How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst
Fall 2012
http://libguides.willamette.edu/LMAA
Librarian: Gary Klein x6743
E-mail: gklein@willamette.edu
http://library.willamette.edu
http://library.willamette.edu/classes/how/UseLMAA.doc
DETAILED GUIDE TO USING
LOCAL MARKET AUDIENCE ANALYST DATABASE FROM SRDS MEDIA
The LMAA database will only work with Internet Explorer. If you try to use
any other web browser, it will appear as if your network connection is
frozen!
Advertising agencies and marketing departments would probably pay tens of thousands of
dollars each year to access this dense resource. Everything in this database is organized by
metropolitan areas, with boundaries that are so unique at times, to appear almost bizarre, because
their construction is based upon audience viewing patterns of local television stations (think of
repeater stations in rural areas, creating gerrymandered shapes). In addition to providing all sorts
of cross-tabbed demographics, the key feature is 231 Lifestyle activities or mindsets clustered
under 11 different umbrellas. These lifestyles range from “use chewing tobacco” to “exercise
5+ times in a typical week”. Some of the lifestyles which are analyzed may seem rather vague,
such as “interested in the arts” while other items address such Yes/No questions as “go to
gambling casino in the past 12 months” or “own mutual funds valued $10K+”. One of the
“lifestyle” groupings is called Psychographics, and it has 25 different groupings by itself. There
also is a separate analysis of socio-economic demographics called PRIZM, which has 66 separate
sets of lifes cycle segments. Each PRIZM segment has its own nickname, and code number,
denoting a specific combination of lifestage & wealth, as well as a different code to denote the
combination of urbanicity and wealth.
Collecting this massive array of data, fine tuning the analytical methodologies, and the clustering
of these stereotypical models, in order to ascertain which groups of people are more prominent
within a region, are highly proprietary, very unique, and very costly to produce. This deep &
wide collection of lifestyle & psychographic data contained within LMAA is obtained by a
number of exclusive contracts from such sources as Experian (one of the nationwide consumer
credit reporting agencies), Simmons Marketing Research (nationwide surveyors of media
usage), Claritas (analyzers of census demographics down to the zipcode level), and the Nielsen
Company (collecting purchasing data from supermarkets, departments stores and thousands of
volunteer survey participants who scan their purchases at home, as well as measuring media
usage).
How to use Local Market Audience Analyst database
Needless to say, the outputs that you can work with, reduces 300 million Americans to a series of
stereotypical labels, to simplify the analysis of local trends. LMAA does not try to explain why
these trends exist in some places. Nor does it explain the economic, social, or historical origins
of these trends. LMAA simply reports the data, tries to keep the sources up to date, fine tunes
the process, and continually adds new questions, new criteria, and new categories, to the mix of
what it reports. LMAA clearly is driven by the goal to provide a service, which has a high
demand, and a high willingness of business to pay dearly for this type of consumer oriented
analysis of who has recently bought goods or services, so that business people can then try to
reach these potential buyers in the near future.
You have virtually unlimited use of this database for educational purposes, within the realm of
Willamette, and any potential clients that you interface with, through PACE. But you do not
have the legal right to share the information from this resource with anyone outside of WU,
unless it is part of a bonafide course specific project through AGSM.
LMAA is designed to work with Microsoft Internet Explorer, versions 7 or higher.
This database will not work with either Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, or Apple's
Safari. If you use any of those web browsers, at some point in time, it will appear as if
your network connection is suddenly frozen!
You also have to let your Internet Explorer web browser ACCEPT “cookies”,
and you have to ALLOW “pop ups”. If either of these options is blocked, the
LMAA database will not be fully operational.
SRDS does not make any claims about LMAA working with any other types or version of web
browser, other than Microsoft Internet Explorer, versions 7 or higher.
You must go through Hatfield Library’s database listing to access this resource, in order to be
validated as a current Willamette University student or employee, before you can use LMAA
First, click on
the library’s
starting point
to get into
LMAA
Then the database itself will pop-up in a separate browser window.
You then have to click on the link for Local Market Audience Analyst, to get into the working
part of the database. Willamette University does not subscribe to any of the other services
offered by SRDS. The only service that will work for you is Local Market Audience Analyst.
