5 obstacles to marketing intelligence - part ii

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5 Obstacles to Marketing Intelligence – IIWhat Stops Us From Achieving Marketing Greatness


Quick Review of Last Week’s Lecture


Last week, we started talking about the 5 obstacles that keep organizations from achieving marketing excellence


We covered the first 2 obstacles and will be moving on the final 3 this week


We will have established the foundations of the course after this lecture and will start moving into the actual analytics and metrics from our next class


So let’s get caught up first…


Obstacle 1: Getting Started


What are some of the reasons that people give for why they are unable to get started?


How do we overcome them?


Obstacle 2: Causality


What is causality?How does it affect our marketing?


As intelligent marketers, how do we counter causality arguments?


The Remaining 3 Obstacles


Overcome Obstacle 3: Lack of Data—

Strategies for Obtaining Customer Data


Many marketers struggle with too much data, rather than not enough


Remember that we covered collection and analysis of the right data in overcoming obstacle 1


But B2B companies have a legitimate data challenge, since these companies do not sell directly to customers


They sell through a channel and do not have direct access to customer transactional data


There are three approaches to overcome this obstacle


Option 1: Channel Partner Data Sharing


Mornings for John Chambers, CEO of the $39 billion Cisco Systems empire, starts with a can of Diet Coke and Cisco’s e-Sales portal


Through this enterprise web application, the senior management can drill down through global sales data that occurred on the previous day by geography, purchasing company/products or sold by a specific sales manager


Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the Cisco sales model, this is a great trick


Why?


Cisco sells more than 95% of its products indirectly through value-added resellers


So how does Cisco do it?


Cisco contractually requires its value-added resellers to share customer sales data


Most B2B companies find that requesting customer data from the channel partner is met with a firm ‘‘no way.’’ The partner refuses on the grounds that the data are its property and the source of its competitive advantage.


Cisco requires channel partners to share customer data in order to resell their products


So B2B companies must answer the question:

‘‘What’s in it for my channel partner to share its data?’’


One answer is that B2B companies spend considerable marketing dollars co-marketing with channel partners so shared data analysis provides deep insights into how to radically improve the marketing performance


Now, we need to be clear about one thing – and it’s a big thing - the B2B firm does not necessarily have to know the name and address of the customer; this could be deleted from the shared data file.


What we are interested in is what products or services the customer purchases, and the ability to act upon these data, perhaps through the channel partner


This “disguise approach” works because the channel partner’s concern that if the B2B firm has the customer data, it will want to go direct and cut the channel out of the deal


Option 2:Frequent Drinker Programs


Suntory is one of the largest liquor distillers in Japan and brews a beer called Suntory Malts


It is in the 3rd tier of popularity, in terms of sales revenue and brand awareness


But in the late 1990s, Suntory did something with the Internet that at the time that was particularly innovative


They created a frequent drinker

web site


Now, Suntory, like Cisco, sells all of its beer indirectly through beer distributors, bars, restaurants, grocery stores and vending machines – which makes data collection difficult, if not impossible


So the creation of a website where customers would come to and input the number of beers they drank, given by codes on the bottles, and in return get points was an interesting way to collect data


In return for sharing the data, customers got to purchase silly hats, bottle tops with their name imprinted on it, or the chair that is too uncomfortable to sit in


At the peak of the campaign, Malts reported 300,000 visitors a month to the web site


More importantly, these were high-value customers – the frequent drinkers – and the website enabled the collection of data for direct marketing extremely easy


Now, this worked in Japan because after work office parties involve the mass consumption of alcohol. This would not have worked in the US!


But the idea of a frequent drinker program transcends cultures and geographies…


Welcome to

mycokerewards.com


My Coke RewardsThe website is a loyalty

program for frequent Coke-branded product drinkers

Again, users get points for how many Coke drinks they have and get rewards such as T-shirts, DVDs and discounts with the many partners affiliated with the marketing activity


Whatdowe

learn?


Customer data is a cheapas a T-shirt!


My Coke Rewards enable Coke to have direct access to their “frequent drinkers” and to do direct marketing via e-mail to this valuable customer base


The site also provided a revenue stream for Coke through the paid ads on the site for participating partners


In both of these example, there is a crystal clear value proposition for customer and resellers to share their data


So the question that we ask is:

“What is your value proposition for customers to provide their

data?


