Agency Execs: 3 Advices for Being a Smart Analytics Firm

It is clear that the coming of Big Data era has changed the marketing landscape a lot. According to the data from CMOSurvey.org, marketers are predicted to increase their budget on marketing analytics by 83% over the next 3 years, which is for sure a great news for marketing analytics firms. But have you been prepared for it? As a M.S candidate in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at Medill School of Journalism, I believe the following 2 article will help you gear up to be a smart analytics firm.

In the article "The Value of Big DataIsn’t the Data", Kristian J. Hammond provides us with a new thinking about how to make value out of data, which is really important to marketing analytics. He suggests that we should try to turn data into a story and argues that the starting point has to be the story (or the communication) itself, which defines the data needs. Marketers or analysts should pay attention to how to turn the data collected into a story instead of just exposing or displaying it. And in his article, he defines the overall analytics flow, which goes from data to fact to angle to story to language.

(Source: https://hbr.org/)

In the article "Big Data Driven Marketing Analytics Invades the Enterprise", the author also provides some suggestions on how to be a smart analytical guy. On the one hand, he/she reminds marketing analysts not to neglect pre-purchase behaviors data by saying that studying and analyzing the development of customer decisions prior to a particular purchase can unravel potential customer winning strategies. On the other hand, he/she calls on to strengthen the link between technology and marketing expertise by pointing out the issue that marketing departments have to serve as advisors to their technology peers.

Based on the two articles discussed above, my graduate education as well as my working experience in marketing research firm, here are three advices for becoming a smart analytics firm:

• Conceive Story first - Think of the story you want to tell before collecting data and analyzing data.
• Focus on Pre-purchase - Study and analyze the data concerning the development of customer decisions prior to a particular purchase, instead of just digging the purchase behavior data.
• Think skill set - It's O.K. to have marketing guys along with statisticians, but it would be even better to have someone who is expert in both marketing and analytics join the firm.

Being a smart analytical firm means doing things effectively and efficiently. Think of the story you want to tell before heading toward data things. By doing this, you will have a clear mind of what data needs to be collected and what analysis needs to be done, which greatly lift the efficiency of marketing analytics. Spending efforts on pre-purchase data instead of only on post-purchase data can unravel potential customer winning strategies as well as protect existing customers from the prying eyes of competition, which effectively adds value to client’s business. Finally, it is crucial not to separate marketing with analytics. While more and more companies set direct link between marketing and technology departments, it is time for analytical firms to equip its analyst with both expertise.

Qimin Wu is a MS candidate in the Integrated Marketing Communication program at Northwestern University. He is now pursing the track of marketing analytics as well as digital and interactive marketing. He has a good command of quantitative analytical tools and has considerable experience in applying these tools for solving real problems. Before he came to this program, he had worked for 3 years as an analyst in Shanghai Sinotes Consulting Co., Ltd., which is a major market research partner of China Mobile and Lenovo. Please connect with him on Twitter (@QiminWu111) for more information.

Bloggers and Authors: 3 Tips on the Power of Creative and Visual Storytelling

To increase brand awareness with products and services, an innovative approach to tell brand
stories using consumer insights and product benefits while creating that “eye popping” experience builds measurable results. As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill, Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) program with an interest in visual storytelling, I have discovered 2 articles you will find interesting and informative. The best way to increase positive human experience and ongoing dialogue is to tell your story with an impactful visual and creative story. In today’s fast paced digital environment, a good visual story with a good caption serves well as people make decisions within seconds as they surf the web.

In, "8 ways to get likes, followers on Instagram," Hannah Clark, Social Media Coordinator of Hootsuite wants to help marketers through the plateau stage of likes and followers. The article discusses ways to leverage Instagram to increase likes and followers.  Ms. Clark suggests that each photograph carry a theme coupled with awesome content. The captions will need to match the photos. To build loyalty and a relationship with followers, stick to a schedule. To create and maintain brand engagement, use unique hashtags to encourage tagging of their photos. Conversations and comments on photos should be in real time to maintain and increase engagement.

Visualize, Create, Be Authentic

In "5 things to pillage from game of thrones," Digital Strategist and NewsCred Blogger, Lauren B. Mangiaforte shared content on how marketers can learn from the HBO television show; Game of Thrones (GoT) amazing storytelling abilities and applies it to marketing strategies. The Game of Throne‘s social media channels are robust with amazing and engaging content. To successfully create good content with the right images, Ms. Mangiaforte suggests that we define and develop meaningful content matched with awesome visual images. To make a larger impact, include traditional marketing in the mix. Once your target audience responds to content, engage, entertain, monitor and build on-going relationships across all necessary platforms (traditional and social media). To increase brand image, give the audience something meaningful and valuable.

After reading these two articles and from my studies in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I
have three action items you should consider in your next digital story campaign:

• Visualize- an image that will attract your target audience.

• Tell- a story with awesome and meaningful content.

• Schedule- compelling engagement strategies to build an ongoing relationship with your targeted audience.

Visualizing, creating and telling an authentic brand story is an art form. Integrating digital, social and traditional marketing shapes the experience.

My name is Crystal Tousana and I am a Medill, Integrated Marketing Communications Graduate student at Northwestern University. I graduate August 2015 and am passionate about Consumer/Lifestyle Public Relations, Visual Storytelling, Blogging and Photojournalism. You can follower me on Twitter or get connected on LinkedIn.

Big Data: Opportunities vs. Threats

As marketers, we are receiving overwhelmingly amount of data from multiple channels everyday. We all know that big data provide us with the ability to make more insightful decision. But what exactly is Big Data? 

