Geocoding & Data Collection

Retail marketing has undergone a sea change in the last few years. In a market where brands are proliferating, shelf space getting rare and the customers multiplying, it has become imperative to assess whether the sales team and distribution network cover all the outlets in the city in an effective manner.

Questions like:

• Does my brand reach each and every outlet in the City?
• Does my sales team have a count of outlets by type and by location?
• Where should I do my merchandising?
• What is my coverage in Central Calcutta?
• What is my coverage in Central Calcutta?
• What is my coverage in Central Calcutta?
• Which, Where and how many outlets I need to focus?
• On which streets are my competitors stronger?
• Is my army of salespeople enough to cover all the outlets in the city?
• In-Shop Promotion! Test Marketing! Trials! Budgeting!

The Component

1. Database
2. Digital Maps
3. Surveyed Outlets
4. Internal Database on supply and assets for each outlet.
5. Software together with customized application
6. Training & Support

Toyo Computers have the speciality to provide the two most important components which is Digital Maps and Surveyed Outlets data.

Digital Maps

Maps have guided humans on countless voyages of discovery. Maps unlock many of the answers deep inside our database and help discover its richness. Maps are ideal because all data have one thing in common- location. But what is the right kind of map for Retail Outlets Mapping.

Street level maps are available from 1:50,000 scale to 1:600 scales. The smaller the scale the more detailed the map features are. Retail outlets are represented as dots on a street map of a city.

Lower the scale, higher the resolution and more the details. More retail outlets can be plotted as you have lanes and by lanes on a lower scale map.

The choice of map scale is most important depending on the outlet density.

Outlets Survey

Comprehensive field survey will be required to map retail outlets on the city map. The market survey process is out lined as under:

1. The first step is to print hardcopy outputs for Field Survey. The city is sub-divided into smaller zones depending on outlet density and street network. Each of these smaller zones is printed in a single A4 size paper and will be convenient for the field surveyor to mark the outlets while surveying.
2. A list of existing retail outlets has to be generated with its unique code; route number; name and street address to be carried by the surveyor. The existing code number of an outlet will also form a part of the new survey. This is necessary to establish the dynamic link between the new survey data and the existing serviced outlets.
3. After the survey is over with necessary quality and cross checks, the retail outlets will be plotted on the digital map with id as given on the survey sheet. Survey data is separately keyed in.
4. Survey of Outlets - For survey of outlets it is important that-
5. All channel marketing parameters would have to be determined and freeze prior to questionnaire development.
6. The nature of data collected has to be determined
7. The type of outlets to be included has to be decided beforehand.
8. The likely variance in collection will be in the following quantitative areas like sales volume, stock holding, rental charges etc,

Survey of outlets is a very tedious, time consuming and expensive proposition. It is important that proper care is taken in surveying and mapping the outlets. The surveyed outlet forms the basis for all future analyses. The field surveyors are required to be trained on map handling and reading. Many-a-times outlets are plotted on the reverse direction. The surveyor walks south but the map is placed in the north direction in his folder. Design of the folder is also important for marking outlets in the street. Index maps showing various zooms are mandatory for the surveyor. A more often than not field surveyor gets lost in maze of lanes and by lanes. Equally important is on how to deal with missing roads on the paper map and the how it should be marked (though approximately).

QA/QC process:

One of the important things is to have a proper check on the data collected from field survey:

1. Make sure that none of the outlets have been missed within the surveyed region. We can use local digital maps (Google Maps etc.) to verify and correct. This is will help us to improve quality of the database for generating market Reports and analysis.
2. Need to check whether surveyors have collected pictures of all the outlets.
3. We must correct all the typos errors occurred in the Data entry level.
4. Must check that correct data has been inserted in each field, can create queries in database.

Generating Reports:

We can create various kinds of market survey reports by using statistical analysis with respect to location of an outlet like:

1. Cluster Report: This will give be generated on basis of location factors and analysis report, which will help sales and marketing team for their further analysis.
2. Site Report: This will give us complete details about facilities; sales volumes, contact details etc. about an outlet and can rank them within a cluster.

• Retail Outlet Survey for an International oil Brand in India (shell)
• Retail Outlet Survey for an International Telecom Brand in Mumbai (Vodafone)
• Retail Outlet Survey for an International oil Brand in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia