11.27.2007 - 08:30am ET

(CSRwire) SYRACUSE, NY - November 27, 2007 - With everyone paying attention to environmental issues – even BP and WalMart are in the act – it's no surprise that people plan to take the planet into consideration when choosing their president. Over 30,000 adults across the US were recently surveyed in the new Earthsense Eco-Insights Survey that profiles attitudes about global and national issues, candidates, green products, eco-friendly companies and purchase intent. Concern about energy prices and the environment resonates with more than half of all voters who indicate that it will have an extremely or strong impact on their vote in the upcoming presidential primaries. The issue is particularly salient among Democrats, especially likely John Edwards and Bill Richardson voters. More so than most other issues, the environment is politicized across party lines. Swing voters place a level of importance on the issue more similar to registered Democrats whose voting intentions are more firm; the importance of the issue for Republican voters lags by comparison.

Earthsense, launching today with findings from its inaugural research, has partnered with the online marketing planning platform Telmar as the delivery channel for accessing data to gain insights about consumers' attitudes, voting and buying patterns. It brings a first-of-its-kind integrated intelligence to organizations that are focused on best-of-breed sustainability practices and improving their marketing effectiveness with consumers:

As the largest consumer survey of its kind, it offers both breadth and granularity of data from 30,000 US adults, focused on the issues of environment and sustainability and their impact on people's votes and purchase decisions. The Earthsense Eco-Insights Survey offers technology that dynamically integrates over 240 environmental, health and other databases to provide unique profiles of communities and consumer segments. It fuses exographic and attitudinal data as a value-added layer for consumer targeting and insights to provide unique profiles of communities and consumer segments.

The challenge for companies in today's business environment is to capitalize efficiently on consumerism in a sustainable manner. Corporate social responsibility is no longer a buzzword. Common business terms such as "triple bottom line" and "balanced scorecard" reflect this shift in focus. According to Amy Hebard, PhD, President and Founder of Earthsense, "Companies that focus on the ideals of people, planet, and profit as the three pillars of responsible business tell us that addressing social and environmental issues is not in conflict with their financial goals, and can be critical to long-term corporate success. But they are looking for smart data to help them prioritize and best address stakeholder concerns. Our data help them do exactly that."

CEO and Founder Wendy Cobrda says that, "Simply put, we believe in and enable a common sense approach that we refer to as having 'earthsense'. The idea is to understand as much as you possibly can about your customers and prospects - not just by demographics or lifestyle – but more holistically by also looking at their attitudes and beliefs and the environment in which they live. Ultimately, our mission is to provide the insights and intelligence necessary to help companies make informed decisions and empower action with confidence, to impact the bottom line - and the earth we share."

According to Craig Gugel, president of Telmar US, "To be effective with cause-related marketing, companies more than ever must rely on consumer and customer intelligence to establish a competitive point of differentiation and break out of the clutter. Our unique collaboration with Earthsense gives us the opportunity to provide easy access to a wide range of information for careful cross-utilization to gain actionable insights. We're pleased to be part of Earthsense’s launch."

Direct Group, a direct marketing solutions provider and one of Earthsense's other partners, is launching its own Voter Insight Solutions, a suite of direct marketing services based on a new national database of registered and unregistered voters, synthesized with data from Earthsense's attitudinal study. Ken Palma, Vice-President of Database Marketing at Direct Group adds: "We are excited about integrating voter registration and preference data and our print-on-demand platform with this powerful 'green intelligence' from Earthsense. Political parties, action committees, lobbyist organizations and non-profit groups all will be enthusiastic about the potential of 'green targeting'."

Key Earthsense findings will be available through Paramount Market Publishing in a weekly electronic newsletter, "Green Customer News," that focuses on green consumers: their demographics, attitudes, and lifestyles (www.greencustomernews.com). The Eco-Insights Survey is available beginning in early December. Additional reports and insights about consumer attitudes, buying patterns and concern about issues will be updated regularly providing the ability to track trends.

About Earthsense

Earthsense is an applied target marketing company, headquartered in the Syracuse Technology Garden, a business incubator serving Central New York. Earthsense blends consumer research and analytical modeling with database marketing tools to help companies learn, measure, and capitalize on cause-related marketing opportunities. The expertise and services provided include in-depth consumer insights, dynamic database integration, direct marketing applications, as well as strategy consulting and guidance. For more information, see www.earthsense.com.

About Telmar

Telmar, the world's leading supplier of media planning software, serves 95% of the world's leading agencies as well as top advertisers, publishers, web portals, broadcasters and out-of-home operators. Thousands of users rely on Telmar software and consulting to plan and sell media. Telmar has offices in New York, London, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Warsaw, Johannesburg and Cape Town. In 2008, Telmar celebrates its 40th Anniversary, remaining independently owned and data neutral.

About DirectGroup

Direct Group is a fully integrated direct marketing solutions provider that serves a wide variety of industry segments and enjoys many long-term partnerships with world-class customers throughout the United States. The company's capabilities include complete database marketing solutions including list processing, web hosting, electronic messaging, geoanalytics and other data analysis; sophisticated print, manufacturing, personalization and lettershop services; and state-of-the-art fulfillment capabilities. Direct Group's corporate offices and three operating facilities, which include one of the world’s largest-volume, single-site commercial mailing operations, are in New Jersey, and the company has a sales and customer service facility in Maryland. For more information about the company, visit www.directgroup.net.

2008 Ranked Election Issues - % Impact on Primary Vote

Global war and terrorism - 71.5
Healthcare - 66.3
State of the U.S. economy - 64.4
Social Security or medicare reform - 56.4
Quality of public education - 53.9
Energy prices - 50.9
Environmental issues - 49.3
Crime - 44.7
Business and Financial issues - 37.8
Abortion - 34.9
Gun rights/control - 32.8
Science and technology issues - 27.4
Diet, health and nutrition - 18.3

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