Mosaic (geodemography)

Mosaic is Experian’s system for geodemographic classification of households. It applies the principles of geodemography to consumer household and individual data collated from a number of government and commercial sources. The statistical development of the system was led by professor Richard Webber in association with Experian in the 1980s and it has been regularly refreshed and reclassified since then, each based on more recent data from national censuses and other sources. Since its initial development in the UK, the Mosaic brand name has also been used to market separate products which classify other national consumers including most of Western Europe, USA, selected Asian regions and Australia.

The initial UK version was based at the postcode level, which would cover an average of 20 properties with the same code. More recent versions have been developed at the individual household level and offer more accurate classification based on specific characteristics of each household. The 2009 Mosaic UK version for example classified the UK population into 15 main socio-economic groups and, within this, 67 different types.

Professor Webber also developed the competing ACORN system with CACI. Both Mosaic and Acorn have found application outside their original purpose of direct marketing, including governmental estimates and forecasts and it is regularly employed by life insurance companies and pension funds in the UK to assess longevity for pricing and reserving.[1] Both are also used extensively in understanding local service users, although Mosaic’s naming has proved to be controversial leading Experian to introduce Mosaic Public Sector with more politically correct segment names.

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