Google has a treasure-trove of data and it is gearing up to use this in a grand way. The company has bagged a patent which envisions an ad service that would automatically offer a prospective customer a free taxi ride.
For now, the idea is still limited to a patent and one can see that it obviously depends upon a number of factors. However, it holds a lot of promise for such retailers and companies who want to speed up the process of a customer’s purchases. Imagine watching a Rolex ad, contemplating buying one and being offered a free lift by a taxi to the nearest Rolex store the next moment.
Such a service will also significantly improve customer services, and brands who choose to offer it stand to benefit from it. But the factors which will drive the calculation of the ‘right customer’ to offer a ride, are complex.
In the words of the patent filed by Google, “The calculation may consider various factors including a consumer’s current location, the consumer’s most likely route and form of transportation (such as train, personal car, taxi, rental car, or shared vehicle), the consumer’s daily agenda, the price competing advertisers are willing to pay for the customer to be delivered to alternate locations, and other costs. In this regard, the customer’s obstacles to entering a business location are reduced while routing and cost calculations are automatically handled based on the demand for the advertiser’s goods and potential profit margins.”
Naturally, the ride itself may cost nothing much if the whole system is able to truly mark such customers who will buy a product. With Google’s extensive repository of data, companies may be able to compute this fairly accurately. But for now, this is merely a very extraordinary idea and we’ll have to wait and see whether or not it can be implemented.
Source: Google
Courtesy: CNET
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