India’s Top CMOs Agree – What You Need Now is Data-Driven Marketing!

As a new age marketer, do you sometimes find yourself running on a hamster wheel – wading through oceans of customer data without getting anywhere?
Well, the good news is you’re not alone. Many of your fellow marketers are sailing in the same boat. But there’s help at hand! You can use data-driven marketing to help you decipher data and use it to draw strategic and actionable insights about your customers.

• Data is the new raw material that will fuel growth
Data is transforming the very essence of marketing. Gone are the days of guesswork
and ‘going with your gut’. The integration of data intelligence into decision-making – from customer segmentation and creative optimization to media buying and measurement, has become a marketing imperative. Through it, marketers can create strategies that lead to more efficient, connected, and impactful marketing.

Prashant Peres, Director Marketing at Mondelez India says: “The richness of data has to be realized and if used along with the hypothesis, you can effectively target the audience you really aim at reaching out to.”

• But the data that is available today is scattered and your customers are evolving at light speed.
According to a research by TURN, 87% of marketers rely on data to do their job well. But only 45% of marketers believe they have sufficient access to data.

“Today, every piece of data that forms the crux of businesses and marketing plans – long spreadsheets of mailing lists, purchase records, sales databases, agencies, and so on, lies with the different stakeholders in an organization” says Ajit Thakur, CEO, Eros International.

Constantly evolving customers are touching and acting across various digital and offline mediums throughout the day. Marketers must be able to study these actions to draw the right insights.
So, to start with data-driven marketing, it’s critical to collate all these scattered pieces of data into one centralized repository. That’s how you’ll have a unified view of your customer which lets you understand her behavior and her preferences to predict what she wants even before she thinks about it.

Prashant Peres, Director Marketing at Mondelez India affirms this: “The next wave is all about understanding the customer behavior – social listening and sentimental analysis are going to be new tools for understanding changing behavior of today’s consumers.”

• Hyper-personalisation is the key
When a content piece, say a reality show or a test match ends, 80%-90% consumers uninstall the apps on which they watched these shows.

“Don’t look at everyone (your customers) as equal, look at every customer as an individual”, says Kinjal Shah, CEO, Crossword book stores.
It’s important to analyse the reactions of your audience to certain type of content. The next step is then to feed them with the content that resonates the most to them. Customization and personalisation are the key.

Brands need to indulge in purposeful positioning to differentiate themselves from competitors and increase their relevancy. The evolving customers are sending out clear signals to the marketers to interact with them digitally and with the most appealing content that captivates them to share more and more information about themselves. This can add value to your existing data. Akash Banerji, SVP, Head of Marketing, Voot – Viacom 18 Digital Ventures says, by leveraging information exchange platforms like Facebook and Google you can access an interest-level audience which further helps you customise your content and target a relevant set of customers.
A data-backed communication will always beautify the customer experience and boost your customer engagement.

• The Marketing Superman – an evolved CMO
Agile. Innovative. Responsible.
As CMOs become more heavily involved and responsible for business decisions and revenues, the expectations from them are on the rise. CMOs need to invest and embrace technology to stay ahead.

Akash Banerji, SVP, Head of Marketing, Voot Viacom 18 Digital Ventures, says: “the role of the CMO has to evolve, he has to become the CMTO – Chief Marketing Technology Officer. This CMTO or a Marketing Superman, must start investing in technologies which helps him drive data-driven marketing”.
“With the advent of technologies like DMPs, CRMs, and Marketing Automation, the Marketing Superman can deliver meaningful experiences to his customers, expand customer engagement and drive measurable growth by ensuring relevancy, creativity and timeliness. But choosing the right technology and partners is critical”, adds Sunil Gadgil, Director – Marketing, NIVEA India.

Data, technology and content are intertwined. Deriving conclusions by harnessing the right data and technology will empower marketers to deliver unequalled customer experiences, expand their engagement and show measurable growth in the organization.
So, go ahead and entice your customers with highly personalised, data-driven marketing!