Data Visualization Tools for Business Students

PolicyMap is a fully web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) and mapping tolls pre-poplated with demographic information from the Census Bureau of the U.S. Government.   It's fast, efficient and captures data in visually powerful ways through custom demographic maps, tables, reports and an analysis tool, Analytics. PolicyMap is a premium subscription-based service available to all Seton Hall students and faculty. 

PolicyMap includes a access to over 15,000 indicators.  Those of interest to business students and faculty include:

Demographics: population, race and ethnicity, age, sex, language, foreign born, migration and immigration, households, families, elections, religion

Incomes & Spending: income, poverty, federal tax returns, economic mobility, location affordability, area median income, low mod, bankruptcy

Housing:  home sales, home values, rental units, residential buildings, vacancy, affordability, cost burdens, federal housing programs and more

Lending: mortgage lending by loan type, race and ethnicity and income, small business loans, farm loans, banking

Jobs: unemployment, labor force, detailed workforce demographics, jobs and industries

Where PolicyMap can offer exceptional deep dives into useful data is in the area of marketing.   The interface allows users to layer information. The below is an example map of part of Essex County, NJ.  If I were looking to gauge the market for high-end, lifestyle convenience services like food delivery or at home pet grooming, I might want to find areas with high numbers of two working parent households with high incomes.   Families like this are short on time and are willing to pay for time-saving conveniences.  The map below shows areas (by census track), where 50% of households make more than $150K, and more than 40% of households are married with children, and lastly, over 40% of residences have a working woman.  

The data is also downloadable in reports.  The use case below demonstrates a user building a community profile report of Jersey City in a few clicks.  You can quickly gather detailed information about any location with PolicyMap's report feature and create a market study for any city in a few short clicks.The report generated offers a wealth of granular, city-specific demographic information that can be leveraged for targeted marketing: