While there are countless digital data sources, they do not always tell the full picture. Often times key pieces of information can only be observed in the physical world. That is why anyone who operates in the real-world needs to have information about what is happening on-the-ground.
When we talk about Location Discovery, we’re talking about getting accurate geospatial data. First and foremost, it is important to locate or verify the location of a place or a thing. Once you have identified the physical location, you can understand information about the area in which that place is surrounded. Below are five different ways you can use a Location Discovery solution to get the accurate, ground-level data you need.
1. Find a Location
Finding a specific location or locations is the most basic layer of location discovery. For almost every project it is critical to have an updated map of your business. Using crowdsourcing you can find locations for a multitude of different categories ranging from retail outlets to health facilities.
Location Discovery can be used to map the competitive landscape based on a specific category such as restaurants, specific retail outlets or even health clinics.
One of our clients and the local government had limited data about health clinics in certain regions of Africa. They were unsure of where all of the health clinics were located, and if the data they had on locations was accurate. Without the baseline information about the locations of health clinics, they were not able to move forward on ensuring that the clinics had the essential preventative care needed to help these communities. This same method can be used to identify restaurants, stores or open-air markets around the globe.
2. Confirm a Location
Often times organizations have a list of places where they think their business is located or services are offered but are not fully confident in the data. They wanted to verify the list and identify the precise coordinates of each location, which can easily be done using a network of people who reside in that location. Making sure you have accurate geospatial information for your business is essential to being able to provide your customers and partners with essential information.
With Premise’s proprietary place harmonizing algorithm we are able to make a list of potential places where an organization thinks their services are offered and provide full confidence in the data. Using three different data points, cartesian coordinates, location name and image we can help to validate any existing data sets.
3. Find a Product
Around the globe keeping track of where your products are sold can be challenging. We oftentimes have customers coming to us to find a specific product in a defined area. Sometimes finding a specific product can seem like a needle in a haystack. The first step to finding a given product is identifying the potential physical locations where your product may be located.
With Premise’s global network we are able to deploy local residents to help us visit a variety of different businesses to identify a needed product. Once a product has been located we are able to provide you with a visualization mapping your product locations across a given area.
This information allows businesses to understand their customers, challenges and the overall buying experience with their product. Check out our case study on how we helped one global beverage brand get a more comprehensive picture of their products in Brazil.
4. Provide Information about a Location
While you may know the precise coordinates of a location, you might not know anything about the general area it resides in. Is the business in an urban center, a neighborhood or maybe a rural village? Information about the area that your location is in can provide a great deal of context to aid your decision making.
Premise can help you collect information such as a locations offerings, hours of operations or general condition. All of these data points are corroborated by photographs. Information can also include data on transit, intersections or public assets.
5. Provide Information About a Region
Sometimes when trying to learn more about your products and services you may find that you want to know about a specific region. Perhaps you want to know about all the grocery stores within a five-mile radius from your location or the location of all the coffee shops in a particular neighborhood. Having information about an area can help you better understand how your business fits into the surrounding ecosystem.
One example of a business need for this is within the food delivery space. These services are more popular than ever and thus are constantly expanding to meet demand. For many of these companies getting information about new restaurants and maintaining the data can be time-consuming and challenging in unfamiliar places. We are able to help these businesses by collecting information about the restaurants in specific cities or neighborhoods to aid growth efforts.
Conclusion
Data that relates to a particular location or locations is becoming more and more powerful for organizations around the globe. Data is critical to business success but can be expensive and time-consuming when it comes to getting information that really matters. Crowdsourcing provides companies with the data they need to expand their business in established areas or in new regions, quickly and be more successful in their current operations.
While all of these different uses for Location Discovery alone are beneficial combined they can provide an extremely powerful map of any area you need more data on. To learn more about the types of data that can be collected and examples from real organizations, download our full location discovery report.