By: Amy Anderson, Strategic Research Intern
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| Amy Anderson |
In my time at Spark, I have learned that our success as marketers is contingent upon how well we understand our consumers. We pride ourselves in telling the stories that underlie consumer behaviors, and in using research to lend credence to those insights. We are fortunate to have access to many research resources that help us tell these stories, but the abundance of options often causes us to forget about the public data that can be an equally valuable tool.
It is with this in mind that I completed an individual project analyzing the 2010 U.S. Census Data that was released this spring. The Census data is a resource that is easy to overlook because it is such a hot topic in the media that few people actually take the time to review it on their own (myself included). While it’s undeniable that there are resources out there that offer more granular, nuanced data about consumers, the Census data captures the larger-scale demographic changes that impact more specific aspects of American consumers such as lifestyle, attitudes and shopping habits. In the advertising industry especially, I think it is easy to get carried away looking at the more granular data, dismissing the Census data as vague or inadequate. While it’s true that the Census data can reiterate facts that we already know, further analysis of the data may prove that we don’t know as much as we think we do. In fact, the 2010 Census data challenged several of my personal assumptions about various segments of the American population, namely Hispanics and Moms.
For my project I not only completed an analysis of the available Census data, but I also zeroed in any data that concerned Hispanics or Moms because I found it personally interesting, in addition to being relevant to many of our clients. I made outlines summarizing key statistics, and kept a blog that helped me to connect the dots so I could begin to tell the story behind the data. Currently, I am in the process of interviewing employees who work on various Spark accounts so I can get a better feel for the relevance of my findings, and the implications they have for specific clients. During the last week of the internship I will be presenting my project for Spark.
One of the most interesting findings about the Hispanic population is that there are nearly two times as many native-born Hispanics as foreign-born Hispanics. The growth of the native-born population is due in part to slowing immigration among Hispanics, as well as their high birth rate relative to the rest of the American population. It reminds us that Hispanics aren’t “interlopers;” they are Americans and they are the second largest racial/ethnic group in the U.S. In fact, 75% of Hispanics are citizens. In addition, Census Bureau officials estimate that more Hispanics are identifying themselves as “Hispanic” on the Hispanic origin measure than in the past.
Another interesting finding about the Hispanic population is that they are more likely to be married than non-Hispanic Whites, and less likely to get divorced than every other racial/ethnic group except Asians. Moreover, there is a higher portion of Hispanics in the work force than any other racial/ethnic group, and these Hispanics are more likely to hold full-time jobs than non-Hispanic Whites. Considering these statistics, it seems that Hispanics embody many “traditional” American values such as family, marriage and a strong work ethic.
Overall, I have found that my Census project was a great learning experience that allowed me to develop my ability to analyze data and extract consumer insights. In the process I also improved my working knowledge of research tools such as Simmons, IMS, WARC and Emarketer, which helped me to gather supplemental data about Hispanics and Moms. Although I’ll admit that the project seemed daunting at first due to the scope of the Census data, it turned out to be a great learning experience that filled me with a sense of accomplishment. The self-directed nature of the research and of the project in general allowed me to focus on insights that I found personally interesting. In addition, I’m glad that I will be able to leave Spark knowing I contributed one own-able project that provided clients with insight.
As I mentioned, I have kept a blog throughout my project to elaborate on some of my findings. If you are interested in learning more about my project, I encourage you to check it out at:
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