Esri Tapestry Segmentation: Who & Where Your Customers Are

What is Tapestry Segmentation?

Esri Tapestry provides geo-demographic intelligence on how clusters of people make lifestyle choices.

It profiles consumers into 67 distinct market segments in the United States.

These market segments are typical lifestyle choices that each cluster of people is more likely to make.

This could be anything from the type of car they’re likely to buy or if they are more likely to have their newspaper delivered or to read online.

The Clustering of America

Michael J. Weiss discusses the ideas of geo-demographics and segmentation in his book “The Clustering of America”.

Segmentation is the idea that people within a certain lifestyle group move to the same neighborhood. In other words, people in the same neighborhood will look the same and have similar characteristics.

A segment could consist of retirees, urban chic or laptops and latte type of people. What Esri Tapestry does is add that distinct layer for those lifestyle or life stage choices each market segment typically make.

Geo-demographics combines demographic data (income, education, gender, household, ethnicity, etc.) with geography (where people live). Using a proven regression and clustering method, segments are also validated against actual consumer data.

Esri has 68 distinctive neighborhood segments. But if 68 groups are too detailed, you can use the 14 life mode groups based on lifestyle.

Who Is Tapestry Data Intended For?

Who are your best prospects for customers? You can use tapestry to find this.

Esri Tapestry data is about targeting the right customers. Because it captures the diversity of the whole US market, this helps businesses make wiser and more informed decisions.

For example, if you were to send advertisements blindly to every neighborhood, this creates a lot of waste and is money down the drain.

Alternatively, you can market to a lifestyle group with the tapestry data with a clear focus. If you know the lifestyle of the neighborhood, it makes sure that you’re reaching the right customers.

You get to know customers a bit better and hit the right people you want to reach. For example, you can apply Huff’s Gravity Model, location-allocation, and the concepts of distance decay to optimize business locations.

Where Can You Access Esri Tapestry?

As you’ve learned, Esri Tapestry is a market segmentation system developed by Esri. Tapestry classifies U.S. residential neighborhoods into distinct segments based on demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle characteristics.

You can access Esri Tapestry Segmentation through various means:

Esri Software: Esri’s software products, such as ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online, often include access to Tapestry data as part of their capabilities. If you have a licensed subscription to Esri’s software, you may be able to access Tapestry data through these platforms.
Esri Business Analyst: Esri Business Analyst is a suite of tools designed to provide market analysis and insights. It includes Tapestry segmentation data to help businesses and organizations understand their target markets.
Data Subscriptions: Esri offers data subscriptions that provide access to various datasets, including Tapestry data. These subscriptions might allow you to download and incorporate Tapestry data into your own GIS projects.