Finding Your Customer : Using GIS for Retail Market Research

This practical introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) teaches retailers, from the largest national chain stores to mom-and-pop corner markets, to analyze the "location dimension" of their business and their customers using computer mapping programs. Targeted at both professionals and business students, this book covers the basics of the software technology, serves as a primer for key mapping concepts, and explores the particulars of acquiring the necessary spatial data. Richly illustrated with maps, the text demystifies the creation of trade areas and shows how geocoding a customer database can reveal valuable information about the habits and nature of the buying public. Filled with theory about as well as practical applications of the technology, this guide puts powerful software tools in the hands of the savvy business reader or researcher.

Tony Burns is an expert on business geographics who has spent more than 20 years working with ESRI in building advanced GIS tools for business applications. He has consulted with many Fortune 500 companies, teaching them how to apply these tools to their own business problems. He lives in Seattle, Washington.