1. Customer Insight

2. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
About Customer Insight
• Customer Insight is a research and intelligence service, designed
to help users achieve a better understanding of citizens,
customers and communities. With this online system you will
have access to a geodemographic classification - the Output
Area Classification - covering the whole of the country, together
with local data estimates and a range of other resources.
• Linked to our interactive toolkit, you will be able to create a range
of graphical outputs that bring OAC to life, telling a story of local
customers and communities.
• Customer Insight will not only help in meeting your customer
insight needs, but will also provide a resource for analysing the
make-up of citizens and communities across Britain.

3. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
Geodemographics
• Geodemographics is widely defined as the ‘analysis of people by where
they live’. The term has come into common use to describe the
classification of small areas and the use of geography to help draw
general conclusions about the characteristics and behaviours of the
people who live in them.
• The underlying premise is that similar people live in similar places, do
similar things and have similar lifestyles - in other words, that ‘birds of a
feather flock together’.
• Geodemographics is often referred to as neighbourhood classification
and the process involved is also called segmentation.

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The Output Area Classification
• The Output Area Classification is the only geodemographic tool
accredited as a National Statistic. OAC distils key results from the
Census for the whole of the UK at output area (OA) level. There
are over 223,000 output areas across the UK.
• One frequently asked question is whether OAC is a poorer
analysis tool because it is based on output areas as opposed to
postcode or household. However, research shows that output
area level tools are more robust because they need to be
refreshed less often than those at lower spatial levels. In effect,
small changes in population will not alter in the short or medium
term how an area should be classified because the average
characteristics of residents will remain the same at the aggregate
level .

5. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
The OAC classification
Super groups Groups Sub groups
1a1
1a2
1a3
1a4
1b1
1b2
1b3
1c1
1c2
1c3
2a1
2a2
2a3
2b1
2b2
2c1
2c2
2c3
2d1
2d2
2d3
3a1
3a2
3b1
3b2
3b3
3c1
3c2
3d1
3d2
3d3
4a1
4a2
4a3
4b1
4b2
4c1
4c2
4c3
5a1
5a2
5a3
5b1
5b2
5b2
6a1
6a2
6a3
6a4
6b1
6b2
6b3
6b4
7a1
7a2
7a3
7b1
7b2
7b3
7c1
7c2
7c3
7d1
7d2
7d3
7d4
8a1
8a2
8b1
8b2
8c1
8c2
8c3
8d1
8d2
8d3
7 Constrained city
dwellers
7a Challenged Diversity
7b Constrained Flat Dwellers
7c White Communities
7d Ageing City Dwellers
8 Hard-pressed living 8a Industrous Communities
8b Challenged Terraced Workers
8c Hard Pressed Ageing Workers
8d Migration and Churn
5 Urbanites 5a Urban Professionals and Families
5b Ageing Urban Living
6 Suburbanites 6a Suburban Achievers
6b Semi-Detached Suburbia
3 Ethnicity central 3a Ethnic Family Life
3b Endeavouring Ethnic Mix
3c Ethnic Dynamics
3d Aspirational Techies
4 Multicultural
metropolitans
4a Rented Family Living
4b Challenged Asian Terraces
4c Asian Traits
1 Rural Residents 1a Farming Communities
1b Rural Tenants
1c Ageing Rural Dwellers
2 Cosmopolitans 2a Students Around Campus
2b Inner City Students
2c Comfortable Cosmopolitan
2d Aspiring and Affluent
Three Tiers:
• 8 Supergroups
• 26 Groups
• 76 Subgroups
Pen portraits:
• demographic structure
• household composition
• housing
• socio-economic characteristics
• employment patterns

6. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
Visualising OAC
• Customer Knowledge brings the Output Area Classification (OAC) to life, allowing
a quick and easy analysis of the make-up of local communities
• Bar charts show the proportion of the population within the different OAC groups.
They also provide a ‘DNA’ profile of individual places
• Maps display the OAC classification – Supergroups, Groups, Subgroups – of
individual Census Output Areas.
• The profiling application provides a graphical presentation of the make-up of an
area, in terms of key groups, and identifies statistical nearest neighbours.

7. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
Local data estimates
The ONS is coding its sample
surveys, using the OAC
classification. The Expenditure
and Food Survey is already
available, providing income
estimates and many categories
of household expenditure. Other
surveys which have also been
OAC coded include the British
Household Panel Survey and the
British Population Survey.
Customer Knowledge includes a
range of Local Data Estimates -
at an Output Area level - created
by modelling the findings of these
household surveys using OAC.

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Local data estimates - examples
• Expenditure and Food Survey
– Total household income
– Household income from different
sources
– Household income from benefits
– Household expenditure on
pensions, life insurance, savings,
investment
– Household expenditure on food,
transport and communications,
cultural activities, fuel
• British Population Survey
– Household income
– Internet access
– Demographics
– Qualifications
– Economic activity
– Home tenure

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Applications
Shaping local strategies
- Information on customers, citizens and communities can be used to inform decisions and
to input into policy or scrutiny reviews
Allocating resources
- Resources can be prioritised to areas of greatest need, such as targeting at
neighbourhood level, or to identify vulnerable or underserved groups.
Managing performance
- Understanding customers’ needs and experiences can help you understand where
services are performing well or badly as well as what you might want to do about it.
Marketing services more effectively
- Understanding different groups of customers makes it possible to market services more
effectively, such as being able to encourage take-up of services.
Changing behaviours
- Social marketing techniques that employ a deep understanding of the customer to
provide information, products and services can be used to change people’s behaviour.
Improving service design
- Knowing what customers want and need from a service can help identify areas of
weakness and feed into the design of services that meet their needs and preferences.
Source: Local Government Improvement and Development Agency

10. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
Benefits of OAC
• Freely available (no annual licence fees for the classification)
• National Statistics accredited
• Classifies every Census Output Area across GB (over 218,000,
with an average size of 120 households) into 8 Supergroups, 26
Groups, and 76 Subgroups
• Open source – the data and methods used are completely
transparent
• Office for National Statistics surveys are now being coded to
OAC, which expands the possible data that can be modelled at
Census Output Area level.
• OAC is a common language for understanding citizens,
customers and communities

11. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
FAQs
• OAC is based on the 2001 Census. Doesn’t this mean it is
already out of date?
– Output area level classifications are more robust, because they need to be
refreshed less frequently than those at lower spatial levels.
• Why is OAC only available at an Output Area level?
– Research shows that output area level tools are more robust because they
need to be refreshed less often than those at lower spatial levels. In effect,
small changes in population will not alter in the short or medium term how an
area should be classified.
• How does OAC compare to other commercial classification
systems?
– Comparative research shows that there is little to choose between the
different classifications, in terms of their descriptive and predictive qualities.
• What national data sets are becoming available based on OAC?
– A number of ONS surveys have now been tagged with the OAC classification.
Other surveys which have been tagged, enabling the generation of local
datasets, include the British Population Survey.

12. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
Training
• We offer training courses, designed to help you get the most of
Customer Knowledge.
• Introduction to OAC
– This course provides an introduction to OAC, showing how it can help you
to better understand your citizens, customers and communities. We
demonstrate how to profile your area using the visualisation tools contained
in Customer Knowledge and present case studies and practical examples
of how to get the most out of the system.
• Analysing Survey Data using OAC
– This course demonstrates techniques for matching your own customer or
survey data to OAC and how to produce your own local data estimates.

13. © 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
Resources and support
We offer a range of help and support, designed to ensure you get the most out of
Customer Knowledge
• OAC online
– OAC is available online, covering the whole of Great Britain, linked to toolkits for
analysing and visualising the classification
• Group descriptions
– We provide full descriptions of the 8 Supergroups, 26 Groups and 76 Sub Groups
• Access to technical papers
– We provide links to technical papers from ONS and other sources
• User guides
– User guides show you how to analyse OAC using the various toolkits
• OAC coder
– We provide access to an OAC Coder, allowing you to identify the classification for any
postcode
• Local Data estimates
– As part of the Customer Knowledge service, we provide access to a wide range of Local
Data Estimates, modelled on ONS and other major household surveys.
• Advice and support
– Our staff are always on hand to provide help and support