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by Prakash Patel (@prakashpatel_1) Your CEO just heard that “companies that invest in data more than their competitors do outperform those competitors by 20% in every major metric” (Gartner) and wants to know what your data strategy is…

Head of social is giving you a blank stare (probably counting the number of Likes this month in his head), the eyes of head of IT just lit up (and we know why), and the head of digital is quicker than you, managing quick getaway on his skateboard. Where do you even begin?

In a recent TeraData survey carried out in the US, “Marketers do recognize the value that fully leveraging the data can provide their company.” Yet many are struggling to reach the goal.

A staggering reality emerged — 50% of marketers agree that data is the most underused asset in their organisations. So, in truth, marketers and businesses know the potential power of #DDM, yet very few know how to do it or even start. The reasons are simple and tend to fall into “I don’t know where to start, I don’t know how to start, I don’t know who should drive it?”

Let’s keep calm (before IT comes back with only a technical strategy which we do need — but later in collaboration) and follow this simple, internationally followed, Five-Step Process to becoming a data-driven organisation that I’ve used for years and that will impress your boss!

The five steps to a data-driven marketing framework:

1. Getting serious and strategic: where is the strategy?
2. Building the foundation: data everywhere — but where and how is it being stored?
3. Data mining and interrogation: what insights are the data telling you?
4. Data management and marketing: the art of how to use the data for targeting
5. Closing the data loop: how do you close the loop from learnings?

Today I want to focus on #step1.

To have a robust data-driven strategy, you need to start somewhere and, as marketers, we all know where that is: having a vision and strategy that your boss and the senior executives will understand (cutting out the jargons and antidotes).

Keep calm: #step1 — getting strategic

So let’s start by setting up and driving an organisational data-driven vision. This starting point cannot be underestimated. #DDM needs to be championed with a clear vision, as with any other business objective, from the top down, from operations, sales, marketing and IT departments (yes we need to be working together and not in silos).

Data (as with CRM) is an asset that needs to be owned by all to ensure growth and competitive advantage — not doing so will give you a fragmented view and underused assets, as per the above findings and at your company’s peril.

Just ‘Like’ social media years back, where many brands and/or their agencies didn’t know much about it, they ignored it. Therefore, it wasn’t a business priority until a negative tweet was picked up by the CEO or senior executives in the boardroom; then their reaction was no different to the CEO’s reaction to the data-strategy request: “What is our position? What is our strategy?”

Catch a wake-up call

In response to this, brands and agencies had to catch a wake-up call and grow up very quickly, and create a social media strategy that needs to be more than tiptoeing and having an intern monitoring conversation and randomly responding back — there has to be a plan and strategy in place.

I also believe that the same needs to be said and done about data.

How long do we carry on with our heads in the sand and not worry about making data a priority? Just because it is not broadcast on social media, it doesn’t mean it’s not as fundamental an asset for any organisation. We spend millions of rands in collecting data, only to leave it sitting there, gathering dust (from a piping-hot prospect to a cold, dormant record).

So take the latest buzzword “Big Data” (which I will cover another day), as your business wakeup call! Don’t be one of those companies that hold millions of records and do nothing with it. If that’s not enough to convince you, then read below a statement by the ousted Groupon CEO Andrew Mason in his exit memo…

“If there’s one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impact upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers.” [emphasis added]

Key components for #step1

Now, with all that said, let’s dive straight into #step1 — the key components to creating an overarching #DDM strategy:

Setting the vision

Start by putting together a business vision with senior heads (marketing, sales, IT and senior executives, from CEO, COO, CTO, CMO and CFO — often referred to as C-Suite) that includes data at the heart of it.

Data-flow audit

Once you have a supported vision, start doing a “data-flow audit” by mapping out your entire data-flow journey from both customer and business perspectives.

• How do your customers interact with your brand across all touch-points?
• How does your customer interact with your business?
• Where are the data touch-points across platforms and media?
• How and where is data exchanged during these processes?

You will be surprised at this stage alone at the fragmented view your business has on its customers and the glaring holes of opportunities. Then think about what changes you need to make to meet the vision.

