What's this thing about Location Technology and Location Based Services?
Why are brands and businesses interested in Location Based Services (LBS) and Location Based Marketing & Advertising?
What you see here, is a conversation that we've had all over the world with some of the most forward-thinking executives - including CEOs, CTOs and CMOs - about the use of accurate, Wi-Fi-based location technology in shopping malls, airports, hotels, convention centres and other large public venues.
A Conversation About Location - With Ruckus Wireless Smart Positioning Technology (SPoT)
1. Location Based Analytics!
Location Based Marketing!
Location Based Services!
Location Technology!
A Conversation About Location !
with Ruckus Wireless
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3. I’m interested in this “Location”
thing, and want to learn more
about it, and how my customers
can benefit from it.!
Great! Keep Reading…!
My customers and partners
already know all about it. We
want to get started. Now!!
Great! Sounds like you’ve already
got a plan… let’s skip right to the
end…!
Go to “How do I get Ruckus’
SPoT Location Technology on
my premise?”!
4. I’m hearing a lot about !
‘Location Based Services’, !
‘Location Based Marketing and Advertising’, !
‘Location Analytics’, !
‘Hyperlocal’, !
‘SoLoMo’ !
and other ‘Location’ buzzwords.!
!
What’s happening?!
5. Well, it’s really simple. In the last few years, with almost
everyone carrying a smartphone, and with Wi-Fi becoming more
and more pervasive, it’s starting to make perfect sense for
businesses and marketers to know where people are, and find a
way to engage them via their smartphones or tablets. !
!
And a slew of technologies have emerged to put this form of
“Indoor GPS” technology into the hands of businesses and
marketers who need it – one of which is Ruckus’ very own SPoT
Location Technology.!
6. What is SPoT?!
SPoT is our answer to your question:
“How can I better understand where and how
people are spending their time, and how can I
send them highly-targeted, highly-relevant
messages via their mobile devices?”!
7. It is a clever piece of !
Positioning software !
(think GPS, then think “Indoor GPS”) !
that sits on top of Ruckus’ !
high-performance Wi-Fi
infrastructure in any customer
venue.!
8. Good question!!
SPoT fulfills the two key business needs for
Location Technology – Analysis and Engagement.
Read on to find out more about each…!
That’s great, but what does it do for me? !
9. Analytics!
!
!
!
!
!
!
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Location Data is the new competitive edge for
businesses like retailers and mall owners, venue
owners and event organizers. It will transform the
way organizations like hotels and hospitals,
schools and museums manage their staff.!
!
Think of how Amazon has been killing / disrupting
the retail industry with superior data on customer
behavior and interest. !
!
SPoT Location Analytics is our !
‘Customer Analytics for the Physical World’, and
businesses can now generate the same insights
about real-world user movement, the same way we
generate insights about user web traffic.!
!
Down to details like – !
• unique visitors!
• Frequency!
• dwell-time!
• zone-to-zone comparison of footfall!
Engagement!
!
The value that comes from user engagement can
be extremely high. Consider customer
engagement that leads to a high-value purchase,
or long-term, loyal customer spending patterns.
Consider also user engagement amongst staff that
leads to higher levels of productivity and
innovation.!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
The returns on effective engagement are high; yet
at the same time, your users and customers get
bombarded with more and more information daily –
from an increasing number of competing sources
that offer more information, alternative products
and services.!
!
That’s why it’s important to deliver highly useful,
relevant and meaningful content to users and
customers. And that’s why it’s important to create
opportunities for users to interact (via their mobile
devices) in relevant contexts. ‘Location’ is a key
context for user engagement and user interaction.!
!
10. Don’t we already have such data
for analysis? !
Well, not quite – today we use door
sensors that merely count each time a
warm body passes through a
threshold; or video and thermal
sensors that track detailed movement,
but cannot identify unique
individuals or detect how often
they go back, and how much time
they spend during each visit.!
Don’t we already do that with
location-based services on mobile
apps?!
Well, not quite – in buildings like
shopping malls, retail spaces, hotels
and convention centers, GPS
accuracy is insufficient for proper user
targeting. And in a dense, high-paced
environment like a shopping mall, you
can never be too accurate in targeting
the right user, in the right aisle in the
right store. !
11. The potential to do all of that amazing stuff – and more –
stems from a simple function: !
the ability to identify unique individuals indoors or in dense
urban environments, and locate them with a high degree of
positional accuracy (we’re talking less than 5 meters) and a
high degree of reliability.!
It does all of that? How? Is this sorcery?!
