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Marketing and Location Intelligence

3 Ways Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Using Location Intelligence

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Many brick-and-mortar stores suffered financial losses in recent years due to the ease and efficiency of online shopping. While some businesses view the rise of online shopping as the ultimate enemy, innovative businesses are using the shift in consumer shopping habits as an opportunity to develop new and exciting incentives for driving traffic into their stores.

Omnichannel marketing is a powerful way for brick-and-mortar businesses to leverage multiple marketing channels to drive greater brand awareness, in-store traffic, and sales. Location based insights are at the core of this, helping businesses illustrate their unique value proposition and provide fun and fresh ways for customers to engage with their brand.

Here’s how successful brick-and-mortar stores drive foot traffic and generate sales using location intelligence:

Leverage Geofencing:

  • Gain competitive insights: Conduct trade area analysis by placing geofences around competitors to reveal how often your customers visit them. You can pair this with tracking competitor deals and incentives to gain knowledge on how to steer customers back to you…or keep them from visiting competitors in the first place.
  • In-store incentives: If your customers allow notifications, you can deliver limited time pop-up ads every time they are within a certain distance from your store, or an extra deal when they are about to leave your store.  Input customer data: Location intelligence platforms allow you to input customer information, useful for developing targeted marketing campaigns. This includes precise mailing addresses and detailed demographic information.

Precise direct mail campaigns:

Studies show that direct mail ROI is strong when marketers use omnichannel marketing methods to deliver a seamless and personalized customer experience to match lifestyles with customer buying trends. Pairing digital intelligence with direct mail can produce powerful results. Location technology delivers detailed demographic information along with accurate postal codes so that you are delivering the right message to the right people rather than wasting time and money on consumers that are unlikely to be interested in your product or service.

Location-based insights for site selection:

For brick and-mortar stores looking to open a new shop or to relocate, location intelligence platforms provide essential information on ideal locations. This includes demographic data, a historic view of how an area has changed over time, new developments, nearby points of interest, and much more.

Using location technology and the powerful insights it provides helps businesses integrate marketing channels for an omnichannel marketing approach. This leads to precise messaging and a highly compelling customer-centric experience that will have customers regularly engaging with your business on and offline.

To learn more download our guide Using Location Based Insights for Omnichannel Marketing

Additional Reading:  

5 Ways Canadian Retailers Should Be Using Location Data and Technology

Customer Experience Location Intelligence and Insurance

5 Hidden Data Points Insurance Companies Can Use to Improve their Customer Experience

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Creating exceptional customer experience is becoming a top priority for many insurance providers as an essential way of differentiating themselves in a fiercely competitive marketplace. If you and your competitor offer similar pricing, but your competitor provides a better customer experience, who do you think will land the customer?

Location data offers actionable information that insurance providers can use to deliver high quality customer experiences at every touch point. Interested in using data to outpace your competition by offering stronger customer experiences? Check out these 5 hidden data points:

1) Accurate Postal Codes  

You want to ensure you’re offering the most accurate quotes possible when customers come to you seeking coverage. If you’re assessing risk based on postal codes, you aren’t working off of the most accurate location information, and this will be reflected in your pricing. Flooding and earthquakes, for example, don’t stop at the postal code boundary. It is more accurate to assess properties based on latitude, longitude, and elevation to truly understand risk.

Using a location intelligence platform like DMTI’s Location Hub, insurers can better identify and rate risks for properties of interest. Actionable information ensures underwriters make data-backed decisions based on the specific locations being reviewed. You get real-time, high precision geocoding delivered with trusted industry standards, and customers get pricing they can trust.

2) True Risk Concentration

You cannot gain a true understanding of a property’s overall risk probability if you examine risks in silos. Location intelligence offers the ability to review total concentration of risk, such as flood, fire, and other natural hazards, and assess likelihood of any of these occurring, as well as how close the property is to emergency services.

