Location Based Marketing: Just Getting Started

Location based marketing seems to be in the early growth stages, but now with the widespread adoption of mobile devices with location tracking it appears there are a number of new growth areas. One of the most interesting areas is in indoor location based advertising and marketing. This technology allows companies to send ads and coupons to potential customers based on their physical location within a store. For brick and mortar retailers this could be a way to retain customers who would otherwise look at the product in-store and then buy online through another retailer. This could be a nice solution for the brick and mortar retailers who in recent years have been losing out on tech savvy customers.

The location based marketing initiatives may face some headwinds from regulators as privacy concerns will continue to be at the forefront. Opt-in could severely limit the size of the market and some industry experts say it could virtually kill the market. It will be an interesting debate in the coming years, because the technology can potentially be good for the consumers if it allows companies to more efficiently market to customers. Perhaps attitudes will change and people will become more comfortable with their physical location information being available. It seems that widespread adoption of location information has many positive applications that extend beyond just advertising.

http://gpsworld.com/mid-year-report-on-location-market-privacy-google-and-att/