GfK GeoMarketing recently released 25 new digital maps for Turkey, one of the fastest growing markets in Europe. The map set includes the first-ever comprehensive digital map of the country’s five-digit postcodes. These maps offer companies a reliable and detailed basis for geomarketing – i.e., the analysis of the Turkish market with respect to region-specific criteria.

Bruchsal, - September 4, 2008 - GfK GeoMarketing recently updated and expanded its digital map set for Turkey. The revised map set includes, for the first time, a map with coverage of the country’s 3,273 five-digit postcode districts as well as a map featuring 6,754 urban and rural neighborhoods.

Digital postcode maps provide companies with a solid foundation for sales territory and expansion planning. In conjunction with a geomarketing software application, the maps allow businesses to visualize their company and market data through the use of the postcodes associated with this information. This straightforward but powerful technique gives companies the ability to reveal their customer distribution, branch turnover volume and market potential on insight-generating digital maps.

The production of highly accurate digital maps of Turkey poses significant challenges, mostly due to the fact that reliable sources of information are hard to come by. Those that do exist are often incomplete and/or contain contradictory information. As a result, highly accurate digital maps of Turkey are very rare. The new Turkey map set is the result of a tremendous amount of first-hand research carried out by GfK GeoMarketing’s cartographers. Together the maps comprise the most comprehensive digital map set available for postcode and administrative districts in Turkey. The map set is available in all common data formats and includes Turkish and international name attributions.

World’s first map of all five-digit postcodes for 2008

GfK GeoMarketing’s cartographers have newly digitized and rendered Turkey’s five-digit postcodes, providing coverage of the 3,272 postcode units (status: 1.1.2008) that exist following last year’s reform. Particular attention has been paid to ensuring that postcode units fit together seamlessly. GfK GeoMarketing is the sole provider of a digital postcode map of this quality and level of detail.

The Turkey 2008 map set also contains a newly digitized map with coverage of 938 counties and greater metropolitan areas (Ilceler). A new level of detail has been achieved for the metropolitan areas of Antalya and Istanbul: Istanbul is now subdivided into eight new metropolitan districts, and Antalya into five.

Highly detailed topographic maps offer excellent point of orientation

The city maps have also been completely revised and expanded: Organized according to number of inhabitants, these maps provide an ideal orientation tool. New additions to the revised map set for Turkey include a map featuring more than 37,344 cities with 10,000 or fewer inhabitants. These maps provide users with an ideal basis for planning sales or service territories, assessing customer distribution and evaluating market potential.

The map set also includes road and rail networks, rivers, lakes and city areas. The increased level of detail is particularly notable with the new high-resolution coastlines. One of the most important sources for such detailed information is satellite imagery. Furthermore, all of GfK GeoMarketing’s maps are vector-based, meaning that they allow limitless zooming. As a result, the achievable detail for many locations is comparable to a traditional printed map at a scale of 1:50,000.

The maps have been cross-checked with maps from TeleAtlas, one of GfK GeoMarketing’s longstanding partners. This level of quality-control and resultant accuracy and detail are necessary for ensuring compatibility of the maps with any standard geographic information system, CRM system and other digital environments.

“In conjunction with a geomarketing software application, digital maps featuring postcode and administrative boundaries constitute one of the most important tools for a company’s planning, controlling and sales needs, particularly in an international context,” explains Wolfram Scholz, managing director of GfK GeoMarketing. “The new map set for Turkey provides our customers with an immensely reliable and detailed foundation for achieving success in this rapidly growing market.”

Available data formats

GfK GeoMarketing’s digital map sets are available in the following data formats: DISTRICT/RegioGraph (GfK GeoMarketing’s geomarketing software solutions), *.tab/*.mid/*.mif (MapInfo Professional), *.shp (ESRI ArcGIS) and *.gdb (GeoDatabase).

The DISTRICT/RegioGraph format includes, for the first time, additional infrastructure data integrated into the maps. This makes it possible to automatically evaluate the accessibility of a given location or region via the road network when planning sales or service territories.

Further information
Cornelia Lichtner
Tel.: +49 (0) 7251 9295270
E-mail: Email Contact
www.gfk-geomarketing.com/turkey.

Sales contact: Nicole Lahr, Tel. +49 (0)7251 9295160,
E-mail: Email Contact.

Download map samples
High-resolution cartographic samples can be downloaded at
www.gfk-geomarketing.com/fileadmin/gfkgeomarketing/en/press/20080903_maps_turkey_2008.zip.
Download press release


About GfK GeoMarketing

GfK GeoMarketing is one of Europe’s largest providers of geomarketing solutions for customers from all branches of trade. Its services include:

• Consultancy and reports
  
• Market data
  
• Digital maps
  
• RegioGraph and DISTRICT geomarketing software solutions

The company is a subsidiary of the international GfK network. Ranked among the world’s top 5 market research organizations, the GfK Group consists of 115 subsidiaries and more than 9,000 employees, with operations in 100 countries.



Contact:

Ms. Cornelia Lichtner
Public Relations
Tel.: +49 (0)7251 9295270
Fax: +49 (0)7251 9295290
E-mail: Email Contact