Consumer and spatial analytics

To maximise customer opportunity, minimise cost and stay ahead of the competition, commercial organisations acquire vast quantities of data, both from their own systems and from suppliers such as Experian. Our analytical teams turn this data into information, allowing clients to make informed business decisions. There is no such thing as a standard analysis: every case is different – different markets, product positioning, strategic goals, data.

Consumer analysis: focuses on understanding individuals, for example, who they are, their behaviour and their attitudes.

We use predictive modelling to fill in gaps in your customer data, for example, how likely is an individual to respond to a mailing? What is the best channel of communication? How profitable will a customer be over time?

Segmenting your customer and prospect base enables you to develop strategic approaches to CRM. We can segment existing customers; apply this to both your customer and prospect base; create a wider segmentation of the marketplace or the population as a whole. The methods used range from simple rules-based segmentation through to advanced clustering techniques, depending on your requirements.

Spatial analysis: Spatial analysis is relevant to all businesses. It helps to define the geographic dynamics between supply (commercial activity) and demand (consumers), answering questions such as:

Where do my customers live?
How far do they travel?
Where can I find more people like them? Who lives in my catchment area?
What factors affect the sales of my branches?
Where are the best places to open new outlets?

This understanding of the characteristics and reach of markets is a key factor in maximising network performance.

Our solutions are tailored to each individual client’s specific requirements – short term or long term, differing complexities, standardised or bespoke. But all draw on an impressive range of analytical techniques and applications and can be applied to a wide range of industry sectors, both private and public.

We use a range of methods to create catchments, such as pre-defined boundaries, distance radii, drivetimes, customer locations, modelled population flows. Analysis of these catchments provides an understanding of the people who live in an area, about gaps in coverage, areas of overlap and levels of competition.

Catchment populations can be profiled using generic and industry-specific demographic segmentations, including Mosaic UK, Experian’s award-winning classification. These profiles can be compared against each other to assess the over/under-representation of certain groups. Other applicable data includes demographic information (current, backcast and projected), expenditure data, vehicle statistics, business data, property and house price information, and survey and lifestyle data.

Catchment variables are often used as inputs into more complex solutions, such as store performance analyses and bespoke outlet segmentations, along with outlet characteristics (such as open date, floorspace, number of employees) and data relating to the centres that house the outlets (such as vitality scores, Goad centre classification, presence of different retail/leisure activities).

Store performance analysis identifies the key drivers of sales and pinpoints over/under-performers. It can also provide the information necessary to predict the turnover of new locations.

Impact analysis can be run to assess the potential knock-on effects of new site locations, as well as those of competitors, on the existing network. We use a range of techniques, including gravity modelling, which allows a range of current and future scenarios to be run and tested.

Branch segmentation divides outlets into distinct, bespoke groups based on similar characteristics, enabling companies to understand and meet their customers’ needs. This can be a basis for strategic network planning; for example, product offers can be altered by outlet type.

Project output can take many forms but is typically supported by sophisticated mapping using Micromarketer Generation3 – Experian’s suite of geographical analysis software. Maps support the interpretation of results by displaying point locations, boundaries, overlaps, penetration levels and so on.