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GGR252 Course Outline

Marketing Geography (University of Toronto)

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DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
University of Toronto
COURSE OUTLINE Winter 2021

COURSE: GGR252 H1S - Marketing Geography

INSTRUCTOR: Stephen Swales – stephen.swales@utoronto.ca
Real-time online office hours via Bb Collaborate in Quercus: Wednesday 5-7 pm. Also by
appointment. Teaching Assistants will also have online office hours posted in Quercus.

Course organisation

This is an online course delivered asynchronously. Weekly lectures will be posted and, in
conjunction with the textbook (which was written for the course), will form the key source of
course material. Recorded video guidelines for assignment completion will be made available
asynchronously. The instructor and teaching assistants will be available online regularly to
respond to questions. Tutorial sessions will be primarily used to provide guidance for
assignment completion. It is recommended that students have a computer with a microphone
and camera in order to participate in optional online activities.

Course outline
This course is primarily concerned with retail location: how to best reach consumers of goods
and services. Geography matters in many aspects of contemporary society. Here we consider
the importance of location in the success of both private and public sector organisations.
What is the geographical response of retail to the erosion of the middle market and expansion
of high and low income markets? How does the spatial restructuring of hospitals impact
access to medical care, particularly for populations at risk?

Drawing mainly from the location analysis tradition in geography, and using mainly retail
examples, we address contemporary real-world location problems. At the very least this
requires an understanding of the geographies of demand and supply. It also requires the
analysis of the changing demographics of demand and retail and public sector responses.
Several trade area and site selection techniques provide decision-support for the
contemporary location analytics industry. These decisions take place in a changing
economic, societal, and planning context. Online retailing, Geographical Information Systems
(GIS), social media and artificial intelligence (AI), add new opportunities in the enterprise of
exposing private and public facilities to target audiences.

The topics include:

- Location matters - Trade area analysis

- Spatial concepts - Site selection techniques
- Spatial analysis & the value of location - Market demographics
- The geography of demand - GIS & decision-support
- The geography of supply - Planning issues
- Retail structure at intra & inter-urban scales - An online and AI future?

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Textbook
Stephen Swales (2020), GEOGRAPHY MATTERS: Location Analytics for Retail and Public
Services 2nd ed., Toronto: McGraw Hill Education. ISBN 9781260880700
Please note: This second edition was written for this course and is an important resource.
You must read the assigned chapters to fully understand the course material and prepare for
assignments, test and final assessment.

Requirements
A tutorial and test schedule will be posted online; due dates are clearly indicated on this
schedule. Tutorials will develop and discuss two assignments.

Assignments (2): Total Value: 60 marks

Open-book Online Test - Value: 15 marks (relevant lecture material & textbook
chapters from the second edition will be assigned). The second edition has an index.
Final Online Assessment - Value: 25 marks. Duration: 2 hours.

Penalty for Late Work

A late penalty of 20 per cent of the value of the assignment will be subtracted for assignments
that are late by one week or less. Assignments more than one week late will not be accepted
without documented good cause.

Student Academic Integrity

It is essential that you read and abide by the guidelines on student academic integrity in order
to avoid academic misconduct: http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/osai/The-rules/what-is-
academic-misconduct. Plagiarism can result in failing the course or worse. Do not cheat.

Course resources and a caution

Essential resources for the course are online class lectures, the second edition of the
textbook, and tutorials. The textbook was written for the course so is a very close match to
lecture content. Also, the appendices in the textbook provide important data and guidelines
for assignments. References and sources at the end of each textbook chapter are to be
considered supplementary rather than essential reading.
Caution: I have been made aware of online sites purporting to be good lecture notes for this
course. They are not. At best they are misleading and more typically inaccurate and wrong. I
have also seen inaccurate notes reproduced in exams and assignments with failing
consequences. I advise you not to use these unofficial and misleading online sources. Stick
to the official course resources.

Additional student resources

The university has a wealth of online student resources. These will be identified in the
course content for the first week. A good starting point are the online resources provided by
the Faculty of Arts & Science:
https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academic-advising-and-support/online-resources-
students

We trust you will find this course productive and enjoyable.

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GGR 252 MARKETING GEOGRAPHY – DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE

Course textbook: Stephen Swales (2020), GEOGRAPHY MATTERS: Location Analytics

for Retail and Public Services 2nd ed., Toronto: McGraw Hill Education. ISBN
9781260880700.
NOTE: this is the second edition and significantly different from the first edition. You should
have this new edition. This book was written for this course and you should read it to fully
prepare for assignments, test and exam.