Then, from the SRDS
screen of options, click
here to activate LMAA
Gary Klein’s How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst / Fall 2012 / Page 2
How to use Local Market Audience Analyst database
Now you are actually inside the Local Market Audience Analyst database when you have this
new window that open.
Before you sit down to use LMAA, you should definitely take time to go
through the associated tutorials that demonstrate how you can best
use this unique database.
These tutorials will save you lots of time & prevent aggravation!
These video tutorials are available on demand, only after you are
logged into this database.
All reports & maps that you request are generated on the fly. It is quite common for the database
to take over 60 seconds between pressing the SEARCH button, and getting the complete results
on your computer’s screen.
There are various options for downloading the results in a printable form, as a spreadsheet, or as
a map. The specific options will vary, depending on the type of report you submitted.
LMAA offers very good helper’s tools & tutorials, to guide you through the downloading
options.
This database centers around 231 Lifestyle activities, behaviors or mindsets, and also 66 PRIZM
segmentations of the nationwide marketplace.
Other than the informational help buttons & tutorial links, when you want to use the core of this
database, everything about LMAA is sequence dependent. You must start in the left hand
column, and make your selection, chosing one column at a time. Then you must press the
SEARCH button to retrieve your information.
Gary Klein’s How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst / Fall 2012 / Page 3
How to use Local Market Audience Analyst database
Everything within this database is organized around one of 3 types of geography:
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a specific DMA = Designated Market Area
the entire nation of the United States of America = all 50 states, or all 210 DMAs
counties = either choosing a county within a State, or a county within a DMA
There is absolutely no ability to create any customized combination of counties or DMAs. You
must select one of these 3 types of preassigned geographies. Once you have retrieved info about
a DMA, you cannot break it down into a single report about each constituent county.
DMAs are similar in concept to Metropolitan Statistical Areas, which are a designated by the
U.S. Census Bureau, based on where people live, and where people commute to work. But
DMAs have very different boundaries, and rather than being compiled based on residential
addresses or places of employment, it is primarily based on where radio & television stations are
received (whether by over the air broadcast signals, delivered via cable operators, or delivered by
satellite antennas). Hence, it is driven more by media markets, rather than population.
Here in Oregon, the Census Bureau says that the city of Salem is part of a 2 county MSA,
comprised of Marion and Polk counties. And the Salem MSA is part of a larger PortlandVancouver-Salem Consolidated Metropolitan Area, which takes in a small portion of
southwestern Washington, as well as a handful of counties that are nearby to the City of
Portland.
Here is a map of the Portland DMA in red:
Compare that DMA map, to a different map of Oregon, showing all 36 counties in OR:
Gary Klein’s How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst / Fall 2012 / Page 4
How to use Local Market Audience Analyst database
This statewide map of Oregon with 2 letter county codes was obtained from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Oregon
Note that the DMA which incorporates Salem is not separated from the DMA that incorporates
Portland. And their definition of the Portland DMA runs diagonally, in the southeast direction,
down to the Nevada state line!
Portland, Oregon DMA = 22 counties within the State of Oregon: Baker,
Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Crook, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Jefferson, Lincoln,
Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Sherman, Tillamook, Union, Wasco, Washington, Wheeler and
Yamhill; and also 5 counties within the State of Washington: Clark, Cowlitz,
Klickitat, Skamania, and Wahkiakum.
Thus, when you rely on third party resources, such as LMAA, you are stuck with their
definitions of a territory, and in this case, it brings a lot of rural land, into an area with the
“Portland” label, that might display characteristics that you might find unusual for what you
understand Portland to feel like.
This problem is not unique to Oregon, as the DMAs have been constructed to take up every
square inch of the 50 states of the USA. So every metropolitan area has a “shape” that may
differ greatly from what you or I might perceive a metro area to look like. And these territories
can also be very different from what the Census Bureau says is a “metro area”.
LMAA does not provide a tool to tell you which DMA a county belongs to. LMAA assigns
every county to a DMA, without splitting up a single county.
You can readily obtain county level data, or DMA level data. But there is no provision within
our subscription contract to provide customized combinations of counties of your choosing. Nor
is there a way to currently produce state level reports.
