TGI to Offer International Social Grading System

TGI is developing a new 'social grading' system, TGI Global SEL (Socio Economic Levels), according to the latest newsletter from Kantar. The system promises the grail of a consistent means of segmenting different populations into discrete groups based on social and economic status.

TGI stresses that the development of a global social economic classification system is not intended to replace or challenge the local or regional definitions already in existence in many countries - the latter are 'created on the basis of the local economic environment, respecting national cultural concepts, which makes them vital in local marketing' - but can differ significantly between countries. However, the expansion of brands and media beyond the boundaries of individual countries has resulted in increasing demand for direct comparisons between the social economic status of brand users and potential users in different parts of the world.

Global SEL is based on a points-scoring system of 13 variables covering education, ownership of selected household durables, mobile phone and credit card ownership, usage of the Internet and air travel. Each respondent is given a score, the overall maximum score attainable being 100 points. The scores for each country are allocated to 4 mutually exclusive groups of increasing size, indicating the different levels of social / economic standing:

• Top 10%
• Next 20%
• Next 30%
• Next 40%

Unlike most existing systems, it is based entirely on the individual and makes no assumption about an adopted status from Head of Household. Results show that the groups classified in SEL also correlate closely to each national social grade and income.

Analyzing a global brand, such as Levi's jeans, by the four levels, allows for cross-country comparisons as well as an understanding of the local market - both important considerations when adopting a strategy to communicate with potential markets, grow within a market, or re-target the brand. In the case of Levi's, analysis of TGI data shows that the social economic profile of Levi's purchasers is fairly flat in the USA, skewed towards the higher social economic groups in Great Britain, and even more so in China and India.

Bought Levi's jeans in the last 12 months (index score: ie a score of 100 indicates that penetration for this social group equals that of the country as a whole) (broken down by TGI Socio-Economic Level)
	USA (23% penetration)	GB (11% penetration)	China (0.5% penetration)	India (2% penetration)
Top 10%	107	125	309	374
Next 20%	112	130	208	80
Next 30%	105	107	55	102
Next 40%	88	73	30	46
Base: individuals age 18-plus

More information on TGI Global Socio-Economic Levels is available from Andrea Dinning, author of a recent ESOMAR paper which is also available in full: andrea.dinning@us.kantarmedia.com

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

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