Warwickshire Observatory Briefing Note
An Introduction to Mosaic Introduction A key trend in the public sector is the move towards services that are designed around citizens and based on their specific needs and behaviours. Different groups of citizens require different types of services delivered in different ways. Customer insight involves making better use of our customer data to develop a more comprehensive understanding of these preferences and needs. Mosaic is a dataset that enables us to better understand our communities and add value to existing service and customer data. Mosaic allocates one of 69 categories to each individual household in the county, with each category (or Mosaic Type) having its own unique set of characteristics. For example, Mosaic can tell us about every household’s propensity to use certain channel types, their likely demographics, economic status, household size, health, interests etc. It can add value to our own customer data, which is probably only likely to provide us with basic details such as service type accessed, channel used and address. These 69 Types are clustered into 15 broader Groups. By joining customer data to this information we can develop a strong understanding of our customers’ behaviours, needs and preferences. The Warwickshire Observatory holds the Mosaic dataset (down to household level) on behalf of the County Council, and can assist your service in identifying concentrations of need and the most effective ways of communicating with your customers and influencing behaviour. Key Messages •
Warwickshire has over 237,000 households according to Mosaic and the most prevalent Group in the County is Group D ‘Successful professionals living in suburban or semi‐rural homes’ which accounts for more than one in seven households (15%). •
There are also sizeable Group E ‘Middle income families living in moderate suburban semis’ and B ‘Residents of small and mid‐sized towns with strong local roots’ populations in Warwickshire (see Figure 1). •
Warwickshire contains all of the 69 different Mosaic Types, illustrating the diversity of our communities. •
We are also able to compare the profile of Warwickshire against the national average and identify whether any groups are particularly over or under‐represented locally. Figure 1 compares the relative proportion of households in each Mosaic Group in Warwickshire with the national profile, based on index values. An Index value above 100 means that Warwickshire has relatively more of these households than the national average. Conversely, a value below 100 means that this Mosaic Group is less well represented in Warwickshire compared to the national profile. Mosaic Groups D and F are over‐represented in the County, while Groups G, N and O are under‐represented compared to the national average. Figure 1: Warwickshire’s Mosaic Profile Mosaic Group Number of
households in Warwickshire
Percentage
of County
Index
(UK = 100)
A ‐ Residents of isolated rural communities 11,213
4.7%
107
B ‐ Residents of small and mid‐sized towns with strong local roots 27,035
11.4%
130
C ‐ Wealthy people living in the most sought after neighbourhoods 10,721
4.5%
127
D ‐ Successful professionals living in suburban or semi‐rural homes 36,280
15.3%
185
E ‐ Middle income families living in moderate suburban semis 27,561
11.6%
104
F ‐ Couples with young children in comfortable modern housing 21,251
8.9%
155
G ‐ Young, well‐educated city dwellers 10,815
4.5%
54
H ‐ Couples and young singles in small modern starter homes 14,125
5.9%
101
I ‐ Lower income workers in urban terraces in often diverse areas 10,721
4.5%
64
J ‐ Owner occupiers in older‐style housing in ex‐industrial areas 18,766
7.9%
107
K ‐ Residents with sufficient incomes in right‐to‐buy social houses 15,610
6.6%
76
L ‐ Active elderly people living in pleasant retirement locations 11,689
4.9%
113
M ‐ Elderly people reliant on state support 12,175
5.1%
86
N ‐ Young people renting flats in high density social housing 3,696
1.6%
30
O ‐ Families in low‐rise social housing with high levels of benefit need
6,039
2.5%
49
Unclassified 132
n/a
n/a
•
Figure 2 presents the distribution of Warwickshire’s households across the 15 Mosaic Groups. This further emphasises the dominance of Groups D, E and B which account for nearly 40% of all households in the County, compared with 28% nationally. Figure 2: Warwickshire & National Mosaic Groups 16
Warwickshire Profile
14
National Average
Percentage
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
Mosaic Group
•
Warwickshire is represented by the full spectrum of Mosaic Groups and Types reaffirming the diversity we have amongst our communities and emphasising the dangers of adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach to service delivery. •
The important aspect of the Mosaic data is information on the characteristics of the various resident types relating to the differences in preferences, lifestyles and behaviours. A snapshot of the types of information Mosaic can provide include: demographics, health, attitudes, type of property, household composition, ethnicity, deprivation/income, education, perceptions of safety and many other themes. •
Mosaic can also provide some insight as to the preferences of our residents with regard to different forms of advertising, service interaction and channel preferences. All the information is placed in the context of national averages and whether our residents are more or less likely to use different communication techniques. The information may be of value in helping us understand which service provision approaches should be prioritised. •
For example, the most dominant group in Warwickshire is Group D, ‘Successful professionals living in suburban or semi‐rural homes.’ We can see from the pen portrait below that the key characteristics of this group are: •
Executives and managers in senior positions •
Living in suburban or semi‐rural locations with children •
Good education •
Receptive to the telephone and magazines to access information •
Receptive to the internet, telephone or post as service channels Source: Experian Interactive Tool Mapping •
The map below presents the distribution of Mosaic Groups across Warwickshire, at Super Output Area * level. It is important to note that this presents the most frequent Mosaic Group within each area and may not even represent the majority of households in a given SOA; there will be significant variations at postcode and household level. *
Super Output Areas (SOAs) are statistical geographies used in the dissemination of low level statistics. They have populations of approximately 1,000‐2,000 people.
Examples of Use The Observatory has produced a series of case studies using Mosaic: •
Preventing Accidental Dwelling Fires in Warwickshire ‐ the Observatory has completed some research into the profile of households suffering accidental dwelling fires (ADFs) across Warwickshire. The analysis will help Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service target certain types of households more effectively and get fire safety messages to the right people in the right way. Please find more information via the link below: http://warksobservatory.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/preventing‐accidental‐dwelling‐fires‐in‐warwickshire/ •
Using Customer Insight in North Warwickshire to reduce child poverty ‐ Warwickshire Observatory worked with North Warwickshire Borough Council on a customer profiling project to address child poverty. By combining and mapping data on Council Tax and Housing Benefits, Free School Meals claimants and the Mosaic household classification dataset, the Observatory was able to pinpoint which areas a new outreach service should be targeting. Please see the link below for more information: http://warksobservatory.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/using‐customer‐insight‐to‐reduce‐child‐poverty‐in‐
north‐warwickshire/ •
Improving Public Confidence in the Police – the Observatory are currently working with Warwickshire Police to identify potential areas to target with low levels of public confidence in the Police. The project involves looking at confidence survey data collected by the Police, identifying target communities and using Mosaic to inform communications and marketing strategies. •
Improving the Take‐up of Free School Meals – the Observatory has produced an analysis of current Free School Meal (FSM) take up, and has combined FSM data with Mosaic and Council Tax/Housing Benefit data to identify parts of the county where take up appears to be low. Mosaic has been used to recommend marketing strategies for the communities that have been identified. Further Information For further information on Mosaic please contact the Warwickshire Observatory: Email: research@warwickshireobservatory.org Telephone: 01926 412469 Website: For further information on Mosaic, view a factsheet by using this link: