Geospatial market analytics

Abstract

A method and processing system for assessing of the health of a network of retail locations in a defined geographic area, by a process including the development of a greenfield benchmark score for a network of ideally sited locations, followed by the development of a brownfield score of current locations, for comparison to the greenfield score. The invention is further applicable to decisions to open a new location, relocate an existing location or close an existing location. In these cases, the effect of opening a new location, or relocating or closing an underperforming location is evaluated by recalculating the brownfield score after the addition of each of several potential new locations, and/or after relocating or closing each of several poorly performing locations.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for assessment of the health of a network of retail locations in a defined geographic area, by a process comprising:
 a. developing a greenfield benchmark score for a network of ideally sited locations,   b. developing a brownfield score of current locations,   c. generating a mathematical comparison of the brownfield score to the greenfield score.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the comparison is expressed as a percentage ratio of the brownfield score to the greenfield score. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the greenfield score is formed by a process including:
 d. siting a first retail location at the highest scoring location in an area, 
 e. degrading scores of areas surrounding the first retail location to reflect the presence of the first retail location, and 
 f. repeating steps (d) and (e) for a second and further location until a designated number of locations are chosen. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein a brownfield score is formed by a process including:
 d. identifying a highest scoring existing location and including its score as a first location, 
 e. degrading scores of areas surrounding the first location to reflect the presence of the first location, 
 f. identifying a next highest scoring existing location and including its score as a second location, and 
 g. repeating steps (e) and (f) until all existing locations are included in the brownfield score. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  applied to evaluation of a prospective new location, comprising evaluating an effect of opening a new location by recalculating a brownfield score after addition of that location, and repeating this step for each of several potential new locations. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  applied to evaluation of the relocation of an existing location, comprising evaluating an effect of relocating a location by recalculating a brownfield score after relocation of that location, and repeating this step for each of several potential relocations. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  applied to evaluation of closure of one or more existing locations, comprising recalculating a brownfield score after closure of an existing location, and repeating this step for each of several potentially closed locations. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  further applied to evaluating a plurality of retail locations to identify the network effect of closing one retail location, comprising:
 d. gathering customer activity data at leach of the retail locations to identify groups of two or more locations which are used by common customers, 
 e. evaluating the network effect of closing one location of a group upon the customers who use both locations based upon the number of common customers. 
 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the customer activity data indicates the existence of a hub location that is used by numerous common customers with multiple other locations, and in response expanding access to services at the hub location. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein expanding access to services at a hub location comprises one or more of changing hours of business or locating specialized talent or resources at the hub location. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the customer activity data indicates a group of two or more locations which have common customers, and in response closing or reducing access to services at one location of the group. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  applied to locations of potential retail partners, comprising assessing retail locations of one or more potential partners according to a brownfield scoring analysis of the existing retail locations and partner retail locations 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  applied to analysis of plural potential retail partners, further comprising comparing brownfield scores generated for each potential partner. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  applied to evaluating locations of potential merger or acquisition entity, comprising assessing retail locations of a potentially merged or acquired entity according to a brownfield scoring analysis of existing retail locations and merged or acquired retail locations.