The data analysed were collected from a randomly generated sample of customer records in the recently established da ta warehouse of a large international insurance company. To protect confidentiality, the sample was limited to 10 percent of the entire database, amounting to 10,976 customers in total. Although determination of the sample size was beyond our control, 1 t was considered to be a large enough basis for the analysis and sufficiently representative. The demographic profile of the entire customer database was not known, but is assumed to be similar to that of other large financial institutions, which in turn re retail financial services. flects the demographic profile of the market for In terms of the age, Clusters 1-3 have the lowest average ages 46, 45 and 44, respectively. Cluster 5 is in the middle of the age range, with an average age of 51, leaving the oldest customers in Clusters 4 and 6, the average ages being 65 in both. The pattern with respect to age at first purchase from the company is similar. Appendix Cluster characteristics, as percentages of sample
