Bad location can send you broke

All spatial industry professionals know the importance of "location" in many aspects of business operations but the statement may be an eye opener for those not dealing with spatial information for business decisions on day to day basis. An article published earlier this week by smartcompany.com.au and titled: Poor site selection caused Kripsy Kreme crash, Sumo Salad founder Luke Baylis says well highlights the issues.

“Collapsed donut chain Krispy Kreme expanded too rapidly and selected extremely poor sites for its products… the market for ‘fat, greasy food’ remains large and it was Krispy Kreme's expansion strategy that led to its troubles, and not the healthiness of its food… they weren't overly clever in the way the expanded, in terms of their site selection and the positioning of their stores … in lower socio-economic demographics, their product would have had more appeal - people generally aren't as health conscious in those areas, according to research…”

Geodemographic analysis techniques and tools have been around since 1980’s but you don’t have to apply complex statistical models and methodologies to gain an insight into your customers or profile catchment areas of your stores or sales territories. Simple Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and thematic maps are enough to get you stared and visualise relevant information. As they say, picture is worth 1,000 words! I will continue on this subject with a few follow up posts so, stay tuned. Meantime, here is a link to thematic maps with Census statistics for postcodes, with over 90 various demographic characteristics available for analysis.