Consumer Buying Power

Nielsen Claritas Consumer Buying Power provides the most current consumer expenditures available. Enhanced methodology, expansion of categories and more clearly organized data make the Consumer Buying Power database an outstanding information source. It contains current-year estimates and 5-year projections of total household expenditures for over 350 specific product categories, including goods and services, and 73 summary categories.

 

Additionally, Claritas developed a cross-reference that leverages the Consumer Buying Power database to estimate potential consumer expenditures by store types for 41 distinct retail store types. Breakdowns of average household expenditures are also available for 53 Yellow Page headings. The estimates also include College Dorm (group quarters) population expenditures in areas where college dorms are present.

 

Consumer Buying Power data is an invaluable tool for target marketing. The following provides examples of applications for this type of data:

 

  • Mobile phone service expenditures to better track consumers' transition to wireless technology.
  • Elder care expenses, a growing concern as baby boomers hit retirement age.
  • Vitamins and other health supplements, a booming market added to better reflect society's growing health concerns.
  • Household Repair and Services facilitates exploration of homeowners' trend to do-it-yourself projects and home remodeling.
  • Tuition costs, expanded to better reflect the increased use of private education.
  • Automotive sales' differentiation between lease and purchase, new and used.

 

How Consumer Buying Power (CBP) is Built

The database is created using statistical models estimated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CEX) and the most current CES data available. Current CBP data employs the most recent annual surveys (1997-2001). Claritas has an archive of the CEX over many years, but uses the latest five years to update the CBP model coefficients each year.

 

The methodology now includes an independent set of national-level expenditure estimates and projections. Developed by Global Insight, formerly Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates (WEFA), national expenditure models are created as controls to update the national spending levels for Consumer Buying Power line items.

 

Details

License the Consumer Buying Power database and automatically receive the summary data found in the Consumer Buying Power Summary database -current-year aggregate household expenditures for 73 summary-level products/services in your local market. Summaries are created through the aggregation of individual variables into broad groupings. For example, the summary variable "Photographic Equipment" would provide total household expenditures for the specific variables "Film" + "Film Processing" + "Photographic Equipment".

 

CBP Expenditure Categories

Line items are summarized into product and service categories such as:

  • Apparel
  • Education
  • Electronic Devices
  • Food at Home
  • Furniture
  • Major Appliances
  • Medical Expenses
  • Personal Care

 

CBP Retail Store Categories

Similar product/service categories are aggregated into broader groupings of 41 retail store types based on the type of store(s) in which specific products would likely be purchased. These groupings include:

  • Eating places
  • Furniture
  • Grocery
  • Shoes
  • Sporting goods

 

CBP by Yellow Page Headings

Line items are aggregated into 53 headings based on where products/services would most likely be found in the Yellow Pages section of your local phone directory. Groupings include headings such as:

  • Hardware
  • Lawn care services
  • Major appliances
  • Restaurants
  • Video rentals

 

Census & ZIP Code Boundary Maps

Claritas Data includes Census and ZIP Code Boundary files to use with MapInfo and ArcView for Thematic mapping.

 

 

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More Information

 

 

Consumer Buying Power is a registered trademark of Nielsen Claritas.