Brands shift focus to data in pursuit of market gain
Share
Leading brands O2, ITV, Heinz and Three are investing in data initiatives and expertise in an effort to improve return on investment during the tough economic climate.
Telecoms company O2 is creating a “business intelligence” team to centralise data collected from its different divisions and use it to inform marketing and NPD.
Meanwhile, ITV is looking to develop a customer data strategy to analyse information such as the 3 million e-mail addresses it has collected from people who view ITV’s content online. It will use it to inform ITV Player and ITV.com’s future development.
ITV says it believes “ownership and utilisation” of customer data will be a source of “competitive advantage” in the future.
Elsewhere, Heinz has hired Brand Learning account director as director of strategy and insight, while mobile operator Three has created a new role, director of base marketing, to lead analysis of existing customer data.
The developments follow a recent IBM survey that found the CMO’s role will become more data-focused. More than two-thirds of marketers questioned say they expect to invest more extensively in new tools and technologies to develop new strategies for analysing “big data”.
The government has also recognised the importance of data utilisation through its midata initiative. It is being developed by the department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and major brands such as British Gas, Lloyds Banking Group and Google, and will allow consumers instant digital access to the information brands hold on them for marketing purposes. It is expected to go live next year.
Readers' comments (2)
Nigel Wilson, Experian Marketing Services | Fri, 11 Nov 2011 4:55 pm
Businesses today are creating more and more customer touchpoints that are capable of yielding data on the consumer, providing useful insights into their tastes, behaviours or preferences. As people visit shopping centres, trawl the web, interact with company websites, browse social networks, make enquiries or consume services at home, they leave a trail of data ingredients that joined together can create tremendous value for organisations. This data can often sit in disparate systems and be owned by different parts of the business. Store, branch and operational departments, email teams, internet retail, direct marketing teams, IT or web analytics can all claim to paint a different picture of the consumer.
These structures are not conducive to sharing data or to building an holistic view of the consumer across all potential touchpoints. Individually, all items of data have a differing value but clearly data management needs to become more sophisticated and become a board level issue. At the very least, each department should have access to a single customer view. To reach this goal they need to understand data’s value to the business and see it as a key strategic asset on their balance sheet. After all, when an organisation can truly join up their data assets and demonstrate the value of their data and act on it, then it can have a significant impact on their bottom line through growing customer relationships and customer retention.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Fanni Vig | Fri, 25 Nov 2011 4:10 pm
We are seeing very similar trends in the b2b space. Given that the 80/20 rule is even more applicable for corporates selling to other businesses, for them to have a holistic view of their key clients’ activity is absolutely critical to achieve sustainable growth.
The IBM report is spot on when highlighting the challenge that lies with data that is available but not revealed, or revealed but not understood, or understood but not acted on. The report also makes a very valid point about the gap of knowledge in marketers’ skills set when it comes to data interpretation.
For consultancies such as us, the challenge is to educate the market and be able to articulate the real value of full customer intelligence.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment