Online Mapping Tools

Where do hipsters live in Philadelphia? This tutorial guides you through identifying market segments within a city.

1. Navigate to SimplyMap through Penn Libraries, and then click on the "New Map" button at the top.
2. On the left click the "Variables" button.
   • a. Under Categories, choose "Nielsen PRIZM." This is marketing segmentation data that assigns the population to groups of consumers.
   • b. Under Folders, select "Segments."
   • c. Under Variables, select "% Household Segment 4: Young Digerati." Alternately, look for "% Household Segment 16: Bohemian Mix." Look at the metadata (how the segment is defined) to see if it's the segment that interests you, then add it to the map. You can find the metadata for any particular market segment by selecting "Action," which appears to the right of the segment name as you hover over it. If you want to get really fancy, add multiple market segments to your map. You can do so by clicking on the "Data Filters" tab in the upper-right hand corner of your screen (for instructions, watch this tutorial).
   • d. You can also, within the "Action" button, choose which year (some variables allow for viewing them in both the future and the past) to display data for as well as add the variable to your favorites for ease of future use.
3. On the left click the Location button.
   • a. To locate Philadelphia, Pa, in Step 1 select "Find Location By: Cities," then in Step 2 select "State: Pennsylvania, City, Philadelphia" and finally in Step 3 click on "Use This Location."
4. In the "Map Legend" box, adjust the geographic unit (i.e. "Zip Code," "County," "Congressional District," or "State") by clicking the "View data by" dropdown toward the bottom of the legend to see which representation level best suits your data. You can also alter the legend's colors and the map's outline colors (which set of colors do you think suits Philadelphia hipsters the best?) to your taste by clicking the "Edit Legend" button at the bottom left of the box.
5. Click on "Actions" in the upper right-hand corner and then "Export Map" to create an image file of your map if you wish. You will then be asked to crop your map, choose your paper size, and decide whether it should be in Portrait or Landscape format. Additionally, you can select "Export Shapefiles" to download a copy of your map that can be uploaded into GIS.