Reflecting population changes in local areas, such as new housing developments and maturing postcodes, CACI has incorporated data from six additional consumer behaviour databases and new lifestyle surveys to gain an increasingly in-depth view of modern lifestyle trends and consumption.
This update means:
- Three million people more accurately classified
- Key demographics updated, including ethnicity, tenure, age and car ownership
- A total of 125,000 postcode classifications improved
- New housing developments covering 18,500 postcodes accurately classified
- Improved classification for 107,000 postcodes following - Enhanced discrimination on a wide range of consumer behaviour, from grocery expenditure to the popularity of credit cards
Maturing and developing postcodes
Change in local areas is a gradual process as residents move and mature through their life stages. To measure this, CACI has taken data from new lifestyle surveys to monitor the underlying developments in consumption and population, such as car ownership and family structure. CACI has also employed a
unique model to provide data on ethnicity in local areas.
New housing developments
Until now, classification of housing developments built after the 2001 Census has been problematic, as data for people in brand new housing is rarely found in lifestyle databases. However, CACI has developed a detailed demographic profile of consumers moving into new estates, using new data mixed with unique modelling and analysis.
CACI found that the majority of people buying homes in these areas fell into a small number of ACORN classifications and have been able to classify, and target, new builds according to area, housing tenure and price.
Commenting on the updating of ACORN, Director of Business Planning at CACI, John Rae said: "ACORN was specifically designed to be regularly updated and adapt to changes in the population. The use of these new lifestyle surveys and
consumer databases means we can provide much more accurate profiling and detailed analysis."
Whilst ACORN 2006 is a significant update meaning 3 million people are now more accurately profiled, the overall structure remains the same, with all types, groups and categories unchanged.
