GfK GeoMarketing's new digital maps for Germany, Austria and Switzerland comprise the basis for geomarketing applications in sales, marketing and expansion endeavors. The maps for these three countries reflect all regional changes that occured over the past year and thus provide a reliable basis for geolocating company data and market potential.

GfK GeoMarketing has updated its approximately 100 digital maps for Germany, Austria and Switzerland to reflect the latest status. The new maps detail the hundreds of postal and administrative changes that occurred since the last update. Available immediately, the new map editions feature coverage of all official postal and administrative entities, including municipalities, districts and supplementary topographic details.

Digital maps featuring postal boundaries (e.g., the five-digit postcodes in Germany) and administrative boundaries (federal states, districts and municipalities) form the foundation for software-based analyses with a geographic component in geomarketing, GIS, ERP and other database applications.

"It's absolutely essential that digital maps be precise, detailed and up-to-date," says Klaus Dittmann, head of cartography at GfK GeoMarketing. "Working with old maps means that company data will often not be correctly geocoded and displayed, which results in errors. An up-to-date cartographic basis is also necessary to correctly evaluate current data on market potential, such as purchasing power and turnover data."

Germany
The three counties of Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig were dissolved. There were an additional 110 changes to the municipalities: Since 2011, seven new municipalities were created in Germany, while 63 were dissolved. There were boundary changes in 99 municipalities due to annexations and reapportioning. Two municipalities underwent a name change, while three municipalities received new numerical identifiers. The total number of municipalities changed from 11,329 (on 01.01.2012) to 11,273 (on 01.01.2013).

Six postal regions were dissolved, while three were created; there were also around 150 boundary changes due to reapportioning.

Switzerland
The ongoing merging of municipalities continues; in 2012, 107 municipalities were dissolved and 20 were created.

There have only been a few changes on the postal level (two postal regions were dissolved), but as in the case of the municipalities, postal boundaries have been updated for approximately 200 regions.

Austria
The most important change is the district reform in Styria: Six of the 16 Styrian districts will be merged into three districts, resulting in changes to the numerical identifiers for the 174 municipalities in these districts.

On the postal level, ten new postcodes were added and one dissolved; there were also 20 boundary changes due to reapportioning.

Digital maps play an essential role in international expansion and sales territory planning, serving as an indispensable component of geomarketing software or geographic information systems (GIS). These software applications are used to analyze and display the geographic component of company and market data on digital maps.

The high-quality maps feature comprehensive coverage; gapless, overlap-free boundaries; national and local attributions and infinite zoom capability.

Like all of the digital maps offered by GfK GeoMarketing, the new GfK map editions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland are available in all standard map formats, including *.shp (ESRI), *.tab (MapInfo), *.gdb (GeoDatabase) and *.lay (GfK GeoMarketing). The maps are also available in the Oracle (Spatial) database format for use in Oracle Business Intelligence applications.

The new digital maps are available directly from GfK GeoMarketing. The maps of all three countries as well as seamlessly fitting, up-to-date GfK purchasing power data are standard components of the new geomarketing software solution, RegioGraph 2013.

These maps are part of GfK GeoMarketing's cartographic coverage of 240 countries, the largest collection of digital administrative and postcode maps available on the market.

More information on GfK GeoMarketing's worldwide digital maps can be found at www.gfk-geomarketing.com/maps.

Free samples from the GfK map editions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland can be obtained from Doris Steffen:
T +497251 9295 180 / doris.steffen@gfk.com.

GfK GeoMarketing's headquarters are located in Bruchsal, Germany. The company is a subsidiary of GfK. GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with more than 12,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2012, GfK’s sales amounted to €1.51 billion.

Additional information can be found at www.gfk-geomarketing.com.

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