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RainMan has worked for over 15 years in the area of Marketing Analytics, and one consistent and recurring theme has been that otherwise great marketing companies, leave a lot of opportunity go a begging when it comes to use of their assiduously collected data. In today’s world, where data is the new oil, why does this happen? Why does marketing not utilize their data to the fullest?
Lack of awareness and focus: Many marketing departments have other fish to fry, especially stuff that needs to do be done yesterday. This means that the focus on long term strategic execution leaves a lot to be desired. Moreover, it is the lack of awareness on how to model, optimize(advanced analytics), and knowledge in this area, that becomes a barrier to progress. It may be on the CEO’s wish list – but it remains there.
Perception that it is non-essential: In today’s marketing world, despite the hype around data – a perception persists that spending money on data work is an expense, when it actually is a investment with a very high return on investment. Leader companies have seen the opportunity and have invested in time and resources to make this a part of their strategic growth path. Others, are still working it out.
Inability to manage data: While many companies have data lakes and dashboards, when it comes to marketing they fall woefully short in terms of their process. This is because much of the data in marketing is external to the company – for example competitive sales data, media input, and competition data. This apart advanced analytics required clean data, which can be transformed as required as well as updated data. Unless there is a team in place which consists of domain experts and data integrated together, the management of marketing data remains a challenge.
Lack of expertise: To get real business enhancing output, the company needs expertise – whether internally or external. This requires some focus from the C Suite, without which it tends to become a single or two person department, which given its limitations tends to fail and the entire project is seen as a nonstarter. Need a planned approach with reviews by the top management till it becomes an essential part of the marketing process.
In summary, one can say that while the opportunity is large and enticing – it requires some dedicated resources, hard work and expertise to convert potential to actual.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how markets operate and how consumers behave, shaking up the world in ways we’ve never seen before. As we move forward, the way we do marketing needs to change too. One key tool for this is the Marketing Mix Model (MMM), which traditionally helps businesses figure out the best ways to spend their marketing dollars and understand what works.
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How does one evaluate the return on investment from a sponsorship – let’s say the big bucks spent by Dream 11 on sponsoring the shirt of the Indian cricket team. Spend by Dream 11 was reported to be Rs 358 Cr for150 matches across all India teams – Men's, Women and Under 19. The interesting thing is that this rate is not even half spent by Byju’s and before them Oppo, who spent a whopping Rs 5.09 Cr per match. The increase and decrease in rate seems to be based on how buoyant some companies felt, a few years ago as opposed to how they are feeling today.
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Marketing Managers have to look at how image parameters are being built up over time to protect the brand’s market share as well as grow sales in the longer run.