Measurement of geographic consumer potential in Brazil based on the new socioeconomic stratification criterion

• Grant number: 15/01722-5
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: June 18, 2015
• End date: July 18, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Administration - Business Administration
• Principal Investigator: José Afonso Mazzon
• Grantee: José Afonso Mazzon
• Visiting researcher: Wagner Antonio Kamakura
• Visiting researcher institution: Rice University, United States
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Professor José Afonso Mazzon, FEA-USP, together with Professor Wagner A. Kamakura, Rice University, are developing studies on the theme of Socioeconomic Stratification and Consumption. They co-authored a preliminary study that was published in a key Marketing Journal (KAMAKURA, Wagner A.; MAZZON, Jose A. Socioeconomic Status and Consumption in an Emerging Economy, International Journal of Research in Marketing, v. 30, p. 4-18, 2013). This article was awarded by the prestigious Marketing Science Institute as the best paper of the Special Issue one merging markets published by IJRM. A more detailed study resulted in the publication of a book on the subject that was nominated as a finalist for the Jabuti Award 2014 in Economics, Business and Accounting (KAMAKURA, Wagner A.; MAZZON, Jose A. Socioeconomic Stratification and Consumption in Brazil, São Paulo: Blucher, 2013). In this book the authors developed and validated a model theoretically supported by concept of permanent income and methodologically grounded in ordinal latent class modeling. These features make this a worldwide groundbreaking study whose results have been officially adopted by the ABEP - Brazilian Association of Research Companies, from January 2015, with the support of ABA, ABAP and other organizations as their new Socioeconomic Stratification model. The model is extremely useful for the formulation and evaluation of business strategies and public policies. It is intended that this model is developed at an international level (for example, for the countries of Latin America), enabling a single criterion of research comparability among different countries by socioeconomic strata in longitudinal international studies. The socioeconomic stratification of Brazilian society is particularly important for the purpose of the consumer market segmentation and the analysis of the consumption of goods and services - an important aspect both for the economic development of the country as for the means of how the firms position their management on a new level of market orientation. The socioeconomic stratification is a prerequisite for the formulation of marketing strategies and action programs as well as for the development and monitoring of public policies towards the various socioeconomic strata of our population. Kamakura and Mazzon spent more than a year of work to write and submit the article Socioeconomic Status and Consumption in an emerging economy, published in March 2013 in the above IJRM. After the article development, they had the opportunity to attend a meeting with the Commission on Economic Stratification of ABEP, association that periodically promotes the review of the so called Brazil Economic Classification Criterion, also recognized in the media and by researchers as CCEB or Criterion Brazil. This criterion has been widely used as a basis for targeting the Brazilian market, being adopted by marketing research firms, by advertisers, by both print and electronic communication media and also by advertising, promotion and public relations agencies. This criterion has been used not only in the business sector, as mentioned, but also in the public sector, in social research carried out by governments, in studies of the low-income population, in research on the living conditions of the poor and of the economically vulnerable population, among others. A key aspect yet to be developed refers to the measurement of potential market for classes of products consumed by the population to the level of weighting areas and geographic sectors used in the population census, in order to enable the most accurate and efficient formulation of public policies and business strategies for offering goods and services throughout the national territory. (AU)