M-COMMERCE o location determinant  o location indeterminant From 'who are you?' to 'where are you?' Paul Jay www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/hightech/personalized-ads.html

This page last updated 2008 Oct 08
see related page  www.witiger.com/ecommerce/mcommerce~GPS.htm
 

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the following discussion is to arm the reader with some thoughts and questions that will allow her/him to be able to subsequently judge wireless developments in 2003 in a way that will contribute to decision making in challenging environments. Upon completing this section, the student will have an understanding of how the "P" for Place (in the 4P's) may change in the environment of m-commerce.

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This entire unit (as of 2008 Oct 07), was delivered as a mini-lecture by Prof. Tim Richardson, digitally recorded, and posted on YouTube 2008 Oct 08  www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4PM-PBKeEc

 

KEY POINTS

Terminology location determinant - means the location of the business is determined by several factors such as customers, suppliers, etc. location indeterminant - means the location of the business can be anywhere - there are no determining factors as long as the customer can get on the WWW, they can interact with the vendor anywhere WTGR

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the human business relationship experience: location determinant

16th century Germany - the village blacksmith locates his forge next to the inn, which has stables for horses (which needs his horseshoes) and cooks that need his metal utensils - he is across the street from the local church which draws a large group of travellers from the outlying farms twice a week. 20th century Scarborough - the Macdonald's franchise owner buys real estate across from the local high school, which is adjacent to a medium size mall which is only served presently by a Becker's and a Tim Horton's. Both of these situations are location determinant - meaning the factors of  customer location supplies and materials labour available publicity and marketing determine the location of the business

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the human business relationship experience:   location indeterminant

21st century downtown Toronto - February 2002 - a renovated building in the fashion district, now housing dot.coms. A website with small sized consumer products for sale. Content is multilingual and payments systems are varied. Shipping is cost effective. customer location is not a factor, they can be anywhere FedEx ships supplies and materials are minimal since most is digital and the actual product can be assembled and packaged almost anywhere labour is split between the call center - located in a bilingual Atlantic Canada province, and offsite webmasters publicity and marketing is mostly online, with some billboards placed in the CBD Location is indeterminant meaning this business can be located anywhere since the customers and the production method do not have location determining characteristics.

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the human business relationship experience: location determinant

21st century northern Mississauga - October 2007 - a renovated warehouse formerly belonging to Nortel Networks. A m-commerce service center uses advanced Bluetooth technology to target cell phone carrying pedestrians in the downtown Toronto core. The client: Tim Horton's which has been specializing in small size franchise locations. customer location is a factor, the software only calls their phone if they are within a 80 metre range of a small Tim Horton's kiosk supplies and materials are non-existent - it is a service, not a physical product being sold labour is split between the call center - located in a multi-lingual north Toronto (English, Mandarin and Cantonese)  and offsite webmasters publicity and marketing is mostly offline, with some sandwich boards placed on the sidewalk noting the existance of the service and offering online coupons through the cellphone Location is determinant meaning this business model is based on selling to someone who is in an area of proximity to the vendor.

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advanced technologies facilitated by GPS technologies

CBC journalist Paul Jay wrote an article titled "Hitting the target: Increased personalization of ads here to stay, despite privacy concerns" The article ran on cbc.ca in the first week of October 2007 and quoted extensively from an interview given by Prof. Richardson  The basics of the story is, as Paul outlined in the first sentance "Social networking sites and advances in mobile technology are giving advertisers an unprecedented ability to focus their pitch to a very specific focus group: you."   "Increasingly, sophisticated mobile handsets are incorporating Global Positioning System satellite technology to provide users with mapping information. Tying mapping data into advertising is a natural move, said Richardson." In the interview Prof. Richardson also stated "One of the greatest weaknesses of marketing is you don't know location, you don't know how close people are to your store... But if advertisements were tied to a phone's GPS, the consumer might get an ad telling them not only about a sale nearby, but how to get there...This could be the holy grail for advertisers, the next killer application,"

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advanced technologies revealing privacy vulnerabilities

"Hitting the target: Increased personalization of ads here to stay, despite privacy concerns" While such a capability may be possible Richardson says "People become a little nervous if they think you know too much information about them...If you target them too closely, it can have an adverse or opposite effect," "Even when consumers know how and where the information is being obtained — for example, through a MySpace page or a Google search — there's still a sense that privacy has been violated," said Richardson. read the full article at  www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/hightech/personalized-ads.html

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