Business Demographics--Good for All Seasons

As we approach Christmas, the push by retailers to sell us stuff is coming to a climax. Getting an edge in the market has always been what people want and it has been known for a long time that the spatial clustering of people with similar demographics can help target your products, if you know where they are. The PRIZM system of Claritas, now part of Nielsen, was the first such product on the market. Recently, I commented in the Census Bureau's Dwellr app, which does some of the same thing, but only for one area at a time (but then it's free). My son, John, who is Professor of Organizational Behavior at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, pointed me today to a new product form ESRI. I use ESRI's ARCGIS software all the time, but for whatever reason I had missed their product announcement for Tapestry. This appears to me to be a direct competitor to PRIZM, but like PRIZM, they let you try it our for free for a few zip codes. If you want the full-blown product you will need to subscribe, but you can play around with the data at no cost. If you weren't sure what to do with your Christmas break, now you know how to spend your time!!