We’ve already drawn some attention to the fact that globally, location-based services (LBS) are gaining popularity. In fact, consumer LBS and enterprise indoor LBS are growing at CAGRs of 26.07 and 43.48 percent respectively in the US alone.
As these services become more ubiquitous, many companies are jumping on this opportunity to both facilitate the customer experience, as well as create a value-added experience through next generation advertising.
Hence, the emergence of the indoor location based search and advertising market. The global market is projecting a whopping 61.33 percent CAGR from 2013-2018.
The concept behind location-based marketing (or LBM) is relatively simple—replace the billboard and pamphlets of marketing campaigns past with targeted audio/visual ads, delivered via mobile devices. Companies deliver personalized ads to consumers using GPS locating facilities, which can display stores near the customer, as well as information about products and contact information.
Since LBM mostly functions via beacons, which use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to communicate with shoppers via an app on their mobile device, the brunt of the infrastructure is already in place. LBS and LBM are cost effective, easy to implement, and take advantage of mobile technology that is already everywhere. In other words, it’s a system that benefits both advertisers and consumers.
For consumers, it reduces search time and enhances the overall shopping experience. For advertisers and businesses, it enhances the outreach potential.
Because of this, location-based marketing is seeing quick adoption across a range of sectors, the most notable being retail, hospitality, healthcare and aviation.
Retail Sector
Location based advertising is changing the face of the retail industry, as well as the way a regular consumer shops.
Bluetooth and GPS are instrumental towards this re-shaping of the retail marketing landscape. Bluetooth indoor location-based tracking enables the tracking of smartphone movements and identities in a retail space. The systems create a record of consumer movement ranging from the time of entry to the time spent at different shelves, so that relevant promotional information can be sent to their phone.
Phones integrated with retail BLE can help customers locate less crowded billing counters, items within the store, and special offers. Additionally, connecting the store metrics with the customer identities can help garner a huge amount of data about consumer behavior. This can help store owners identify areas that need work and pinpoint customer product preferences.
Hospitality Sector
Even though it’s a relatively new concept for hospitality, LBS is expected to play a huge part in this sector over the next few years.
Vendors will be able to use location-based advertising to connect with travellers and offer discounts and ongoing promotions at nearby shops and attractions. Hotels will be able to offer visitors a virtual concierge service accessible from anywhere on the premises, as well as facilitate virtual check-ins.
The restaurant world also stands to benefit from this, as beacons interacting with an app can provide virtual menus, suggest cuisines, and provide people with the user ratings of a particular place along with its full history and specialty dishes. Health-conscious foodies can even get calorie counts of the food they are planning to eat and receive suggestions about the nearby places offering the same cuisines accompanied by the price and rating comparisons.
Healthcare Sector
Patients and family members often encounter a lot of confusion while searching for labs, wards and medicines in hospitals. Proliferations of LBM would mean that beacons are set up in rooms so that important information and announcements can be provided to the patients. In addition, an entire hospital building can be equipped with beacon devices installed at all major points so that relatives can access navigation information. These beacons can be paired with sophisticated maps to provide guidelines for entering a particular type of care unit, give updated information about wait times and facilitate online registration.
Aviation Sector
Airport infrastructure is trying to keep pace with consistent increases in air traffic around the world. Indoor LBS and LBA will both be hugely important to the evolution of the aviation sector, and to the general comfort of airline passengers. Using the technology, passengers will eventually be able to locate their boarding gates, receive up-to-date flight information, product information for various items available in the airport shopping lounge, promotional information and even earn loyalty bonuses.
If you are interested in more information on developing LBS and LBM markets, visit www.TechNavio.com for an updated list of current research.
