compare to customer spotting method, normative technologies work well in predicting

future impacts of proposed developments since there is no real data for customer
spotting to analyze. Moreover, normative approaches are relatively cheap and easy to
apply compared to comprehensive surveying and analysis of real world situation.
Whereas customer spotting technologies, this method is categorized under
behavioural approaches. Behavioral tactics in location analysis include "client
spotting" and market penetration techniques. In this strategy, service providers
determine where their consumers originate from in order to define the trade or service
region. The "behavior" element refers to the consumer behavior of customers
traveling to the store, shopping center, hospital, school, or town - whichever is the
subject of our research. For retailers, the advantage of customer spotting is the ability
to analyze the current situation in the most effective way. Clustering and distance
decay patterns between shopping destinations and customers can often be observed;
moreover, some areas may generate more customers regardless of distance. Whether
the uniqueness of the demographics of these areas is consistent with the
characteristics of the retailers. Areas with similar demographics may lead to
successful new store locations. Location selection, as determined by distance decay,
can determine the future foot traffic and profitability of a store to a certain extent. In
addition to private business, public services such as healthcare, etc., customer spotting
allows us to know in a timely manner why people with specific health conditions are
concentrated in a particular area. Then, the government can create a profile for this
region based on our results from customer spotting to deal with disproportion
population. This can help the government to plan closer to the actual needs of the
people in the future. This may also duplicate and apply to other cities.
However, we need to recognize both of these two technologies work pretty well
in determining the service areas and targeted marketing of private and public facilities,
resulting in better return for less effort.

Discussing the major components of Huff Model contrasting it with two other
normative technologies. Why are normative methods still used in an age of
enterprise database?
There are three major components within the Huff Model. They are, respectively,
distance between centers and customers, size of centers, and probability of
overlapping market. The Huff model casts Reilly’s law of retail gravitation into a
probabilistic framework. Huff captured that the probability that a consumer at point
“i” will travel to shopping center “j”, (Pij), is a ratio of the utility of the shopping
centers to the customer (uij) and the total utility of all shopping centres (Σuij).
Compare to other two normative technologies, Huff model is not build not based
on spatial monopoly and more close to real market conditions. Huff assigns market
areas to shopping malls based on probabilities. Huff is able to deal with multi-centers
(shopping malls), unlike other two normative which can only deal with one center.
Thiessen polygon assumptions only cares about the theory of distance decay and
omits the attractiveness of size of the center and overlap situation. The most obvious
weak point for Thiessen polygon assumptions is it treats distance as straight line