The new tool will addresses the issue of people moving, dying or changing their names when they marry, a challenge which many companies have to face, and often results in data becoming unmailable and archived.
The data source will be created by integrating data from Claritas Acxiom's consumer data resource with Equifax's knowledge of how and when people move. This will bring 4m previous survey respondents into the list rental and data enhancement arena.
Alex Simonson, head of alliances at Claritas Acxiom, said: "Every variable has been categorised for the greatest possible relevance to the consumer marketplace and meticulous attention to detail has ensured only reliable attributes are available for selection. Research comparing lifestyle data at current and former addresses reflects a high level of consistency, directly answering the question of whether Lifestyle Advance data is still relevant."
Lifestyle Advance will use a traffic-light system to ensure selections are based on reliable demographic and lifestyle attributes. Red means the attribute is no longer reliable at the new address, amber means it is fine to use for list selection and tagging, but some caution is needed, such as home ownership. Green means that the data is relevant at the new address as it was at the former address.
Graham Arrowsmith, market development director at Equifax added: "The profile of this file shows that the people on it have a greater number of consumer searches per head than average. If this increased number of searches is seen as a proxy for responsiveness, then this new source of data will be in great demand in 2004."
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