Unscrupulous slick sales people are doing damage to the GIS
industry. By selling quick fix smart
phone apps claiming GIS capabilities, with no statistically verifiable data, in
fact, with no spatial data whatsoever.
These charlatans are providing grossly averaged out findings that claim
to be micro geographic. On closer
scrutiny, none of the data is geocoded or micro-geographic. Neither is the digital marketing database that
the said micro-geographic findings entice advertisers to purchase.
Therefore a retailer looking for location
based demographic data relating to their catchment area, are receiving
non-geographic averages, and in purchasing “micro-geographic” customer database
marketing, ie sms marketing to the consumers living within the vicinity of the
store, are actually receiving a database of consumers within the broader
geographic area, and can therefore expect little return on their investment, as
this spend is not going to bring about a call to action to consumers living 5-20kms
from a store, as opposed to a very real call to action that would be created if
the consumers did live within 1-3kms of the location as claimed, given a real
value proposition.
The advertiser purchasing this campaign may have little
knowledge of the capabilities of a true Geographic Information System nor the
power of truly geographic data, and micro-geographic marketing. Then again, the sales people of this product,
too, have as little knowledge. And as
there are few real measures of broad digital media effectiveness, it’s
difficult to quantify the lack of response to such campaigns.
The uninformed advertiser assumes GIS and
Location Intelligence cannot provide the solution to getting more bang for their
buck. Do not be mislead and misinformed. Contact Spatial Insights as we can, in fact, accurately
and scientifically profile micro-geographic catchment areas, as well as measure
customer response, and target advertising and marketing messages through
efficient media channels within the prescribed geographic catchments areas.
