Oi no! Industry urged to ditch 1950s ABC1 classification

The advertising and marketing industry is being urged to finally ditch the socioeconomic grading system, still widely used to target specific audiences, amid claims it is so out of date that up to 60% of UK consumers could now fit in the ABC1 “middle class” band.

So says a new report, “Mirror on Class and Social Grade” from Channel 4 and Republic of Media, which argues that the changing nature of work and shifting household composition render the system obsolete.

Originally developed by the National Readership Survey to classify readers in the late 1950s classifications have become a standard for advertising and market research. However, the system’s distinguishing feature is that it is based on occupation, rather than wealth or property ownership.

The grades are often grouped into ABC1 and C2DE; taken to equate to middle class and working class, respectively. Only around 2% of the UK population is identified as upper class, and this group is not separated by the classification scheme.

The C4 report, based on a survey of more than 100 media agency experts and a representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers, recommends alternative approaches to advertising, with a focus on affluence, affordability and attention, as opposed to the traditional social grade metrics.

This could allow brands and their agencies to focus on consumers who have higher disposable income, who are time rich, and who have higher financial security – with those groups often commercially receptive to high value items.

In addition, the report also emphasises a need for a greater focus on “authenticity” over “aspiration” in order to reach a wider range of audiences across social divides.

An earlier C4 study found that working class portrayals were prone to reliance on stereotypes, with Northern accents two times more likely to be coded as working class in the audit, while characters coded as “lower social grade” in ads were also 50% more likely to be from an ethnic minority.

C4 research manager Samantha Cannons said: “Working on this project has made us unpick some of the assumptions around social grade and question whether this is okay – and what impact does this have on the ads being produced and broadcast to the nation?

“We don’t have all the answers — but we do want to raise some of the key issues surrounding the topic and provide some ideas to think differently about when it comes to advertising.”