What is a traditional market study?
It is research built around a specific question, such as whether to open a restaurant or a branch in a new city. It combines surveys, interviews, focus groups, field visits, or manual counts to understand an audience or an area at a given moment.
Its strength is depth. It tells you why people choose a brand, what they think about price, what is missing from the current offer, or how they would react to a new concept. None of that shows up on a map.
A feasibility study goes further: it adds technical, legal, and financial analysis of a project to the market study. It is common when a bank or an investor requires one to approve an investment.
What is location intelligence?
Location intelligence, also called geomarketing or geospatial analytics, analyzes data with coordinates: where people live and their socioeconomic profile, where each business is, how visitors move, how far each store reaches, and which places draw visits.
Its strength is scale and frequency. You can compare dozens of areas with the same criteria, see what changed around each store since the last update, and reuse the same data for the next decision.
Its limit is the why. Mobility data shows that visits to your store dropped and where they went, but not what people think. For that, you still need to ask them.
How much does market research cost, and how long does it take?
A traditional market study takes 2 to 3 months and costs US$10,000 to 75,000. With Pulster, a strategy analysis takes about a day once your company is set up. Based on our experience in the region.
The range for a study is wide because each one is custom-built. These are the factors that move its price and timeline the most:
- Sample size: how many people are surveyed or interviewed.
- How many cities or areas it covers.
- The method: in-person, phone, or online surveys, focus groups, or field visits.
- The depth of the analysis and deliverables.
- Whether it includes the technical and financial analysis of a feasibility study.
- What happens next: if you need to evaluate another area in six months, do you pay for a new study or can you reuse the data?
How do they differ? A side-by-side comparison
This table summarizes the practical differences. Neither option wins on everything: each one is stronger on different criteria.
| Criterion | Traditional market research | Location intelligence |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers best | Why people buy and what they think | Where demand is, who competes, and what changed |
| Time | Weeks or months per study | Hours or days per analysis, once the data is set up |
| Cost | Quoted per study | Depends on how many stores, countries, and analyses you need; the data is reused |
| Updates | A snapshot of one moment | Ongoing. At Pulster, mobility data is updated every two weeks and business data every month. |
| Qualitative depth | High: motivations, perception, price | Low: shows behavior, not opinions |
| Scale | One area or sample per study | Many areas and stores with the same criteria |
| Its limit | What people say is not always what they do, and samples tend to be small | Mobility data is a sample, does not explain causes, and coverage varies by country |
General references. The time and cost of each option depend on scope.
When does a traditional market study make sense?
Choose traditional research when the question is about people, not places:
- You are launching a new concept, format, or brand and need to know how people would react.
- You want to understand brand perception, acceptable price points, or why people choose a competitor.
- A bank, a partner, or an investor requires a formal feasibility study.
- The market has little data available and you need fieldwork to understand it.
- You need to measure satisfaction or the in-store experience.
When does location intelligence make sense?
Choose location intelligence when the question is about places and keeps coming back:
- You need to compare several possible sites with the same criteria.
- You want to know which areas of a city or country still have room for more stores.
- You need to forecast sales for a new store and how much it would take from your other stores.
- You want to see who is winning the visits around each store and how that changes over time.
- You are planning local marketing campaigns and need to know where and when to launch them.
- You make these decisions several times a year and do not want to start from scratch each time.
How do they work together?
It usually works best to use both, each at the right moment. First, location data filters: it narrows many possible areas down to a few finalists. Then fieldwork goes deeper: visits, interviews, or counts at those finalists. Finally, location data monitors: after you open, it shows whether the store is gaining or losing visits against competitors.
For example, a supermarket chain evaluating a new city can use location data to pick three finalist areas and commission interviews only in those three. The study is more focused, and the decision has both perspectives.
What does not work is asking one tool to do the other’s job. A map will not tell you why people prefer your competitor, and a survey will not tell you how many visits you lost last month.
Pulster
Where Pulster fits
Pulster is a location intelligence and geomarketing platform for retail chains. It works with six data layers: population and socioeconomic profile, businesses, mobility, trade areas, points of interest, and, in some countries, building permits. Mobility data is updated every two weeks and business data every month. Aggregated and anonymized data. We do not identify individuals.
With Pulster NOVA, you decide where to open and estimate how much each store could sell. With Pulster RADAR, you see who wins the visits, whether customers come back, and where they come from. The data does not stay in a report: it keeps updating and supports your next decision.
To understand why people buy, a study with interviews is still useful. To see what changed outside each store, month after month, there is Pulster.