By Greg Paeth
Post staff reporter
Forget that old cliché about how something "plays in Peoria." When it comes to finding out what the average American thinks, Cincinnati is even more average than Peoria, according to a consulting firm's study.
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Average joes |
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The top 20 test markets, according to Acxiom. The rankings are based on how closely the population "mirrors" the characteristics of the U.S. consumer population as a whole. 1. Albany, N.Y.
2. Rochester, N.Y.
3. Greensboro, N.C.
4. Birmingham, Ala.
5. Syracuse, N.Y.
6. Charlotte, N.C.
7. Nashville, Tenn.
8. Eugene, Ore.
9. Wichita, Kan.
10. Richmond, Va.
11. Quad Cities, Iowa, Ill.
12. Lexington, Ky.
13. Charleston, S.C.
14. Macon, Ga.
15. Jacksonville, Fla.
16. Greenville, S.C.
17. Little Rock, Ark.
18. Evansville, Ind.
19. Harrisburg, Pa.
20. Cincinnati
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Marketers should really be concerned about how their products will play in Albany. The New York state capital, along with its near neighbors Schenectady and Troy, stands out as the top region that most closely reflects the makeup of the entire country, finds a new study by Acxiom Corp., a database services company based in Little Rock, Ark. The company's first "Mirror On America" study ranked 150 metropolitan areas based on characteristics including household size, number of children, age, income, education and marital status.
The Cincinnati metropolitan area, including Northern Kentucky, ranked 20th. Peoria, Ill., traditionally held out as the most average of the average, ranked 37th.
Acxiom number crunchers used some of the firm's software to analyze the demographic data; then they compared it with national data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Cincinnati is home to several market-research firms and to one of the top companies in the world for slicing and dicing consumer data: Procter & Gamble.
Tyler McMullen, a vice president with MarketVision Research in Blue Ash, said it's no surprise that Cincinnati would rank fairly high in a study that is searching for typical U.S. populations.
"We do hundreds of focus groups a year and it's certainly clear that our clients wouldn't want research done here if it were atypical," McMullen said.
P&G; also has long used Cincinnatians to test some of its new products.
But based on its findings, the Acxiom study said Albany would be the perfect consumer test market for products and services before they are introduced nationally.
"Albany has almost the same proportion of consumers as is found in the nation as a whole -- from people just leaving home or school, buying a home, raising kids, approaching retirement, launching the kids out of the house, to being fully retired," said Tiffany Weatherly, who supervised the research.
Cincinnati's biggest deviation from the national numbers was in the category of "jumbo families," or families in which the children have a broad range of ages from very young into their teen years. These families typically had two parents working, above average education for the parents, but relatively low net worth because the families had not built up equity in their homes, said Jonathan Portis, a spokesman for Acxiom.
Nationally, "jumbo families" make up 6.6 percent of the households while they represent nearly 8.3 percent of the households in Greater Cincinnati, the study said.
Portis said the company's study divided the population into about 70 different groups of households.
In the category of "leisure buffs," Greater Cincinnati's number's mirrored the national figure of 8.1 percent.
This group has plenty of time for leisure because 78 percent of them are retired, Portis said. They own at least one luxury car, prefer the early evening and weekend TV news programs, talk shows, have distinct religious views, are active in community organizations and identify themselves prominently as veterans and grandparents, the study shows.
Some 20 or more years ago, Evansville, Ind., was "the test market city. A lot of companies would launch their products there because it was the perfect cross-section," McMullen said.
The Acxiom study ranked Evansville 18th -- two spots in front of Greater Cincinnati.
Ranked last? New York City, at 150th, one slot behind San Francisco.
