Firmographics
Firmographics are the characteristics of an organization especially when used to segment markets in market research. What demographics are to people, firmographics are to organizations.
Commonly-used firmographics include employee size, revenue size, industry, number of locations and location of headquarters. Distributions of values within a firmographic variable, and across organizations, are both of interest, as well as trends over time.
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[edit] Firmographic profiles in marketing
Marketers typically combine several variables to define a firmographic profile. Marketing researchers typically have two objectives in this regard: first to determine what segments or subgroups exist in the overall population; and secondly to create a clear and complete picture of the characteristics of a typical member of each of these segments. Once these profiles are constructed, they can be used to develop a marketing strategy and marketing plan.
[edit] Standard firmographic questions in surveys
The following are some standard questions that can be used for profiling organizations.[1] The size breakout for organizations matches that used by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Q. Location Size
Including yourself, how many employees work at this location?
* 1
* 2-4
* 5-9
* 10-19
* 20-99
* 100-499
* 500+
* Don’t know
Q. Organization Size
How many employees work at this organization across all locations?
* 1
* 2-4
* 5-9
* 10-19
* 20-99
* 100-499
* 500+
* Don’t know
Q. Locations
How many locations does this organization have?
* 1
* 2-4
* 5-9
* 10-99
* 100-499
* 500+
* Don’t know
Q. Headquarters What country is your organization headquartered in? ____________ What state is your organization headquartered in? _____________
Q. Industry What is the principal industry of your organization? 11 Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 21 Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 22 Utilities 23 Construction 31 Manufacturing 42 Wholesale Trade 44 Retail Trade 48 Transportation and Warehousing 51 Information 52 Finance and Insurance 53 Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 54 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 55 Management of Companies and Enterprises 56 Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 61 Educational Services 62 Health Care and Social Assistance 71 Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 72 Accommodation and Food Services 81 Other Services (except Public Administration) 92 Public Administration
The above Industry question uses top-level sectors from the 2007 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Most organizations tailor the list of choices to their specific business.
