Marketers seem to be so flooded with data, and old approaches have become so tired that they are getting lost in the quagmire: so what should they do?

Brand value has become the dominant source of valuation for large product companies, increasing the pressure on marketing executives. The rules are changing, and traditional approaches to building brand equity are no longer as effective in the era of channel proliferation, non-traditional alternatives, globalisation, and customer fragmentation. Faced with requirements for growth and heightened demands for accountability, brand managers are becoming overwhelmed by an unending list of questions and possible actions.

Data provides keys to insight… and opportunity

Figure 1: create competitive advantage, understand the dynamics of markets

The accumulation, organisation and manipulation of this data will be a critical success factor in the 21st century. As business assets move from tangible to intangible, managers need hard facts from soft data. Decision makers are aware that their existing data should reveal sharper customer insights, more precise targeting and ultimately better return on their marketing investment and increasingly, businesses are seeking specialist organisations that can help them master these changes and steer their business into new, more profitable areas.

Harnessing the power of data to deliver more efficient, optimised and accountable solutions will empower managers to propose more effective marketing and better defend their budget under tight financial scrutiny.

The most forward thinking marketing organisations are looking to build continuous optimisation platforms, providing feedback and forecasts at all stages of product life-cycles.

Figure 2: Continuous Cycle of Marketing Improvement

Help is on its way

Innovative solutions are now available to confront these challenges by providing brand managers with software service applications that enable them to sift through the overwhelming amount of data to unlock the secrets to influencing customer behaviour, and thus maximise their growth potential. Software solutions like our own our based on data visualisation techniques and incorporate leading edge analytics and econometric modelling to produce accurate forecasts, marketing analysis of strategy, and real-time feedback on tactical effectiveness. These leading tools also feature interactive management dashboards that can be readily accessed by marketers to deliver significant competitive advantage much more quickly and cost effectively than previously possible.

Figure 3: Influencing the Customer (full image)

Analytics driven marketing will deliver a more thorough understanding of brand dynamics, allowing businesses to leverage efficiencies that exist in their marketing investments.

Modular solutions can address specific customer needs at different stages of a product life cycle. Insights provided highlight growth opportunities and offer accountability over marketing investments, improve profits through better decisions, and ultimately build significant competitive advantage. Companies using these tools can drive higher revenues, manage marketing spend more efficiently, and displace static and costly consulting engagements with dynamic real-time information flow that allow businesses to optimise and continuously refine their marketing execution.

Figure 4: Marketing Analytics Process (full image)

Common issues facing marketers

Marketers today are facing many challenges, and within each brand there are unique issues which require plans to be individualised. At the highest level, though, the questions tend to be very similar:

1. “Are we spending money wisely”?
- Return on marketing investment
2. “Should we spend more or less?”
- Optimisation of marketing investment level
3. “How should I allocate spend?”
- Marketing mix trade-offs e.g. Spend on brand vs. spend on promotions, sales support vs. brand building levers
4. “How can I do more with the same/same with less/more with less?”
- Effectiveness of marketing investment - Message optimisation, cross-market trade-offs

Many obstacles complicate finding the answers to these questions:

1. Channel proliferation
- The task of processing a new customer sale or assisting a current customer requesting a service is complex and is different depending upon which channel is involved. There are typically too many people involved, too many steps, too much confusion, and too many mistakes. The end result is too much cost, lost business opportunities and unhappy customers.
2. Consumer choice
- Conditions are in a constant state of flux, so companies must quickly adapt to new patterns in customer behaviour, pricing and operations, in order to get and stay ahead. The speed at which companies can access, parse, analyse and leverage complex information is critical.
3. Data reliability and relevance
- The consistency of the data collected; the precision with which it is collected; the ability to measure and replicate results.
4. Data overload
- Industry analysts agree that overall corporate data storage needs are currently doubling on an annual basis. In pharmaceuticals, industry watchers estimate that it now takes only six to nine months to generate a volume of new information comparable to what is already stored in all drug industry libraries and computers worldwide. Despite enormous investments, many companies are still struggling to simply find ways to deal with data overload. The fact is they haven't even begun to tap into the information.

Delivering success

Critical drivers to success include maximising the impact of new products at launch, increasing market share in key product lines, leveraging marketing investment across portfolio and increasing productivity in sales and marketing investments.

Incorporating predictive analytics and data mining tools will offer solutions to critical questions by supplying a modelling system that will enable marketing groups to optimise the effectiveness of brand investments, including the development and testing of different marketing activity scenarios and the creation of comprehensive marketing plans covering the full range of marketing activity.

Figure 5: Delivering Return on Marketing Investment (full image)

These systems will also provide an understanding of the impact of marketing activity on the product portfolio, including the product hierarchy by identifying which products to effect first with mix, and products on which mix have an indirect, secondary impact.

A properly implemented and advanced solution will identify relevant brand drivers and link actions to results. Output should include a continuously updated set of actionable recommendations. The solution should include forecasting and create a model (or series of models) for ‘what if?’ scenario testing for maximum benefit.

Integrated delivery system

Dynamic business planning tools provide brand leaders, country managers and senior management with real-time insight into their operation and marketing plan and can enhance the effectiveness of even the most sophisticated marketing organisations by offering:

• Actionable recommendations focused on driving growth.
• In-depth understanding of the relationship between strategic choices, business investment and objectives.
o Quantifying the impact of investments on strategic objectives.
o Optimising budgets against key strategic choices.
• Scenario planning – allowing businesses to test the impact of different strategies against their objectives before executing in the field.
• An embedded planning and analysis capability, raising the quality of planning & decision making within client organisations.

Figure 6: Integrated Delivery System (full image)

Marketing leaders can no longer afford to rely on instincts and what worked in the last campaign. An integrated approach to deploying technology can maximise your data assets and deliver superior insight into your key marketing drivers. These technology solutions are available today, and internet delivered software as a service solutions can be put in place within weeks, unlike the enterprise systems implementations nightmares of years past. Today’s leading tools can inform your decisions and help your team achieve better marketing results and build competitive advantage.

By Piers Heriot-Walker,
Director, Advanced Marketing Sciences Ltd

Email: piers@amsciences.com
Web: http://www.amsciences.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7349 7075
Mob: +44 (0) 7917 663 730

About the author

Piers Heriot-Walker is a Director at Advanced Marketing Sciences and has specialised in advertising and media econometrics for 15 years, in a career covering advertising, client-side marketing & management consultancy. One of early industry figures to truly understand the significance of applying return on investment measures to drive efficiency, Piers has developed and written several, globally distributed, leading edge decision-aid tools, pioneering approaches to deliver better understanding of client brand dynamics using econometrics, applied artificial intelligence and genetic optimisation.
Piers founded Advanced Marketing Sciences in 2000 with the aim of delivering competitive advantage to clients through more robust marketing analytics. AMS has provided advanced consulting solutions to key Global 1000 firms while developing sophisticated analytical software applications geared specifically to marketing departments.