WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS MANAGED: ANALYTICS-THE FUTURE OF MARKETING
The Marketing Analytics Conference organised by Fortune Institute of International Business (FIIB) at Hotel Le-Meridien, New Delhi on 19th October 2013, has become a hot topic of discussion, across the business world. With active support from Homestead- our lead sponsor, Fractal Analytics- our knowledge partner, PHD Chambers- Chamber Partner, Business Standard- Print Partner and Yourstory- our online partner, MAC 2013 has proved truly to be an enriching experience for all who attended it.
A first of its kind in NCR, the conference brought together distinguished Industry and Academia professionals from various marketing and analytics profiles from across the nation, together under one roof to share and exchange ideas that could help the corporate world prosper. The goal of the Conference was: To incorporate both the practitioners’ and the academicians’ perspectives on marketing analytics.
The Conference commenced with the introduction to “Concerns of Analytics in Marketing Strategy” by FIIB Chairman, Mr. Manish Kheterpal. He discussed Analytics from a layman’s perspective. He mentioned, “The combination of right people (culture) and execution empowered by Analytics could lead to a sustainable business advantage. It is high time to bring on a change in the mind-set of marketers with a prime focus on Marketing Analytics. It is critical to link Marketing Analytics investment with Revenue and Profits.”
Analytics for Marketing in the 21st Century & Using Big Data Analytics to win the Customer
The two eminent Key Note speakers, Prof. Arnab K Laha from IIM Ahmedabad and Mr. Saurabh Mittal, Senior VP (Retail and CPG), Fractal Analytics, started the discussions with their keynote addresses. Prof. Laha initiated his talks by stating a fact that “Implied needs are hardest to capture in any data collection mode.” He further talked about the opportunities and challenges of Big Data. His mantra for Analytics in the 21st century is that: “Analytics will have tremendous impact on marketing in the coming decades of the 21st century as it will help in meeting a customer’s implied and dynamic needs. New statistical methods for Big Data are sought after. But all advantages of using analytics can be frittered away if Actions on the ground don’t match the promise made”.
Mr. Mittal began with the forecast that “Analytics shall rewrite the roots of Marketing & Strategy”. He mentioned analytics as a testing tool that can help businesses across all variants localize the product and services through observing consumer behavior. The time has come when India is heading towards creation of Data Scientists. In addition to his own views, Mr Saurabh was assisted by representatives from his team of Data Scientists, who presented an innovative case study to demonstrate to the audience, how analytics and different approaches to analytics allow us to improve on services and revenues together. Mr. Saurabh Mittal’s speech can be summed as: “The ABCDs of Marketing will be rewritten with the inclusion of Analytics just the way IT had changed the services sector. Big Data Analytics will assist in going to the ultimate level of building customer genomics.”
DIGITAL MARKETING & E-COMMERCE ARE TAKING CENTER STAGE
After a tea break of 15 minutes, the session commenced with conversations with Mr. Prashant Tandon, (Co-Founder and Managing Director, Healthkart), who shared some facts and figures used in their organization through big data. He shared figures where he mentioned that big data helped his organization to realize that 1/4th of his sales numbers were achieved due to clicks pressed in Tier-4 cities unlike a common belief that people in these cities would not have access to internet. He mentioned that, “Gone are the days when law of average could be applied in marketing and sales strategies as now you sell brand to every individual and not an age group or a city or product fragment.” He concluded by saying “The game is the same- but the tools to play are newer, bigger, sharper and smarter making marketing giving it Multi- Dimensional face.”
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Panellists from the technology, consumer durables, real estate and academics area discussed about using Marketing Analytics to achieve constant relevance for the customer which is a recurring benefit. The panel agreed that the pursuit of profitable customers could be a big benefit of adopting marketing analytics.
First Panel Discussion was initiated by Prof. Jones Mathew, moderator for the panel session. The panel was a unique mix of Industry Professionals including Mr. Anurag Gour (Director Marketing, Microsoft India), Mr. Deepak Taneja (Head-Digital Marketing and E Commerce, Nokia), Mr Sidharth Misra (AGM Sales and Marketing, Homestead India) and Prof Tuhin Chatopadhyayy, (Professor, FIIB). The panel was brought together to discuss the best practices of Customer Analytics.
Mr. Anurag Gour suggested that there should be zeal of innovation to every creation, consumer solutions and design. Mr. Taneja added from his experience that, “A close watch on consumer behavior and competitiveness” forced them to think out of the box.
Mr. Sidharth Misra mentioned that “Connecting to customers” in today’s well connected world has become all the more different. To add perspective from Academia, Prof. Tuhin suggested to the industrialists, that in the race of big data, data itself does not guarantee big insights. Gap between analytic professional, data acquisition and data absorption needs to be bridged for successful implementation of big data.
They chiefly deliberated on the strengths, pitfalls, challenges and opportunities of using marketing analytics at the market level. Usage of Marketing Analytics to achieve constant relevance for the customer came up as a recurring benefit. The pursuit of profitable customers could be the other big benefit of adopting marketing analytics.
Post Lunch, the second session commenced with the welcome speech of Prof. Tuhin Chatopadhayay who introduced the topic of “Marketing Database Analytics” and invited our panellists including Prof. Anandakuttan B Unnithan,from IIM Kozhikode, Prof. Arindam Banerjee, IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Niranjan Roy, Ex- Principal Consultant & Head- EIM, Steria and Mr. Pratul Chopra, Head- Marketing Analytics, Fidelity Investments.
Prof Arindam shared his experiences while practicing analytics and suggested to link 360 degree of customer data in order to predict the hand and feet movement. To use predictive modelling, data needs to source from various sources. He highlighted a challenge for Big Data as “merger of data and technology may make companies lose track of implied needs.”
This thought was backed by Mr. Pratul who elaborated by explaining that losing this track deepens the gap of customer being able to derive value of investments that in turn hits the business. He emphasized that use of past data helps you sense silent turbulences. Mr. Niranjan Roy suggested that patience is required while handling and using big data as business needs time to absorb these changes and insights. According to him “If you torture data too long, it will confess”.
In his presentation, Prof. Anandkuttan highlighted that “Analytics may address the complexities of marketing however, can also shorten the average lifecycle of customer with a brand”. Prof. Chattopadhayay concluded that close monitoring of tools and techniques of analytics and usage strategy of big data maintaining the human touch shall allow it to reach new heights in the marketing segment.
The Conference was concluded by Prof Jones Mathew, where he summarized and reflected upon the key learnings from all the speakers and thanked the sponsors and team for support. He also invited all the participants for high tea for a second level of discussions with the industry and academia speakers.
Pictures from the Conference can be viewed here
Media Coverage highlights can be viewed here