JICNARS Scale

Knowledge Center

Definition JICNARS Scale? Meaning.

The JICNARS Scale is a Target Marketing and Consumption Behavior tool used by media to profile their audience into different categories based on social class, occupation, and perceived economic status.

JICNARS is an acronym for Joint Industrial Committee for Newspaper Advertising Research Surveys.

The JICNARS Scale is a Demographic Segmentation method mainly used in the UK based on demographical variables: social class, occupation, and perceived economic status. It assigns a profile to the target audience of a media company according to 6 different groups and types of real life characters (households):

1. Upper middle class, e.g. successful business and professional people; those who usually own considerable economic means.
2. Middle class, e.g. senior  business and professional people, not at the top of their business, having a respectable rather than a luxurious lifestyle.
3.  

   C1: White-collar lower middle class, e.g. non manual workers, small trades people, supervisors.

   C2: Blue-collar lower middle class, skilled workers.

4. Semi-or unskilled manual workers.
5. Those who are at the lowest level of the subsistence, e.g. casual workers, sick or unemployed people, dependent on social schemes.

JICNARS Scale’s variables can be used for Market Segmentation and Differentiated Marketing. The method has been widely criticized from the 1980s:

• Too much focus on the occupation of the male figure in a traditional household.
• The family is seen as a single consuming unit.
• Occupations are assumed constant but in reality may change quickly.

Later theories are mostly built on the concept of Psychographic Segmentation (Lifestyles).

Forum - Demographic Marketing (JICNARS Scale)   Discussions about Demographic Marketing (JICNARS Scale). Decreased Relevance of Demographic Marketing? To do marketing based on demographics is not as relevant as before. I read in the Economist, May 25, 2013, we should rat (...)           Success Cases or Disasters of Demographic Segmentation Hi, do you know of a remarkable case or famous example in which demographic segmentation was used successfully (or not a (...)

Resources - Demographic Marketing (JICNARS Scale) Here you find powerpoint presentations, micro-learning videos and further information sources. Target Marketing and Market Segmentation Target Marketing, Market Segmentation, Strategy (...)   Marketing Strategy: Opportunity Analysis; Targeting and Segmentation Marketing Strategy, Target Marketing, Market Segmentation (...)   Customer Segmentation by Emotion: The EMO-index Consumption Behavior (...)

Compare with: Values and Lifestyles  |  Target Marketing  |  Niche Marketing  |  Positioning  |  Marketing Mix  |  Differentiated Marketing  |  8 Hidden Needs

Return to Management Hub: Communication & Skills  |  Marketing

More on Management  |  Return to Management Dictionary  | 

This ends our JICNARS Scale summary and forum.