GEOGRAPHIC  INFORMATION  SYSTEMS  (link to site of Getting Started With GIS by Keith Clarke)

geographic information system (GIS):  A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing things that exist and events that happen on earth.

GIS technology (link) integrates common database operations such as query and statistical analysis with the unique visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by maps. These abilities distinguish GIS from other information systems and make it valuable to a wide range of public and private enterprises for explaining events, predicting outcomes, and planning strategies.
Source:  ESRI, http://www.esri.com/library/gis/abtgis/what_gis.html

Thus, a GIS can relate Census data on census tracts to corporate data on sales by store location, with additional city-government data arranged by tax parcels and marketing data by ZIP code.

It can make these connections by its ability to identify the geographic location of the boundaries of each of these zones and parcels, and to identify which (parts of) each zone lies within another zone.

A GIS can also answer queries regarding spatial relationships (within, outside, within a certain distance, minimum-transport point among a set of points), among the data:  how many tax parcels valued over $250,000 are within 1 mile radius of each store location?  Where are they?  How many of these households have children under 10 years old?  What is the minimum-distance route between each store and those tax parcels?

The computing magazine PCWeek recently featured business applications of GIS.  Read this article, written for a lay (non-geographic) audience.

For some examples of economic uses of GIS, see:

• the hardware store example presented in class
• an example of ArcView being used for retail market-area analysis
• Retail Trade Area Analysis: Concepts and New Approaches, by Donald B. Segal, in Directions Magazine
• an example of commercial-bank compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act, using MapInfo.

GEODEMOGRAPHIC  MARKETING

DEFINITION:  Using aggregate demographic (population and household) data about small geographic areas, to improve and target marketing efforts:  product mix, retail location, direct mailing, or geographically distinct promotion campaigns.

These data might include:

• Median household income, rates of automobile ownership
• Age, sex, or income distributions of the population within each area
• "lifestyle" characterization of the area.

The sources of these data include:

• Direct survey of current customers
• Identification of the small-areas from which current customers come, and characterizing these customers based on third-party characterizations of these areas
• Census or other characterizations of areas

Uses of these data include:

• Identifying your primary market area.
• Determining whether there are many more potential customers in your market area, making expansion worthwhile (Park Slope Coop case)
• Identifying generally attractive areas near or in your market area, for targeted marketing (Ace Hardware case, 1 May)
• Identifying areas in your market area that have characteristics of your best customers, for targeted marketing (Bellevue retailer case, 1 May)

SOURCES  OF  GEOGRAPHIC  DATA

GIS can only operate if provided with data at appropriate geographic scales.  One of the benefits of GIS is that it can make use of data at multiple scales and from multiple sources, making use of absolute location data (e.g., latitude and longitude) to relate the data types to one another.  Whare can we get geographic data on residential demographics, customer locations, street systems, etc.?

national statistical agencies  (U.S. Bureau of the Census;  Statistics Canada):  all conduct censuses of national population;  many also survey the population for demographic and economic characteristics;  some survey businesses and local governments for revenues and expenditures.

national (and subnational) employment agencies (e.g., U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics;  state departments of employment security):  track employment and unemployment by local area and economic sector.

national mapping agencies (e.g., U.S. Geological Survey):  survey national territory and water bodies;  track location of natural resources;  provide base data for maps at several geographic scales.

national military intelligence units (e.g., U.S. NIMA;  U.K. Ordnance Survey):  survey national and foreign territory for locations of strategic military, population, and economic locations and connections.

space agencies (e.g., U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration;  French SPOT (which bought Landsat);  European Space Agency):  provide exhaustive coverage of the earth’s surface from satellite sensing of environmental and resource characteristics.

commercial data sources:  credit bureaus;  repackagers of government data (see Directions Magazine's data site);  target-marketing firms (see Claritas).

your own databases on your facilities, clients, customers, suppliers...