Firmographics are the characteristics of an organization especially when used to segment markets in market research

Market research

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...

. What demographics

Demographics

Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...

 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.

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

Marketing plan

A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan.Solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, a marketing plan without a sound strategic foundation is of little use....

.

Standard firmographic questions in surveys

The following are some standard questions that can be used for profiling organizations. 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

NAICS

The North American Industry Classification System or NAICS is used by business and government to classify business establishments according to type of economic activity in Canada, Mexico and the United States...

). Most organizations tailor the list of choices to their specific business.

See also

• Marketing
  Marketing
  Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
  
  
• Marketing research
  Marketing research
  Marketing research is "the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information — information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve...
  
  
• Market segment
  Market segment
  Market segmentation is a concept in economics and marketing. A market segment is a sub-set of a market made up of people or organizations with one or more characteristics that cause them to demand similar product and/or services based on qualities of those products such as price or function...
  
  
• List of marketing topics