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MapPoint 2004 becomes first to offer Simmons product level data down to the zip code level for Small and Medium sized businesses.

New York, NY--Simmons Market Research Bureau today announced that Microsoft Corp. now includes Simmons consumer profile data within MapPoint 2004, the newest version of its business mapping and location-based data visualization software.

According to Simmons' President, Chris Wilson, "With the capability of visualizing data on over three thousand categories down to the zip code level, MapPoint 2004 breaks new ground and offers small businesses an easy to use tool with a wealth of data that they can use to identify new market opportunities. Locating prospective sites for new retail businesses, finding hidden pockets of consumers for direct mail targeting and creating winning inventory mix strategies has never been easier ... or more affordable. MapPoint 2004 using the Simmons National Consumer Study should be as important for the small to medium businessman as a list of customers wanting to place an order!"

Andrew Mackles, MapPoint group product manager at Microsoft, added, "The addition of Simmons rich information on consumer purchase preferences makes MapPoint 2004 a more powerful information tool for businesses and marketers. We are excited to offer our customers the added value of the Simmons data."

Simmons' proprietary segmentation technology provides a unique and powerful capability to segment consumers by specific behaviors, such as: retail shopping behaviors, sports avidity, shopping frequency/volume, entertainment consumption, media usage and a myriad of other descriptors.

About Simmons
Simmons Market Research Bureau is America's leading provider of consumer product purchase, shopping and media usage behavior, as well as detailed demographic, psychographic, lifestyle and attitudinal descriptions. Simmons surveys more than 37,000 people annually to produce the National Consumer, Teens, Kids and Hispanic Studies. Each of these reports provides individual and household information on approximately 8,000 brands in more than 450 data categories. Simmons' proprietary BehaviorGraphics(tm) and other segmentation systems provide unique and powerful capabilities to segment consumers by lifestyle, attitudes, shopping frequency and volume, entertainment consumption, media usage and numerous other descriptors. Simmons Custom Media Studies and Data Integrations provide specialized surveys and data applications using Simmons' databases. For additional information on Simmons consumer data that can be used with MapPoint, such as brand-specific product consumption by geography, visit our data portal at http://www.smrb.net.

BehaviorGraphics(tm) is a registered trademark of Simmons Market Research Bureau, Inc. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.