Aug 2022 | Marketing Services | Mosaic, Segmentation

Australia’s inflation rate recently broke the six percent barrier – the fastest annual increase in 21 years. Consumables and services, such as petrol, home building and food costs all climbed rapidly, forcing government bodies to intervene with the repeated rising of interest rates.

The impact of the rise will be felt for many years to come, as businesses struggle, mortgages go unpaid and reduced spending keeps the economy flat.

In this article, we explore the impact the rise in inflation is having on consumers and look at why hyper-segmenting your target audiences has become more important than ever.

Key trends driven by rising inflation

  1. Homeowners at risk
    Experian has identified 950,000 owner-occupied households nationally who are strongly impacted by the interest rate changes, with Sydney and Perth the cities most impacted.If these homeowners were to make up a large proportion of your customer base then remedial action would be required to maintain revenue.
  2. Younger, big spenders become increasingly exposed
    Typically younger (20 to 30 years old), culturally diverse, who have their foot on the property ladder. They have relatively low incomes due to their lifestage, yet are high spenders. Many in this group have the safety net of financial support from family, so their position is not desperate. They are however responsible for everyday spending and mortgage repayments, so they will be looking to cut down their spending as a result, by either shopping around for better deals or cutting down on discretionary spending.If you’re a challenger brand, now might be an opportune time to acquire customers looking for a more competitive price.
  3. Retiring Single Urbanites feeling the pinch
    Typically, older householders nearing retirement with lower incomes who are living in major cities. With the majority of this demographic still paying off their mortgage, and many often single too, an interest rate rise has a big impact on their cost of living compared to dual-income households.

This audience could potentially be the target of a retention marketing campaign as you continue to keep your brand front of mind.

Never been a better time to improve your segmentation

Attitudes and behaviours have changed drastically in the last few years due to the pandemic and the subsequent economic turbulence.

What we once knew for certain may no longer hold true. For example, a key customer segment of your organisation may exist in the ‘Low Income, Big Spender’ group we discussed earlier. If that is the case then there is every possibility that that group will reduce their outgoings. If your product is non-essential then you may want to be contacting your customers to discuss payment options.

By going deeper with your segmentation you can unlock the insights that can help you micro-target new and existing audiences.

Mosaic – Award-winning consumer classification

Mosaic is the most comprehensive consumer classification tool in Australia. It can instantly provide organisations with a detailed and granular view of the socio-demographic profile of the Australian population and how that relates to their own customers.

Mosaic utilises more than a thousand data variables from a variety of sources to develop a rich and detailed understanding of consumer behaviours and preferences.

Using this insight into consumers, Experian models every Australian household to classify them into one of 14 Groups and 51 Types, based on their likely behaviours and preferences, which can then be attached to an organisation’s database for analysis, insight and activation.

At difficult times such as these, tools like Mosaic can make all the difference between accelerated success and constantly trying to catch up.

If you’d like to speak to a consumer classification expert today, please get in touch.

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