September 29, 2008 
One of the typical models used by consumer marketers is the Prizm model by Claritas. If you’re interested in whether you’re a “Pools & Patios”, “Home Sweet Home” or “Empty Nest”, go here and put in your zipcode. In my case, it gave me five possible classifications – Blue Blood Estates, Exec Suites, Kids & Cul-de-Sacs, Movers & Shakers, and Winner’s Circle. After looking at them, I could quickly see myself being classified as the Kids & Cul-de-Sacs one (see below).
They start with 66 different categories which can be used. Of course, this is primarily driven by zipcode and a few other attributes and misses things around your attitude towards health that you might find in other health segmentation models, but it is an important marketing fundamental to understand.
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
The question should be “What’s your neighborhood classification?” PRIZM describes classes of neighborhoods at the block group level. PRIZM clusters environments-not people-DESIGNED for or created by certain types of people based on wealth, education, etc.. , all of which are outcomes of behavior. In social cognitive theory there is the person and perceptions of self and environment, behavior intended to deal with or manipulate the self or the environment, and the environment. Neighborhoods are environments created by behavior motivated by perception. Neighborhoods are the outcome of actions by individuals: those who design them, those who build them, and those who move into them. In my view, to accept the premise that you are your neighborhood is to engage in a potentially dangerous abstraction. You’re a male, and you know all males don’t think and act alike. This is even more true with respect to neighborhoods.