Introduction to MOSAIC

Mosaic is a system that classifies households in the United Kingdom into 12 Mosaic Groups and 52 sub-groups called Mosaic Types. These Groups and Types are formed on the basis that the households comprising them share certain characteristics. Mosaic can be used as “a segmentation tool” for marketing and business planning purposes.

From a marketing perspective the ability to segment databases is extremely valuable. The people who make up our potential audiences differ in many ways and all have individual likes and dislikes. In terms of our marketing communications, one size will not fit all. We need to target the appropriate messages to the appropriate people. And this is where Mosaic can provide a means to help you divide-up the mass of your potential audiences into smaller groups of similar people.

By using Mosaic to segment your database, you can see which Mosaic Types make up your audience; it will almost certainly be the case that some of the types will be much better represented than others. These dominant Types may be said to represent your ‘core’ audience. If more people like them live in your locality, they may be likely to display a propensity or predisposition to attend events at your organisation (i.e. there may be more like-minded people in your catchment area who are likely to enjoy attending your events).

By looking at your audiences in this way, you can use your Mosaic profile to try and identify more people of the same kind who you can try and attract to your organisation. For example, Mosaic can be used as the basis upon which to target leaflet distribution and newspaper advertising, to buy-in customised mailing lists, or even to help you decide on the tone and image of your print.

On the other hand, it may be the case that some of the less well represented groups could form new target audiences for your organisation to reach with new products and new messages. They could also be segments that form the basis for outreach, audience development, access or inclusion work.

Understanding the Mosaic Reports

The Mosaic Profiles that are available to download in Adobe pdf format on the Arts Index South East website consist of two single page reports. These reports list the numbers of households on each respective database (for example, the Southampton hub “play bookers” database) by the 12 MOSAIC groups and also by the 52 different MOSAIC types.

Also included in each report is the total number of households within the specific hub, and the respective penetration figures of the AISE database in question. An index figure is included to show whether the database over- or under-represents the MOSAIC types of the whole catchment area.

To assist participating organisations, detailed descriptions of each of the 12 Mosaic Groups can be downloaded from the navigation bar on the left hand side of the website. These descriptions are the copyright of Experian, the producers of Mosaic, whom we thank for allowing us to use them on this website.

For more information on how to use Mosaic, Please contact your local Audience Development Agency.