Option 3:Use Surveys as a Proxy

for Customer Data


We can also use focus groups and surveys for fine-grained segmentation and target marketing


The idea is to capture the demographics, characteristics, and purchasing habits of your end customer through in-depth market research


We can create survey-based, analytic marketing offers targeting these segments and test them using focus groups and experiments as we discussed in Obstacle 2


Now, I should note that this approach is not as effective as analyzing large customer transaction data sets, it can be a great way to get started if you are a B2B firm


There are many professional service firms that will design, conduct and analyze the survey, but you can start with a free lunch and a gift for participants


The internet has also given us the ability to create and conduct online surveys. For the cost of surveying 10 people in person, you can survey 100 or more online


But there is a problem with the survey model, online or offline – getting people to sign up and participate


The other problem that we discussed was privacy issues because customers can be hesitant about sharing information in fear of how it might be used


One marketer once told a story of their legal department telling them to delete customer data after a specific time period for fear of liability


The reason…


The company did not have a privacy policy and the legal department did not understand what marketing planned to do with the customer data


So, first thing – marketers must clearly communicate the privacy policy both internally and externally about how data will and will not be used


In some cases, there are laws preventing direct data collection of customer data


In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevents pharma companies from knowing patient prescriptions


While we have to follow these laws, there are ways around them


If you create a website targeting a specific illness, like diabetes, you can provide information and provide community support groups to give product information to customers while gaining customer feedback and insights


The key understanding is simple – always add value to the customer interaction by answering the question “What’s in it for me?” from the customer’s perspective


Overcome Obstacle 4: Resources and Tools—

Build the Infrastructure for Data-Driven Marketing


Infrastructure forAnalytic Marketing


A PC combined with Microsoft Excel makes for an amazingly powerful tool


For infrastructure, this is all most marketers need to get started on the analytic marketing path


But you should know the limitations - Excel 2003 had a limit of 65,536 rows in a spreadsheet, and Excel 2007 has a limit of 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns


So if you have a large number of customer, Excel is not going to work as a marketing database, not should it


Now I will provide you with Excel templates for analyzing customer satisfaction data, internet metrics, and calculating financial return on marketing


We can also use Excel to create and manage marketing campaign scorecards


But if you have a large customer database, you will need to use SAS, SPSS or a specialized business intelligence application


‘‘The difference in these requirements is the difference between building a ranch house or the Empire State Building.’’


In short – Think big, start small

and scale up fast


Infrastructure fora Large Firm


Customer Data Collection

Data Storage

Technical Tools


We will spend time talking about this model in later lectures, so I will hold off on going into detail now


Overcome Obstacle 5: People and Change—

Create an Analytic Marketing Culture


What’s the one phrase that we hear more than any other in business when it comes to change?


“I am just a _________ and have no influence to create change.”


90% of employees underestimate their potential to influence others


In previous examples, we have seen that small changes can have big impacts


You have to understand that in the culture of an organization, change starts with you. So start with simple changes that positively impact those around you


Now, we have to understand that creating a analytic marketing or marketing intelligence culture requires more than one person


You have to convince others and the quick win is an essential early step


Find out who the decision makers in your organization are and learn what will convince them to believe in the change


One fact that we need to remember is:

The trouble with change is people


To understand corporate culture, think of it as three major categories: rational, bureaucratic or political


Young MBAs believe that organizations are rational meaning the best idea will win. Experienced managers know that isn’t the truth.


A bureaucratic organization has a very rigid organizational structure, and protocols must be strictly followed in communicating with senior executives


These organizations are militaristic, with the general giving orders from the top, and the commanders ensuring the orders are executed on the front lines


Political organizations have centers of power, with individuals who have kingdoms within the organization, often accompanied by budgetary authority and staff


The best example of a political organization – a university or

center of higher learning


Henry Kissinger once said, ‘‘The reason the fights are so fierce in academia is because the stakes are so low.’’


What are thebest ways to drive change?


‘‘Our marketing budget is being cut by 36 percent; we need to justify our future marketing spending.’’

‘‘We are losing significant market share.’’


‘‘Our discount marketing is killing overall profitability.’’

‘‘We are hemorrhaging customers and don’t know who are the most profitable.’’

‘‘Our competitors are consistently outmarketing us.’’


Create Incentive for Changethrough

Measurement and Behavior


Weight Loss &

Calorie Counting


The point is if you can measure it, you can control it.


For marketers, making metrics and measurement ‘‘public’’ within the organization will incite change


Many organizations incite activity, not results, so the idea is to focus on the metrics that really value marketing

5 obstacles to marketing intelligence - part ii

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