Acorn Grows in New Directions

In the UK, BI and segmentation specialist CACI has unveiled what it calls 'a radical new approach to describing consumer behaviour, breaking away from the use of census data for development of its geodemographic segmentation tool Acorn.

Acorn, a geodemographic segmentation of the UK's population which categorises it into 62 different types, has instead made use of two recent developments in the field: the emergence of a range of newly released public data sources through the Government's Open Data initiatives and Public Data Group; and its own creation of a 'sophisticated analytical technique' which categorises households on a case-by-case basis using the best datasets available.

CACI says the result is 'significant improvements in Acorn's accuracy', including a 25% improvement in targeting people earning over £100k, a 17% improvement in targeting members of social class A and a 12% improvement in targeting retired people.

The government datasets are regularly updated and provide new information about different aspects of household life.

John Rae, Partner at CACI, comments: 'The 'one size fits all' approach to geodemographic segmentations, whereby all households in the UK are categorised using the same data, is outdated. Instead, we believe that different algorithms that make best use of different sources of data should be used to categorise households - generating more accurate results in the process.' Rae says the use of the new datasets means Acorn is now 'more sophisticated in the way it captures and adjusts to emerging societal trends' such as increasingly diverse economic performance at a local level, changes in family structure, and changes in numbers of graduates and in the ethnic and national mix. He adds: 'For decades the census has, for better or worse, played a significant role in the statistical models all geodemographic analysis uses to differentiate households. In contrast, the new Acorn is driven primarily by the new data sources emerging from the public and private sectors, resulting in unprecedented levels of accuracy. This clearly demonstrates that even if 2011 marks the last time census data is published for small areas, Acorn has an exciting future ahead.'

Web site: www.caci.co.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.