The anatomy of Brazilian households
It's not just about knowing where people live, but about understanding why they live like that, and what it does to them.
It was with this premise that Mapfry began the journey of building a truly sensitive territorial segmentation.
Instead of grouping households solely by social class, stated preferences, or physical location, the objective was to discover How territory shapes behavior, consumption, desires, and fears.
The base? An arsenal of public and private data, enriched with qualitative readings, as if each neighborhood were a character with its own soul, conflicts and trajectory.
The architecture of the profiles
Segmentation is born from the intersection of quantitative attributes, such as:
- Per capita income
- Type of housing
- Demographic density
- Schooling
- Family composition
- Home-to-work travel data
With cultural and behavioral signs less obvious:
- Types of internet use and digital consumption
- Expressions of social distinction (such as possession of assets and level of education)
- Forms of occupying urban space (subnormal, condominium, own home)
- Intensity of community ties (friendship, religion, neighborhood)
This mosaic makes it possible to perceive not only What is present in each territory, but What is missing, and how this absence shapes everyday habits.
The logic of “common pain”
Instead of just quantifying, the model is guided by a central concept: “shared pain”.
What unites the residents of a territory is not only the CEP, but the limitations they face together, and the solutions they build in spite of them.
Thus, categories such as:
- Surviving: which includes households composed of an adult woman with one or two children, without a formal partner, in low-income regions and limited access to public infrastructure
- Rising middle class: where we find scenarios of the family composition of two young adults, living for rent in neighborhoods of transition between the popular and the middle, with a strong aspirational desire and investment in education.
- Upper middle class: adults of productive age living in prime regions with ownership of their own property, high consumption standards and a high degree of symbolic distinction (use of brands, trips, private schools).
Each profile emerges as result of crossings, and not of fixed rules.
For example: Family Composition + Type of Housing + Income + Education + Neighborhood = Level of Expectation or Restriction.
Territory as an active variable
One of the great differentials of the Mapfry method lies in the valuation of symbolic geography.
That is, it's not just the city or neighborhood that matters, but how it works internally as an ecosystem of relationships.
Take a look at the axes that make up this reading:
- Density and verticalization → more chance of social isolation or anonymity
- Proximity to commercial or leisure centers → greater exposure to consumers and brands
- Neighborhood pattern and behavioral contagion → “normalization” effect of certain lifestyles
- Presence or absence of perceived security → consumption aimed at self-protection (gates, delivery, armored cars)
Therefore, segmentation distinguishes:
- Um Middle class neighborhood in mixed region, where young adults who live alone predominate with little community life but high exposure to consumer experiences and technology.
- Um A popular horizontal neighborhood, with a strong presence of religious institutions, large family networks, and resilient local businesses, where social life revolves around neighborhood, faith, and collaborative survival.
Both may have some similar characteristics, but they are two different worlds, with different consumptions, different languages and opposing expectations.
Family composition as an interpretive lens
The reading of domestic structure, who lives with whom, how many, what age group and connections, was decisive in identifying consumption and behavior patterns.
Dozens of were mapped real family arrangements, from “couple with young child” to “adult with elderly and adolescent”, including multifamily homes and “young people with the elderly”.
These arrangements reveal Potentials of solidarity, dependency, and aspiration, and indicate the type of:
- Product that is consumed
- Channel used (online or in-person purchase)
- More effective communication (family values? autonomy? status?)
Live data
The results of this behavioral engineering are The 421 fragments of real Brazil that breathe, dream, and consume in specific ways.
Each one carries:
- A central pain (income generation capacity, moment of life, access, affection, recognition)
- A predictable routine (who takes care of whom, how they get around, where they shop)
- An imaginary (what you admire, what you avoid, what you dream of conquering)