ArcWatch: GIS News, Views, and Insights
October 2012
Identify and Reach Senior Citizen Voters
How to Use GIS and Esri Segmentation Data to Target Campaign Messages
Political candidates can target campaign messages toward seniors who live in the sunbelt.
More than 40 million senior citizens, age 65 years and older, live in the United States. They are a force to be reckoned with, both in terms of their numbers and for their interest in politics and current events.
This group stays informed, donates, raises money, volunteers, and—most importantly—votes. Seniors also raise unique topics of concern during elections, such as retirement and Medicare. Because being a senior no longer means spending days rocking on the front porch, how can campaigns and candidates identify, understand, and reach different groups of senior voters with the right messaging? Data segmentation can help campaigns resolve this challenge.
Segmentation systems operate on the theory that people seek and live near others with the same tastes, lifestyles, and behaviors. When seniors are segmented by affluence, education, employment, and lifestyle, differences in their preferences become more apparent. Their behaviors—including product, leisure, and media preferences—can be measured, predicted, and targeted.
Using proven segmentation methodology introduced more than 30 years ago, Esri's Tapestry Segmentation system classifies US neighborhoods into 65 unique segments based on their socioeconomic and demographic composition. Tapestry combines the who of lifestyle demography with the where of local geography to create detailed neighborhood lifestyle segments with distinct consumer behaviors.
Tapestry adds valuable lifestyle information to basic demographics. For example, Tapestry data can identify the types of people who are likely to work on a political campaign, donate to it, or vote in an election. Attitudinal data in Tapestry provides information about types of people who consider themselves somewhat liberal or somewhat conservative.
Tapestry recognizes the demographic and lifestyle differences among seniors and classifies them into nine distinct lifestyle segments:
- Prosperous Empty Nesters: These active, affluent married couples with no children at home are transitioning from child rearing into retirement. They will help with fund-raising, write to a newspaper editor or radio station, and volunteer.
- Silver and Gold: These wealthy, educated seniors have retired from professional occupations. They participate in local civic issues and write to newspaper and magazine editors.
- Rustbelt Retirees: These people are singles or married couples with no children who are staying put in rustbelt industrial cities. These settled, hardworking, politically conservative folks help with fund-raising, visit elected officials, and work for political parties or candidates.
- Retirement Communities: Older, educated singles who live alone in multiunit buildings or assisted-living facilities, they are politically active, are "joiners," and belong to civic clubs and charitable organizations.
- The Elders: Informed, independent, and involved, these retirees live in senior communities. They're members of veterans' clubs and fraternal orders.
- Senior Sun Seekers: In fast-growing southern and western areas, these retired or soon-to-retire residents join veterans' clubs and fraternal orders and perform charity work with these organizations.
- Heartland Communities: Found in small-town midwestern and southern neighborhoods enjoying a country lifestyle, some residents join fraternal orders or religious clubs, and some become involved with local politics.
- Simple Living: Life for these seniors is restricted by low incomes. Community activities are very important; they join fraternal orders and veterans' clubs. Cable television is a must for information and entertainment; they're big fans of daytime TV.
- Social Security Set: Seniors with very low, fixed incomes live in inexpensive, high-rise apartments in large cities. They read two or more newspapers to keep up with the news.
The wealthy, educated senior citizens who make up this segment of the population are very civically involved.
Campaigns can take advantage of valuable segmentation information by adding Tapestry codes to voter address records—they are a gold mine of information. Campaigns can then identify their best opportunities to target volunteers, donations, and fund-raising and other activities.
Messages about concerns and issues can be tailored to resonate with each audience and be conveyed by preferred media for maximum reach.
Tapestry Segmentation data is available in 2010 geography as a database in multiple formats and geographic levels. The data is also available in reports and maps on Esri Business Analyst Online and Community Analyst. Business Analyst for Desktop and Business Analyst for Server users can access and integrate the data and reports instantly via the Business Analyst Online APIs.
