MicroBuild®, Gadberry’s patent-pending product, is unique because only MicroBuild
uses consumer data at the rooftop level to deliver household and population counts beginning
at the census block level.
MicroBuild is a household geodemographic product that provides current, accurate, precise, and actionable household and population data for the U.S.
MicroBuild uses multiple national data sources and is the only population product built using name and address as the primary data source.
MicroBuild is built quarterly and is the only population product available beginning at census block.
The MicroBuild® Promise
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Accurate
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High quality national consumer name and address file
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Multi source build process – national consumer base, USPS statistics, Census
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Current
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Complete quarterly re-build
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Core data sources updated monthly
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Actionable
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Household level attributes i.e. Ethnicity, Acxiom demographics
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Match to customer data - market share/new prospects
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Marketing Lists
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The MicroBuild® Philosophy
Interpreting Actual, not Inferred, Data
Residential change is organic, growing in an almost cellular manner.
The earliest phases see dramatic change rates while, at maturity, development has occurred and population change has either stabilized or declined.
As residential areas are planned and developed, and as houses are built and occupied, certain types of data are created that indicate where, how much, and how quickly the changes are occurring.
The ability to interpret that data and depict those changes are the foundation of the MicroBuild methodology.
The most common and widely accepted techniques for analyzing population use the U.S. decennial census databases.
U.S. Census data is the most comprehensive and accurate dataset of its kind for defining the size,
demographic composition, and physical distribution of human populations.
The census is used extensively by analysts and demographers for research, marketing, and information product development.
The breadth and depth of its coverage, the consistency of the compilation processes, and its cost and availability make it an extremely powerful data asset.
The disadvantage of decennial census data for the development of population analysis in
dynamic geographic areas lies in its recency, or timeliness. Produced only once per decade,
it does not reflect the dramatic changes in population that can occur in high growth areas in much shorter intervals.
When tabulating and projecting populations for small areas – often at the block group level – many demographers rely on decennial census data. Annual estimates are also used to predict population change within the decennial census periods. These county level estimates are sometimes used to project population trends downward to smaller geographies to ensure that results are consistent with the established macro level trends of larger populations. The objective of this approach is to maintain consistency and avoid skews and data anomalies, sometimes referred to as “noise” in the data. Although the result is predictable and palatable, it does not provide an accurate view of population change in high-growth areas. Instead of developing processes to eliminate the noise, we leverage unique data sources and a proprietary MicroBuild technique to identify and quantify these dynamic and valuable trends in population.
The MicroBuild® Methodology
The Gadberry Group’s MicroBuild methodology is rooted in a background of consumer data collection, compilation, analysis, mapping, and an understanding of how dynamic consumer data can be. The following is a high level overview of the major components of the MicroBuild methodology:
Sources
The Gadberry Group uses three primary forms of data within its products:
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National consumer name and address files
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United States Postal Service Carrier Route Delivery Statistics data
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U.S. Census data
Using these multiple national data sources, we create a baseline household dataset for the nation each quarter representing a combined household universe of over 120 million records. Householding techniques are applied to adjust the data for geography specific variances such as group quarters, seasonal populations, and U.S. consumer mobility. The resulting dataset is extremely accurate, created consistently for the entire nation, and can be used with historic Census data. And because it is constructed at the household level it can be extended with other household demographic data.
GeoAnalytics
MapInfo’s location intelligence offerings and years of mapping experience is foundational to the development of the Microbuild product and provides the ability to accurately associate data and geography. In order to correctly associate address level data, we employ a variety of GIS techniques including boundary relationship analysis for census and USPS boundary data, proportional area analysis, and proportional population density analysis, which is used to associate non-specific address points such as P.O. boxes, zip+2, and zip centroid points with their respective census boundary i.e. block, block group.
