Extracting enlightening insights from complex market structures
The geo factor contained in company and market data makes it possible to spot relationships and trends in information. Geomarketing involves taking many factors into account simultaneously. This helps companies coordinate their operations, ensuring that everything from stocking strategies for individual branch locations to logistical planning and the allocation of sales force assignments functions like a well-oiled machine.

It's rare for a company to enjoy a perfectly balanced presence across its markets and product lines. In order to secure long-term success and growth, companies must take regional market variations into account. Only then can they achieve their full potential. Today's competitive markets can be unforgiving to companies with inefficient operating practices. Clarity as to a company's structure and how its sales territories contribute to overall turnover is essential in order to implement business strategies appropriately suited to regional market conditions.

Geomarketing in controlling: See the meaning behind the numbers
With its finger on the pulse of turnover figures and revenue, controlling teams provide their companies with a foundation for performing targeted market optimization. Geomarketing has a key role to play here as a tool for comparing company data with market potential. As a result, strengths and weaknesses can be more easily recognized and measured.

Customer and turnover distribution: Where are the most important customers and regions located?
Most companies have a very large database, complete with information on key accounts, customer locations, turnover share and the nearest supply points. Without geomarketing software and digital maps, the unique trends and relationships contained in this data would likely go unrecognized. Geomarketing allows controllers to illustrate this information on digital maps, giving them the ability to provide daily updates and samples for distribution to employees or on websites. These digital maps also serve as convincing reference points for company reports and strategic decisions.

Measuring success, determining market share and setting realistic goals
Companies can only gauge how they are performing in the market after comparing their results with the cumulative potential of the regions in which they are active. Market data serve this end, helping businesses set realistic turnover goals. This information ranges from data on companies in the industrial sector (among others), organized according to size and postcode districts (GfK Profile and Distribution of Businesses), to GfK point-of-sale turnover figures for a wide range of product lines. By comparing this data with company turnover figures, it's possible to determine the extent to which potential is being realized. With this information, companies can gain clarity with regard to their market penetration and channel their efforts accordingly. 

Impact analysis: Assessing the extent to which locations and sales territories are fully optimized (and if not, why)
Should some of your locations be under-performing, a geomarketing impact analysis can pinpoint potential causes. For example, by displaying each such location's catchment area profile using a geomarketing software application, it's possible to assess the effect of competing stores, accessibility issues and the purchasing power of the nearby population. It can then be determined if the problem lies with the location itself, the regional infrastructure or an incompatibility between the purchasing habits of the local population and the service or product being offered. Sometimes, this analysis reveals that a targeted sales and marketing campaign would be helpful. In other cases, it may become apparent that a company's sales territories suffer from stark variations in potential. For example, while some sales areas enjoy high concentrations of regular customers, others may be struggling, serviced by sales personnel who must drive significant distances to meet with customers whose purchases contribute very little to the overall company turnover. With the help of geomarketing analyses, controlling can give the sales team valuable feedback regarding sales and service network optimization.

In short, geomarketing helps the controlling and sales teams work together more efficiently and productively. Too often sales and controlling remain in their self-enclosed worlds. Companies are most successful when they find ways to bridge the gap between these two divisions, ensuring that both are proactively involved in the articulation and implementation of a unified market strategy. Geomarketing can bring these divisions together by providing concrete insight into what needs to change in order to boost a company's performance.