Here’s how this improves your customer’s experience. Aside from providing customers with fair, accurate pricing, you also have a comprehensive understanding of their exact insurance needs, including needs they may not realize they have. For example, a customer coming to you for property insurance may not realize they also require coverage for wildfire or flooding. Using location intelligence, you’ve got the data to show customers what they need, making them feel confident in your services and completely protected by the coverage you offer.

3) Reduce Processing

Time Average processing time for quotes and claims is an essential data point every insurance provider must be aware of. Most people are accustomed to immediate gratification, and staying competitive in the insurance industry requires providers to deliver information quickly.

Leveraging the right digital tools is the key to tracking and reducing processing time. Location intelligence easily feeds into platforms that automate the underwriting and claims process according to your company’s rules and guidelines.

4) Customer Information

Location Intelligence platforms enable customer data to be seamlessly integrated, allowing you to autofill information and limit the number of manual inputs required when generating quotes. Automation of personal information reduces costs for you, while providing customers with a better digital experience. Location intelligence also allows you to review customer claims patterns for real time data-based decision making throughout the underwriting process.

5) Complete Customer Portfolios

Instant access to customers’ portfolios provides an overview of data revealing areas where your insurance company could offer additional services. For example, if you’re using a location intelligence platform, you’ll be able to see all properties owned by a customer that may be covered by other insurance providers. With complete property information paired with hazard data, you’ll also be able to see if your customer has adequate coverage to fully protect their assets. This data allows you to provide a great experience for customers because you enter conversations prepared with complete information and options to provide better rates and coverage than your competition.

Click here to learn more.

 

Additional Reading:

Top 3 Ways Location Intelligence Empowers Underwriters

 

Retail Store Site Selection Location Data

5 Ways Canadian Retailers Should Be Using Location Data and Technology

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Read to know why location technology and location data sets are indispensable weapons in any retailer’s artillery

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IoT and Location Intelligence

5 Industries Being Transformed by IoT and Location Intelligence

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Read to learn how the fusion of location data with the Internet of Things (IoT) is making organizations smarter and more efficient across industries

So many devices around us have steadily gotten connected to the Internet that we hardly even notice how extensive the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem has become. Our computers and smartphones may be the most obvious IoT players, but today, everything from household items to manufacturing machinery has been embedded with sensors which are generating and streaming data without any kind of human intervention.

Given this pace of proliferation, Gartner says we should expect to see more than 20 billion Internet-connected devices by 2020. And McKinsey maintains that IoT applications could have a global economic impact to the tune of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion per year by 2025. These incredible figures start to sound all too plausible when you look at the developments closer home.

According to IDC Canada, over 45% of Canadian organizations today have dipped their toes in the IoT pool and the IoT market in the Great White North alone is predicted to reach a value of $13.5 billion by 2019. When you consider how IoT is giving businesses access to knowledge they could never tap into before, the optimism for IoT applications gets more than justified.

IoT sensors generate a massive amount of data every day. To both increase revenue and decrease costs, all companies need to do is know how to extract actionable insights from the information at their disposal. Many industries have discovered that the best way to do that is to tie disparate information streams together using an easy-to-recognize context called location.

By using precise location data, organizations can easily visualize what is happening where. And by analyzing historical data bound by spatial awareness, they can map trends and use these insights to optimize business processes.

Let’s dig a little deeper into how various industries are becoming smarter and more efficient by fusing IoT with location intelligence:

Smart Cities

Urban analytics is an essential component of smart city development. IoT and location intelligence are allowing governments and municipal agencies to quickly gather regional insights to identify inefficiencies as well as environmental impacts and risks. For instance, smart sensors on wheels can not only identify most congested areas, they can also provide a telling picture of pollution hotspots. Further, IoT and location intelligence are also creating ladders of opportunities for businesses. For example, the Canadian city of Mississauga publishes its real-time bus locations as a live open data set. A gallery can easily use that information to tell a commuter about an art exhibit they could visit at the next stop.

