How many households use a plumber each year?
Most marketers fail to get their tax money’s worth out of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). In my experience over nearly two decades in research, this is because many people are simply unaware of what you can get from the ABS and, in particular, the amazing amount that you can get for free.
In this article, I will use a recent study on plumbers to illustrate some of the services and data sources available from the ABS.
My client needed to know the proportion of households that had any plumbing work done in a given 12-month period. This information was central to the development of their marketing programs. It would also help my organisation to accurately cost a market research survey on plumber usage for the client. In this case, we were interested in plumbers; however, the issue could equally well have been ‘takeaway food’ or ‘holidays’.
Our straw poll around the office suggested that between 5% and 50% of households might have used a plumber in the past 12 months. Obviously, we needed some better data!
The next step was to call the ABS National Information Referral Service on 1300 135 070. This free service provides a five-minute phone consultation with an ABS consultant. I could have browsed the ABS website (www.abs.gov.au), but I have learned to value the expertise provided by the helpline.
My friendly ABS consultant suggested that the Household Expenditure Survey might give us the information we were seeking. This wonderful survey of more than 11,000 households is conducted every five years, most recently in 2003/04, and provides detailed information on how consumers spend their money. Like all ABS publications, the report can now be downloaded for free.
Furthermore, the ABS consultant undertook to look up the relevant information for me in the raw data, as the format I required was not in the standard published tables. Within a few days, I received an email with the magic number (8.1%) and details on the error associated with the measure. All for no charge!
Marketing to consumers
The Household Expenditure Survey is one of my favourites; however, I also recommend that anyone interested in marketing to consumers should subscribe to the free ABS email media release service (see www.abs.gov.au) and that they should also regularly browse the ABS website.
For example, while ABS browsing on a recent coffee break I learnt that approximately one in five children under 18 live with one natural parent and apart from their other natural parent (see Australian Social Trends, 2006, Catalogue Number 4102.0). Appreciating these aspects of our changing society are vital for any marketer trying to stay in touch with social trends and changing value systems.
Beyond free data from its various surveys and studies, the ABS also provides an Information Consultancy Service. This fee-based service uses sources such as demographic, social, economic and international trade statistics to perform useful services including:
- Providing tailored reports with tables, commentary, graphs and maps highlighting the characteristics of your target market.
- Customising demographic and other data for planning service delivery.
- Providing data for the most recent period available or extending back on a time-series basis.
The ABS also lets its stats experts loose on a regular basis. Quoting from the ABS website:
We provide a free one hour consultancy service to discuss statistical issues. Issues can range from sample designs, to formulation of survey objectives, to development of tender requests for statistical work. There is no obligation to engage our services after the initial consultation, so you can simply use the consultation as an opportunity to clarify your problem and explore possible statistical solutions.
I would encourage all marketers to consider using this service, particularly when planning a sophisticated statistical exercise such as developing a market segmentation or trying to identify those customers who are most likely to defect to your competitors (based on the characteristics of those who have already left).
Overall, the ABS is really a lot more than just the Census and there is a lot that it can offer data-hungry marketers.
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