Location-based marketing using mobile geofencing: lessons learned from a user-centred application development research

Abstract

Location-based marketing (LBM) is becoming an integral element of the media mix for making highly personalised offers to the targeted audience at the most opportune time and place. Yet, the literature calls for more usability studies due to the lack of user-centred research. To fill this gap, this study explores the development of PushMapp - a geomarketing tool for launching LBM campaigns - through a user-centred, parallel-iterative approach. Usability analysis shows that this type of application is affected by issues related to security, privacy, advertisement relevancy, and notification overload. Meanwhile, only performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and hedonic motivation appeared to be the significant factors in an LBM mobile application. Experiences from this study provided valuable insights for marketers and business owners who plan to capitalise on LBM strategies by underscoring the importance of integrating users' input, ensuring usability compliance, and conforming to factors of mobile application utilisation.