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A store is interested in understanding its market and the potential growth (population). If the store had the locations of where its customers are coming from, their distances can be calculated and get a sense of the store's reach within the market. A distance can be determined and primary/secondary buffers can be created as catchment areas to quantify the data, such as the population growth thematic layer.
With location intelligence, the customer data list can be used for more than just determining the distance; it can be used as a means to generate a trade area. By using functions within Mapinfo such as the Distance Calculator to determine the distance, as well as Convex Hull function, the customers can be sorted by distance (nearest 25%,50%,etc) and trade areas can be created by following the position of the customers.
As an alternative to buffers, a convex hull trade area is shaped according to customers' distribution, and can provide insights beyond just the distance. Referring to the map, the trade area appears to not extend as much to the east. By looking at other information such as the road network, a possible reason is that the DVP highway is running through there and may prevent customers from reaching the store. Because the shape of the convex hull is not as consistently-shaped as a buffer, in some cases it can allow for more specific marketing targeting as it only includes areas with existing customer presence and excludes those areas with none. This is also helpful with performing analysis as it would exclude areas that may potentially not reflect the customer base.
Data Sources:
Statistics Canada 2016 Road Network File
Statistics Canada 2016 Census Data Tables - Population
Disclaimer:
Store and customer locations are randomly-generated and do not represent actual locations. It is used for the purposes of visualizing the locations and trade areas for this map contest.