12. The SPoT Location Technology Engine extracts RSSI data
from all mobile devices that have Wi-Fi turned on. This
presumes of course, that the venue has Ruckus Wi-Fi
Access Points and Zone Directors installed – because that’s
the hardware that SPoT (the software) relies on.!
How do we know that? !
13. Absolutely – most of us carry our phones around and leave
our kids at home. We’ve found that in most cities, an
overwhelming majority of users have Wi-Fi turned on at
work and at home, and don’t turn it off when they go to
places like shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and other
places of interest and leisure.!
!
SPoT enables you to locate users by their MAC Address –
which uniquely identifies them as individuals.!
Is that reliable? !
14. Not really – we don’t have access to their names unless they tell
us (for instance, through an app that you create); and we don’t
store any personally identifiable information unless they agree to
the terms and conditions of our usage.!
Is that spooky? !
15. That’s a question on our minds these days as Location Technology
becomes more prevalent, widespread and complex. Our point is
this – as long as you’re using location data to offer your users
something that’s of value, they will appreciate it and likely offer
personal data – as long as what you do truly benefits them first.
And as long as you’re upfront about it. !
Is that nice? I mean… privacy and all…!
16. Think about how many users tell Facebook almost
everything about themselves – because it has
become such a useful utility/service that helps them
(connect with friends and stay in touch).!
!
All that said, this is a complex subject of discussion
that will continually evolve; and we’ll be happy to
help you navigate the complexities of user/customer
engagement. Just get in touch with us!!
18. Well first of all, you need to know what
do you really want from Location
Technology?!
19. Location Analytics!
!
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!
!
!
!
!
That’s a great first start because you / your
customers have full control from day one – no
need to have anyone download an app, or sign up
for anything. We have a “network-based” solution
– which means that whoever manages the (Wi-Fi)
network has full access to the data of people
moving around in their venue.!
!
How we do we get started?!
!
Simple… do you find any of these data useful?
Will they enable your customers to learn more
about their customers?!
• Unique Visitors!
• Repeat-vs-New Visitor Ratio!
• Dwell Time!
• Zone-to-Zone Comparison!
!
Yes?!
!
Great! Then we can certainly do something…!
User / Customer Engagement!
!
Do you want to send messages or advertising
that’s highly relevant and targeted? Say – a 20%
coupon to someone who’s been there for the 4th
time that week without buying anything?!
!
What’s the user experience you want to create?
Remember – technology, no matter how good,
doesn’t solve everything. Great user-design does.!
!
If you want to create an engaging experience
(being able to send and receive messages/
content/ads), can you get them to download an
app?!
!
Yes?!
!
Great! We’re ready to go.!
!
No?!
!
We need to rethink your user experience!
22. Analytics!
!
Market Research companies or data scientists are
your first port of call if you want to derive
meaningful insights from all the signals your users
are creating from their every step, with every
moment spent in a particular spot on your
premises. Companies like Nielsen, IPSOS,
Milward Brown, TNS and GFK are examples of
research partners who already have strong
disciplines in understanding customer and user
behavior in shopping malls amongst other venues;
and are ideal analytics partners.!
!
Together with them, you might also choose from a
wide and increasing number of location and
business intelligence software that crunches and
displays the Location Data we help you collect – in
meaningful ways. Start-ups like Eculid, Nomi and
Nearbuy Systems have, in the last few years, been
developing new ways to present location data.
When powered by SPoT Location Technology,
their dashboards will yield insights that are highly
accurate and deeply impactful. !
!
Or you could also plug in directly to your BI
systems, by simply using our Location Analytics
API.!
Engagement!
!
You’ll find a varied bunch of smart and creative
partners – all of who offer great value in utilizing
your Location Data to create unique and
meaningful (we really mean money-making and
money-saving!) user applications.!
!
App Developers have been experimenting with
new ways to help people interact with one another
and get information via the Internet, and more
recently – from their surroundings. They’ve tried
QR codes and Bluetooth, and are now trying NFC
– all of which require users of the app to click on
something, or perform an action in order to receive
contextual information. With Wi-Fi-based Location
Technology that transmits location data in the
background, their innovative potential can be truly
unleashed!!
!
Advertisers and Media Agencies like App
Developers have been trying new ways to trigger
and send “the right message to the right person at
the right place at the right time”. They’ve generally
failed (remember SPAM SMS?), but today mobile
advertising can be so targeted it’ll be welcome by
customers instead of being rejected. Advertising
and Media partners can now truly add value to
your location-based marketing campaign.!
That’s right. When you do something innovative, you’ll want to
have capable partners who can execution on your vision…!
Partners?!