Once upon a time, marketing is completely an art. Agencies creates ads based on guts. “Leo Burnett didn’t need a legion of focus groups to come up with the Marlboro Man”. With big data, however, marketing is now becoming a combination of arts and science.

For example, the article "Big Data, Big Opportunity" by David Murthy discovers that mobile has become a trendy devices for customers, and ad spending has been significantly increased in the recent years. You may find the full article via:

 http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/gc-guavus-april2014 

This finding tells us the consumer behavior of using more mobile devices. However, what are some in depth insight marketers may find in mobile using behavior. For example, If consumers are using mobile than other devices to engage with your brand, marketers could put more investment on mobile ad. If consumers are just browsing one or a few products from your brand, marketers may put design more ads of these particular products on mobile. If consumers are simply browsing your products instead of purchasing with mobile devices, marketers may design easily purchasing feature on mobile to encourage mobile orders, and thus to drive direct orders. Big data tells us some commons sense we might have ignored before, and we should all using the data based on our own needs.

However, marketers can be drowned by data as well. Jeanne W. Ross, Cynthia M. Beath and Anne Quaadgras' article You May Not Need Big Data After All tells that big data has been “hyped so heavily that companies are expecting it to deliver more value than it actually can.” This article illustrates that some companies, even have obtained the consumer insight that may provide them with competitive advantage, however, are not actionable at all. You may find the full article through:

http://hbr.org/2013/12/you-may-not-need-big-data-after-all/ar/1

For many companies, the real purpose of big data is to provide evidence for decision makers, and to utilize data to guide decision making process constantly.

Several steps were suggested to improve big data efficiency:  

1.   Making a clear business plan. It is important to define the goal of data, and have a clear vision of how could data contribute to a specific case. Understanding how data would support the business goal, ensuring your effort can be aligned with the business goal.

2.   Understanding the data you already have, and identifying those data you need. Collecting and analyzing data with a reason.

3.   Turning data into structured insight after capturing the data.

4.   Making your data and insight actionable. Based on the original plan, execute the planned project by using elements of the big data. Always keeping ROI in mind.

5.   Making strategic plans and tactics to solve the problem. Testing the market and keep track of the ROI. 

In conclusion:

Big data gives marketers both opportunities and threats. Many companies may put too much effort in collecting too much data without integrating data analysis into profitably used with a business vision. We should always keep in mind that big data is just serving for the company, and we are not serving for the data. 

The author, "Alisha" Fengzhi Chen is an integrated marketing communication graduate student at Northwestern University. She is particular interested in turning data into actionable insight and marketing strategy, therefore to improve ROI. You may contact the author via +Fengzhi Chen twitter: @fengzhichen

Package Goods Marketers - Go Digital or Perish

Although e-commerce is no longer a new word and it has greatly changed people’s shopping behaviors, consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers may have underestimate the market opportunities there. As a graduate student in Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communication program, with concentration on marketing analytics, I have been looking at potential opportunities and future trends for consumer packaged goods companies. Recently I found 2 informative articles on digital commerce opportunities for consumer packaged goods companies. 

In the article Digital Commerce Remains a Largely Untapped Opportunity for Consumer Packaged Goods Companies, Deloitte talks about its two surveys on CPG industry executives and senior managers as well as on consumers. The results show that consumer’s intent to purchase these products online far outpaced executives’ expectations and CPG companies are obviously not well prepared. Moreover, surprisingly, only 43 percent of CPG executives think their company has a clear, well-understood digital commerce strategy. Pat Conroy, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and consumer products sector leader, concludes that CPG companies are not well prepared enough for consumers’ changing behavior and data suggests that they should develop a more comprehensive strategy in order to take full advantage of this growing opportunity. 

In the article E-Commerce: It’s an Evolution, Not a Revolution, Nielsen also mentions that although E-commerce enables CPG manufacturers and retailers to engage shoppers in more ways and create more values for shoppers through online models CPG manufacturers and retailers have not capitalized such opportunities as well as other categories. The article points out that consumer engagement is greatly increased because much more touch points, such as websites, emails are social media, are available for online shoppers. Therefore, it is important for CPG manufacturers and retailers to understand what these shoppers are looking for in order to create more value to them and build stronger relationships with them.

Based on the reviews of these two articles and my knowledge and experience, there are three principles CMOs of CPG companies may apply in order to help their companies succeed in the evolving digital commerce world.

1. Create a Digital Commerce Strategy - Be prepared for the evolution and develop comprehensive digital strategy for digital commerce. The first step for companies is to create a clear and well-rounded digital commerce strategy. 

2. Understand the Potential Online Shoppers - It is crucial for CPG companies to understand what benefits online shoppers are looking for and what added value they can provide for shoppers.

3. Increase Engagement and Create Values for Long-term Relationship - E-commerce make it possible to reach consumers almost any time. Marketers can leverage on that to improve brand awareness, drive product initial purchase, increase repeat purchase and reconnect with lapsed consumers.

Digital commerce provides CPG retailers and manufacturers more opportunities to directly communicate with customers, which means that marketers are now able to influence off-line decisions as well. Digital commerce no doubt has its unique benefits and as technology develops it will only becomes more and more important. Therefore, by developing a more sophisticated digital strategy based on understanding potential customer behavior, CPG marketers can maintain long-term stronger customer relationship and in the end take advantage of the opportunity.

Happy Chen is pursuing her master degree in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, with a focus on marketing analytics and digital analytics. With previous working experience in consumer packaged goods industry, she is also a number lover, Excel junkie and SAS programmer. Questions or Comments?  Contact me on LinkedIn or Twitter @Happy_CHP .

Source of the picture: http://www.webexpand.co.uk/e-commerce-websites.htm