Data strategy

Based on the data-flow audit, I am sure you will see that data is collected, stored, processed and used across the whole organisation differently, sometimes shared and sometimes not. The key objective here is to put together a holistic data strategy that includes both marketing and IT working hand in hand.

In my experience, one of the biggest barriers to #DDM is how data is viewed and used by IT vs marketing. To me, both marketing and IT need to be its custodians, supporting the vision by driving a collective strategy. If not — sad to say — you will never become a #DDM organization.

Let’s not forget that the customer is not owned by IT or marketing but by the business as a whole. The data strategy should at least cover:

• Data collection: where and how is data collected?
• Data storage and integration: where is the data stored and used?
• Data management: data processing and hygiene — is it fit for purpose?
• Data privacy and security: are you abiding by data protection and usage laws?
• Data usage and governance: how can the data be accessed — what are the rules?
• Data tools and analytics: what tools, processes and people do we have for interrogating the data to glean insights and intelligence?

Technology strategy

Just as the data strategy should be put together by both marketing and IT, it is also just as important that IT includes marketing in the technology strategy. It’s a huge benefit when both departments are driving towards the same vision together.

For example, you don’t often hear about a digital RFP without it including the IT department. But let’s not forget that technology is an enabler to strategic marketing and shouldn’t be a constraint.

Not a quick fix

#DDM isn’t a quick fix. If done properly, it requires input, budget and vision driven by the whole organisation. So, if you have one already (well done, but are you using and driving it?) — and if you don’t — start today by taking this first step and asking the question: “What is our data vision and strategy?”

Data marketing or Big Data isn’t going to go away; it is just going to get more and more intense and competitive. The trick is in how organisations respond and embrace data marketing to set them apart from their competitors and build a more meaningful relationship with its customers.

To end this month’s column, I thought I would share a great old case study, from a few years back, on the potential power of DDM and its subsequent learnings.

Case #3 — Congratulation, your daughter’s pregnant

In this case, a father was outraged to find that Target (a well-known discount retailer in the US and Canada), had been sending his high-school daughter coupons for cribs and baby clothes in the mail. The father stormed into his local Target store and spoke to the manager, saying how “irresponsible it was of them to do this. Were they trying to encourage her to get pregnant?” To cut the story short, the father had to then apologise to the store manager a few days later, as he’d found out that, in fact, his daughter was pregnant and he’d just not been aware of it.

How was this possible? In the background, Target spends millions of dollars in obtaining information about its customers. From a DDM perspective, what it also does is hire highly skilled data analysts and technologists who crawl through the mountains of data collected to derive statistical predictions of shoppers’ behaviors at crucial moments of truth. In this case, they had worked out a formula based on 25 products that, when analysed together, allowed them to assign a pregnancy prediction score. More importantly, they could also predict the likely due date to a small window (yes, I hear the obvious downside to this).

But… lessons learnt: Based on the above outcome, Target then got even more sophisticated (or, shall we say, sneakier), by then using the score but mixing and matching the baby items potential shoppers would to need to buy if they are pregnant with other household items, so it didn’t seem as direct and open (which basically freaked people out). That way, it looked like all the products were chosen by chance, they wouldn’t feel spied on and they would use the coupons.

I hope you found the case study inspiring in the potential power of data driven marketing. Imagine you are a retailer and you hold millions of records; if you’re not doing anything with it, bar sending out blanket mailings, then think again — there’s ‘gold’ in that mountain.

In my next column, I look forward to sharing with you #Step2 — building the foundation.

Happy data mining!

Prakash Patel (@prakashpatel_1) is chief strategy officer at Fogg Experiential Design, a technically-enabled, digitally-led, creatively-inspired, data-driven and strategically-focused design company based in Johannesburg and Cape Town. He has over 25 years of experience in advertising and data planning, a passion for integrated marketing strategies, and believes that the holy grail of marketing has always been — and always will be — data. Prakash contributes the monthly “#3D” (Data-Driven & Digital) column to MarkLives.com, exploring how data-driven and digital marketing can add value to marketing communication.

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