You are where you live?

[hypotenuse]

Perhaps it's just me, but I did not meet any of my demographic specifications. And some of it seemed downright insulting. But it was better than doing laundry!

Go here:

http://www.delluke.claritas.com:80/YAWYL/Default.html

Enter your 5 digit zip. And let them tell you ALL about yourself.

Lynne

[pluckyduck]

ROFL!!

Um, they probably got more right than wrong, but give me a break. I'm supposed to shop at Nordstrom's, Lord & Taylor and Ann Taylor. Try The Gap and Old Navy with a swing through Kmart for the odds and ends.

This was my favorite:

Have more than $200,000 in investable assets, use full service brokerage services, and won mortgage life insurance

Now, I'm just looking for the hyperlink that tells me where my piece of the pie is stashed!

Andrea
figuring that explains the deluge of direct mail to the house!

I love these things. They give demographics that make the Sales people at the station drool and wet themselves, and I know they are full of it.

- - - - - - -

PRIZM thinks I am either super-rich beyond belief or Gold Coast. I look at my neighbors in the apartment complex, and shrug. It's a nice place, I give you that, but just because it is inside I-610 in Houston doesn't mean it's lobster-and-caviar for breakfast. My butler and maidservants agree.

Super-rich and Gold Coast is Post Oak or true core West U. Not here. We're DINK all the way (double income, no kittens) and save up and do as well as we please, but from this I'd figure we were riff-raff and need to be shooed out.

- - - - - - -

Microvision has it down better... Good Step Forward. mid-30s, good income and rising, cell phone and online pc, changed locations recently, but rollingstone and all that? Bah humbug. Classical over radio or Ska/Punk.

- - - - - - -

I'd declare myself as Television News Cog, just another faceless minion behind the scenes at any rank below General Manager and expendible at a moment's notice. Dine and shop at bizarre hours, too exhausted to reach the Prozac at night, and bitches about it to people that get a good laugh about it on the Net.

[Joubert[$]]

I love being the dissenter. I know at least three executives who worked for Claritas during the period where PRIZM clusters really took hold.

A couple of issues:
[list=1][*]Most of the "free" PRIZM cluster analysis on the web is outdated. Even MSN uses old data that has "...watches Murphy Brown" as a data point[*]The 2000 census is just rolling in. PRIZM clusters are going to be radically revamped as a result.[*]They are frankly the best out there according to every marketer I've spoken with. But remember that there are only 62 clusters. That's not a lot to capture our melting pot culture.[/list=1]

Demography is hard. I think these folks do it well.

[jnbmoore]

Hubby's outside playing with his new lawn tractor (of course we bought the model not found on Epinions so there is no reason for me to be out there too).

So I checked this out

for my zip there were like five Prizim demographics shown:

Winner's Circle

Only thing right is I do have a passport

I don't even know what Ann Taylor is and have never seen NYPD Blue




Kids & Cul-de-Sacs

Got hubby's age right and shop on-line (only with GOOD coupons)

Country Squires

Got Bank on-line and own a fax

God's Country

Okay they got us for the garden tractor -- but our lot is 2 1/2acres. I'm not going to push mower it and we ain't zoned for sheep

Greenbelt Families

Okay I do write Louise Slaughter alot cause she does have a brain.

But neither of my senators do I send much too cause they are XXXXXXX (this is not the soapbox Bridge)


Anyhow they got about one thing or 20% right in each catagory..


Hmmm, lets check out their microvision thingy:

Home Sweet Home

They got: with one or no children at home

shop at Home Depot
own a video camera,

FAmily Ties

One kid (but definately not two, three, or four)


I guess I'd better move.

Bridgette

[pluckyduck]

Actually, Joubert, I don't think the zip code profile missed the mark of most of my zip code too badly. I wish that more of it missed the mark on me, given that I like to pretend I don't belong here! anyway.

My neighbors aren't Nordstrom or Lord & Taylor shoppers, though....even if the data is old, the neighborhood has never been about the Nordstrom kind of lifestyle. They are much more likely to pile a bunch of money into a new deck or (horror of horrors!) a huge SUV to cart the girl's softball team around in than fashion.

This, as you point out, is the free data. I'd suspect that the data marketer's pay for has things a little bit more in whack.

I'm still looking for my 200K, though. That was my favorite part of the profile. Maybe I should look to borrow from the next door neighbor? He must have 400K to make the average come out right.