1. DOES LOCATION MATTER?

Location of private and public services. Marketing, geography, and marketing
geography. Retail and other urban services. The global context of retail. Typologies of
retail. Hierarchies of services. Public and private sector perspectives. Overview of
retail market and retail supply. Consumption and the environment. ‘Location matters’
case studies.

Textbook Reading: Chapter One: “Does Location Matter?”.

2. SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND THE VALUE OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

Distance, distance decay, disincentive nature of distance, intervening opportunities,
gravity models, spatial interaction. GIS and geodemographics. The geographical
perspective.

Textbook Reading: Chapter Two: “Basic Spatial Concepts”.

3. BASIC SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND THE VALUE OF LOCATION

Geovisualisation and the power of maps. Associations in space. Customer spotting &
target marketing. Location & competition. Boundaries for a spatial market. The value
of location.

Textbook Reading: Chapter Three: “Basic Spatial Analysis”.

4. TRADE & SERVICE AREA DELIMITATION TECHNIQUES

Normative and behavioural approaches. Theoretical normative approaches:
Thiessen polygon technique, Converse (Reilly) breakpoint method and the Huff
model. Critique.

Textbook Reading: Chapter Four: “Trade and Service Area Analysis”.

5. BEHAVIOURAL APPROACHES: FROM CUSTOMER SPOTTING TO ARTIFICIAL

INTELLIGENCE
Who and where? Surveys and affinity cards. Market penetration. Virtual media.
Customer tracking. RFIDs. Social media. Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Textbook Reading: Chapter Five: “From Customer Spotting to Artificial Intelligence –

Capturing Information on Clients.

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6. SITE SELECTION LOCATION TECHNIQUES

Overview of site selection methods. Experience, fieldwork and sense of place.
Checklists, ratios and ratings. Application of regression analysis and location
allocation.

Textbook Reading: Chapter Six: “Site Selection and Evaluation”.

7. LOCATION AND DEMOGRAPHICS I: THE GEOGRAPHY OF BASIC DEMAND

Demand for private and public services. Market composition and location. Age and
sex, family and households. Typical geographical patterns.

Textbook Reading: Chapter Seven: “The Geography of Demand – Basic

Demographics”. Appendix Two: “Selected Census Variables Captured from Statistics
Canada’s Census Profile Application”.

8. LOCATION & DEMOGRAPHICS II: SOCIO-ECONOMIC COMPOSITION, ETHNICITY &

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Socio-economic status: income, education & education. Expenditures. Ethnic
composition. Mobility & consumer behaviour. Geodemographics. Normative and
behavioural approaches to understanding consumer behaviour. Perception, imagery
and activity space.

Textbook Reading: Chapter Eight: “The Fuller Picture of the Geography of Demand:
socio-economic status, expenditures, ethnicity and mobility”. Appendix Two:
“Selected Census Variables Captured from Statistics Canada’s Census Profile
Application”. Appendix Three: “Survey of Household Spending Data”

9. THE GEOGRAPHY OF RETAIL SUPPLY: RETAIL STRUCTURE AND CHANGE

Types of retail activity: retail strips, shopping centres, power retail and ancillary retail.
Evolution of the Canadian retail system. The role of the shopping centre and retail
chains. Emergence of “big boxes” and power centres. The Toronto experience.
Experience of downtowns. Changing geography of demand & retail responses.

Textbook Reading: Chapter Nine: “The Geography of Supply”.

10. RETAIL CONCENTRATION

Large retail chains, retail conglomerates, shopping centres. International retail.

Textbook Reading: First part of Chapter Ten: “Retail Concentration, the Geography
of Consumption and an Online Future”.

11. GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS)AND LOCATION ANALYTICS

GIS? Decision support. Doing something with spatially referenced data. Location
analysis questions in GIS. Components of a GIS. Spatial entities, spatial and
attribute data and GIS data models. Layers of data. Topology.

Textbook Reading: Chapter 11 “Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and

Location Analytics.”

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12. LOCATION AND PLANNING

Externalities and planning debates. Stakeholders. Urban futures.

Reading: Class notes

13. AN ONLINE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) FUTURE?

Non-store retailing. Online shopping and the re-emergence of catalogue shopping.
Small share, large impact. The future of retailing or just a complement to physical
retailing? Social media. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Textbook Reading: Latter part of: Chapter Five (5.6, 5.7). Latter part of: Chapter Ten
(10.8): “Retail Concentration, the Geography of Consumption and an Online Future”.

Stephen Swales

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