South West Public Health Observatory How can we achieve good segmentation? Presentation to Public Health Residential School Dartington Hall, 2010 Paul Brown 30 th September 2010

South West Public Health Observatory In this session Look at some key questions Look at some key resources Specific case studies Conclusions

South West Public Health Observatory First things first Need a clear question to answer! –Will assist in clarifying what data is needed –Inform what methods can be used Be aware of the data limitations And unfortunately

South West Public Health Observatory First things first Need a clear question to answer! –Will assist in clarifying what data is needed –Inform what methods can be used Be aware of the data limitations And unfortunately There is no right or wrong answer!

South West Public Health Observatory APHO Technical Briefing 5 Geodemographic Segmentation “analysis of people by where they live” “similar people live in similar places, do similar things and have similar lifestyles” “birds of a feather flock together”

South West Public Health Observatory APHO Technical Briefing 5 Methods Aim of segmentation should be to define a small number of groups so that: –All members are as similar to each other as possible –They are as different from the other groups as possible Focus on traditional attributes such as: –age, gender, household composition, income, social class and physical status AND ‘’attitudinal’ data such as –personality traits, values, beliefs, preferences, habits and behaviours –Available data sources Demographic characteristics need to be supplemented by other factors

South West Public Health Observatory APHO Technical Briefing 5 Available segmentation tools –ACORN –Mosaic –Output Area Classification –2001 Area Classification –People and Places P 2 ACORN and MOSAIC have to be bought but the others are free A comparison of the features of each is provided in the technical briefing

South West Public Health Observatory APHO Technical Briefing 5

South West Public Health Observatory Sport England Aim: Get one million people doing more sport by 2012 Question: Why do some people want to take part in exercise and why don’t some people? Approach: Nineteen sporting segments within four groups based on age Based on data from Taking Part survey in conjunction with MOSAIC Pen pictures for each of the nineteen segments –Provide information on demographic, social and attitudinal characteristics –Help identify best way to target sporting messages

South West Public Health Observatory Sport England segmentation Segments provide information on things like: –Marital status –Place of residence –Leisure activities –TV / Radio preferences –Papers/ magazines –Internet usage –Shopping preferences –Sports participated in –Frequency of participation

South West Public Health Observatory Sport England Case Study South Gloucestershire Refurbished Leisure Centre Development How to market to their customers and identify activities people likely to respond to Key customer characteristics of catchment area identified using segmentation Used to develop: – sport programmes matching needs and preferences –analyse direct marketing possibilities –identify households with children –identify who lives with or near who –explore barriers to sport participation e.g poor transport –solutions explored (provision of free transport for those aged 65+ for instance)

South West Public Health Observatory Alcohol Consumption North West Acquisition Pilot Study (2008) DH Social marketing pilot that targeted increasing risk and higher risk drinkers ACORN profiles and DH profiles used to identify where increasing risk and high risk drinkers are likely to live ACORN looks at lifestyle and characteristics of people living in different areas. Used by health practitioners to provide a pen portrait of local communities

South West Public Health Observatory Alcohol consumption case study Direct marketing used to encourage increasing risk and higher risk drinkers to order a copy of Your Drinking and You self help booklet More than 6,000 people responded to campaign. Majority of these were ‘contemplators’ : people already concerned about their drinking Accurate targeting led to ‘high quality’ responses. Respondents came from lower socio-economic groups with equal mix of men and women. Most ready to change behaviour Positive feedback about self help manual. Useful feedback about key messages used to engage higher risk drinkers

South West Public Health Observatory Conclusions Segmentation useful to describe motivation and lifestyle of population groups. The usefulness of these descriptions depends on (amongst other things) : –Sufficient differences between the groups to make them distinct. –Groups of sufficient size with similar characteristics to make population level interventions possible. Will not tell the whole story. Good segmentation is dependent on using the appropriate tool to answer a well defined question. Any of the tools available should always be in conjunction with common sense and rational judgment.

South West Public Health Observatory Healthy Foundations So far......GeoDemographic segmentation –Describing a geographically defined population to somehow understand their lifestyle choices DH have pioneered Healthy Foundations –an innovative approach to segmentation based on the lifestyle choices people make rather than where they live. Over to Ewen.