By Clare Kermond
GPS technology could soon be a must-have for market research and advertising campaigns, with researchers saying the technology could provide accurate information on people's everyday habits.
GPS devices could be used to track people's movements, including how many times they passed a certain billboard, which shops they visited and how long they spent in them.
Jason Buchanan, founder of GPS Innovations, said recent research found that people under-reported their movements by up to 60 per cent. Speaking at the Australian Marketing and Social Research Society conference in Melbourne recently, Mr Buchanan said people's memories of their movements were not always accurate and GPS could be used to improve the quality of information available to researchers.
''As hard as they may try, people don't easily remember exactly where they went and what they did. A GPS device attached to someone's car or handbag could ensure the research results are more accurate, improving the quality of information when used alongside surveys and polls,'' Mr Buchanan said.
He predicted GPS technology could also eventually be used in research aimed at tracking the driving habits of young drivers to inform insurance companies, monitoring people's travel times to improve the delivery of public transport and recording people's use of shops and businesses to help council planning decisions.
Mr Buchanan said that ''with a little imagination and knowledge'' researchers and marketers could collect information that would help governments and companies make better decisions.
Although only a few market research studies had used GPS technology so far, there was huge potential, he said.
But he warned that there were some technical problems with GPS that needed to be resolved and that it was not applicable to all research. Challenges include the inaccuracy of satellite reception once GPS devices go underground and GPS chips quickly flattening mobile phone batteries.