Environics Analytics Releases WealthScapes 2016
Environics Analytics Releases WealthScapes 2016 Revealing Canadians’ Assets, Liabilities and Spending Power
New Data Aids Financial Planning, Fundraising, Marketing and Merchandising
Toronto, September 6, 2016 – Environics Analytics (EA), the analytical and marketing services company, today announced the release of WealthScapes 2016, the most comprehensive database available on the assets, liabilities and wealth of Canadians. The latest edition consists of 178 key financial and investment statistics, including disposable income, liquid assets, retirement savings, consumer debt and equity holdings.
To learn more about WealthScapes 2016, you’re invited to attend a free webinar on Thursday, September 15, at 2:00 p.m. ET. Please register here.
At a time when marketers face challenges in understanding their customers—thanks in no small part to the sheer quantity of information available today—WealthScapes provides businesses and not-for-profits with immediate insight into the financial and investment behaviour of their customers and prospects. First launched in 2008 as a tool for the financial services industry, the dataset has become popular not just among bankers and financial planners but with retailers, fundraisers, real estate developers and university administrators.
Today WealthScapes plays a vital role in a range of business applications, including target marketing, customer insights, media planning, site location studies and response analysis. Banks and investment companies use the database to calculate wallet share and market potential for specific products like RRSPs, TFSAs, mortgages and GICs. Universities and charities use it to identify high-value donors from contributor lists and target areas that may be home to prospects with sizable investment portfolios. Retailers and real estate developers draw on WealthScapes data to plan commercial and residential developments and attract retail tenants.
Among WealthScapes’ strengths is its robust data sources. While some financial databases rely on just one source, EA analysts produce authoritative numbers by drawing on more than 30 resources, including the Bank of Canada, Equifax and Statistics Canada. The multiple sources allow analysts to match the best available control totals in Canada so the data will be endorsed by Chief Economists. With growing concerns about privacy, WealthScapes is built using sophisticated modelling techniques and aggregated, privacy-compliant, small-area data. And though WealthScapes 2016 was created at the dissemination area level, users can append data down to the six-digit postal code.
This year, EA is also launching two additional databases derived from WealthScapes that are geared to specific applications. WealthScapes Fundraiser features a selection of 41 income, wealth and expenditure variables to assess the charitable giving capacity and inclination of prospective donors. With donation averages and propensities already calculated for each postal code, WealthScapes Fundraiser makes list appending easy for applications like donor and prospect mining. WealthScapes Daytime focuses on 75 variables from the main dataset that help users better understand the consumer spending power and financial behaviour of an area during daytime hours as well as the daytime demand for financial services like ABMs. By using commuter flow and workplace information, WealthScapes Daytime can help users locate households with high net worth but low income—typical of the increasingly large retiree population—and areas near centres of employment to reach busy consumers during the day.
“Every year, we look for new data sources and insights to improve the database,” says Peter Miron, vice president of economic data at Environics Analytics and the lead developer of WealthScapes 2016. “The result is a complete picture of Canadians’ financial well-being. WealthScapes allows us to see areas where disposable income is rising or where households have taken on too much debt. It’s become an authoritative dataset for marketers and analysts in all industries.”
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For further information, please contact Julia Vasilev, senior marketing manager of Environics Analytics, at 416.969.2733 or julia.vasilev@environicsanalytics.ca.
About the Methodology
WealthScapes 2016 was built using authoritative data and sophisticated modelling techniques. Updated to December 2015, the latest version features a database of key financial and investment. Along with methodological and data improvements to current and historical datasets, WealthScapes is updated to produce the best possible estimates and temporal comparisons. The data can be used on its own for marketing and fundraising applications, or aggregated to develop precise estimates for such applications as analyzing bank holdings and retail trade areas.
About Environics Analytics
One of North America’s premier marketing and analytical services companies, Environics Analytics helps customers turn data and analytics into insight, strategy and results. Established in 2003, EA offers the full range of analytical services—from data supplier to strategic consultancy—and provides authoritative reports, software and modelling approaches to solve business challenges. EA is also a member of the Environics group, a unique alliance of companies dedicated to providing intelligent research, analytics and communications. To learn more, visit environicsanalytics.ca or contact us at inquiries@environicsanalytics.ca.