Have you ever wanted your entire life generalized by a cute little icon and what you purchase?  Then do I have the website for you!

Actually, I’ve been sitting on this post for a few months now and finally have a free moment to write it. And due to my procrastination…the AJC kinda beat me to it.  They wrote an article a few days back about “hip” zip codes and referenced the cool resource I was going to point out.  There’s a division of Nielsen called “Claritas”, which has an online tool called “Prizm” that lets advertisers pinpoint market segments by zip code for sales/marketing initiatives.  The cool thing is that there is a free version that anyone can play with.  Check it out here.

After entering your zip, the site will spit back a list of five market segments that dominate your area.  The real interesting part is clicking on these cleverly named market segments and seeing which group you belong to.  It not only gives a median HH income, age range and education level, but also gives a list of “life style traits”.  These are places you’re likely to eat, magazines you read, and TV shows you’re most likely to watch based on the segment.  While its obviously not perfect, I remember the first time I tried this out and it pinpointed the exact car I drove.  Was I that predictable?  Probably.

Anyway, it’s a fun distraction if you’re looking for one.

So, what’s Decatur?  According to the software, the city is dominated by the very rich that are likely to own their own business, the pretty rich that like to live in town, families with few kids, young yuppies, and middle-age suburbanites.  Hmm…not sure I really needed a software to tell me that…but its still kinda cool/freaky as to how accurate it can be.