CMOs: 3 Ways to Accelerate Big Data Analysis Transformation in Your Company

Big data is exciting. As a CMO, you know Big Data is becoming more and more critical to your business' success. As an IMC graduate student in Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications in Northwestern University, I’ve been doing some research in how traditional companies transform into a data-centric company, and here are two articles that best address the issue.

The first article, titled “Getting big impact from big data” by David Court and published in January 2015 talks about how to take advantage of advancements in analytics and mobilize the organization to make a big impact on the company from big data. New data analysis techniques and tools are introduced to deal with the challenge of achieving scale of impact. The real challenges lie beyond new tools, and ask for more focus on change management, more job redefinition, and more cultural change.

Another article talks about data transformation is by Derek Steer, the Co-Founder/CEO of MODE.  This article, titled “Building credibility for your analytics team- and why it matters”, published on January 21^st, 2015 focuses on how to build credibility for the analytics team in the company and over time turns the company into a data-centric firm. First start with simple tasks, then analyze and communicate effectively with colleagues, think data as a conversation starter, not a diagnosis, and make the process of data analysis transparent and understandable to other teams.

After reviewing these articles, and based on my experience through the IMC program, here are three action items any CMO or marketing manager should immediately begin to think about and take actions on:

• Start small - Start with simple tasks that give immediate returns. This establishes the trust and over time builds confidence in the company.

• Redefine jobs - Automating part of the jobs requires redefining job responsibilities to best leverage and support the ongoing development of big data.

• Change culture - Build a foundation of data-driven culture in the company by developing competitions that reward and recognize the teams that can generate powerful insights through analytics.

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I am currently a graduate student in Northwestern University Medill School, and major in Integrated Marketing and Communications. I will graduate in December 2015 and am looking for employments in data analytics. If there is anything you would like to discuss with me, you can reach me @AmeliaChenZhao on Twitter.

Brand Managers, Stay Ahead of the Game by Watching the Shifts

Fueled by the ever-growing and expanding technologies and the web, consumers are now ever more involved as companies struggled to build their brand. Does your company understand consumers and their digital behaviors? Are you building brands around major touch points to really drive engagement? As a graduated student in the Northwestern Medill IMC program and a former account who had worked on both branding and digital campaigns at OgilvyOne, I suggest marketers to read the following two articles. 

The first Article is iConsumer: Digital Consumers Altering the Value Chain by Ewan Duncan, Eric Hazan, and Kevin Roche from Mckinsey & Company's Insights and Publications. It’s no news that consumers are migrating towards digital, but what are the trends exactly? In their report on the digital consumer behavior released on April, 2013, entitled iConsumer: Digital Consumers Altering the Value Chain, Mckinsey identified six overarching trends in consumer digital behavior. 

The first is a shift in device from PCs to mobile/touch devices. The second observation is that there's been a shift in communication, as consumers are going from voice to data and video(Ex: Vine, Snapchat). The third shift is bundled content is now becoming more and more fragmented. Another shift, albeit not as apparent to consumers, is social shift from growth to monetization. Also, there is been a video shift from programmed to user-driven content. Last, there's been a shift in retail from channel to experience.

Source: iConsumer:Digital Consumers Altering the Value Chain

The second article that brands will find useful is Interbrand's "Branding in the Post-digital world" written by Interbrand’s Global CEO, Jez Frampton. As companies try to build brands in a highly digitized world, it is now evident to marketers that consumers and businesses co-create brands. In addition, consumers leave trails of brand opinions along the way as they go through their purchase decision journey, which will in turn affect the next consumer. The good news is, marketers now have the chance to be present at every touch point along the way. Digital should now be central to all brand building activities, as it is key to reaching and engaging consumers by making it possible to respond quickly. Both online and offline is now one ongoing experience that determines the company’s vitality.

Based on my analysis of the two articles and my observation of working closely with brands, there are three things that need to be implemented for brands:

1. Stay close to consumers - Changes may happen very quickly, be sure to stay close to consumers and invest in discovering insights such as the shifts mentioned in the first article.

