In the early 1970s, however, perhaps succumbing to boredom, or academic disillusionment, Robbin decided there might be a way to commercialize his work. So he founded Claritas (Latin for “clarity”). A one-man start-up, Claritas was arguably the first firm to exploit the new social science that Robbin and other practitioners called “geodemography.” The basic notion was that approaches developed to predict urban crime could also help advertisers improve the marketing of their products.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 602