empty nesters (children left home or a childless couple); Elderly single.
䊉 Family size
1–2 3–4 5+
䊉 Type of residence – Flat/house; terraced/semi-detached/detached;
private/rented/council; number of rooms/bedrooms.
䊉 Income (£k)
<10 10–15 16–20 21–30 31–50 >50
䊉 Occupation – Operatives; craftsmen, foremen; managers, officials, proprietors; professional, technical; clerical, sales; farmers; retired, students; housewife; unemployed. White-collar (professional, managerial, supervisory, clerical); Blue-collar (manual).
䊉 Education (highest level) – Secondary, no qualifications; GCSE;
graduate; postgraduate.
䊉 Religion – Christian: Jewish; Muslim; Buddhist; Other.
䊉 Ethnic origin – African; Asian; Caribbean; UK, lrish; Other European
䊉 Nationality
䊉 Socio-economic. The following definitions are those agreed between Research Services Ltd, and National Readership Survey (NRS Ltd).
A Upper middle class (higher managerial, administrative, professional)
B Middle class (middle managerial, administrative, professional)
C1 Lower middle class (supervisory, clerical, junior management, administrative, professional) C2 Skilled working class (skilled manual workers)
D Working class (semi and unskilled manual workers) E Subsistence level (state pensioners, widows with no other
earner, casual or lowest-grade workers)
䊉 Multi-demographic – Combining a selection of demographic cri- teria. For example, Research Services Ltd have combined each of four life cycle stages (Dependent, Pre-family, Family and Late) with the two occupation groupings of White-collar (A, B, C1) and Blue- collar (C2, D, E) producing eight segments. They have then further split out ‘Family’ and ‘Late’ into ‘Better Off’ and ‘Worse Off’
producing a total of twelve segments in their ‘Sagacity’ model. The basic thesis of the model is that people have different aspirations and behaviour patterns as they go through their life cycle. Their definition of these life cycle stages is as follows:
Dependent Mainly under 24s, living at home or full-time student.
Pre-family Under 35s, who have established their own household but have no children.
Family Housewives and heads of household, under 65, with one or more children in the household.
Late Includes all adults whose children have left home or who are over 35 and childless.
2 Geographic
䊉 Postcode
䊉 City, town, village, rural
䊉 Coastal, inland
䊉 County
䊉 Region (frequently defined in the UK by 15 ITV Regions–Carlton, Meridian, Central Television, HTV Wales, Anglia, Scottish Tele- vision, Grampian Television, Granada Television, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees, Westcountry, LWT, Border Television, Ulster Television, and Group in the Channel Islands).
䊉 Country
䊉 Economic/Political Union or Association (e.g. NAFTA)
䊉 Continent
䊉 Population density
䊉 Climate
3 Geodemographics
䊉 ACORN (A Classification of Residential Neighbourhoods) produced by CACI information Services Ltd is one of the longer established geodemographic classifications, updated in 1993 using the 1991 Census data. It consists of 54 types summarized into 17 basic groups which in turn are condensed into six broad categories. These six broad categories act as a simplified reference to the overall household classification structure. The categories are:
Category ‘A’ –
‘Thriving’
Accounts for 19.8% of all households in the UK
Category ‘B’ –
‘Expanding’
Accounts for 11.6%
Category ‘C’ –
‘Rising’
7.5%
Category ‘D’ –
‘Settling’
24.1%
Category ‘E’ –
‘Aspiring’
13.7%
Category ‘F’ –
‘Striving’
22.8%
Unclassified 0.5%
䊉 PIN from Pinpoint, which combines geodemographics and financial data.
Other, more recent, classifications have been developed by some of the larger database companies which, as well as linking residential areas with selected demographics, also add psychographic factors (see
‘Multi-dimensional’ in 4).
4 Psychographic characteristics
䊉 Personality – compulsive, extrovert, gregarious, adventurous, for- mal, authoritarian, ambitious, enthusiastic, positive, indifferent, negative, hostile. Specific ones by sex have also been developed, e.g.
Wells’ eight male psychographic segments:
Quiet Family Man
Self-sufficient, shy, loner, lives for his family, practical shopper, low education, low income
Traditionalist Conventional, secure, has self-esteem, concerned for others, conservative shopper, likes well-known brands and manufacturers, low education,
low/middle income
Discontented Nearly everything (job, money, life) could be better, distrustful, socially aloof, price conscious, lowest educational and socio-economic group
Ethical Highbrow
Content with life and work, sensitive to others, concerned, cultured, religious, social reformer, driven by quality, well-educated, middle/upper socio-economic group
Pleasure Oriented
Macho, self-centred, views himself as a leader, dislikes his work, impulsive buyer, low education and socio-economic group Achiever Status conscious, seeks success (power,
money and socially), adventurous in leisure time pursuits, stylish (good food, music, clothes), discriminating buyer, good education, high socio-economic group
He-Man Action, excitement, drama, views himself as capable and dominant, well-educated, middle socio-economic group
Sophisticated Attracted to intellectual and artistic achievements, broad interests,
cosmopolitan, socially concerned, wants to be dominant and a leader, attracted to the unique and fashionable, best
educated, higher socio-economic groups
䊉 Attitude – degree of loyalty (none, total, moderate), risk takers or risk avoiders, likelihood of purchasing a new product (innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority, laggard), and many of the adjectives used to describe different types of personality can also express an individual’s attitude towards your product line (as opposed to their distinctive personal character).
䊉 Some companies have also developed specific behavioural groups, such as ‘Monitor’ from Taylor Nelson Ltd which has seven social value groups, each with a distinct pattern of behaviour.
䊉 Customer status – purchase stage (aware, interested, desirous, ready for sale), user classification (non-user, lapsed user, first time, potential).
䊉 Lifestyle – consists of three main dimensions:
Activities Work, hobbies, social events, vacation, entertainment, club membership, community, shopping, sports
Interests Family, home, job, community, recreation, fashion, food, media, achievements Opinions Selves, social issues, politics, business,
economics, education, products, future, culture
In the UK, the three main providers of Lifestyle data are NDL (National Demographics and Lifestyles), CMT (Computerized Marketing Technologies) and ICD (International Communications and Data). Each obtains its information from consumer questionnaires. NDL’s ‘questionnaires’ are product registration guarantee forms containing questions on household demographics, income and leisure interests, and distributed with durable goods such as electrical equipment. This has enabled NDL to collect over 10
million deduplicated ‘questionnaires’ which can be matched up to census data in order to produce accurate (for the census data) geographic profiles.
䊉 Multi-dimensional – combining psychographic profiles with selected demographic data and identifying geographic areas where the resulting segments are to be found. For example, CCN Marketing have developed twenty Persona behavioural types using CMT’s National Shoppers Survey database. These types range from so-called ‘Bon Viveurs’ to ‘New Teachers’ and ‘Craftsmen and Homemakers’. CCN’s MOSAIC system now also extends into certain mainland European markets, classifying neighbourhoods into ten lifestyle types:
Elite Suburbs Well-established suburban neighbourhoods in large and medium-sized cities, consisting of residential properties in large grounds.
Wealthy but living in restrained luxury.
Average Areas
Average in age, income and family composition. Usually found in small market towns and local centres. Low poverty level.
Luxury Flats Found in the centre of large conurbations, whose occupants set the country’s fashion style and cultural agenda. Stylish
accommodation for the political, artistic and media elite.
Low Income Inner City
Poor quality older housing, mixed with bars, cinemas, take-aways and football clubs, in the industrial and commercial inner city areas of large towns and cities.
High Rise Social Housing
Many social problems with a reliance on welfare caused by unemployment, divorce and illness.
Industrial Communities
Older terrace housing occupied by
blue-collar workers in the traditional heavy industries.
Dynamic Families
Higher income families living in modern, privately-owned housing. Materialistic and up-to-date with the latest gadgets.
Lower Income Families
Living in both private and social housing in regional centres and average-sized towns. A good market for strongly branded packaged goods.
Rural/
Agricultural Areas
Occupied by older, conservative, traditional people, not commuters, very dependent on agriculture, keen supporters of the
independent retailer.
Vacation/
Retirement
Mix of tourists, second homers and the retired. Both seasonal and weekday changes in population.