Whole Foods Pushes Location Based Marketing with Foursquare

Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley posted this photo of a Whole Foods grocery store that is promoting Foursquare check-ins with chalk board signage outside the store. Whole Foods was also one of the stores that received Foursquare window clings a few weeks ago.

This Whole Foods location is going a step further and incentivizing the check-ins by giving away a free gelato (and who doesn’t love gelato?) with every 5th check-in. A relatively small spend for check-in loyalty with their customers and trickle down exposure to their friends and followers.

Foursquare still hasn’t revealed a business model to make money yet, but these partnerships with Bravo TV, Whole Foods and the History Channel are pushing them way ahead of their competitors in the location-based app space.

I think Whole Foods might want to experiment with different offers to see what appeals to the most people. What about a percentage off your grocery bill after a certain number of check-ins? What about a coupon for $5 off any product?

There are a lot of offers that could work with location-based marketing, I think Whole Foods just needs to find the right promotion.

Photo credit: Foursquare CEO David Crowley’s Flickr