firmografiske

Firmographic data, also referred to as firmographics, and known as firmografiske data in Norwegian contexts, are attributes used to describe and categorize organizations in business-to-business (B2B) settings. Like demographic data for individuals, firmographic data help analysts understand and compare companies. Common attributes include industry classification (such as NAICS or NACE), company size (employee count or revenue), geographic location, ownership structure, legal form, and year founded. These data enable segmentation, targeting, and benchmarking across markets and sectors.

Firmographic information is widely used in market research, sales prospecting, and account-based marketing. It supports lead scoring, territory planning, and revenue forecasting by enabling comparisons across firms of similar size, sector, or region. Organizations enrich customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation with reliable firmographic data to improve segmentation and analytics.

Data sources and quality: Firmographic data come from multiple sources, including business registries, commercial data providers, company websites, annual reports, and credit agencies. Data quality depends on completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and consistency. Classification systems such as NAICS, SIC, or NACE standardize industry labels, while normalization of fields such as country codes and currency supports integration with internal systems. Ongoing data enrichment and deduplication are common practices.

Limitations and privacy: Because firms update information at varying rates, datasets can become outdated or incomplete. Cross-border differences in data collection, structure, and reporting pose additional challenges. While firmographic data concern organizations rather than individuals, data protection regulations such as the European Union's GDPR still require lawful processing, transparency, and safeguards when using data for marketing or analytics. Responsible handling includes provenance tracking and regular quality checks.

See also: firmografi, business intelligence, B2B data.