Supply Chain and Logistics

The marriage of IoT with location intelligence is bringing greater levels of transparency and efficiency in the supply chain, and changing the playing field for organizations that deal with logistics. Embedding tags in cargos is leading to an unprecedented ease in asset tracking and tracing – both during in-freight operations and at the time of inventory management in a warehouse. Distribution centres are also able to manage their yards more effectively by providing up-to-the-minute directions to truckers based on the type of goods they are carrying. And businesses even have an opportunity to provide early intervention in case an asset goes missing or is out-of-place.

Consumer Retail

A study undertaken by Deloitte and the Retail Council of Canada has found that retailers are using smartphone-based traffic analysis to understand the foot traffic outside and inside stores during different times of the day. This data is helping retailers to implement strategies to grow in-store traffic at preferred times. But that’s not the only way how location intelligence and IoT are transforming consumer retail in Canada. Retailers are also using these technologies to execute everything from offering in-store navigation to identifying profitable locations for new stores.

Insurance Companies

According to PWC Canada, 63% of insurance CEOs are convinced that IoT will be strategically important for their organization. And location intelligence is a natural fit for this bundle. Sensor data backed by spatial awareness can give insurance providers first-hand information about what happened, improving their ability to proactively address claims. Insurance companies can also use the location-backed data to improve their risk rating, detect fraud, and improve customer loyalty. For instance, a car insurance provider can offer discounts on premiums to its customers based on their real-time driving data.

Energy and Utilities

Providing reliable, high-quality and uninterrupted service requires a great amount of visibility and control across the entire utility network. IoT and location intelligence make that possible in ways more than one. Peterborough Utilities Group in Ontario, Canada efficiently manages outages and voltage discrepancies in its distribution network by using IoT to capture multiple data points like temperature, board status, etc., every few minutes from its metering points. Meanwhile, BC Hydro, the chief electric utility for British Columbia, has found that it can restore power faster and isolate faults to the smallest possible area leveraging an IoT-based smart grid system.

Clearly, location awareness is indispensable for an effective IoT network. Location intelligence can provide both context and relevance to an organization’s decisions supported by sensor data and open up a wealth of opportunities for smarter growth.

To know more about how you can benefit from adding precise location data to your IoT setup, contact us.

Additional Reading:

5 Ways Canadian Retailers Should Be Using Location Data and Technology

mapping condo concentration

3 Reasons Why Mapping Condo Concentration Matters

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The construction rate of multi-family dwellings in Canada shows record highs being posted in the last 5 years. This presents some unique challenges when analyzing data sets. Multiple units can exist within a single address, an important consideration when mapping and developing your analysis.

Let’s review 3 potential issues and what to do about them.

Mapping multifamily construction

The Impact on Infrastructure

Condos require services, meaning they will draw heavily on existing infrastructure. The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, for example, commissioned a report on elevator availability and maintenance. The request for proposal, which was issued by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority states “Ontario is currently experiencing one of the largest construction booms in residential properties in North America (and) a rapid growth in the number of elevators.”

High-rise construction requires specific planning of services, as higher densities can break traditional models that are based on regional boundaries. The ability to sketch out the density caused by high rise building enables analysts to better define territories in modelling out future service requirements.

Book of Business Modelling

Over 109,000 condo units were added to the downtown Toronto market since 2010. Insurers have an ever increasing need to model their current and prospective business against the current condominium market. This will ensure they are not over or under represented in certain buildings.  This can be challenging for any new building to ensure proper targeting of new business and ensure current business are not overrepresented.

The following graphic shows the state of condominium builds since 2010 in the city of Toronto – note the variability in the number of units in each area – and the resulting impact on any book of business.

Toronto's five decades of condo growth, mapped

Marketing to Highly Profitable Clients

The opportunity for utility and telco to maximize profitability is high in the condominium and multi-family dwelling market.  You’ll be able to bring services to a high number of users with minimal expense. It does, however, require marketers to target end users accurately and understand who is within reach.

This is an opportunity that plays out across major markets throughout Canada.  The following chart shows the expectation of continued higher production of multi-family starts vs. single-detached for the city of Calgary.

CMHC Forecast-Summary

Marketers and operations managers have an excellent opportunity to combine their current client data with accurate location intelligence data. This will help them understand where new, profitable business opportunities are emerging across the country.

Check out the new DMTI / Teranet Condo Concentration Insights offering here if any of these business scenarios apply to you.

Here are helpful links if you are looking for Mexico Business Data, U.S. Real Estate Tools or U.S. GIS Mapping Technology

Location Intelligence for Enterprise

Challenges, Drivers and the Need for Location Intelligence

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Even organizations that understand the value of location intelligence struggle to translate that understanding into meaningful profit-generating activities.

Much of the difficulty stems from the challenges of marrying enterprise data, which is typically housed in relational databases, to fully spatial-enabled information. New solutions that provide access to a platform of technology and crucial data building blocks that are integrated into an enterprise’s information processing cycle are available.

The result is a clean, current and consolidated view of enterprise information revealing new opportunities to enhance profitability.

3 drivers of location intelligence in the enterprise market are:

  1. The availability of high quality, current and complete data: Commercial geographic content providers are getting more sophisticated in the data offerings made available (e.g. to the building units in apartment buildings) allowing for a hyper-local perspective in business applications not previously available. Full service providers of location intelligence include subscriptions to geographic data that is maintained and developed on an on-going basis.
  2. Growing awareness of location-enabled services: Location intelligence has been popularized by business to consumer (B2C) applications from Internet search portals and personal navigation device (PND) vendors; and this increased awareness is moving into the Enterprise segment of the market.
  3. The rise of web services as a better-faster-cheaper deployment model: Software as a Service (SaaS) is now recognized as an agent that transforms how companies do business and is one of the most compelling innovations allowing for deployments of location intelligence that are cost effective. Solutions and delivery models are maturing and can be adopted without any disruption to existing IT structures or data modeling applications, reducing the attendant risk and expense.

More and more, the value of location intelligence is being linked to strategic and operational success at an enterprise level. As a means of generating revenues and controlling expenditures, location intelligence can directly impact profitability. Click here to learn more about how DMTI can help you leverage location intelligence.

Risk management for earthquakes

The Importance of Managing Earthquake Risk

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Do your risk management processes consider the risk of Earthquake?

October 16th marked the 7th annual ShakeOut where over 24 million participants worldwide will practice how to drop, cover and hold on at 10:16 a.m. during Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills.

“ShakeOut BC Day” started in 2011 and this year over 660,000 participants in British Columbia will participate in drills.  The Charlevoix region in Quebec started participating in 2013 and the entire province has joined in for 2014 with over 80,000 participants registered.

Canadian Regions at Risk for Earthquake

Most people would initially think that British Columbia is most at risk when thinking about the risk of earthquakes in Canada.  However, parts of Quebec and Eastern Ontario are also at risk for earthquakes.  At a recent earthquake response seminar held in Toronto by the Catastrophe Response Unit (CRU), Dr. Kristy Tiampo, professor of geophysical modeling methods at Western University’s department of earth sciences in London, Ont. who also works with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) stated that “Montreal and Ottawa are both at significant risk of ground shaking” and noted that both cities have seen earthquakes that have measured around 6 on the Richter scale.

In an October 2013 report commissioned by the Insurance Bureau of Canada titled “Study of Impact and the Insurance and Economic Cost of a Major Earthquake in British Columbia and Ontario/Québec” two hypothetical earthquakes were modeled by AIR Worldwide.  One off the west coast of British Columbia measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale and one northeast of Quebec City measuring 7.1.  These two hypothetical scenarios would result in a combined estimated total insured losses of over $30 billion.

