How to use location data for marketing

With the explosive growth of mobile devices and usage, advertising dollars are quickly moving to mobile. However, the return on this ad spend is questionable partly because marketers have a hard time figuring out how to effectively use consumers' location information. "Geofencing", the idea that a consumer can be attracted to a store or service when s/he passes in its proximity is an obvious solution but this may not work for a variety of products (large ticket, high involvement products for example). We explore an alternative use of location data here, that makes use of people's movement patterns and their similarities to infer inherent consumer characteristics. It is exciting to see that so much can be inferred from simple movement paths. There is a lot more to come in the area of geo-location for marketers.