Big Data and Universal Design in The Home Market: Are there market researchers in Utopia?

This chapter recovers the radical evolution of statistical marketing analysis in the 1930s. It considers how early pioneers of such statistical surveys used aesthetics to popularize data analytics and promote universal data literacy through design, with special attention to the complication of universal design by the burgeoning field of targeted market research. This chapter pivots around The Home Market (1936), arguably the first statistical survey of the British public, in which Frank Pick adapted Otto Neurath’s universal graphic language: ISOTYPE (International System of Typographic Picture Education), which puts into relief larger cultural debates about the viability of a global graphic language, some of which were taking place in the literary field. This chapter links these developments to literary discussions of universal language, particularly in the work of H.G. Wells, who emphasized the need for universal data literacy and a global language; however, Wells’ vision is troubled by its reliance on concentrated authority. By considering the history of The Home Market through the lens of Wells’ troubled utopian vision, this chapter argues that the former’s efforts at universal design inevitably benefitted bourgeoisie marketers and failed to provide the groundwork for a utopian data literacy that might benefit the masses.