It is imperative for insurance companies to have a complete and accurate picture of the location of the property that they are insuring in context to the risks that surround that property.  This will allow them to rate the policy correctly and also to determine whether or not they want to assume the risk.  Understanding where the property is in relation to an earthquake zone is very important.  But not only is it important to know if the property itself is at risk, but also knowing where that property is in relation to other items that could be impacted by an earthquake.  For example, what if the property was close to a natural gas pipeline or propane processing facility?  Knowing about these potential risks in isolation is important to the underwriting and rating decision. But, what about when you also factor in earthquake?  An earthquake of a small magnitude may not be enough to cause much damage the property.  But what if it was enough to cause a gas leak, that then lead to a fire and an explosion?  Having this level of information could mean a big difference.

Disaster Risk Management for Insurance Companies

Another factor to consider for insurance companies is the accumulation of risk.  While the risk for the single property may be acceptable, knowing where all your existing policyholders are at the time you underwrite a mortgage and their relation to risks such as earthquake zones will be critical in determining whether you are willing to assume this additional risk or if your exposure is too high.  If there are two major events in a given year, would your exposure be too high and you wouldn’t be able to pay out on all the claims?

In Canada, various forms of location such as postal code boundaries, municipalities and Catastrophe Risk Evaluating and Standardizing Target Accumulations (CRESTA) zones (for earthquakes) are used to determine the accumulation of risk.

As per the ICLR, Canadian reinsurers, insurers and regulators use Catastrophe Risk Evaluating and Standardizing Target Accumulations (CRESTA) zones as the minimum standard for the capture of data and first level of calculation of probable maximum loss (PML).  PML evaluations can influence underwriting decisions, and the amount of reinsurance allowed on a risk can be predicated on the PML valuation.

The original CRESTA zones were established in 1981 and introduced in Canada in 1986.  They have been recently re-worked globally and have been re-launched to the market for 2012/2013.

All businesses can use this information to help define their contingency plans in event of an earthquake. Which of my existing store or branch locations might be impacted?  Where are my employees situated?  How would I deploy resources to help my customers most efficiently?  Where would I situate them?Insurance underwriting and exposure analysis is only one area where this information can be used.  Other examples include:

  • Public Safety departments within governments can use this to build contingency plans for their citizens, determine where they would locate remote relief sites, sites for temporary housing or medical facilities.
  • Telecommunication companies could use this to gain a better understanding of the risks associated with building out infrastructure in various parts of the country

Click here to see how DMTI’s disaster risk management tools help insurance companies effectively plan for every possibility.

Developing Location Intelligence

Transforming Location Intelligence into Profit

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Over the next few weeks, this blog series will provide an overview of some of the basic uses of location intelligence (LI) at an enterprise level, its capacity to optimize business processes, and its hierarchy of benefits that impact positively on profitability and competitiveness.

Here’s what readers can expect to learn:

Location Intelligence: Definition and Context

Some progressive organizations are starting to recognize the value of location as an organizing principle. They see how it is embedded in corporate information, and can be applied to current business problems. Through the use of location intelligence technology, these organizations are finding ways to leverage a latent asset.

As a result, telecommunications companies are improving the serviceability of products across their customer base to increase profitability, insurance companies are better understanding risk and pricing to contain costs, utilities are more accurately meeting compliance requirements, and civil authorities are improving threat detection and emergency management capabilities. These are just some of the applications at an enterprise level.

The strategic use of location intelligence is being propelled by several key business drivers, including the need to increase revenue while simultaneously contain or reduce costs. These strategic imperatives form two sides of the profitability equation, which location intelligence is well-suited to solve.

Location intelligence describes the capacity of an entity or organization to use the principles of location to organize, reason, plan and problem solve. It is not defined by the mere presence of location-enabled technology, but moreover by the degree information is enriched by the perspective of location and the successful integration of this information into a process of decision making.

