Retail Location Data Offerings At MapScape.com Power Retail and Commercial Real Estate Decision-Making


    ANDOVER, Mass.--March 20, 2001--MapScape.com(R) by Tactician Corp., the customizable online market intelligence and strategy resource, is now offering online access to location data on Supermarkets, Mass Merchandisers, Department Stores, Club Stores, Drug Stores, and Convenience Stores for competitive intelligence and market planning by retailers and commercial real estate developers.

    Updated on a monthly basis, the retail location data sets from Trade Dimensions include accurate locations and data for in excess of 214,000 retail locations nationwide:

    --SUPERMARKETS/OTHER GROCERY - 50,000+ Supermarket/Other Grocery locations nationwide. Reports include: the distance of each supermarket/grocery from your location/market; store name; address; chain/independent status; owner/chain name; and store ACV (annual sales).
    --MASS MERCHANDISERS, DEPARTMENT, AND CLUB STORES - 25,200+ Mass Merchandiser, Department, and Club store locations nationwide. Reports include: the distance of each store from your location/market; store name; address; and the owner/parent company.
    --CHAIN DRUG STORES - 18,500+ Chain Drug store locations nationwide. Reports include: the distance of each chain drug store from your location/market; drug store name; address; and chain affiliation.
    --CONVENIENCE STORES - 120,300+ Convenience store locations nationwide (includes chain/franchise and independent stores). Reports include: the distance of each convenience store from your location/market; convenience store name; address; chain/independent status; and owner/chain name.

    By adding these comprehensive retail data sets to an already extensive collection of up-to-date data and powerful "One Click(SM)" decision-making capability, Tactician further enhances MapScape.com's position as the premiere Web site for developing easy-to-use, market-specific initiatives. MapScape.com's existing data offerings include:

    Demographics (1,500+ updated and projected variables), Retail Expenditure (400+ household categories), Daytime Population, Disposable Income, Wealth, Assets and Debt, WeatherRisk(TM), QuakeRisk(TM), Environmental Risk(TM), Climate, CrimeRisk(TM), MOSAIC(TM) Lifestyles, TrafficMetrix(TM) Traffic Counts, BusinessCounts(TM), and Bank Branches.

    "Since 1969, Trade Dimensions has built and maintained the industry-standard retail database and is continually recognized as the leading provider of critical information about retail. MapScape.com offers spatially-based, online access to these comprehensive and highly precise retail location databases - information which is essential for accurately understanding and evaluating today's rapidly changing competitive environment within a retailer's trade areas and across the markets in which it operates," notes Hal Clark, President of Trade Dimensions.

    Retail and commercial real estate executives use online access to the Trade Dimension retail location data sets at MapScape.com to better evaluate the competitive environment which exists in the local markets in which they sell, market, promote, advertise, and deliver their products and services. This results in more accurately targeted marketing programs, more efficient allocation of media and advertising expenditures, and more successful site and market expansion/rationalization strategies.

    "The retail location data sets from Trade Dimensions offer highly accurate and current locations and attribute data across a range of retail categories. These data offer a valuable perspective on any geographic area, and represent an essential ingredient for assessing the competitive environment in and around existing and/or prospective locations and markets," adds R. Robert Reading, Executive Vice President of Tactician Corp. "MapScape.com users are offered online access to an additional source of high quality data to assist in planning and executing site/market expansion studies, marketing campaigns, and advertising initiatives."

    The new Retail Location data sets enhance MapScape.com's position as the most robust source for driving geographically-targeted business strategies by combining comprehensive, precise data with the time- and cost-saving features uniquely available at MapScape.com:

    --"ONE-CLICK" MARKETING - Users interact with an easy-to-use, Wizard-based interface, which guides them through sequences of steps, automating entire marketing procedures.
    --PERSONALLY AUTOMATED MARKETING INTELLIGENCE (PERSONAL AMI) - Personalize MapScape.com's built-in Automated Marketing IntelligenceSM (AMI) by storing and adding your own market decision rules and campaign procedures.
    --100 PERCENT "E" - MapScape.com is online all the time, which means there is no need for software updates and no installation procedures.
    --MOST CURRENT DATA - MapScape.com makes the most current data available to users instantly. It's all online, so users don't have to wait to have data updates mailed to them.
    --E-MAIL DISTRIBUTION - Users can save the maps and reports they create for distribution to the field via e-mail. Instead of taking the time to print and mail maps, everyone can work with the same information quickly and easily.
    --SCALABILITY - The MapScape.com system is powerful enough to accommodate the largest companies, yet versatile and cost-effective enough to give smaller companies an edge.

    Trade Dimensions, headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut, is a VNU Marketing Services company. The parent corporation, VNU, is a worldwide leader in business information systems and trade publishing with over $4 billion in revenues. Since 1969, Trade Dimensions has built and maintained the industry-standard retail database and is continually recognized as the leading provider of critical information about retail. Our data resides in 100's of major packaged goods manufacturers and retailers. The Trade Dimensions databases are a fundamental element to all leading micromarketing systems and syndicated research firms. It is also used by the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry as well as marketing, merchandising and promotional service providers.

    Tactician Corporation, headquartered in Andover, Mass., provides geo-marketing products and services for sales, marketing, and advertising decision support. Tactician's products and MapScape.com provide users with data reporting for sites, territories and media geography, marketing and media planning, strategy development and execution; store and territory optimization modeling. Tactician's products are used by the world's largest corporations for over 12 years to improve sales productivity, more effectively allocate advertising expenditures, increase market share and optimize marketing strategies. Additional information can be obtained by visiting www.MapScape.com for an online demonstration.

    --30--el/bos*

    CONTACT: Tactician Corporation
             R. Robert Reading
             978/475-4475
             rreading@tactician.com