Experian and TNS Partner to Classify Fashion Sense

Data giant Experian and TNS have joined forces to classify all 44 million UK adults according to their attitudes and behaviour towards fashion and clothes shopping.

The resulting Fashion Segments places every consumer into one of 35 different types divided by gender. Shoppers are then categorised by terms such as 'high fashion for less', 'image as identity', 'dressed in the best', or 'any shirt will do' - definitions which take into account factors such as whether people are experimental, conservative, style-conscious, or purely cost driven when shopping for clothes, shoes and fashion accessories.

The new service was created using a range of Experian's proprietary data sources and the same methodology as its consumer profiling system Mosaic (recently adopted by online competitive intelligence provider Hitwise www.mrweb.com/drno/news7448.htm ), while tapping data from TNS's Worldpanel Fashion panel (formerly TNS FashionTrak).

Chris Fowler from Experian explained: 'Unlike other systems, which differentiate at the neighbourhood level, Fashion Segments operates at the level of the individual consumer. The system has been built using Experian's advanced clustering technique, which has enabled us to group together individuals who, on the basis of what we know about them, have similar propensities across a very wide range of fashion attitudes and behaviours.'

Designed for use by fashion retailers, manufacturers and marketing agencies, the firms say Fashion Segments provides insight into people's different attitudes to clothing fashions and brands, while taking into account what stores people are likely to visit as well as the frequency, value and purpose of shopping trips.

Websites are www.experian.co.uk and www.tns-global.com/fashion.

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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