Melissa Data Teams With Claritas
to Market PRIZM NE

Lifestyle segmentation system helps marketers target customers more precisely.

October 18, 2004 Melissa Data, a leading provider of data quality software and services, today announced that it has teamed with San Diego-based Claritas Inc. to market Claritas’ PRIZM NE (New Edition) lifestyle segmentation system.

Working through its Data Enhancement Services and List Sales divisions, Melissa Data will utilize PRIZM NE by appending PRIZM NE segment codes to its clients’ contact databases or house files. “This will allow marketers to profile and locate their best customers, choose targeted sales lists, boost their direct response rates, increase market penetration and much more,” said Ray Melissa, president of Melissa Data.

“We are delighted with this partnership, which is an extension of our strategy to make PRIZM available through a wide array of direct marketing database and software services,” said Jeff Stevens, vice president of the Claritas Corporate Business Development department.

PRIZM NE, which was released in September 2003, defines every neighborhood in the U.S. in terms of 66 distinct lifestyle segments by combining demographic and lifestyle data. These 66 segments provide direct marketers with the power to target their products and services to Americans in all their diversity. PRIZM NE is the fourth incarnation of the PRIZM system, which was introduced 30 years ago.

Some of the more notable PRIZM NE segments include catchy names like Young Digerati, Fast-Track Families, The Cosmopolitans, Old Milltowns, and Multi-Culti Mosaic.

For more information about PRIZM and a description of the lifestyle segments, please visit: http://www.melissadata.com/listservices/prizm.htm.

About Melissa Data
Celebrating its 20th year in business, Melissa Data, the Data Superstore, helps companies manage and optimize their contact data. Melissa Data provides solutions for address and phone number validation, postal coding, data enhancements and sales leads. Every day more than 70,000 people visit the company’s Web site. A powerful line of software, databases, programming tools, and hygiene services has made Melissa Data a recognized leader in the data quality industry. For more information, or to request trial software, contact Melissa Data at 1-800-800-6245 or visit www.melissadata.com