23. As you learn about what they can do for you,
you’ll find that there are no bounds to
“Location-Innovation”. !
!
All we describe is merely the tip of the
iceberg, and by enlisting the right partners,
you can create truly exciting and rewarding
impact for your organization.!
24. And Good News! That was the hardest bit. !
!
Here comes the easy part…!
25. How do I get Ruckus’ SPoT
Location Technology on my
premise?!
27. Create a Ruckus!!
!
No, really! If you already have Ruckus’ awesome Wi-Fi solutions covering
your entire venue – you’re off on a great start! [Note: we could also add:
“if not…..” but buying Ruckus is probably implied]!
!
Not only do you have high-performance Wi-Fi serving your staff and
customers, you also have all the hardware you’ll ever need to mine / tap
into valuable Location Data generated on your premises.!
!
And that’s the secret – our patented SPoT Location Technology Engine is
embedded in Ruckus Wi-Fi infrastructure, and augmented by a cloud-
based SPoT Location Server. !
!
For a complete list of compatible Ruckus Access Points and Zone
Directors, visit our website (www.RuckusWireless.com).!
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28. Sign up “on the SPoT”!!
When you ask us for ‘Location Services’, we’ll act on it right away. It all
starts with the creation of a Venue Server (or Servers) in our cloud-based
SPoT Location Server.!
!
Each Venue Server contains data that’s unique to you and the location/s
that your designate to be ‘Location-Intelligent’. Access to this data can be
granted as you wish, through the creation of user management accounts.!
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29. Make a Map!!
Part of our SPoT Location Technology Platform – is a Map Manager that
enables you to upload your floor plan or venue map, and with that start
making your venue “Location-Intelligent” by defining “zones” where footfall
is tracked, and compared against other zones.!
!
The Map Manager also prompts you to mark out the locations of your
Ruckus AP, and with that information, generates Calibration Points for the
next step of our deployment…!
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30. Calibration – Mark Your SPoTs!
!
This is the only time you’ll ever have to leave your chair. !
!
Calibration is done by simply taking your mobile phone with our SPoT
Calibration App – going to all the Calibration Points generated for you –
and pressing on a simple button to collect location data while standing
there.!
!
Of course this process is completely scalable (and more importantly)
simple and easy to outsource – which means you don’t actually do this
yourself. Our quick guy will enable you to train an army of monkeys (or
dogs) to walk around the entire venue/s and calibrate it (collect location
data by activating the Calibration App while standing at various Calibration
Points).!
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34. Analytics!
!
You’ll have immediate access to the SPoT
Location Analytics Dashboard, giving you
location insights that you’ve never had
before!!
!
You can assign and manage access –
creating user accounts for your research
and analytics partners and your staff. If you
manage multiple venues – like stores in
shopping mall – you can even sub-divide
access for a fee to tenants.!
!
Within the SPoT Location Analytics
Dashboard – are details of the SPoT
Location API. With that, you and your
partners will be able extract data to use it
for purposes beyond what’s available on
the SPoT Dashboard.!
Engagement!
!
User engagement will now take on a new
life – with the ability to locate a user, and
decrypt his behavior in real-time.!
!
You can now create consumer applications
that serve highly targeted and highly
relevant advertising or promotional content
– that’s mapped to a customer’s profile
AND his behavioral trigger! For instance –
a customer who likes coffee may not
welcome a promotion from Starbucks if he
is two stores away from a Starbucks in the
evening. But if he is still in the store in the
morning, staying on way longer than his
usual 20 minutes – he just might be
tempted to have that second cup if
Starbucks offers a good enough promotion. !
36. We thought you’d never ask! !
!
By now, you’ll be familiar with Ruckus’ high-performance technology. And when
we say “high-performance”, we also mean “cost-efficient”. !
!
With superior hardware, we’re “doing more with less” – giving you excellent Wi-Fi
coverage at much lower cost than our less efficient competitors.!
!
The same hardware and business philosophy forms the foundation of our SPoT
Location Technology Platform. If you are a Ruckus customer, you already have
the building blocks for making your venues ‘Location Intelligent’. !
!
All that’s required is a one-time set-up fee for Map Creation and Calibration…
unless you prefer to do it yourself. And of course, we make it super-easy for you
to do so.!
!
And then a monthly subscription fee that’s based on the number of APs so that we
can keep your SPoT Location Server running well, and continually churning our
data to your SPoT Dashboard and for your analytics and engagement partners. !
37. Call Me!!
!
Don’t already have a Ruckus executive or Ruckus partner serving you?
Fill up the form here (won’t take a minute) and we’ll get back to you ASAP!!
!
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