Case Study: Combat Zone Marketing

View Mohawk Valley Business Journal article

This GIS mapping example was created as part of an article printed in the Mohawk Valley Business Journal. The article focused on how GIS can help target marketing efforts and the importance of using visuals to communicate a clear, lasting message.

The map below was created to show drive time analysis and the combat zone for Lowe’s and Home Depot in the New Hartford area. A “combat zone” is an area of potential customers equidistant to two or more businesses. In this example, it takes the same amount of time to drive to Lowe’s or Home Depot if one lives in the combat zone. This is where targeted marketing should be directed.

The challenges to create this type of map are minimal. Accurate data is essential. The competing business locations must be exact and a complete, current streets data layer must be used, having speed limits for each road segment. The specialized GIS software does the “heavy lifting” by creating drive time zones for different times, then finding the intersection.

The only other challenge is designing a map in black and white, rather than color, for readable print publication. In this particular case, the geographic scope is only a few miles, so it is easy to create a legible map in black and white.