The use of localisation in the web

Géolocalisation et marketing

Fidéliser sa clientèle

http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/crm-marketing/geolocalisation-et-marketing/fidelisation.shtml

This article refers to the topic of geolocalisation in the web and the use of this tool by brandnames to get loyalty from their consumers. Geolocalisation consists in indicating to yours friends where you are via the web in your cell phone or where you can find some specific places (restaurants, hotels...). This can seem to be quite a commonplace tool at first sight, but brandnames have quickly understood they could deeply impact their customers through the use of it. For example, Starbucks was the first company to use Foursquare - a site dedicated to geolocalisation - to increase loyalty among its clients by giving them the opportunity to collect points each time they prove their presence in a Starbucks restaurant with a "check-in" in Foursquare and offering them some promotions on products when they got a certain amount of points. Such a process encourages consumers to go to Starbucks coffees on a long-term basis as it rewards them for their loyalty.

Geolocalisation is not only use to keep loyalty from customers but also to spread the image of brandnames among a large scale of people. By localising themselves in a specific places, customers let know their friends the name of places where they are used to or like to be and in a sense they invite people to join them into the indicated places. Consequently, without any effort nor any expenses, brandnames can rely on localisation sites on the web to do their own advertising. Thanks to sites like foursquare, brandnames can all the more have access to a wide number of people that "check-ins" are often shared in very famous social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.

Google Places - another localisation site - can also help companies to spread the image of their brandname on the web. Indeed, brandnames can use Google Places to show the way to their selling points, to add a link  which is directly connected to their website and to create tags on their page in Google Map to lead to ads about their product. Thus, the presence of brandnames on the web is largely developped through the use of localisation tools.

As far as hotels are concerned, they unfortunately do not make enough profit from localisation sites. Hotels often use Google Map or Google Places in order to help their clients to localise them on a map and to have easily access to their website. But contrary to brandnames like Starbucks, they usually do not take into account sites like Foursquare to keep loyalty from their clients or to increase their reputation among customers. If hotels want to be able to compete with third parties such as Tripadvisor or with other brandnames, they should rely more on localisation tools to develop their presence and spread their image on the web.