Data-driven marketing initiatives are becoming increasingly common, thanks in no small part to the sheer quantity of information available today. But in an unusual twist, a database originally created for banks and investment firms is now being used in other sectors to create sound business strategies and effective marketing campaigns.
When commercial real estate developer Cadillac Fairview wanted to redevelop its Sherway Gardens shopping mall in Toronto, it turned to WealthScapes. The financial database from Environics Analytics (EA) helped developers determine the disposable income of shoppers in the trade area, a crucial indicator for choosing what stores should be part of the retail mix.
WealthScapes was also tapped when the BC Cancer Foundation wanted to increase its donor network and sought data on the net worth of its contributors. By integrating WealthScapes data with the foundation’s database of nearly 500,000 past supporters, analysts determined the net worth of their neighbourhoods, which helped them identify donors with the potential to be converted into major contributors.
And when the Royal Canadian Mint wanted to better tailor its marketing efforts to coin collectors, it also turned to WealthScapes for data on household income and assets. The organization used the database to develop custom models for more personalized up-sell and cross-sell strategies targeting its current customers as well as prospective numismatists.
First launched in 2008, WealthScapes provides estimates on key assets, liabilities and wealth of Canadians at the dissemination area (DA) level. WealthScapes 2016, the latest release, offers 178 variables including disposable and discretionary income, savings and investments by type, RSP and TFSA components, mortgages, loans and credit card accounts. The database was built using sophisticated modelling techniques and aggregated, privacy-compliant, small-area data. It draws on more than 30 data sources—including the Bank of Canada, Equifax and Statistics Canada—to produce its authoritative numbers.
Financial institutions have long used WealthScapes to better understand their customers’ wealth and benchmark their financial products’ holdership rates and dollar value. But WealthScapes has become indispensable among retailers, fundraisers, real estate developers, university administrators and others who are using the data for target marketing, customer insights, media planning, site location studies, response analysis and other non-financial applications.
This spring, WealthScapes’ popularity beyond the financial sector has resulted in two related databases designed for specific applications. WealthScapes Fundraiser features a selection of 31 income, wealth and expenditure variables to assess the charitable giving capacity and inclination of prospective donors. When the age of the prospect is known, users can leverage age-specific estimates of household income and liquid assets. Users can also append WealthScapes Fundraiser estimates to prospect lists for screening and predictive modelling. This approach allows charities and not-for-profits to identify neighbourhoods where residents are more likely to donate and have the giving capacity to make significant contributions.
WealthScapes Daytime, the other spin-off, focuses on 77 variables that help users better understand the consumer spending power and financial behaviour of an area during daytime hours. By using commuter flow and workplace information, WealthScapes Daytime accounts for the daytime population both at a work location (the commuting population) and at home (the non-commuting population). With this information users can locate households with high net worth but low income—typical of the increasingly large cohort of retirees—in areas with high at-home populations. In addition, it allows retailers and financial institutions to locate their outlets near centres of employment to reach busy consumers during the day.
While conventional demographic data like household income remains important, WealthScapes offers greater insights into the wealth and spending patterns—as well as the liabilities and debts—of target consumers and suggests innovative ways to apply its data. For marketers launching a new product, fundraisers seeking bigger donations, and mall developers creating the optimal retail mix, a database that was once a banker’s best-kept secret is now helping organizations in a variety of industries achieve success. And the possibilities are limited only by the marketer’s imagination.
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Peter Miron is Vice President of Economic Data at Environics Analytics and the lead developer of WealthScapes 2016
