I attended a software demo this week. The product required the input of prospect attributes and then captured the prescribed online behavior. Prospects demonstrating the defined behavior formed a new segment and could be marketed as a like group.
The developer enthusiastically proclaimed that “analysis is no longer necessary!” He closed by saying that software could replace marketing intelligence.
I wholeheartedly disagree.
Big data and software are enablers.
They are necessary but not sufficient.
The conclusion is based on a few flawed assumptions. First, analysts were responsible for determining the very attributes that were used as inputs. I am certain that considered and rigorous modeling defined the target behavior.
The analytic results alone are not adequate to create the actionable intelligence required to understand and then engage the customer. Big data and software are enablers. They are necessary but not sufficient.
The greater, second flaw in concluding that technology does the heavy lifting is not appreciating that an intelligent marketer recognized meaningful results from those that were pure noise. That is the underrated, overlooked, but necessary reality: intelligence, context, meaning.
Years ago, as a consultant to an global telecommunications company, I attended one of their annual meetings. A member of the client team was presenting market projections to a large group. He loudly announced that customers were increasingly adopting cellphones in place of landlines. Sitting next to my client—an intelligence-driven marketer—we both gasped and clasped each other’s hands. We saw the vulnerability that went unrecognized by other attendees: the client’s company had no wireless infrastructure. This emerging trend represented a momentous threat. Rather than recognize the significance, the implications, the risk, and the opportunity, it was presented as a fun fact to be quickly replaced with the next. Ho hum.
Expert, quantitative marketers remain the key to extracting and exploiting customer intelligence.
These moments, these insights, these opportunities are presented continually. They take the form of complex analytic results, of observations, trends, and often, they are rooted among more easily understood tactics drivers.
The former CMO of an office supplies superstore reported that whenever she was at risk of missing her quarterly number, she would promote cleaning supplies on the website, as she could rely on response to the discount. The tactic clearly met her near-term goal. But the story is truly one of missed opportunity. There were engaged and known customers on the site. Rather than develop rich customer-specific insights, apply the derived intelligence real-time, directly engage and optimize return, the fallback was to generate quick response—and likely condition the customer to discounts. Perhaps the battle was won, but from a customer intelligence perspective, the company remained ill equipped for the war.
These examples are intentionally based on anecdotal insights. When we add the complexity of data and heavy analytics, the effort to extract meaning and intelligence is significantly more challenging.
Think of our past: the analytic team would produce reams of reports and blandly push them across the table. Those printed reports were later summarized and delivered in dashboards. Big Data results, in untrained hands, could just be more of the same—now in greater quantity. In all cases, a marketer must bring intelligence and context. A significant effort begins when the numbers are presented.
There is no easy answer. And the challenge remains. That is the good news.
Expert, quantitative marketers remain the key to extracting and exploiting intelligence. Only a sharp professional, shrewdly engaged with data and analytic results, can spot the uncut diamond of customer insights and polish it to full value. But without an expert eye to extract meaning, recognize opportunity, devise strategy, and define supporting tactics, all those results will not achieve the great promise of founding customer intelligence.
The developer’s conclusion mentioned earlier—that valuable, actionable customer intelligence can be conveniently and plainly served—is a siren song. To be fair, the software I saw demonstrated was impressive and the data it generated was useful. But neither—alone or together—was adequate to transform input and return impactful customer intelligence.
There is no easy answer. And the challenge remains. That is the good news.
Intelligence-driven marketers must necessarily drive the process to create opportunity, speak directly to customers’ needs, and deliver measurable results.
Would you like to discuss how to exploit big data to grow revenue? Let’s talk! Set up a 30-minute phone conversation with Marina.
Photo Credit: LinkedIn Sales Navigator.