Tapestry: Versatility in Grouping Segments

Esri's Tapestry segmentation system provides a robust and powerful portrait of the U.S. consumer markets divided into 65 segments. To provide a broader view of these 65 segments, Esri combined them into 12 LifeMode groups, based on lifestyle and lifestage composition. For instance, Group L1, High Society, consists of the seven most affluent segments, whereas Group L5, Senior Styles, includes the nine segments with a high presence of seniors.

Code	Name
L1	High Society
L2	Upscale Avenues
L3	Metropolis
L4	Solo Acts
L5	Senior Styles
L6	Scholars & Patriots
L7	High Hopes
L8	Global Roots
L9	Family Portrait
L10	Traditional Living
L11	Factories & Farms
L12	American Quilt

LifeMode Group

Tapestry's 65 segments are also organized into 11 Urbanization groups to highlight another dimension of these markets. These 11 groups are based on geographic and physical features, such as population density, size of city, location in or out of a metropolitan area, and whether or not it is part of the economic and social center of a metropolitan area. For example, U1, Principal Urban Centers I, includes eight segments that are mainly in densely settled cities within a major metropolitan area. The "I" or "II" appearing after each group name designates the relative affluence within the group.

Code	Name
U1	Principal Urban Centers I
U2	Principal Urban Centers II
U3	Metro Cities I
U4	Metro Cities II
U5	Urban Outskirts I
U6	Urban Outskirts II
U7	Suburban Periphery I
U8	Suburban Periphery II
U9	Small Towns
U10	Rural I
U11	Rural II

Urbanization Group

Segments will usually give users more differentiating power than groups. However, if the user wants to analyze a smaller number of markets, groups would be appropriate. Choosing between the two ways of grouping the segments depends on the application. For certain products or services, Urbanization groups may more effectively distinguish the consumption pattern than LifeMode groups; for example, going to the movies. But for certain lifestyle or lifestage-related behavior, such as domestic travel, grouping by LifeMode would be more effective.

Users can also define their own groups to capture the dynamics of Tapestry segmentation for specific applications. This can be accomplished, for example, by grouping the 65 segments based on their rank order on the consumption rate from customer profiles and consumer surveys.

See the attached table for a list of the 65 Tapestry segments and how they are organized into LifeMode and Urbanization groups. Each segment is given a short descriptive name in addition to a numeric code, ranging from 01 through 65. For example, Segment 01 (Top Rung) falls into the LifeMode group of High Society and the Urbanization group of Metro Cities I.

Table 1. Tapestry Segment Code and Name