Locai: Creating Communities Built Around Brands

Barbara Maldonado December 26, 2011 Tweet

When Locai launched at the 2011 SXSW Conference, they were quite taken aback by the competition and the noise surrounding location-based services and apps.  They quickly decided to make adjustments to differentiate themselves, so they shifted focus from consumers to businesses and launched a platform that lets you create a community around a brand, retail location or business.

As a marketer, what I appreciate most about Locai is the consideration they give to both user groups they are targeting – businesses looking to create a closer connection with their community and consumers who want access to exclusive information, deals and events.  The platform maintains a significant portion of its activation tactics within the conversion category, while extending engagement opportunities to photo sharing, surveys and consumer insights.

One of the biggest criticisms of this type of online community-building is that it’s hard to see how these efforts lead to purchases that affect the bottom line.  And to be fair, we should all be asking the same questions in order to stay in business.

Locai may be the solution to help businesses close that gap in a quicker, more trackable way.  It is able to take the large online community that a brand or business may have through social media and activate those relationships in a nice closed loop – community, engagement and purchase.  My hope is that, as they continue to grow, they maintain the focus on business needs to help retailers and brands grow.