Automotive information and marketing solutions provider R.L. Polk & Co. and On Wheels Inc., a multicultural multimedia company, announced last month that they will jointly publish findings from Polk's automotive studies that highlight the dynamics within multicultural markets. The findings will highlight multicultural issues for the automotive industry and its consumers.

Polk and On Wheels will spend the next year researching and communicating the buying trends, purchase behaviors, loyalty patterns and attitudes of automotive buyers in multicultural communities.

On Wheels publishes a stable of magazines that includes African Americans On Wheels, Asians On Wheels and Latinos On Wheels. It also publishes digital editions of African Americans On Wheels and Latinos On Wheels and maintains two web sites: www.onwheelsinc.com and www.AsiansOnWheels.com.

This is a very clever partnership between a data provider (that possesses the statistical insight) and a media company (that has the market insight). Combined, they have the potential to create some very powerful and valuable information for the marketplace--information that automotive industry players most likely do not have access to from other sources. It's also information that neither Polk nor On Wheels could offer on their own. Joining forces on such an initiative makes perfect sense and the industry will certainly benefit from the unique data that is collected. The directory and database industry will undoubtedly see similar collaborations of this nature going forward. They're really a win-win for everyone involved.

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