A study was released in July 2013 indicating searches 89% of mobile searches are for gas stations....and 90% of these mobile searches result in a purchase. The later is not surprising. If I'm searching for gas on my mobile phone, it probably isn't for the next day. What is interesting about this study is that it will change the face of gas station marketing (or those that are gas stations and convenience stores). These are businesses that generally rely on brand level national marketing and advertising programs. Most probably do not think they need to market themselves...afterall, cars are coming to fill up! 1. I think the study actually creates a different question: "what business are these gas stations missing?" Let's take for instance a national brand we researched with 5,000 gas stations and 2,000 of them do not even show up in Google Maps. As you can imagine the other 3,000 listings are not well updated to even rank. This would indicate they are missing business to the competition. 2. When it comes to local store marketing, many businesses are assuming they only have to syndicate information...but I argue that they are missing the marketing elements that include: Monitoring ranking positions of keywords and nearby cities Managing Ratings and Reviews (including responses) Updating marketing materials regularly Monitoring and Managing Duplicate Listings ...and the list goes on for marketing processes over simple technology tasks that go beyond simple syndication. Afterall, the study from June 2013 indicates how 85% of consumers make their decisions based on the ratings and reviews alone. So, even if you were ranked, even if you had marketing materials...if your ratings and reviews are not competitive you will still lose business. 3. Most gas stations are owned individually at the local level regardless of the brand that you see out front. Theoretically these types of decisions would be done at the individual store level. 4. The brands are only focused on the national media buys and advertising - not necessarily local store marketing. Their agencies do not want their clients to spend money outside of media buys since that is one of the agencies revenue streams. So, here are some questions to collaborate on: A. Do you believe both studies? B. Do you think gas station and convenience stores will accept the study? C. What are some ways of reaching gas station and convenience store owners directly? A solution for gas station marketing presents itself here at Yahoo Finance and it will be interesting to see how quickly this industry will adapt to these types of changes coming from the mobile and Internet industries. I look forward to feedback.