EXAMPLES OF USING CENSUS INFORMATION TO HELP BUSINESSES
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To guage the competition

   A manufacturer compared statistics for his company
   withindustry-wide figures in census reports.  He became concerned
   when he found that the company had achieved less value added per
   employee than the competition -- represented by industry
   averages.  Census figures helped him convince the company's Board
   of Directors to reduce administrative staff and take other
   measures to increase productivity and profitability.

   A soft drink bottler considered expanding into two related
   beverage manufacturing operations: milk and alcoholic beverages.
   Economic census data shed light on industry specialization,
   company size, and the relationship of expenses to receipts --
   information that encouraged the bottler to diversify.

To calculate market share

   A restaurant supply wholesaler calculated that it had roughly an
   11- percent market share -- its own sales divided by state totals
   for similar businesses -- in its primary sales region in the
   northern mountain states.  The wholesaler used that figure as a
   target when it expanded into Arizona and New Mexico.

To locate business markets
   A man who had developed software for managing quality control
   operations made a list of industries most likely to be interested
   in his product, then ranked the top industries based on census
   figures on value added and growth.  He customized his software to
   appeal to those top prospects.  Census data on CD-ROM made it
   easy to find areas where large plants in the target industries
   were located.

   A diskette duplication service used the numbers of businesses on
   CD-ROM to assess the completeness and coverage of its direct mail
   list of service and retail businesses.  For industries where its
   coverage was poor, the business purchased commercial mailing
   lists or advertising space in appropriate trade periodicals.

To locate distributors or resellers

   The publisher of a TV magazine for free distribution at stores
   wanted the CD-ROM data on retail stores by ZIP Code in order to
   design sales territories.  They grouped ZIP Codes until each
   territory had roughly equal numbers of small stores -- their
   sales people had found that owners of small stores were more
   willing to listen to their pitch than were owners of large
   stores.

   An electrical supplies wholesaler consulted Census of
   Construction Industries reports to determine receipts of
   electrical contractors by state and to examine trends in industry
   expenditures for materials and supplies.

Site location

   A major food store chain uses retail census data and population
   figures to estimate potential weekly food store sales in the
   trade area for each of its stores.  These estimates allow the
   company to calculate market share and other measures of
   performance for each existingstore, and to evaluate prospective
   sites for new stores.

   The owner of a chain of auto accessory computed the ratio of
   accessory sales in the retail census to household income from
   thepopulation census for several neighboring metropolitan areas.
   Finding his own area well above national averages, he inferred
   that the local market for auto accessory stores might be already
   saturated.  That contributed to his decision to expand into a
   nearby metro area with a lower ratio adding another store
   locally.

To design sales territories and set sales quotas

   An insurance company used counts of establishments and sales by
   kind of business to redesign sales territories and set quotas and
   incentive levels for agents.  By comparing census figures to
   their own records on customers, company executives found which
   kinds of businesses were better prospects than others.

   Since most of their solicitation is done through employers,
   United Way agencies use census statistics on employment and
   payroll in particular industries and localities in setting goals
   for donations and volunteer recruitment.

Enhance business-opportunity presentations to banks or venture
capitalists

   A small business manufacturing solar water heater panels sought
   to attract new investors.  They changed their prospectus to
   prominently feature the use of their product in growing
   industries, with census data to back them up.

   An entrepreneur used census data to support her loanapplication,
   as she sought financing to start a tailoring and alterations shop
   for women executives.  She used data from the Census of Service
   Industries on her line of business in conjunction with data on
   women in managerial occupations from the Census of Population.

Evaluate new business opportunities

   A manufacturer of industrial chemicals used data on production of
   semiconductors and other high technology products to assess the
   feasibility of introducing a line of advanced composite
   materials.

   An recent engineering graduate examined census data about where
   he thought his skills could be used.  After exploringthe
   statistics, he concentrated his job search on the industries that
   had grown substantially in recent years.  He also studied
   statistics about those industries in preparing for job
   interviews.

Research

   A professor at Harvard University studied a series of votes in
   Congress related to free trade issues.  He used Census of
   Manufactures data to explore the correlation between each state's
   industrial structure and the way that state's Congressional
   representatives voted on these issues.


SOURCE: Census Bureau


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