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The location intelligence sector has gotten crowded in the past five years, making it harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. Making matters more difficult, there are looming restrictions such as location tracking in iOS13 and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These factors could raise barriers to entry and cause an industry shakeout where only the strongest survive.
On the list of longstanding industry players with extensive networks and location intelligence chops is GroundTruth. As we discuss with CEO Sunil Kumar on the latest episode of Heard on the Street, succeeding in location requires concrete and verifiable data for foot traffic.
“How we acquire customers is an important part of what we do,” said Kumar. “I live in Burlingame, California, and there’s a pizza place. To acquire that pizza place as a customer, the first thing I do is [say], ‘Hey, pizza owner, it looks like you are in Burlingame, California, and we know that 28,000 people live in Burlingame, and we know that 10,000 of them go to a pizza place. And you get 800 out of the 10,000 to your store in a month’… That’s the kind of insight we start with, and then here are the solutions that can help increase the 800 to 850 or 900… We always start with something at the very local level that our customers can immediately understand is accurate information.”
Location intelligence is also increasingly used beyond marketing and customer acquisition. Knowing where customers are and how they’re using products can inform strategies to serve them better and retain their ongoing business. This applies mostly to larger brands.
“We can help brands build better engagement with their customers,” said Kumar. “Nike is my favorite example: You buy a shoe from Nike, and they know what kind of shoe you bought, but they have no idea what you’re doing with the shoe. Are you running a couple of times per month? Are you going to the gym or sitting at home? That kind of information is very useful for Nike to engage with their customer — not really from an advertising standpoint but more from a retention standpoint and building new business.”
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