Now it is all about location in applications!

Real Estate is all about Location, Location, Location... Well, more and more, the same can be said for mobile applications! What does location mean for applications? Plenty! 

The two big location advances in applications are 1) improving the customer experience and 2) giving the application provider incredible, enhanced insights about the application users. 

Don't you hate trying to find your loyalty card to scan at your favorite retailer or searching through your key chain with 100 dongles on it to get your loyalty points? Skip it–smart companies are building location into their loyalty application, so when you walk into a 7-11 your 7-11 loyalty card automatically pops up on your phone, ready to scan! No fuss, no muss!  There are also now loyalty card "aggregators". These applications allow you take a photo with your phone of each of your loyalty cards and add them to the application. One of the leaders in this space is a company called CardStar. Then when you walk into any of those locations–guess what –no more pulling out the key chain or trying to remember what phone number you used or any effort at all – your loyalty card for that store pops up automatically on your phone, ready to scan! It can be your health club, gas station, hotel, restaurant - you name it! Location makes it easy for the consumer to have a better experience with your brand. Happy customer equals profitable customer!

The next big move on the Western Front is Data Wrangling! It is all about big data, geo-location and is a whole new area to lasso! 

Most applications can tell all you need to know when a consumer is using the application. What are they clicking on, what are they buying, are they using the coupons–you can get all of that from your customers. But new advances in location can tell you interesting things about the consumer- even when they are not actively using your application. 

The big buzz in advertising is "Attribution". Attribution lets you know when your advertising is driving the foot traffic where you want it to go. Maybe you’re a major automotive brand, and you spend around $10M a year to sponsor a stadium. Knowing how many people who attend events at that stadium with your name on it actually end up at one of your dealerships within the next year -"Attribution." Location services can deliver on that information. Here is a great article written in the New York Times about the trend going on with good old fashion billboards and attribution, the billboards are watching you!

NYT - See That Billboard? It May See You, Too

BIG DATA is great when you know how to harness it! Some new "Big Data" that becomes available with location services are "Personas". Personas basically tell you what people enjoy doing based upon where they visit. With venues geo-located, you can see if a consumer is a coffee lover, or a business traveler, or, like me, both of those! It helps marketing departments create very personalized journeys for their customers. Say you call customer service because you are upset with something. They not only take care of your issue but at the same time, they see you are a coffee lover and a business traveler: "I’m sorry, Mr.McBrien, next time you go to Detroit Metro Airport the Starbucks is on us! Thanks for being a loyal customer." Great customer insights make for great customer journeys and loyal customers!

So, with Applications as with Real Estate – it’s all about Location, Location, Location!