Marketing and commercial use of the SARs

 

The SARs can also be put to great use for marketing and commercial activities (Dale et al, 1995; Leventhal, 1994). For example:

• Area profiling
  In order to carry out a quota-based survey, it is first necessary to obtain a profile of the area to be used. With the SARs, one can produce independent or interlocking quotas which can be filtered on any other demographic area.
  
  
• Demographic Profiling
  Although ethnic minority groups make up only a small proportion in the whole population, the size of the SARs makes it possible to conduct a detailed analysis of the ethnic groups. For example, it is possible to find from the SAR the number of people born in Australia and New Zealand and resident in the GB, where they live, and what jobs they are doing. A similar analysis could be done for a particular ethnic group.
  
  
• Penetration Rates
  The SARs enables market researchers to set realistic field targets on certain penetration rates such as the proportions of households with young children in different geographic areas.
  
  
• Weighting surveys
  The SARs can be used as a benchmark to check the reliability of the survey results with regard to geographical spread and different demographic variables.
  
  
• Market planning
  If the target market for a product can be defined demographically, census microdata may be employed to obtain the market size and understand its characteristics and regional dispersion.
  
  
• Retail site planning
  Knowdedge of the population within a district is essential for planning locations of retail developments. The SARs permit in-depth analysis of population structure and dynamics, and so could form a benchmark for site planning.
  
  
• Other
  Apart from the above, the SARs can be used for market share evaluation, customer segment evaluation, demograhic modelling, etc.