I am looking for membership level of affinity groups in the U.S.  For
example, AARP, AAA, and other organizations where you have to pay a
price to receive benefits such as discounted insurance and exclusive
advice.  I would like to know the aggregate membership numbers for
those and possibly a breakdown of those organizations so I could group
them by category.  I don't really have a budget for this type of
reports, so any sources that are free or very low cost (under $100)
would be preferred.

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Request for Question Clarification by vercingatorix-ga on 02 Mar 2005 13:03 PST

There are literally thousands of affinity groups in the U.S. Google
researchers can provide the kind of information you request, but how
many such groups would satisfy you?

V

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Clarification of Question by isabellafung-ga on 02 Mar 2005 13:26 PST

I would like to find affinity groups in the following categories:

- Beauty and fashion
- Toys, games and sports
- Consumer electronics
- Computer hardware/software
- Telecommunications
- Banking and financial services
- Automotive
- Travel
- Health and well-being
- Consumer packaged goods
- Restaurant
- Entertainment
- Education (continuing or adult education, NOT K-12 or higher education)
- Home/Housing/Rentals

Please let me know if you need further clarifications.  Thanks.

As far as I can tell, there is no central clearinghouse that tracks
membership data for affinity groups. I found any number of lists of
names compiled on Web sites associated with a particular industry, but
none of those lists had membership statistics. This is not a surprise,
because lists of names are valuable to lots of people, but membership
numbers are both more difficult to gather and less useful to most
people.

As such, the only way I can see of getting both the names and
membership numbers is through a mailing list. There are a number of
mailing-list companies that provide contact data for associations, but
I could only find one with membership data.

Concept Marketing Group has a database of more than 35,000
associations. It costs $395 a year for access, but you can purchase
access for a day or so for much less. Check out the site at
http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/. The database includes
membership statistics as well as contact information and data on
publications and newsletters. The ?By the Slice? service has no listed
prices, and they customize the pricing based on the request for
information.

This is as targeted as you can get. The list will provide exactly what you need. 

V

The researcher essentially told me there is no data on that and s/he
just provided me with a URL to buy a list of associations -- a site
which I had found previously, but this list doesn't really serve my
purpose. Even if I were to buy the list, I would have to spend many
hours adding up the data and from looking at the sample data that the
site has provided, it looks like only 40% of the list would have
membership data.