Claritas Introduces New Canadian Segmentation System

Through a strategic partnership with Toronto-based Environics Analytics, a marketing services company that specializes in geodemographics-based segmentation, Claritas Inc. announced today the release of PRIZM CE -- a Canadian consumer segmentation system linked to PRIZM® NE, the U.S.-based system developed by Claritas and introduced nationally last September.

Under terms of the partnership, Claritas will serve as the exclusive U.S. distributor of PRIZM CE ("CE" stands for Canadian Edition). "Over time we recognized a need to offer our clients the opportunity to market more effectively to their customers in Canada, and PRIZM CE meets that need," said Claritas President and CEO Robert Nascenzi.

"We have known and worked with the key personnel at Environics Analytics for over 20 years, and are confident that our clients will receive the same level of quality from PRIZM CE that they are accustomed to receiving with PRIZM NE," Nascenzi added.

PRIZM CE allows clients from both the U.S. and Canada to target their products and services to customers anywhere in North America. With PRIZM CE, Claritas and Environics Analytics will help marketers accomplish a variety of business applications -- from customer profiling and acquisition, cross-selling and site selection to strategic planning and media buying -- to reach consumers in both countries.

"We are delighted to have our innovative Canadian system share the PRIZM name," said Jan Kestle, President of Environics Analytics and former President of Compusearch.

"It is a privilege to partner with Claritas in offering a geodemographic segmentation solution that works for marketers on both sides of the border."

Claritas pioneered geodemography in the mid-1970s, basing it on the sociological premise that "birds of a feather flock together," and that people with similar demographic traits tend to behave in the same way in the marketplace.

Like PRIZM NE, PRIZM CE is comprised of 66 lifestyle types that classify consumers with catchy names that reflect the makeup of the population where they live. In the PRIZM CE system, some of the names include Cosmopolitan Elite, Electric Avenues, Les Chics and Lunch at Tim's. Sixteen segments in both systems share the same name and similar demographic profiles, such as Money & Brains, Young Digerati and Big Sky Families.

PRIZM CE was created by a team of veteran Canadian geodemographers, led by Tony Lea, Ph.D., the senior vice president and chief methodologist at Environics Analytics, and a world-renowned expert in geodemographics. The system, which confirms the many ways in which Canadians and Americans differ, features 15 distinct segments of French-speaking Canadians who mostly live in Quebec -- segments with names like Les Chics, Mini Van & Vin Rouge and Quebec Rustics -- where their product preferences are often unlike their English-speaking neighbors.

PRIZM CE also captures Canada's high concentration of foreign born; more than 18 percent of its residents were born outside the country, making Canada second only to Australia with the highest proportion of immigrants in the world. This mosaic society is reflected through 11 ethnic segments -- three of which are dominated by Asian immigrants, one is filled with Italians and the others consist of large concentrations of Jewish, South Asian and European immigrants.

Environics Analytics tapped a number of authoritative data resources to create and describe the PRIZM CE segments, including Statistics Canada for census data, the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) and Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) for media behavior and product preferences, and Social Values data from its sister company, Environics Research. In addition, clients can select PRIZM CE-coded names from InfoCanada's list of 12 million households for direct marketing programs.

About Environics Analytics

Environics Analytics Group Inc. is a Toronto-based marketing services company that specializes in geodemographics-based segmentation, site evaluation modeling and custom analytics. The company's flagship product is a segmentation system called PRIZM CE, which helps marketers understand and communicate with 66 distinct types of Canadians reflecting their lifestyles, purchase behaviors and social values. PRIZM CE is also available for use with key Canadian media, marketing and GIS databases and tools -- from Environics, Statistics Canada, PMB, BBM, Ipsos-Reid, InfoCanada, ESRI Canada, GDT, Rogers Publishing, CSCA, C4SE and Geomedia. Environics Analytics is part of the Environics group of companies that also includes Environics Research and Environics Communications Inc. To learn more about Environics Analytics and its services, visit its website at www.environicsanalytics.ca.

About Claritas

San Diego-based Claritas Inc. is regarded as the leading provider of intelligent marketing information and target marketing services aimed at reducing the cost of customer acquisition and growing customer value. Claritas offers over 60 marketing databases, industry leading consumer segmentation systems, consulting services and software applications for site analysis, advertising sales and customer targeting. Since 1971, Claritas has been the pre-eminent source of accurate, up-to-date information about people, households and businesses within any geographic area in the United States. Claritas is a division of VNU, a world-leading information and media company that includes ACNielsen, Nielsen Media Research, Spectra Marketing Systems, and Scarborough Research, among others. To learn more about Claritas and VNU products and services visit their web sites at www.claritas.com and www.VNU.com.