Now that we are halfway through 2008, I figured that it is time to check on the two Presidential candidates and see who is visiting their websites. To make things interesting, I turned to our Mosaic Lifestyle segments to see which US Internet users identify as a supporter of the Democratic or Republican parties, or consider themselves an Independent voter. I classified each of the Mosaic segments by the highest representation index for the Political Affiliation attribute (combinations are used for similar index scores).
The chart below compares the visitors to John McCain and Barack Obama’s websites during the 4 weeks ending June 28, 2008. Visits by MOSAIC Group to JohnMcCain.com are plotted on the y-axis and to BarackObama.com on the x-axis. For example, the top left hand quadrant indicates unique strengths for John McCain’s website, in that they are groups that are over-indexed relative to the online population on JohnMcCain.com but under-indexed on BarackObama.com. The bubble size represents the size of the online segment and the colors denote the political affiliation.

One interesting point is that two of the segments that tend to favor the Democratic Party are visiting the websites of both Barack Obama and John McCain (upper right hand quadrant) – which may be to simply gather information and learn more about both of the candidates, but are certainly segments to watch as the election approaches. Each of the candidates also attracted specific segments that tend to be Independent or are comprised of multiple affiliations – Metro Fringe & Small Town Contentment for John McCain and Affluent Suburbia & Urban Essence for Barack Obama which may result in voter opportunities. An additional open opportunity for both candidates could also be to target is the large group of Independents in the Upscale America segment.
Summary of Mosaic Segments
The Mosaic Groups used in the analysis are created by Experian (which acquired Hitwise last year) to describe American consumers. It is a household-based segmentation system that classifies all U.S. households and neighborhoods into 60 unique Mosaic types and 12 groupings that share similar demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
The result is a classification that paints a rich picture of U.S. consumers in terms of their sociodemographics, lifestyles, behaviors and culture to provide you with the most accurate and comprehensive view of your customers, prospects and markets. (You can read a description of how they collect the data here.
The following is a brief description of Mosaic segments to elaborate on the titles in my chart.
Affluent Suburbia: The wealthiest households in the U.S. living in exclusive suburban neighborhoods enjoying the best of everything that life has to offer.
Upscale America: College-educated couples and families living in the metropolitan sprawl earning upscale incomes providing them with large homes and very comfortable and active lifestyles.
Small-town Contentment: Middle-aged, upper-middle-class families living in small towns and satellite cities with moderate educations employed in white-collar, blue-collar and service professions.
Blue-collar Backbone: Budget-conscious, young and old blue-collar households living in older towns working in manufacturing, construction and retail trades.
American Diversity: A diverse group of ethnically mixed singles and couples, middle-aged and retired with middle-class incomes from blue-collar and service industry jobs.
Metro Fringe: Racially mixed, lower-middle-class clusters in older single-family homes, semi-detached houses and low-rise apartments in satellite cities.
Remote America: A mix of farming and small industrial rural communities with outdoor oriented lifestyles living primarily in America’s heartland.
Aspiring Contemporaries: Young, mostly single, ethnically diverse, online active households living in new homes or apartments with discretionary income to spend on themselves.
Rural Villages and Farms: Rural, middle-class married families and couples of varied ages, living and working in agricultural and mining communities.
Struggling Societies: Young minorities, students and single parents trying to raise families on low-level jobs in manufacturing, health care and food services.
Urban Essence: Young, single and single-parent minorities living in older apartments working at entry-level jobs in service industries.
Varying Lifestyles: Residents who primarily live in group quarters including students, military personnel and institution populations.