Specifically, location intelligence is the capability to organize and understand complex phenomena through the use of geographic relationships inherent in all information. Applied in a business context, the outcomes are meaningful, actionable and can provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Building location intelligence successfully requires business specific domain knowledge, formal frameworks, and a relentless focus on desired business outcomes. It’s about transforming business processes and creating opportunities.

Dimensions of Location Intelligence

Location intelligence applications are generally industry specific. However, within that framework, uses can be sub-sorted into three sub-categories:

Enterprise decision support: enterprise applications, often vertically focused, that illuminate optimal business strategy. For example, a telecom company consolidating newly acquired customers can identify common customers and determine how to offer services to achieve the greatest value. An insurance company can link geography dependent risk elements such as proximity to a flood zone or density of coverage in specific neighborhoods to better contain costs, and mitigate or more accurately price for risk.

Customer service: applications that facilitate customer service and self-service to improve the overall customer experience.For example, a government agency can more efficiently measure service levels or plan for the distribution of services that are in many cases dependent on variables that change over space, such as household income or number of children. Governments may also be able to better protect constituents by applying location intelligence to existing workflows so as to enhance fraud detection or threat detection capabilities.

Consumer applications: enterprise applications that build loyalty among customers and influence purchasing behaviors. For example, retailers can execute store-specific promotions with more accuracy, and profile and target their markets, resulting in the identification of higher value customers. Or retailers may use location intelligence to augment loyalty program services via internet channels, as in neighbourhood smart store offerings.

Table 1.0 – Use scenarios for location intelligence by industry

Uses of Location Intelligence
Communications & Media Insurance and Finance Government Services
Marketing

  • micro-marketing
  • assessing penetration levels
  • identifying competitive threats
 Portfolio Analysis

  • predictive analytics
  • pricing and loss reserving
  • assessing policy saturation
 Address Management

  • address validation
  • data cleansing
  • data maintenance
Customer Service

  • pre-sales qualification
  • dispatch efficiencies
  • multi-product eligibility
 Marketing Services

  • property-level campaigns
  • neighbourhood context
  • repeat marketing tracking
 Information Integration

  • improved data integrity
  • a “one client view”
  • reducing cascading error
Operations

  • customer serviceability
  • cost avoidance
  • network planning
 Sustainable Compliance

  • risk assessment
  • improved monitoring
  • compliance auditing & reporting
 Entity Authentication

  • fraud detection
  • risk profiling and scoring
  • advanced analytics

Up Next: Challenges, Drivers and the Need for Location Intelligence 

Leverage Location Insight geofencing

Leveraging Location Insight to Drive Business Opportunity

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It’s clear that we live in an increasingly mobile society. Distance and time are reduced by technology and lifestyle.  But even in our virtual world, we still focus on the locations where we live, work and play. At the same time, the data we create has grown in volume and complexity. In order to effectively meet the changing needs of our mobile society, businesses must leverage location insight to drive new opportunities.

Business Data and Location Insight

According to a Deloitte report, 85% of all data has a location component. Many businesses are aware of the value that having good data can bring from a business perspective. You must have current, correct, complete and accurate location information. This helps to identify new opportunity through more effective targeted campaigns, and to upsell and cross-sell to existing customers. You’ll also improve targeting of new prospects.

The ROI of Location Insights

When data analytics is used correctly, the end result can lead to tremendous success for a business’ marketing efforts. Union Gas for example, leveraged location data along with key demographic content to focus their marketing campaigns.  This led them to the right audience with the right message:   Promote energy conservation programs to eligible clients in an effort to reduce natural gas consumption among this group.  As a result Union Gas realized a 400% increase in the uptake rate of their marketing programs.
For more information, check out how Location Hub is helping businesses use data insights to grow their customer base.

Additional Reading:

Leverage Location Intelligence for Precision-Targeted Direct Mail Campaigns

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