GPS (Global Positioning, Sort Of)

Everyone in the research industry is talking about it - GPS and the ability to target consumers, before, during and after their shopping experience.  The possibilities are endless.

Done right, researchers can survey consumers as they walk into a retail location, gather initial impressions and capture product perspectives from the critical consumer point of decision.  Most exciting, researchers can finally talk to "non-buyers" and find what drove their final decision not to purchase the product they walked in for.

But be careful.  Not all GPS mapping is created equal, and many companies claiming their mobile product has pinpoint location-targeting capabilities are stretching the truth.

The fact is, many research providers can only target down to city level.  And many of those claiming specific GPS location-targeting capabilities are simply overlaying basic mapping tools that are not even close to the location you are actually looking to survey.

Take a look at where one of the popular mapping applications placed the GPS coordinates for this McDonald's in Fenton, Missouri.  See anything interesting? 


McDonald's GPS coordinates based on Foursquare location mapping.

The pinpoint isn't anywhere near the door, meaning respondents driving by will be notified - whether or not they are even visiting the restaurant.

Now take a look at the Best Buy below in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Because the pinpoint was randomly placed in the parking lot, many respondents entering the store would never even be notified that a survey was available.

 
Best Buy GPS location based on Foursquare location mapping.

Does that mean that we should give up on GPS-based surveys?  Of course not.

MFour Mobile Research has been busy using our proprietary "geo-verification" techniques to authenticate more than 500,000 retail locations in the United States to make sure our clients' "hot spots" are pinpointed to the door - not across the parking lot or in the middle of the street.


Best Buy correctly mapped after MFour GeoValidation process.

As you might have read recently in Quirks Magazine, we are busy developing best practices for GPS pinpointing and the new mobile device research market in general.  Send us an email if you would like to talk about mobile research and the best practices for your next project.