Data quality news

High profile

Research from Experian QAS reveals the extent to which organisations use enhancement datasets to profile their customers and prospects.

Data profiling is an extremely useful way of adding value to the data you hold on your customers and prospects. Experian QAS has many datasets available to help organisations in all sectors target customers and prospects more accurately, to help improve the return on marketing investment. These include lifestyle and demographic information, geographic information and purchase history data.

Last year, Experian QAS surveyed 2,020 respondents in organisations from nine countries around the world to find out about their attitudes towards a host of data quality issues, including profiling. The results of the research were encouraging in some respects, less so in others.

Respondents were asked to name the enhancement datasets they use to profile contacts, from a list including eight types. These were:

• Geographical data
• Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes
• Employee numbers
• Company registration numbers
• Company behavioural data
• Lifestyle/geodemographic profiling
• Purchase history from within the organisation
• Purchase history sourced externally

Across the board, 75% of respondents said they used at least one enhancement dataset to help profile contacts, with 52% using two or more datasets, and 34% using three or more. The most popular type of dataset used is internally-sourced purchase history, which 40% of respondents said they used. Next came geographical data (33%), SIC codes (23%) and "Other" (21%). 11% of respondents said they did not use any enhancement datasets, while 14% said they did not know if any datasets were used.

B2B versus B2C

Internally-sourced purchase history data was the most popular dataset among respondents from B2B and B2C companies, cited by 44% and 39% respectively. It was also the most popular among companies focused equally on both, with 44% saying they used this type of enhancement.

Other popular datasets in the B2B sector were SIC codes (35%), geographical data (28%) and employee numbers (27%). In the B2C sector, geographical data (33%) and lifestyle/demographic profiling (30%), were also popular.

Respondents from organisations focused equally on B2B and B2C customers were keen on using geographical data to profile contacts (42%), as well as SIC codes (36%) and employee numbers (29%).

Overall, companies focused equally on B2B and B2C, or with a purely B2B focus, showed a slightly higher disposition towards greater use of enhancement datasets than those with a purely B2C focus.

Sector variations

The research covered a total of 10 industry sectors:

• Manufacturing
• Transport & travel
• Leisure
• Retail
• Financial services
• Other services
• Utilities & telecoms
• Education
• Charities/membership
• Other public sector and not-for-profit organisations

Across all but three of these, purchase history from within the organisation was the most popular type of enhancement dataset used to profile contacts, averaging a 54% response rate among these seven sectors. The exceptions were utilities & telecoms, education, and other public sector and not-for-profit organisations. All three of these favoured geographical data, which was cited by 43%, 34% and 47% of respondents in each sector, respectively. The Education sector had the highest percentage (32%) of respondents who said they did not use any enhancement datasets, or did not know if any were used.

More organisations in manufacturing and utilities & telecoms (both 46%) use three or more enhancement datasets, compared to financial services (35%), leisure (34%), retail (30%), the charities & membership sector, the other public sector & not-for-profit group (both 29%) and the education sector (28%).

Our research white paper is due to be released in summer. Why not download our previous report, Contact data management: the wise investor. Just fill in the form below: