Location is Key

One of the primary goals of marketing a brand is to make it easily recognizable and attainable to everyone. When the average American goes out during the day, they pass hundreds of advertisements posted on billboards, in windows, on street poles, and even bus stops. This is because location is key. It is nearly impossible to avoid one of these everyday installments, and that is the goal, to make sure consumers remember your brand. In "HOW TO: Leverage Location for Better Ad Campaigns", David Staas highlights several ways to locationize your brand:

• Local messaging: When leading a national campaign, it is important to instill a local element into your advertisements to give your audience a sense of familiarity and personal attachment. According to Staas, one particular brand, placed advertisements in New York and incorporated the Statue of Liberty, and the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. Doing this gave a more local, trustworthy feel to the brand rather than an inapproachable and consumerist one.
  
• Let consumers engage with a specific location: With the introduction of GPS capabilities in most mobile phones, location based apps have boomed. Foursquare, for instance, allows its users to "check-in" to locations for their friends to see. This idea of checking in to locations broadcasts that place across the web and sparks the idea that this location is the place to be. Another location based app, Shopkick, partners with specific brands so that when you step into their shop and check-in via your phone, you will earn points towards major discounts, attracting all the bargain hunters out there.
  
• Consider proximity: Most consumers will not trek too far for a 10% discount. But when faced with a larger discount of 40-50%, customers become much more willing to go the extra mile and buy a larger quantity of items. This allows marketers to gauge farther than just the immediate area of the store in order to attract new and returning customers.

What do you think? Do you have any location based apps on your phone? Can you think of any brands that have been using location to encourage consumers? Let us know!

To read more on taking advantage of location when promoting your brand, click here.