Acorn Classification System for Lifestyles

Acorn Classification System for Lifestyles

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Introduction

This is a map showing all ACORN classification categories, groups and types. Click on a category, group or type to view some sample lifestyle information comparing that classification to the rest of the UK population.

ACORN is a market research company which breaks down the population in a myriad of different ways in order to allow comapnaies to analyse and create and construct their target market / target audience more effectively and cost-effectively than ever.

The tools are geodemographic ones. This means that areas are broken down into postcodes (postcode lottery) and the people living there (the demographic) is researched so that as much information about core indicateors and variables is gathered and assessed.

How ACORN describe their product

ACORN categorises all 1.9 million UK postcodes, which have been described using over 125 demographic statistics within England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 287 lifestyle variables, making it the most powerful discriminator, giving a clearer understanding of clients and prospects.

Creating and constructing a market

Markets for goods or services are constructed and created rather than "found". Goods and services have products which may be services or physical products.

Because consumers are becoming increasingly fragmented in their tastes and spending habits it is difficult to invent a new product or servicve to compete with older ones. However rich the target market there is an upperlimit on what people are going to spend. to create a market for another product / service is to compete with something else for the same pot of money. This is why branding and advertising are very important tools of marketing. 

Geodemographics are very important as a marketing tool. You need to know how many people there are in a particular area and what amounts of money people have and what they are likely to spend thier money on. Clearly  spending money on advertising of expensive cars in newspapers usually consumed by the category described as hard-pressed in the ACORN system below would be pointless.

The core indicators include:

• Income
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity

ACORN Classifcation Map

This is a map showing all ACORN classification categories, groups and types. Click on a category, group or type to view some sample lifestyle information comparing that classification to the rest of the UK population. Wealthy Achievers Wealthy Executives 01 - Affluent mature professionals, large houses 02 - Affluent working families with mortgages 03 - Villages with wealthy commuters 04 - Well-off managers, larger houses Affluent Greys 05 - Older affluent professionals 06 - Farming communities 07 - Old people, detached houses 08 - Mature couples, smaller detached houses Flourishing Families 09 - Larger families, prosperous suburbs 10 - Well-off working families with mortgages 11 - Well-off managers, detached houses 12 - Large families & houses in rural areas Urban Prosperity Prosperous Professionals 13 - Well-off professionals, larger houses and converted flats 14 - Older Professionals in detached houses and apartments Educated Urbanites 15 - Affluent urban professionals, flats 16 - Prosperous young professionals, flats 17 - Young educated workers, flats 18 - Multi-ethnic young, converted flats 19 - Suburban privately renting professionals Aspiring Singles 20 - Student flats and cosmopolitan sharers 21 - Singles & sharers, multi-ethnic areas 22 - Low income singles, small rented flats 23 - Student Terraces Comfortably Off Starting Out 24 - Young couples, flats and terraces 25 - White collar singles/sharers, terraces Secure Families 26 - Younger white-collar couples with mortgages 27 - Middle income, home owning areas 28 - Working families with mortgages 29 - Mature families in suburban semis 30 - Established home owning workers 31 - Home owning Asian family areas Settled Suburbia 32 - Retired home owners 33 - Middle income, older couples 34 - Lower income people, semis Prudent Pensioners 35 - Elderly singles, purpose built flats 36 - Older people, flats Moderate Means Asian Communities 37 - Crowded Asian terraces 38 - Low income Asian families Post Industrial Families 39 - Skilled older family terraces 40 - Young family workers Blue Collar Roots 41 - Skilled workers, semis and terraces 42 - Home owning, terraces 43 - Older rented terraces Hard Pressed Struggling Families 44 - Low income larger families, semis 45 - Older people, low income, small semis 46 - Low income, routine jobs, unemployment 47 - Low rise terraced estates of poorly-off workers 48 - Low incomes, high unemployment, single parents 49 - Large families, many children, poorly educated Burdened Singles 50 - Council flats, single elderly people 51 - Council terraces, unemployment, many singles 52 - Council flats, single parents, unemployment High Rise Hardship 53 - Old people in high rise flats 54 - Singles & single parents, high rise estates Inner City Adversity 55 - Multi-ethnic purpose built estates 56 - Multi-ethnic, crowded flats

ACORN updated to suit  contemporary "lifstyles"

Consumer habits and behaviour has changed over the past decade, and the new ACORN takes into account these key shifts.

As the wealth of the nation increases and borrowing gets easier, car ownership has risen and more people commute by car.

More consumers are asset rich, with a growth of 20% of homeowners having paid off their mortgages.

Conversely there is much less unemployment.

New building has increased with more detached and semi-detached properties. There are now different types of people living in traditional housing.

The workplace is now more flexible, illustrated by an increase in people working from home.

The population is becoming more educated and the number of students has nearly doubled.

Family structure is changing, with significant growth in single parents. Despite an increase of grown-up children remaining in the family home, there are more “empty nester” consumers than ever before as older couples become free of the financial responsibility of schoolchildren.

We are seeing a significant growth of the very elderly, the population is getting older.

Lifestyle Magazines and ACORN

Lifestyle magazines like Grazia and GQ exist to act as vehicles for advertising.  These magazines aim at relatively small sections of the population and their content and advertising are interwoven into atight mesh with which to trap the unwary person and turn them into a consumer.

Lifestyle magaziners are especially useful for those advertising in them because the magazines will often be "read" by much larger numbers than the official circulation figure suggests.

See How ACORN assesses the area you live in:

upmystreet. You will neeed to type in your postcode.

: 22 Apr 2008 11:57 |  Tags: Lifestyle Magazines Ocr Textual Analysis Opcr Media Studies |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem