Is Geofencing Losing its Creepiness?

Geofencing was a hot topic Monday at the Mobile Shopping Fall conference. The tactic involves marketing to an opted-in mobile customer via SMS messaging based on the customer's proximity to a certain location.
Most geofencing takes place in that particular merchant's store. But technically, a merchant can geofence someone who is standing in another merchant's store.

But is geofencing creepy, dirty pool, or smart marketing?

"It's fantastically effective for us, and it's a big traffic driver," Mark Parrish, vice president of loyalty and retention for Barnes & Noble, said during a session.

He says they can offer coupons and discounts via geofencing and drive 1,000 customers to its stores. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but Parrish says that's 1,000 customers who may have just walked on by.

Geofencing is location-based. A merchant cannot reach an opt-in customer via geofencing unless his phone is turned on and the GPS is active. In some cases, a consumer must make a credit card purchase before the geofencing takes place.

Parrish said geofencing can be considered creepy. But he added that it's something today's teens and 20-something seem to expect from marketers.

Case in point: When a consumer turns on an Android for the first time, he is told straight up that Google is going to track his every move...