by Herman Manson (@marklives) Waytag aims to solve several modern business problems in one go. For businesses set up in a bricks-and-mortar environment (that would be shops and offices), moving from one premises to another remains a major headache. If you move shop, will your customers be able to find you? Will they climb onto Google to find you, then onto your website, then navigate to your contact page with your location information, just to climb back onto Google maps to find your new store? Didn’t think so.
Waytag offers a location tag linked to a person, business, object, place or event. You update your Waytag, and clients will be able to find you on a mobile- or PC-friendly map.
Solution for mobile warriors
It also offers a solution to those mobile warriors setting up office in coffee shop after coffee shop. Clients can now find you wherever your coffee urges take you, if they have permission from you to do so. Since Waytags are owner-managed the location is precise (well, accurate to one metre), much more so than, for example, Google Maps.
Just like your web site has a domain name that points to a more complex IP address, so Waytag offers a simple addressing system, pointing your custom Waytag name to your GPS co-ordinates. As use of mapping on smartphones explode, Waytag believes its day is coming, and quickly.
For developed markets it offers better mapping efficiencies, while in the often unplanned urban environments of emerging economies, it offers a viable addressing system not reliant on street names and numbers.
Fine-tuning
Launched in 2009 by Warren Venter and Peter McFall, the Stellenbosch-based company has been fine-tuning its offering, as well its path to market, and to this end appointed Nicholas Bednall (ex-Fountainhead Design and BBDO SA) as chief marketing officer in mid-2012.
Waytag, says Bednall, integrates with various existing mapping and navigation services. Its deal with Tom Tom has given it access to 22 million businesses and points of interest, and the company believes those business owners have an active interest in taking ownership and management of their location data, especially as they struggle to become mobile-device friendly.
Initially, the company was looking at consumer adoption as a way to market, and to this end put in place a privacy layer much more complex than most consumers are used to. You can decide who you want to share your Waytag with (as an individual), or open it to the general public (better suited to a business). Those privacy settings will cross over any developer play.
Changed tack
Realising the amount of consumer education (and money) that would be required for take up to be driven by consumers alone, the business has changed tack and now believe business adoption will be a better route to market. The consumer education gets done through its business partners/clients, and will drive consumer adoption, which is also a phase-two roll-out focus for Waytag.
Bednall explains that today a lot of placing on mapping services is done by third parties. Which is why you sometimes land on the other side of town from the business premises you thought you had so carefully researched online earlier in the week. It makes the benefits of managing your own location info online very clear.
As an added benefit to consumers, when a Waytag is flagged as incorrect (maybe the previous business closed down, but the owner never took down the Waytag), it will be removed by the company.
Strategic partners
Currently, Waytag is linking up with strategic partners in the US, the Far East and Europe. It is also taking a targeted approach into select African markets, with South Africa as an obvious stepping stone.
Locally, brands that have signed up include the Shoprite/Checkers group, Woolworths, Massmart, Spur, Gautrain and Debonairs. Waytag is also targeting banks (it would be helpful to know precise locations of all ATMs to within a metre of where they actually stand), fast-food outlets, petrol companies and retailers.
Small business will follow suit, and the Waytag site is geared to helping everyone, from B&Bs to laundrettes and local law firms, to get their Waytag.
Emerging markets
In terms of emerging markets, the mapping companies have very little real information, says Bednall, hence their interest in partnering with Waytag. The data Waytag can collect on new store opening in specific areas, for example, holds a monetary value, and it will be one of the group’s future revenue streams.
Bednall says it won’t sell consumer information; it will simply analyse location data. It will also manage and administer the Waytag offering to enterprise clients (SMMEs can self-administer free of charge via its website).
More than 15 000 Waytags have already been registered, and the Waytag team is focused on signing up corporate clients with more than 2000 locations on their books, so Bednall expects quick growth in the number of tags that are live.
Disrupting the apps market
The service is already disrupting the apps market, says Bednall, especially those in the R500k-R1 million category focused on store/service locations. On Waytag, it’s free and consumers don’t need to download an app to find a Waytag address.
The tipping point, for Bednall, will come when SMEs adopt the service on a significant scale. A marketing campaign will be launched in November to help educate business owners on the benefits of claiming their Waytag.