If you offer to pay more money to SRDS, I am sure that they will extend to you the ability to
make any combination that you want, but not at a price that Willamette University is currently
willing to pay for unlimited student access!
Gary Klein’s How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst / Fall 2012 / Page 5
How to use Local Market Audience Analyst database
There are only 2 search options that allow you to cross tab different lifestyles or
demographics:
The first specialized cross tab allows you to look at the intersection between 2 different
Lifestyles. You must start with one of the 11 broad categories of Lifestyles in column #1, then
you must choose a specific Lifestyle from the 231 detailed options within column #1. You then
have the option of using either one of the 11 broad categories in the second column, or click on
the blue folder button, and choose one of 231 detailed options within column #2. Then you click
the START button, in the lower right corner to retrieve the report.
The second type of cross-tab that you can do is PRIZM by Lifestyle:
You must start off by choosing one of the major PRIZM categories from column #1. You can
then choose either a detailed segment within that category, or you can analyze one of the broad
clusters of PRIZM segments. Then in column #2, you must like choose to either use one of the
broad Lifestyle umbrellas, or click a blue folder, and choose a very specific activity within that
range of Lifeystyles. Then you can press the START button in the lower right hand corner to
retrieve your report.
Gary Klein’s How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst / Fall 2012 / Page 6
How to use Local Market Audience Analyst database
There are 11 different types of reports you can run. Several of them start off looking alike
on the screen, before you press the START button.
The last thing that I will spell out here about LMAA is the ability to use their allied resources, to
get a snapshot look at a ZIPCODE of your choice. And also show you a method to get a broader
look at what is the essence of a PRIZM segment.
PRIZM segmentation look-ups by ZipCode require you to enter a constantly changing security
code, in order to submit a PRIZM query against a ZipCode of your choice. You will not get
valid results from every ZipCode. For instance, there are some ZipCodes in every state that are
reserved exclusively for Post Office Box, rather than for residential areas. There are some
ZipCodes that are reserved exclusively for businesses (such as banks & stock brokerage firms in
New York City). There can also be ZipCodes that do not have a sufficient number of people for
the data analysis firms to accurately evaluate.
You can also look up the functional contents of each PRIZM segment. You can have the listing
of all 66 segments sequenced either alphabetically, or sequenced by their segment code number.
In essence, this is a “source document”, showing you some of the details of the proprietary
PRIZM system.
Each PRIZM segment contains a narrative paragraph, along with about 5 dominant lifestyle
traits, which appear to be very stylized & very stereotypical.
Here is one example:
“Kids & Cul-de-sacs”: Upper-Mid, Younger w/ Kids: Upper-middle class,
suburban, married couples with children--that's the skinny on Kids & Cul-deSacs, an enviable lifestyle of large families in recently built subdivisions. With
a high rate of Hispanic and Asian Americans, this segment is a refuge for
college-educated, white-collar professionals with administrative jobs and
upper-middle-class incomes. Their nexus of education, affluence, and children
translates into large outlays for child-centered products and services.
Social Group: The Affluentials.
Lifestage Group: Young Accumulators
2009 Statistics:
US Households:
1,864,873 (1.62% of all households)
Median HH Income:
$74,448
Lifestyle Traits:
 Shop at “The Disney Store”
 Buy educational toys
 Read “Parenting”
 Watch “Toon Disney”
 Vehicle “Chrysler Town & Country”
Demographics Traits:
Urbanicity:
Suburban
Income:
Upper-Mid
Income Producing Assets:
Moderate
Gary Klein’s How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst / Fall 2012 / Page 7
How to use Local Market Audience Analyst database
Age Ranges:
Presence of Kids:
Homeownership:
Employment Levels:
Education Levels:
Ethnic Diversity:
25-44
HH w/ Kids
Mostly Owners
White Collar, Mix
College Grad
White, Black, Asian, Hispanic
Recap of major resources mentioned:
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Contacting Gary Klein
Hatfield Library main web page
Hatfield Library’s Databases by Subject or Alphabetically
LibGuides for Atkinson
Walking Through the Local Market Audience Analyst database
The Resource Guide for GSM 5107
Gary Klein’s How to Use Local Market Audience Analyst / Fall 2012 / Page 8