Use of Small Area Census Data in Marketing Analysis

Abstract

INCE THIS subject is broad in scope some choices have to be made which will both narrow and delimit the area of discussion. It will be necessary, for example, to refer only to the so-called consumer market and to confine my remarks to selected portions of that large body of data which the Census Bureau collects, tabulates and publishes. It is scarcely necessary to mention some of the more obvious ways in which census data may contribute to an intelligent approach to the problems of marketing. Some of these applications, however, have been so widely used that they cannot be neglected in any survey of this kind. Other important uses have been made of data collected but not published by the Bureau. Many of these have been made on behalf of private organizations. There remains, however, a reservoir of information which has not yet found its maximum usefulness in the marketing field. My task, then, involves a discussion of some usual, some special and some potential applications of small area census data.