Andrea

[erik_kosberg]

Money & Brains (not much of either)
Sophisticated Townhouse Couples (wrong)
Age group: 55+ (wrong)
Professional (sort of)
Household income: 67500 (wrong)
Shop at Nordstrom (wrong)
Have a passport (correct)
Have bonds (wrong)
Watch The X-Files (until the last season)
Read Byte (wrong)

[mtbat]

well, it was pretty on target for a good part of the neighborhood-except they forgot about the gang-bangers who visit their buddies next door and across the street-(did I mention the 18yold accross the streets bday where after one kid got kicked out of the party he came, stood in front of my house and shot off a small gun?)

Makes me wish I could recall my zip from when I lived in oakland Ca-2blocks from the Ashby BART station-I'd love to see what it said about that zip!

[magenta321]

Well, not too bad.

14 Country Squires
Elite Exurban Families
Age group: 45-64 (sounds old, but ok)
Professional (yeah)
Household income: they said lower than I expected
1.40% of U.S. households belong to this PRIZM Cluster.

This PRIZM Cluster is most likely to...

Go cross-country skiing (not personally)

Bank online (who doesn't)

Own a fax machine (certainly)

Watch Frasier (it's ok)

Read Forbes (I'm too young).

We are also

15 God's Country
Executive Exurban Families
Age group: 35-64
White-Collar
Household income: Sounds more like the income of a one parent household in this area... but, ok, I don't have census reports
2.69% of U.S. households belong to this PRIZM Cluster.


This PRIZM Cluster is most likely to...

Shop online each month (guilty... but change that to daily)

Own a garden tiller/tractor (guilty, but there is a good amount of yard)

Have tax sheltered annuities (I don't personally, but I am young. Let me earn something first, then we'll talk.)

Watch This Old House (Is there anyone who doesn't?)

Read Colonial Homes (Guilty, I love the magazine!)

So, it sounds like they have us pegged, for the most part. I don't match up with all of it, and the money seems way off from what I would access the average in my town to be. (Of course, at 22, I am not making close to even the low numbers they claim are average, so I personally don't fit the bill anyway )

Also, they missed the part about the driveby shooting on my street last summer. (I can't find the right icon for dark humor, so I won't put one, so as not to look like I am laughing that someone was murdered here). "Surburban life, the American dream... big get little and little get big, the system got you but it won't get me..."

[soxfan[$]]

Well, my area's definitely getting more yuppie, so the profiles (mostly successful single types) fit the neighborhood.

Ailsa
who needs to get a raise to continue living where she does

[sibhreach]

Okay - I was intrigued when I read the title. I had to give this a go.... (and, yes, I'm bored and broke because I spent all my $$$ at the bar, last night, okay? )

MicroVision
Settled In (well, going strictly by age - yes, but not me, personally)
Metro Singles (Medium-low income young singles and some couples, age 25-39... and I watch(ed) Star Trek:Voyager)
White Picket Fence (nothing)
Secure Adults (again - going strictly by what I've observed in the neighbourhood, yes, but not me)
On Their Own (I have the most basic cable, but I'm debating getting an upgrade...)
Total: 50%

PRIZM
Money & Brains (I've only watched [i]X-Files[i] for about 3 seasons and then on and off, but mostly off, since; Edgebrook is a few miles away from me)
American Dreams (nada)
Bohemian Mix (zipola)
Blue-Chip Blues (I drink Coke)
Old Yankee Rows (I've bought 3 Spin 'Zines in my life - and only because they were talking about Tori Amos and another was talking about Trent Reznor)
Total: 30%


Somehow, I don't think they interviewed me....

Cairlí
Can't Be Classified

[frazzledspice]

Having lived in three states since 1996, I tried to see if any of my three zip codes had anything in common.

In two of the zip codes (Vermillion, South Dakota and Chesterfield, Missouri) there was one matching category:

Agri-Business!

I can't think of a single category that would describe me less.

Vermillion, SD was a small university town, but it didn't seem to have a single category (such as aging hippie, armchair philosopher, starving artist etc....) that I would struck a resonant chord with me. Yet I would say that 90% of my friends in that town would have fallen into those descriptions, certainly way more than agri-business.

The shopping demographics seem way off to me.

First of all, I shop mostly at Wal-Mart (well, not for clothes, but for groceries, cosmetics, pet food--whatever they carry at the best prices.)

I have never lived in a city where there's been a Nordstrom's (although there is one now back on Long Island, where I grew up.) But I have lived where there have been Bloomingdale's, Nieman Marcus, and Lord and Taylor. And I would only shop there when they had their big clearance sales.

[poseidon]

Hmmm... here's Prizm:

Executive Suburban Families
Age group: 45-64
Professional
Household income: 90700
Have a passport
Shop at Ann Taylor
Have Keogh plan
Watch NYPD Blue
Read epicurean magazines

And here's the other:

Demographics: High income married couples, age 35-49, with young children, large number of people

Lifestyle & Retail: : Shop at Home Depot, eat at T.G.I. Friday's and fast food Asian restaurants, and drive a Honda

Communications & Technology: Own a paging device and a video camera, made a purchase as a result of an infomercial, and use home PC to access interactive chat internet sites

Financial: Have a second mortgage on the primary residence, hold equity loans, and participate in an automatic investment program

Media: Listen to adult contemporary and golden oldies radio formats, watch X-Files (primetime) and ESPN2


Prizm is about 1% correct.

1. I am not an executive.
2. I don't make anything remotely close to $90700. Sheesh I wish I did.
3. I'm not even close to 45 years old. Not for another 12 years!
4. I do have a passport, and I am a professional.
5. I have never seen an episode of NYPD Blue and don't care to. I don't like police dramas.
6. I've never been inside Ann Taylor's stores before.
7. I don't read epicurian magazines.
8. I have a 401k plan, but not a Koegh plan.

The other is a bit more correct, but not by much:

1. I am neither high income nor married -- yet. If you don't count my dog, I have no children.
2. I do shop at Home Depot. I do not eat asian fast food, and I have only been to a TGI Friday's twice since I've been an adult. And I drive a Ford, not a Honda.
3. I do not own a pager nor do I own a video camera. I have never and probably would never order anything from an infomercial. I have used chat sites before, though.
4. I do not have a second mortgage and hopefully will never need one. I do not have any home equity loans or any other kind of loan aside from my mortgage. The only automatic investment program I belong to is my 401k.
5. I listen to adult contemporary stations, but not golden oldies. I do watch the X-Files regularly but have programmed ESPN2 out of my channel line up.

Jeff

[hadassahchana[$]]

I don't live in the U.S. any more, but I typed in the ZIP of the small twon in Oregon where I grew up. It is just scary how accurately they have that town described! From the subscriptions to 'Field And Stream' to the pickup trucks and the sheet vinyl flooring (not to mention the percentage of gun ownership )

Did I tell you all how much I love living where I do now?

Cindy

[KateTPZ]

Not me! (And not my neighborhood, either!)

11 Second City Elite
Upscale Executive Families
Age group: 45+
Professional
Household income: 67800
1.89% of U.S. households belong to this PRIZM Cluster.

And here I was afraid that it would return something like "Bubba Land!"

[afropuff]

Hoo boy, this is interesting:

Prizm:

1) Blue Blood Estates: nope.

2) Winner's Circle: uh-uh.

3) Executive Suites: Way off.

4) Kids & Cul-de-Sacs: I'll admit, that's a sizable chunk of the population here in Cary. Not me, though.

5) Young Influentials: OK, I get what they're saying, and I think this category is getting warmer . . . but I don't go to rock concerts, watch America's Cup, etc. Try again.

Microvision

First off, they get props for the 80's-era photos. Gotta love that big, frosted hair! :thumbs:

1) Upper Crust: I'm too young for that.

2) Established Wealth:

3) Movers and Shakers: OK, this category is rather eerie in its accuracy. I'm not in the age range, but I do everything else (listen to NPR, jog, use our home servers like they're going out of style, etc.). Eeeeeeeek! Am I going yuppie before my time???

4) Home Sweet Home: Kids? Good one.

5) Great Beginnings: Another category that is frightening in its accuracy . . . YES, I like Glamour, YES, Asian and Mexican food rules! But no MTV or "Friends", alas.

Oh well. I guess the ad execs do an excellent job after all (at least with the Microvision version). Eeeeeeeeerie.

[vein]

I don't know if I should laugh or cry... I should:Buy baby food

Buy soul/r&b/black music
Pay bills by phone
Watch pay-per-view sports
Read National Enquirer

I don't do *any* of those things.

According to the MicroVision, I should "eat at fast food chicken restaurants, and shop at Lady Foot Locker". I should also have about 4 kids running around.

Love that data - too bad pretty much everyone I know around here doesn't fit that little category.