Big Data and Marketing - It's Essentially Essential

Marketing is a science. Then again, it is also an art. One needs an understanding of human sentiments and emotions to grasp why a certain brand is preferred over another. At the same time, unless you are supported by hard facts, data and proper analysis it becomes difficult to reach any kind of conclusion - even an emotional one.

The world sees information being churned out at a humongous rate - IBM suggests it is 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every date -data from satellites, posts from social sites, mobile usage statistics, internet consumption rates, traffic patterns, content in form of words, audio and video, ….its an endless list.

Image courtesy of Vlado/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For marketers the scope is teensy-weensy bit smaller. We only have to analyze the foot-falls, the buying patterns, the information exchange patterns, the economic trends, the competition. We have to be aware of what policy changes are happening in country A and how that will affect our sales in country B.  There has to be a constant study of which email campaign worked, why it worked, what's the click through rate, how many unsubscribes. Are there any cross-sell opportunities with our current customers, how do we profile new prospects…...Whew!!!! And, this does not even cover a miniscule portion of data we need to collect and analyze.

This is where Big Data comes in. Data would be considered Big if it covers 3 dimensions - Volume (the amount of data generated), Velocity (the speed with which data is generated) and variety (the kind and type of data being generated).

If the above list indicates anything its this - Marketers are being hit with Big Data from all sides. But the challenges are numerous. Most organizations do not have a streamlined process for collecting data. This means either the data is not collected frequently and consistently or, it is not in real-time. There is also a lack of data-sharing across the organization and marketing communications are still not personalized to reflect this data. The 2013 Big Data for Marketing survey* shows that 30% of those surveyed are still having a hard time understanding how, exactly, marketing analytics could be used in their companies.

What is needed are tools and techniques capable of handling such data. Such tools will help replace guesswork with insights, pinpoint trends and help analyze information so you are able to make faster and relevant decisions. On a broad scale these tools can be classified as analytics tools, predictive analytics tools and data driven automation tools.

Few companies are already becoming comfortable on this bandwagon. Amazon not only accesses and analyzes its daily visitor patters and provides them with suggestions on 'items of interest' but also has the agility to incorporate the now for business profit.  The day Michael Jackson passed away Amazon reconfigured their whole MP3 store within 2 hours**. This gave them access to a revenue stream that others were still unsure on how to tap. Linkedin, the world's largest professional networking site with over 200Mn+ members, can at any time pull in statistics which help decipher a company's attrition rate, regional expansion patterns and much more.

The market is seeing a number of players specializing in helping organizations in deciphering what their data means and then utilizing it optimally.  A good example is the India based company Vizury which helps e-commerce and online travel companies harness their digital data assets for micro-targeting highly-pertinent ads to website visitors.

Do you have more examples of how Big Data is being used by marketers? Do share.

*http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/moneyball-meets-marketing-leveraging-big-data-analytics-improve-results

 **http://www.toprankblog.com/2012/08/big-data-what-marketers-need-to-know/

It's Valentine - How Marketers can Target Consumers Who Spend!

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What is it about this day that transforms even the unromantics  to roses-carrying-chocolate-bearing-happy-Romeos (and Juliets)? I came across this very cute collection of infographics

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue: 14 Infographics to Say I Love You that has brought together some fun ideas, if you are looking!

This day has a curious effect of us marketers as well - suddenly all the ads and campaigns are about being associated with cupids and hearts and of course, the colour red.  And rightly so! With over 61% consumers celebrating Valentine's Day and an average annual Valentine's Day spending of $13.19 Billion, the market size is tremendous*. The average consumer in the UK spends around $180 on their loved ones, in USA this number is somewhere around  $122 and one sees the largest spends across the Asian market with a whopping average of $268/ consumer.** 

So how will you get the most of this day?

• · Starting your promotions early gives you a larger mindshare
• ·  Music-it-up : Catchy jingles and tunes always have a way of grabbing one's attention
• ·   Involve a "Dinner-for-two" contest - It's Valentine and people like to dine out
• ·   Get local radio channel to talk about your contest or 'Special-Valentine-Product'
• ·   Run specific campaigns for colleges and high-schools - Young love needs new gifting ideas
• ·   Don't forget that this day is also about gifting to relatives, colleagues and even pets
• ·  Offer a free customized card with every gift purchased
• ·  Start a 'Two is better than One' sale - offer discounts to couples or, even 'Buy One and Get One Free' offers

 Here is a collection of some infographics I came across on how marketers can leverage the day.

 http://www.eyesonsales.com/cdn/i/top10-valentines-infographic.jpg

http://www.dreamgrow.com/valentines-day-for-marketers-infographic/

http://infographicjournal.com/10-valentines-day-tips-for-ecommerce-smb-merchants/

Source:

* http://www.statisticbrain.com/valentines-day-statistics/

** http://www.retail-week.com/sectors/general-merchandise/infographic-the-valentines-day-market-around-the-world/5045845.article

The 5 Questions of Marketing Communication - Are You Answering These?

