Location, Location, Location Data

By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1

The Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA)’s hyper-informative event, RetailLoco, wrapped recently, and I had the pleasure of attending. If I had to summarize the event’s message, it’s location, location, location data. Location is all about data, as it’s a data set that covers multiple platforms. Your customer’s location changes throughout the day, and using their location to deliver contextually-relevant information can build loyalty and brand awareness (just beware the creepy line). Several panelists assured us that secure opt-ins prevent intrusion, perceived or otherwise. While that may be true especially for the 18-34 set, too much communication, especially if it’s neither welcomed nor personally relevant is as bad, if not worse, than radio silence.

Under the LBMA Founder and President Asif Khan’s direction, this year’s RetailLoco helped attendees better understand how to engage customers more effectively with relevant, personalized mobile interactions using location and context-based services. The day and a half long event was riddled with educational sessions that stressed the importance of contextual relevance and how the right message to the right person at the right time can improve the customer experience and increase loyalty. In his opening keynote, Khan covered the LBMA’s 3-Layer Location Cake, which illustrates how location data is used to 1) “close the deal” using NFC, payments, and loyalty; 2) “increase basket” with beacons, WiFi, and magnetics; and 3) “drive traffic” with push messaging and social location. I won’t give away the store here, as Khan’s astute commentary on this very topic will be featured in our January/February 2016 issue of Innovative Retail Technologies. Keep an eye out for it.

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