While many organizations are interested in the potential of big data and are beginning to shape their data analysis strategies, some of the world’s biggest are well on their way to becoming data-driven to connect with customers and boost revenue.
For example, companies like Macy’s, JPMorgan Chase and Starwood Hotels and Resorts are incorporating data-driven marketing into their efforts, according to Data Marketing News.
The biggest impact of data analysis on the retailer’s marketing efforts is that the company now measure success in terms of the response of real people over time, notes Julie Bernard, Macy’s group vice president of customer centricity, direct marketing and loyalty.
“We have enough data at the customer level to see how she interacts both online and in the store, so we can tailor messaging and offers to her appropriately by channel, Bernard says. “We strive to balance the use of customer data to inform content relevancy with the use of consumer insights to ensure that the relevancy is coupled with a sense of discovery and inspiration.”
Starwood Hotels and Resorts uses big data to be more relevant to its customers as well as to ensure that the hospitality company is using the right metrics, says Grazia Ochoa, Starwood’s director global digital marketing.
“For example, we track relevancy in our conversion rates on both owned and paid media,” he notes. “We’ve seen some increased use of richer data – for a more finite audience in segmentation – increases the cost of the media, but not the ROI. We’re still modifying the models. We can sometimes work with the publisher to raise the signal, and then we don’t have to target to such detailed segment levels.”
And data analysis helps JPMorgan Chase make sense of the increasing number of interactions between people and their banks, notes Steve Ireland, executive director and head of advertising strategy and platforms, with JPMorgan Chase.
“We use all those digital interactions over time to create innovation, connect with customer in new ways, he says. “For example, mobile device usage was so high on our online forms that we created better, more secure apps to handle that traffic. It was incredibly shocking to us on the number of loan applications from devices. That led us to improve the interaction with consumers, and improve our opportunity.”
Macy’s Bernard notes that data-driven marketing has transformed the way marketing is viewed throughout the organization.
“Marketing has always been positioned as the advocate of the consumer,” she notes. “Now, we’re much more responsible for the entire customer experience. When we advocate on behalf of the customer, using advanced behavioral analytics to inform the experience, we still leverage our traditional marketing skills of storytelling to deliver those insights in a way that can be understood, embraced, and acted on quickly.”
Other companies also are adopting data-driven marketing.
In fact, 38.7% of marketers and suppliers say they’ve spent more on data-driven marketing in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the last quarter of 2012; 42 % held their levels of spending steady; and more than 70% agree that data-driven marketing is poised for growth, according to a survey by the Direct Marketing Association.
Much of the increased interest and investment is coming from verticals that, to date, have not been fully engaged in data-driven methods, says Jonathon Margulies, managing director of Winterberry Group, which conducts the quarterly surveys for the DMA.
“We’re seeing the mandate going out from senior managements to build big data strategies for their companies, and marketers are going to be at the center of that movement,” Margulies says. “They are being recognized as the emergent group with respect to digital information. Marketing is going to be the source of intelligence in the organization, the group that owns the customers.”
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