UC Riverside

In the latter part of the 20th century, statistics became a commodity independent of government and a statistical services industry developed. This development is pertinent because these services are primarily a business information industry (Starr and Corson, 1987: 416). There are multiple aspects to the statistical services industry and while there are often less-than-clear-cut distinctions among them, several can be identified, including econometrics, data base development and maintenance, survey research, and market demographics. Of interest to us here is the role of this industry as an entity outside of the government. I focus on the US because of its early leadership in this field. I note, however, that today, many of the major players are international and that our comments on current practices apply beyond the United States. Two factors significant to the development of market demographics are identified by Starr and Corson (1987: 426): (1) the growing interest on the part of major corporations in market segmentation and targeted marketing, which emerged as mass marketing methods began to falter; and (2) technology developed within the public sector that enabled the association of demographic characteristics with addresses.