Coming Soon to a Mother Near You, Location-Based Marketing

"Men might do these things first, but women will take it over because they remain the primary shoppers," said Kathryn Koegel, of Primary Impact. "Especially when there are children, it all becomes about convenience." While young men used to be the most active demo for location-based marketing (e.g. coupons, offers) via smartphones, that's quickly changing, according to a study by Harris Interactive.

Of people with kids younger than 6 in their household, 35% are at least somewhat interested in getting opt-in text alerts from favorite businesses, compared to 32% of households with older kids and 25% of homes with no children. (The study, conducted in May with 2,000 adults, does not distinguish between childless adults and empty-nesters.)

The growing shift of women to mobile offers and coupons is important for cause marketers like me who rely on in-store programs and the women that support them.

The furture is certainly not coupon clipping and Sunday papers as more retailers try to make it easier for consumers to find deals, boost customer loyalty and drive traffic to their web sites. Kroger has just rolled out the Digital Coupon Center.

So what's this all mean for you? Start learning more about location-based marketing and the mobile web.

• I've written a whole series of posts on LBM and particularly Foursquare to get you going.
• Immerse yourself in the subject at the LBM Summit in NYC in September.
• Some great people to follow on LBM include @charityestrella, @schneidermike, @waynesutton, @lbmarketing, @nolandhoshino, and a must follow is @ericleist. One other addition. When Facebook launches its own location-based service this week, you'll want to follow the FB Monster @johnhaydon as he will have all the news and tools to report. I'm sure I missed someone. Who would you add to this list?
• There are a couple great Twitter chats on LBM. The first #LBSchat happens on August 26th at 9pmEST. Also, check out #4SqChat.

What other resources or tools would you recommend to get people up-to-speed about LBM in general and LB[cause]M in particular?