The use of census-derived classifications in the marketing of consumer products in the United Kingdom

This paper describes ways in which the U.K. census has been successfully applied to target the marketing of consumer products. The rapid growth in these applications since 1979 is explained in terms of the movement of experts in quantitative techniques from public to private sector organizations and the linkage of the small area classification system ACORN to syndicated market research surveys such as the Target Group Index. The author "reviews current applications in the four functional areas of major consumer marketing organizations--market research advertising retail and sales management--and cites examples of emerging interest in the public sector in the techniques borrowed from it by the private sector." (EXCERPT)