Location-Based Services: Foursquare and Beer Apps for St. Patrick's Day

I’ve been a frequent user of Foursquare check-in function. Actually there’re many research have done to find out people’s motivations to use Foursquare. The research showed that people might check in for a)badges and fun, b)keeping in connection with their friends, c)finding a good tip about the place or discovering a new place, d)recording the places where they have been to. I would definitely agree that all these motivations have played a certain role in formulating my behavior of using Foursquare to check-in.

I also found there have been many location-based apps coming out at a certain time for different occasions or festivals during a year. Like for Saint Patrick’s Day, we have beer apps (10 Best Beer Apps for St. Patrick’s Day) which could help pinpoint nearby brews, show the map to go there and also help you find the way back home after the drinking day. It’s a good and innovative idea to combine retailers with location-based apps. But when I check out some of those apps, I found there have been few local retailers in Lansing area who are active on those apps. It might be too new a trend for retailers to catch up.

I believe location-based services are offering new opportunities to marketers in mobile commerce. It's also a good chance for retailers to build enduring relationships with their consumers through using location-based services.