OriginsInfo is a segmentation tool that classifies names in a database according to their most likely ethnic and ancestral origins. Each customer or employee can be placed into one of almost 200 different OriginsInfo types, based on an analysis of their personal and family names.

OriginsInfo identifies individuals whose ancestry is most likely to be, for example, from Ireland, Italy, Greece, Lebanon, China or Vietnam – or from many other parts of the world.  OriginsInfo also suggests a customer’s most likely language, religion and gender.  An estimate of age may also be appended. For the first time, OriginsInfo makes it  possible for organizations of any size to leverage the value of cultural background in their operations.

OriginsInfo Functionality
OriginsInfo takes a personal name and a family name and uses intelligent matching to link each name to its internal database.  OriginsInfo then analyzes the personal name and the family name of a database record, both independently and in combination. It then assesses the consistency of the information using underlying rules based on international research. As an outcome, OriginsInfo appends the most likely cultural, ethnic, and linguistic (CEL) code to a record.  There are almost 200 different CEL codes reflecting the world’s most distinctive cultural identities. These detailed codes are grouped in a variety of ways – geographic, language, religion, or broad cultural grouping. Two examples of these groupings are:

The OriginsInfo Database
Data has been sourced from a variety of near-universal files of personal and family names for each of the following markets:

In addition, distinctive surname data has been gathered from all other major regions of the world – North and South America, China, Japan, Middle East, South and South-East Asia, Africa and Oceania - to ensure full representation of global naming conventions.

From this data, OriginsInfo has compiled two comprehensive databases containing more than 1,000,000 different family names, and over 300,000 different personal names. The database has been linked to the results of many years of genealogical, ancestral, and local history research into the meaning and origin of names. In this way, almost all names can be allocated to their most likely historical origin.

OriginsInfo CEL Code Generation
Using the research basis, analysis establishes a confidence level reflecting each name’s strength of association with a particular Origins CEL type.  An assessment of the CEL code associated with the personal name, and the CEL code associated with the family name, together with the confidence level of each, produces an arbitrated result reflecting the most likely cultural connection.  Business rules are also applied where a name appears in more than one cultural type – eg the personal names of Michael, David, Maria and Anna occur in multiple societies and are therefore less indicative of cultural origin, although their incidence will be higher in some cultures than others. Overall, family names are much stronger indicators of cultural origin.      

OriginsInfo Implementation Options
The OriginsInfo application runs on standard platforms running any version of Microsoft Windows since Windows98. It is a stand-alone application but, if required, OriginsInfo can be embedded within an existing database environment, using API documentation.  Updates to new versions of the software and databases are released regularly and are accessed through a simple automated internet update process or, if preferred, by email, or physical delivery of recorded media. All updates are free to licensed users.

Common OriginsInfo Applications

1. Customer Profiling
OriginsInfo is used to understand the overall ethnic composition of your customer list. With reference to an appropriate base file for comparison, you can profile your customers and develop manageable customer segments. By profiling customers, you can identify which groups are under or over-represented in your customer file. You can find out which groups prefer to use which products, services, channels and outlets, which ones you are good or poor at retaining, or which ones are responsive to particular types of promotion or reward.

2. Individual Targeting
OriginsInfo is used to code individual customers. You may want to target campaigns to members of specific ethnic groups to improve a wareness and take up of public services, such as health screening or education courses. Or you may want to target products, such as cosmetics, food, media channels, and travel, to audiences for whom they have been developed. The codes can also be used as a pre-screening indicator to flag likelihood of fraud, or criminal activity.

3. Geographic Targeting
OriginsInfo is used to classify areas. You can identify the locations, right down to street level, where individual cultural communities have most strongly established themselves. This may support area-based communications, or potential sites for retail outlets.