4.0 Introduction to Lesson 4

Buckner (Site Selection, 2010, Chapter 2) describes both "location" and "site" as market concepts that are rich with broad sets of data to characterize these geographic entities. In Lesson 3, your initial inquiry into the market you selected should have demonstrated the breadth of possible viewpoints one can use for market exploration and analysis. Site selection, therefore, can be amply supported by vast sources of relevant data. The challenge to make this business analysis useful to a company becomes choosing the right factors to analyze and in which combinations. It's important in our research, writing, and discussions to use appropriate synonyms for selecting the "right" place for a new store. Will there always be one, right place for a new coffee shop? Or, as a location intelligence professional, could we clarify that the results show a business owner that site x optimizes the criteria they provided ... or this site maximizes foot traffic, increases your company access to Gen Z customers, or reduces the tax burden for a new store like they desired?

Here, Church's 3 Laws of Location Science guide the market analyst to selecting the best suited data. These simple rules help us to home in to the most important criteria to pick among the vast repositories available. The result will be more efficient and effective analyses (Church, pp.8-9).

1. Some locations are better than others for a given purpose. This raises questions to determine how to select the "best" location; how does efficiency fit in for the business and customers traveling to buy goods?
2. Spatial context can alter site efficiencies. Proximity isn't always how consumers choose to shop. Often, they're attracted to clusters of businesses that offer many products or services they choose.
3. Sites of an optimal multisite pattern must be selected simultaneously rather than independently, one at a time. What? Church shares the example of setting up a chain of pizza stores that guaranteed 30 minute delivery or the pizza was free. To cover a town or city geography, the site selection of one pizza store is dependent on the network that business establishes.

Before we settle into our data selections, we will expand our perspective further by exploring a second data source, the Esri Tapestry geolocation segments. While the Tapestry data is similar to the Nielsen PRIZM data in its purpose, the two sources provide unique points of view on similar underlying historical data. In this lesson, comparing and contrasting alternative geographic data will expand our analytical perspectives and prepare us for insightful analysis using GIS systems such as Esri's Business Analyst Online (BAO).

There's an important tenet of providing a unique customer experience. A company's effort should focus on solving a consumer's need with a product or service, drawing customers to your business, and creating a satisfying experience to build loyalty.

What is due for Lesson 4?

Lesson 4 will take us one week to complete. There are a number of required activities in this lesson listed below. For assignment details, refer to the lesson page noted.

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.