Events, email campaigns, social media - be it B2B or B2C, external or internal to your organization - any communication or, exchange of information, is incomplete if you are not answering the 'Why', 'Who', 'What' and 'How'. Even more importantly, once these 4 questions have been answered you must look at the 'So What'.

The concept is out there, albeit in a segmented fashion. We all know that targeting, segmenting, messaging are key to any kind of communication but only once these are put in a logical order can the benefits be truely realized.

• WHY - A marketing communication plan is not a transaction but rather a program and it should be treated as such. Before starting the entire planning process all participants must be clear as to:
• Why is this program needed? 
• What purpose is it expected to serve?
• Why should X, Y, Z teams be involved?

• WHO - Before any kind of communication can be dispersed have you identified who is it really meant for? What is your key target base? Is your messaging appropriate for the CXO-level or, is it targeting to the mid-tier executives? Are you targeting other businesses or, is your client the end customer and is your messaging apt for this audience?

• WHAT - Messaging - plain and simple. What are you trying to communicate? What is the information you would like to share and what approach or, message construction will you use?

• HOW - Only once the above questions are answered can you move to this question. Answering the 'How' requires visiting - 
• How will you disperse the information? 
• What channels will you employ? 
• Is a e-campaign the best way, or would print media give better results or, both? How will you employ social media to boost your program? Today, no one channel can guarantee success. It has to be a judicious combination of various such channels which will get your closer to your goal ...the 'Why'.

• SO WHAT -  This is a crucial stage - the post-program retrospection. Studying the results, analyzing the findings and feedback... This will provide direct insights into your next program and help you build a best practice repository.

So what do you think? In your opinion does the idea of following a logical order or answering the Why, Who, What, How and So What apply to all industries, across interaction levels or, can we include more steps in this process?  

Why did the Dog Climb aboard the Elevator?

It did happen….while I was on my way out of the office, right when we reached the ground floor…a brown mix-breed dog (no collar so not a pet) calmly walks into the elevator as the door swishes open. I am more shocked than amused and try to shoo the little doggie out, but to no avail. A co-passenger quips "Must be tired of the ground floor and would like to visit the basement!" We reach the basement and sure enough Jingle (Yes, I named the dog in those 30 seconds) walks out, all prim and proper, her head held high.

The question is why did the dog climb aboard? I have been thinking and believe either the dog is a thinker and a visionary for its kind or, is simply a follower of the other beings in its existing environment - in this case, the humans.

Translate this to our daily life and we can learn from Jingle that it is all about doing things in a new way!

•    A new way to reach an old goal can lead to doing things more easily - Till the world was introduced to emails, marketers promoted their products via letters and print media. When social media came into being marketing communication saw the birth of micro-blogs and informal connections across Facebook and Twitter.  Building relationships, the age-old goal, just got simpler and faster. The effort and time invested might be equivalent but the costs reduced and the networking became more real-time.

•     You might become the first (in your circle) to try out a new idea -When Facebook started becoming a rage amongst the people for staying in touch and building personal relationships  who would have thought that the same platform could be used  by global organizations to build social connections with their end consumers. Today, from Coco Cola to Ford to Lufthansa, companies are using this channel as part of their everyday marketing. Many of these social connections also attribute to the bottom line – a Coco-cola loyal Facebook fan will buy his favorite soft drink next time she is thirsty.

•      Learning from cross-species - You might be a B2B brand but you could learn from a B2C company like Coco-Cola how to engage with customers and keep them involved. You might be a B2C company but learning how Lady Gaga has created her Little Monsters community can help change how the relationship game is played.  A manufacturing company can learn from Walmart how to ensure that the supply chain is operating as efficiently as possible. In fact, the spill-over is already happening – for example, banks are going the ecommerce way; insurance is available online, just like your favorite sweater is!
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•     Patience is a virtue - Once Jingle got onto the elevator and the doors closed she did not start panicking or, scratching the doors in an effort to get out. She waited till the doors opened, walked out and assessed whether she like the new surroundings or not. Similarly, once you have made the effort, done the research and started on a venture it is best you follow it to some kind of conclusion. Ditching the plans mid-way when you hit a block, without any kind of analysis done on the proceedings, will only lead to frustration. When you start a marketing program, say an e-campaign or, a PR effort, make measurable checkpoints in the roadmap. Every time a checkpoint is reached, review whether the program is going as per plan. If not, recheck whether you could do certain things differently to map to the expected results. Only when this fails should you drop the program. Keeping an eye on the way the program is being carried out can usually help identify problem areas and help rectify them.

Jingle may or may not have stayed in the basement but she tried something new on the way. We might not like where we end up once we start on a marketing program but that does not mean that the learnings from the effort will not help us in the future - after all what good is a best practice repository if the best practices are not updated often enough!