Software to Help Retailers Reach 'Hyper-Local' Target Markets
Technology companies FICO and Geomentum have teamed up to create a new software solution that will help retailers identify target consumers and build a media-planning package tailored for their target market.
The yet-to-be-named software is code-named “Hubble” and will debut in early 2011.
FICO, the Minneapolis-based business analytics company best known for its credit-rating service, and Geomentum, a technology service located in Downers Grove, Ill., partnered to offer a technology service that will help with media planning—or choosing which print, broadcast and online outlets a company should place ads in—by identifying target markets and their preferred media.
The service starts with the consumer, specifically a list of consumers’ zip codes that retailers might pick up from loyalty cards and information from store sales. From this information, FICO and Geomentum build profiles of the neighborhoods where a retailer’s consumers live. The profiles use a range of information, including U.S. Census Bureau data and post office carrier routes, as well as proprietary analytic techniques and software such as FICO Xpress Optimization Suite.
“It is hyper-local,” Greg Boveacute;e, Geomentum’s senior vice president of insights, said of his company’s service. It can build detailed marketing information for small blocks in a specific neighborhood.
Different media outlets are matched to these profiles, and with the help of the software, representatives for Fico and Geomentum can measure how crowds reacted to an ad in a specific media outlet. The software can also help a retailer determine budgets for media buying and can help draw up contracts for media planning, Boveacute;e said. He did not reveal the cost for the service, which will vary by retailer.
For more information, visit www.geomentum.com.—Andrew Asch
