 Where are the customers you want to reach? How near are they to retail or other facilities, and how far will they travel to reach these? Where should future facilities be built in order achieve maximum return from their target market? How can you plan direct sales calls to suppliers and direct door-drop marketing to consumers in the most cost-effective way?
These “who, where, why, when and what” questions are addressed by MapMechanics, the specialist in computer mapping, geodemographics and scheduling, and its latest range of solutions for the marketing world is highlighted on the company’s stand D74 at the 2007 Technology for Marketing show, which runs at Olympia, London from 6 to 7 February.
For the field sales market, a significant development is Frequency Scheduler, a system for planning the client visits by agents over an extended period. It takes account of factors such as anticipated non-availability, variable time windows and differing call cycles. The first user, leading field marketing agency FDS, says it has already brought significant improvements in the speed and convenience of allocating calls to its staff.
Frequency Scheduler exploits the capabilities of three of MapMechanics’ other key products, all of which will be on display. OptiSite, the network planning system, and GeoConcept, the geographic information system, work together to allocate staff optimally to territories containing the required call points. Also Frequency Scheduler provides the option to harness the batch mode capability of TruckStops, the routing and scheduling system, to plan routes and schedules on an optimised basis, using a simple, friendly interface.
OptiSite itself will be demonstrated in its latest version 2 form, offering usability improvements and new capabilities. For instance, it allows users to model a network based on the number of people living on a road, the number of shops within a postcode area, or the population of a town.
GeoConcept will be shown in the version 6 form launched last year, with example applications such as one by retailer B&Q, which been using it in conjunction with NAVTEQ street-level map data and ITIS road speeds (all supplied by MapMechanics) to improve its understanding of drivetimes and customer catchments.
A speciality of MapMechanics is its systems for planning doorstep marketing activities, which in the past has been adopted by users such as Circular Distributors, and has more recently been trialled by Thomson. The system allows users to divide target areas into units making up efficient, manageable delivery rounds based on addresses, and can also print out maps of delivery rounds and target address within each round.
Often, when a business is assessing the market potential of a range of locations, it is desirable to see maps of those areas in order to present them in context. A time-saving GeoConcept utility has been developed by MapMechanics to generate customised maps automatically and very quickly (hundreds in minutes) in JPEG format, complete with related information. The initial user, commercial property agency Christies, also uses the system to produce maps of individual properties for display on its own web site.
Alongside these powerful yet accessible applications, MapMechanics provides a wide range of digital mapping and geodemographic data products, and will be highlighting some of the latest datasets for this market.
The P2 People and Places neighbourhood profiling system draws on the Census 2001 and TGI data, classifying postcodes into clusters such as "aspiring streets", "cramped flats" and "manufacturing pride".
Retail Destinations is ideal for activities such as profiling retail estates, evaluating target towns and adding retail context to existing maps. It identifies and rates what it calls Areas of Retail Activity (ARAs) throughout the country – over 20,000 in total – and names and classifies each of them by type.
Retail Parks data, which is based on the National Survey of Local Shopping Patterns, enables users to identify accurate catchments and catchment penetration rates for every retail park in Great Britain.
MapMechanics also continues to offer a wide range of UK, European and global map datasets, including the continually-expanding NAVTEQ range, which now includes street-level mapping for Australia, South Africa, the Middle East, the USA and Canada, as well as further-flung locations such as Russia, Taiwan, China, South Korea and Mexico.
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