The location mystique: Understanding why companies with great sites fail and what to do about it

Often, real estate factors are given much of the credit for a particular site’s success or failure when it comes to sales. The current paper asserts that some of the praise or blame heaped onto real estate decision‐makers may be undue. Sometimes success or failure is due to non‐real estate factors such as a marketing or advertising strategy, operations, or brand awareness. The paper discusses non‐real estate variables that contribute to a site’s overall success or failure, and offers diagnostics and suggestions to help address non‐real estate problems that could influence sales.