Using MapPoint for various Small Business activities
If you are a manager, business owner, or a marketing consultant, you can use Microsoft® MapPoint® 2010 to help with the following types of activities:
- Analyzing local markets and competition
- Using demographics to define a market
The exercises in this Test Drive provide a guided experience of some of the ways to work with MapPoint 2010. The exercises concern a furniture business in eastern Massachusetts that wants to open a second store location. The practice has hired a consultant to analyze market potential. The consultant will also help select a site that will attract new customers, be convenient for existing customers and suppliers, and minimize competitive threats. MapPoint can help with this marketing challenge.
You can explore MapPoint in this fully functional Test Drive environment and see for yourself how key features of MapPoint can make light work of common market analysis tasks. It is easy to translate the skills acquired in this Test Drive to other scenarios and industries where spatial data and mapping can help improve decision making.
To start MapPoint:
On the Start menu, click All Programs, and then click Microsoft MapPoint North America 2010.
Exercise 1: Defining your local market and competition
To analyze the market potential of a new furniture store, you need to map household expenditures on furniture, based on ZIP Code. MapPoint includes an extensive set of demographic and consumer data that you can use for this task.
- On the Data menu, click Data Mapping Wizard.
- On the Map Type page, click Shaded Area, and then click Next.
- On the Data Fields page, select the Add demographics to the map option, and click Next.
- Scroll toward the bottom of the Divide the data you chose above by list, and select Expenditures, household average: furnishings (2007).
- In the Show the data by list, select ZIP Code, and then click Next.
- On the Legend page, change the Legend title to Furniture Expenditures, and then click Finish. MapPoint retrieves the data and calculates the ranges, and then returns to the default view.
- On the Advanced toolbar, in the Find box, type Chelmsford, MA, and then press ENTER.
- On the Advanced toolbar, click the Zoom Out button twice to get a broader market view.
- On the Advanced toolbar, click the Road and Data Map arrow, and then click Data Map to remove the roads and make the data on the map easier to read.
The darker green areas indicate ZIP Codes with concentrations of adults who spend more of their household income on furnishings.
- On the Data menu, click Data Mapping Wizard.
- On the Map Type page, click Pushpin, and then click Next.
- On the next page of the wizard, select the Import data to map it option, and click Next.
- Browse to and open the SmallBizData workbook.
- On the Choose the sheet or range you want to map page, select the Competitors worksheet, and then click Next.
- Click Finish to map the competitors to their street addresses.
- On the Pushpins page, change the Pushpin set name to Competitors, and then change the Set symbol to a blue tack. Uncheck the box to display field names in balloons, and click Finish.
MapPoint clearly shows several areas south of Chelmsford, with high concentrations of adults who spend more on household furnishings, but who do not live close to a competing furniture store.
Leave the map open to continue with the next exercise.
Exercise 2: Creating a drivetime Zone
A number of areas look like good possibilities for the new store. However, the company wants the new site to be a 25-minute drive or less from the current location, since it may be shuttling furniture back and forth between the two sites on any given day and since the new site needs to be convenient for current customers and suppliers. Use the map that you created in the previous exercise.
- Make sure the town of Chelmsford is selected to serve as your starting point.
- On the Tools menu, click Create Drivetime Zone. On the Drivetime page, enter 25 minutes for the driving time. Check the box next to Draw drivetime behind roads and uncheck the box next to Fill drivetime with solid color. Click OK.
MapPoint calculates the drivetime and draws an outline in blue. After you complete a drivetime analysis, your search is narrowed to only three possible sites.
Exercise 3: Mapping household behavior
The new site needs to be convenient for current customers and suppliers. Use the map that you created in the previous exercise.
- On the Data menu, click Data Mapping Wizard.
- On the Map Type page, click Pushpin, and then click Next.
- On the Data Set page, select the Import data to map it option, and click Next.
- Browse to and open the SmallBizData workbook.
- On the Choose the sheet or range you want to map page, select the Customer and Suppliers worksheet, and then click Next.
- Click Finish to match the customers and suppliers to their street addresses.
- On the next page of the wizard, change the Pushpin set name to Customers and Suppliers, change the Set symbol to a green tack, uncheck the box to display balloons, and then click Finish.
Each location is shown on the map with a green tack.
There is now only one possible location—Burlington—that is within the drivetime zone, includes a high concentration of existing customers, and does not already have a competitor’s store.
Leave the map open to continue with the next exercise.
Exercise 4: Determining maximum market area
Now you are going to define the approximate maximum bounds of the market area and create a powerful set of data that includes average household expenditures on furnishings and existing customers for every ZIP Code in your market area. Use the map that you created in the previous exercise.
- On the Advanced toolbar, click the Zoom Out button twice to get a broader market view.
- On the Drawing toolbar, click the Radius button. Start your cursor near Burlington, and then click and drag to draw a radius that includes all existing customers and suppliers points, and then release the mouse.
Note: If the Drawing toolbar is not shown, click View, and then Toolbars. Select Drawing from the menu to show the toolbar.
- MapPoint draws a circle. Click anywhere on the circle to select it, and then on the Standard toolbar click the Export to Excel icon to export the spreadsheet.
This information can be used to define mailing lists, newspaper advertisements, and other media buys to get the word out about the new furniture store.
Congratulations! You have completed the exercises. You may now close MapPoint without saving your changes.
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