Claritas Provides 12-Volt Data

By Amy Gilroy On Jan 29 2007 - 8:00am

A new research company is providing data on the car A/V market.

Claritas, a Nielsen company, is a newly formed division of VNU, a $3.4 billion dollar research company. Claritas said it is gathering consumer data on the 12-volt market including data aimed at car audio specialists.

The company will tackle such questions as how to market to the 16- to 24-year-old customer and how to target upscale clients.

Claritas said Best Buy uses its data for its customer centricity program, which focuses on catering to the most profitable customer groups who shop at the chain.

"The mobile electronics industry, more than many, is fragmented and it is really starving for point-of-sale information," said Neil Portnoy, Claritas consumer durables assistant VP, noting that navigation, mobile video and car audio can target very different market demographics.

The company segments each household into 166 data components to provide information. "We know where the plasma TV customer lives, and we know where the demand is for a certain purchase," says Portnoy, who claims that its research can help retailers determine where to advertise. "You have car audio, video and navigation — so we can help segment those folks and understand who they are and their media preferences … We can find out what these people expect in their mobile electronics a year from now."

Currently, he said, that a lot of the specialty retailers do not provide point-of-sale data to researcher groups, "so it's hard for manufacturers to get an understanding of what's selling out there."