Advertising Analytics
The modern advancements in computing, communication, and analytics can provide significant benefits to any organization looking to improve its marketing strategy. One of the main barriers to modern analytics comes from the overwhelming amount of data being registered and monitored by various electronic devices. The use of cloud computing resolved the issues of data storage. However, it is important to properly implement analytics to make use of them.
Usually, there are three core objectives associated with the implementation of modern marketing analytic techniques. The first is called attribution, and it allows companies to collect data through its available channels such as social media, consumer statistics, and other methods. This information can be used to determine the interests of the consumers, the types of marketing that they respond to, and other valuable statistics.
The second step in this process is called optimization, and it allows the marketers to use predictive-analytics tools to simulate scenarios of business strategies. Marketers should be able to assign elasticity to every business driver that was measured in the previous step. The elasticity data is then used in simulations to determine the effectiveness of various strategies. The last step is allocation. It is to adjust the marketing plan on the fly by using the results of the two previous steps. The initial success of a marketing campaign may lose traction with the audience, but by using the available data, adjustments can be made to improve its performance.
By utilizing these core elements, an organization should be able to significantly improve its marketing output. However, the transition process from traditional analytics to modern ones may be difficult, as it requires extensive training of the existing staff, the complete upgrade of the equipment, and the use of new technologies. Nevertheless, the benefits outweigh the costs, and the competitive edge that new analytics systems provide should not be understated.
Improving Company Strategies
Despite the drastic changes in the technological aspects of marketing, the majority of companies still utilize traditional strategies and business techniques. This outdated approach can cause a number of issues for organizations trying to compete in the complex and modernized field of modern marketing. A study of over 10000 marketing executives was conducted to determine their data analytics capabilities, strategies, various types of interactions, employee engagement, and other factors. The gathered data was divided by the performance of companies and then compared to each other. The winning characteristics of these companies were numerous.
The first major factor for high-performing companies was the effective use and integration of big data. By utilizing modern techniques in analytics, these companies are able to create marketing plans according to the interests of the customers. The second is purposeful positioning by utilizing functional, emotional, and societal benefits of their products. Such companies know why their products satisfy the customer’s emotional needs, functional needs, and the desire for the product to be produced safely and without harm to the outside environment. The third factor of success for high-performing companies is their creation of customer experiences.
Specifically, the practice of “total experience” creation appears to be the most effective. Such companies seek to gain ground in the public consciousness and become a part of a customer’s life. Such services utilize analytics to create personalized offers for customers based on the data available to the company. Other factors that played a role in the high performance of these companies include effective cross-functional collaboration, strategic focus, ability to organize, and personnel training. A combination of these elements is present in the majority of high-performing companies. None of them require especially high performance to be implemented, however. Companies that currently use outdated strategies should consider emulating the success achieved by these organizations.
Customer Departments
Another innovation in marketing is the new approach to working with customers. Traditionally, the main tactic of attracting new customers to the product was the use of marketing campaigns. However, the technology and data available at the current moment allow for a much more nuanced solution. Customers can instead be cultivated by building relationships between them and the product. Unlike the standard marketing strategy approach, companies that seek to engage customers through two-way communication and long-term relationships create a true sense of value for their products. This approach involves the transference of marketing departments into customer departments and the establishment of customer managers.
B2B companies use this approach to make sure that the product they create satisfies the needs of their customer. Customer orientation is key for B2B companies due to the limited pool of customers and the significant value of long-term relationships between them and the company.
B2C companies, on the other hand, are only beginning to utilize this technique. Customer relations are especially prioritized in the field of retail as loyalty programs became very common in the recent decade. By using special loyalty cards, companies collect purchasing and demographic data on their customers, which can later be used to adjust their business strategy. These tools allow companies to shift their focus from the profitability of products to the profitability of customers.
Their lifetime value and equity become important metrics in the planning process of such organizations. Changes to the marketing department may provide significant benefits to the organization if they are performed on a wide scale, as the core idea of marketing changes with them. As it was previously stated, the factor of “total experience” becomes paramount and should be utilized to its maximum potential.
General Electric and Marketing Innovation
One of the more prominent cases of innovation in marketing affecting an established organization is the change that General Electric went through in the 2000s. At the start of the millennia, the company utilized a set of very traditional marketing strategies. Due to the age of the company and its ownership of a large share of the market, its management became complacent with its marketing plans and saw them only as supporting elements of its products.
However, a change became required to make the company competitive once more. General Electric management planned a growth strategy for the business with a marketing engine designed to work directly with the customers. Three factors were chosen as their base. The first revolved around the principles of the company. The standards and procedures created by the company in its early decades were utilized throughout the majority of its modern history.
However, they were outdated and did not utilize the new tools available to the organization. By involving the most qualified experts in the field, new principles were formed for all the relevant aspects. The second key factor was the change in marketing roles. All marketers were divided into four roles. The first were instigators that attempted to disrupt the established process with the purpose of improving it. The second group contained innovators that utilized their understanding and available information on untested products, services, and solutions to find the most effective and potentially beneficial solutions for the company.
The third role was dedicated to integrators that were responsible for the connection of functions and silos between the company and the market it occupies. The last role was implementers, and their function was in the execution of the ideas provided by other groups.
The third key factor of the engine was the process. It consisted of a special method of evaluation based on the metrics collected through the new information channels. Its name was the Maturity Evaluation. Maturity Evaluation consists of a detailed annual self-evaluation of every marketing team. During the evaluation, eight major capability areas are measured. The capabilities of the teams are measured by scoring 35 of their skills on a 4 point scale. Then their assessments are reviewed to make sure that they are realistic. In the end, the results can show the exact issues that the company needs to resolve in its marketing efforts.
The areas include strategy and innovation, branding and communications, sales force effectiveness, new world skills, market knowledge, segmentation and targeting, value creation and pricing, as well as commercial activation. Since the establishment of this engine, the company began to grow more efficiently, and their focus on marketing only continued to evolve with years. It is considered a critical aspect of the company’s operations, and it treats successful marketing team members with respect. Such change in attitude toward a department took a lot of effort from the company, but through careful planning and evaluation, it managed to capitalize on all of its prospects.