Expansion Planning Using Heat Maps

Problem: Need to Transform New Product Success into New Market Opportunities

ABC Furniture manufacturing manufactures and distributes furniture through show rooms across the Eastern USA. The ABC reclining chair profits have proved to be significant and the company is interested in developing the market further. The best way to accomplish this is to either build showrooms or partner with showrooms in underserved areas.

Solution: Visualize Sales with MBO Heat Map - Find ZIP Codes for Growth

ABC uses MapBusinessOnline to graphically display where sales most often occur, and by omission, where they do not occur at all. The MBO ZIP code layer is turned on and color coded to reflect ZIP codes with the highest Median Income per Population, a ratio calculation. These rust red colored ZIP codes should be the best target areas for growth.

Next, a dataset of 2016 recliner sales by outlet address is imported into MBO and turned into a Heat Map layer. The brighter blue hot spots reflect areas of intense sales, the cooler darker spots show less sales, and again by omission, reflect areas with no sales that are under consideration for better representation.

How to Create a Retail Sales Heat Map

  1. Make sure your data records have at least two columns. One column for location and a second column with numeric data describing your subject – in this case, sales of recliners
  2. Import your location or address based dataset into MapBusinessOnline
  3. Click the Heat Map Button on the Master Toolbar
  4. Select your target data set and make sure the numeric data column is selected
  5. Choose an appropriate color scheme and an intensity setting
  6. Process your heat map

To display the heat map against a demographic scheme:

  1. Turn on the ZIP code layer
  2. In Map & Data, hover over the ZIP code layer and click the Edit Gear. Choose Manage Calculated Data Columns. Add a Data Column, name it, and pick the operation parameters – Overall Population/High Med Income
  3. Use the Color Code Map button, accessing your Calculated Data option (from 2) and color code ZIP codes to best reflect your target market

Your best ZIP codes for new showrooms supporting new sales opportunities will be ZIP codes with optimum demographics and no sales activity, and nearby ZIP codes with optimum demographics close to areas with maximum sales activity, perhaps within a specific drive time distance of existing stores – for example an hour’s drive away.

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Example business case would be taking 3000 locations, and planning how you will have multiple different technicians visit an area or region of these locations over 3 months. Each visit will take x amount of time. They only work certain hours of the day, and you have to plan in drive time, so the day actually makes sense and the route is efficient."

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IT Director
jay.walker@nettechnology.com
Network Engineering Technologies

"We use MapBusinessOnline to prepare for sales meetings. The program’s territory mapping enables color-coded sales territories by zip-code helping to define sales responsibilities and keeping our focus on selling."

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Operations Manager
AFTCO Bluewater

Popular MapBusinessOnline features

Emphasize customers density with heat maps

Highlight market areas that generate more business. Visually compare map areas for business potential. Select from a variety of heat map colors and options.

Color code maps by ZIP code, county, or state

Import business data by ZIP code to show it geographically. Create colorful maps for business analysis that connect real Census data to locations on the ground.

Display business data against demographic maps

Categorize geographic areas by population or household income. Explore new markets, business patterns, or social trends against color coded Census maps for business and competitor analysis.

Share business maps

Create interactive maps and share with friends, colleagues, dealers, customers, prospects or vendors. Share territory maps. Email saved JPEG and PNG files or embed map files in PowerPoint presentations. Includes PDF export for larger print formats.