Daily Research News Online no. 2599 - National Segmentation Week?

National Segmentation Week?

September 12 2003

The last few days have seen the announcement of a number of new segmentation products and services by US companies. Three of them, from FGI Research, Burke and Claritas, are detailed here for readers of DRNO.

FGI Research, the operator of the SmartPanel(tm), has announced the availability of Yankelovich MONITOR MindBase(r) as an extension of its custom research and omnibus solutions. FGI Research becomes the first and only company to offer MONITOR MindBase, the premier attitudinal and lifestyle segmentation developed by Yankelovich, to its online research panel clients.

CEO David Wilson notes that both online and telephone studies from FGI Research can benefit from the added value of the MONITOR MindBase segments. In addition, Yankelovich clients are now able to conduct custom research on the specific MONITOR MindBase segments in FGI Research's online panel sample frame.

FGI Research is a private company offering a suite of online research solutions including US Hispanics, international consumers, and other key population segments totaling over 4 million individuals. It also operates an array of automated phone centres, web servers and direct mail facilities for primary data collection. For additional information visit www.fgiresearch.com

Burke Inc. has introduced a new proprietary market segmentation method called SEGUE, which combines information from both customer attitudes and demographic profiles to more accurately predict how potential buyers will respond to marketing efforts.

According to Jim Roberts, VP of Marketing at Burke, SEGUE can dramatically increase a marketer's power to accurately target the best market segments. 'By improving the power to accurately target segments, we improve the ability to deliver the right messages, samples, products, etc. to the 'right' people. Being able to more accurately target marketing actions based on limited information translates directly into better financial results by reaching more of the 'right' people and fewer of the 'wrong' people'.

Applying SEGUE in a project completed for a pharmaceutical firm, Burke improved the client's ability to accurately target the most appropriate market segments by 81 percent. In another situation for a client producing personal care products, the improvement in targeting accuracy was 77 percent.

See www.burke.com for more information.

Lifestyle segmentation pioneer Claritas Inc. has announced the introduction of the fifth generation of its PRIZM(R) system, entitled PRIZM(r) New Evolution, which it claims is the first to harness the power of both household and geographic level data.

Claritas President Robert Nascenzi says that PRIZM NE captures the essence of the existing PRIZM and MicroVision systems, while using a patent-pending methodology that marries demographic and lifestyle data to help companies best target their customers.

With the new system, marketers can now reach their most profitable customers and prospects in many ways - by household, ZIP+4, census tract, block group, ZIP Code, media market, county, state and nation.

According to Nascenzi, 'Having the ability to 'downshift' from geodemographic to household-level targeting makes it possible for marketers to move seamlessly from market planning and media strategy, to customer acquisition, cross-selling and retention'.

The new system has more segments than ever, some of the more notable being:

Young Digerati - the nation's tech-savvy singles and couples living in fashionable neighborhoods on the urban fringe.
Beltway Boomers - Baby Boomers now in their forties and fifties - college-educated, upper-middle-class homeowners who married late and are still raising children.
Fast-Track Families - upscale city dwellers who moved out to the countryside, these are middle-aged parents with disposable income and educated sensibility, who 'fish, boat and shop over the Internet'
Multi-Culti Mosaic - a mixed populace of younger Hispanic, Asian and African-American singles and families - first-generation Americans who are striving to improve their lower middle class status.
Old Milltowns - retired singles and couples living quietly on fixed incomes, living in declining small industrial communities and watching daytime television...

Old favorites still featured in PRIZM NE include Upper Crust, Pools & Patios, Movers & Shakers, Bohemian Mix, Shotguns and Pickups, Golden Ponds and Kids & Cul-de-Sacs.

Claritas segmentation is available on nearly all marketing databases, including those from ACNielsen, Arbitron, Gallup, IRI, J.D. Power, Mediamark Research Inc., Nielsen Media Research, NFO, NPD, Polk Automotive, Scarborough Research, and Simmons Market Research Bureau, plus nearly all major direct mail list providers.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.