2. Invest right - Ensure investments in channels and engagements are aligned with consumer behavioral shifts.

3. Make structural changes - Make changes within the company to align digital efforts.

Changes in the industry will happen very quickly and demand companies to strengthen their capabilities in order to continue to prosper in an all-digital world. Companies should also be investing in understanding shifts in consumer behaviors to build their brands and actions around their consumer understandings. Structural changes within the company should also be made accordingly so that digital efforts can be communicated and aligned across all sectors. When that’s all done, then your brand is ready to go.

Professional Summary

Janice Shieh

M.S. Candidate of Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill, Northwestern University. Double concentration in Brand Strategy and Marketing Analytics. A bit greedy so also on the Digital and Interactive Marketing concentration track. Previously worked at OgilvyOne Taiwan in the Account department. Specializes in Digital Marketing. 
Follow Janice on twitter: @janicew_shieh

Strategists and Data Analysts: Make the Deliberate Connection and Really Excel as Data-Driven Strategist

As data analysts and strategists, being data driven and strategic is really two sides of the same coin, the key is to make the deliberate connection. Being told you are not strategic or data-driven really stings, but despite thousand hours we spent on drawing up detailed plans and investigating data, all too often thy matter every little to performance. As an IMC graduate student in Northwestern's Medill School, I have been focusing on bridging strategic planning with data-driven analytics and I found two insightful articles from Harvard Business Review and McKinsey Quarterly that will help to tear down the Great Chinese Wall between the art and science of marketing communication. 

Being strategic is fundamentally making deliberate connections. In Strengthen Your Strategic Thinking Muscles, Liane Davey argues that sometimes we are just too busy to be strategic. Under the guise of productivity, we have probably squeezed out thinking time, thus the decision is based more on reflex than reflection, more on what has worked before instead of making meaningful connection. Every one has opportunity to be strategic, simply by being more deliberate in our thoughts and actions. Down to the execution level, being strategic also requires making choices and connect things and domains that is currently separated or segmented.

Big Data is now the buzzword everybody is uttering, but few people realized simply collecting Big Data does not unlock its potential value. In Big Data help wanted (badly): How to win the war for talent, McKinsey on Marketing & Sales argues to true tap into the analytical power of Big Data and form data-driven strategies, strategists and analysts should aim at being “translators” who are capable of connecting different business functions and effectively communicating between them. These strategic connection making process is really the prerequisite of being strategic under the Big Data context.

Image Source: McKinsey on Marketing & Sales

Based upon these two articles, I realized there are three action items that could really help to be strategically data-driven: Strategy and Big Data are the most misused and overused words in our business, but instead of being isolated, they are actually complimentary. As the author of Predictive Analytics Eric Siegel once criticized, "big data often means small math", big data can also means meaningless strategy. Being strategically data-driven is really the benchmark for strategic and analytical talents, and that requires strategists really reflect on the true meaning of being strategic and make the deliberate connection between different business functions. 

1. Make more time to reflect before making decisions. 

2. Be courage to make choices and embrace the uncertainty.

3. Create connections between analytics, technology and business decision making.

To be strategic and data-driven are among the biggest expectation of today marketers, all too often they are referred as the “art and science” and seen as hard to reconcile. However, I believe they are actually complimentary and symbiotic. Being strategic is fundamentally about making deliberate connections, and it is even more so in the Big Data context. Marketers to seek to be more strategic need to actively bridge and communicate with different business functions. They can thus become “navigators” and “translators” and truly empowering strategic decisions. 

Aaron R. An is M.S. candidate of integrated marketing communication at Medill School, Northwestern University, specializing in Marketing Analytics and Brand Strategy tracks. Aaron graduated from Peking University with bachelor degrees of Economics and International Relations. Prior to IMC, Aaron worked in Caterpillar’s China strategic development department, Ogilvy PR’s China Outbound Strategy Practice, and Northhead Consulting, helping Chinese companies to form their outbound marketing strategies and US companies to form the localization strategies. 

Any questions or comments? Contact him on Twitter at @Aaronarpku