How the segmentation tool was developed

The segmentation was initially designed for the national campaign. It has now been adapted and extended so that all PCTs in England can use it for their social marketing activity. It will help you to make sure that your work reinforces the national activity.

How the segments were developed

The tool will have a usable lifetime of approximately three years.

The latest available data was used, including:

• HealthACORN, which describes overall health inequalities in the population and is already widely used within the NHS
• The 2006/7 alcohol attributable hospital admissions data from NWPHO. This is crucial in that it quantifies which types of people are causing an impact on NHS resources. Both chronic and acute admissions were examined
• TGI (2009) data. This gives penetration of people who are heavy users of almost all types of alcohol and can explain which types of drink different segments are drinking to harmful levels.

The data used to describe the segments can help you to visualise the segments, which will support your communications planning. It includes data about age, income, employment, presence of children/household structure, health issues/activity levels, media consumption, alcohol consumption and hospital admissions. Sources included the Family Expenditure Survey and CACI Ocean Data. The use of HealthACORN data removes the need to purchase additional HealthACORN or MOSAIC data relating to alcohol social marketing. However, for other health issues such as flu immunisation or obesity, other data sets will still be required.

Breaking data down further

If needed, it is possible to break the data down further, for example by age, ethnicity and/or socioeconomic groups. However, there is a charge for this. To find out more,

contact socialmarketing@alcohollearningcentre.org.uk

Different interventions for different segments

Since this segmentation is new, we are still exploring and testing what works with different segments. However, key findings from research and planning into the national campaign are available on the ALC website. We'd also like you to share your own findings of what works with each segments. You can do this by sending details of your activity to: socialmarketing@alcohollearningcentre.org.uk and posting the information from your evaluation on the alcohol social marketing forum.