Data and content are disjointed linear paths but reveal amazing results once connected by dots i.e. in this case, latent insights for a competitive edge. Our vision is limited by the need to create visuals and videos that comply with brand guidelines fed to a mass audience, hoping it will hit the target somehow and it will be relevant to all.
As human’s are creating one orbit per person, it is getting extremely complex to arrive at clustered personas and journeys. Digital footprints are growing exponentially. Data is everywhere and in plenty.
Globally, 50 percent of all purchases are powered by digital. This number is expected to rise to 100 percent by 2018. A recent media report suggests that app downloads grew from 10 billion in 2010 to 77 billion in 2014, and that there is “a 19 trillion USD global opportunity to create value over the next decade.”
This will lead to gigantic volumes of data waiting to be leveraged. Marketers continue to ignore what data can empower them with. For excuses of high cost or absence of strategy, the fusillade of aimless content remains the only path. Connecting data and technology for meaningful output and real time delivery of messaging and imagery is imperative. But there are challenges for Indian marketers. Some of them are as below:
Reliance on outdated modes of research
Conventional research methods are inadequate and often misleading. They rely on a respondent’s conditioned response to conditioned questions. And importantly, supersede the study of behavior. Data analytics combined with its science and visual representation provides insights on trends, and nodes of behavior influence.
The word “consumers” is a marketer’s death knell
We need to stop referring to people as consumers. Only then will we understand the power of data in blending the brand’s role in human lives. Today, acquiring a customer is not half the challenge as retaining them. Why and at which point they drop off remains a mystery to many.
An Adobe study pegs only 13 percent of businesses as being able to segment sharply with attribution models. Companies are struggling to align their business needs, model and process to deliver real time
enhanced experiences.
Activision’s game Call of Duty peaked to drive sales at $500m on the first day of a new release. The next step was to monetize the acquired franchise and reduces attrition simultaneously. Furthermore, Activision had to drive in-game purchases too. Its intelligent study of data to identify leaky points in the funnel kept them on their toes to intercept and re-engage the player at points of waning interest.
Data Intelligence must go ahead with Media Automations
Programmatic may be the obvious way forward but its success relies heavily on a continuous process of study and understanding of the customer’s profile and behavior with sophisticated technology to boot. Real time marketing will force real time evolutions in both. Brands must own their customer data and insights and not leave it entirely to publishers.
While India may be lagging behind, the case for some in the west seems bleak too. Published reports suggest that in Europe, only 6.7 percent of those connected with users on Facebook use API data for deeper insight, compared with the US, where almost 18 percent use it. But this number is steadily growing now making brands take automation more seriously than interruption.
The Fear of Big Data overrides the need for Data study
Ever since Indians opted for modern retailing, credit purchase and loyalty management, large data is being generated. But marketers have gotten themselves furiously entangled in its web and remain in a state of data phobic rigor mortis abandoning any play with data, even small.
The writing is on the net. Data intelligence is an unstoppable reality now as CX, i.e. the true value of any brand; will rest on the pivot of this science. And together, CX led by Data insight will create the differentiator and disruption that brands are desperate for.
It’s not just content or the customer journey that matters any longer, but how you can influence that journey to alter behaviors that does. If Big Data overwhelms you, start with small data first. And use it to feed the most relevant content at the most important turning point of behavior change.
For this marriage made in e-heaven, you will need to set your brand waltzing with your desired customer and create new moves as the music flows.
