An exploratory dialogue on the role of data driven marketing in today’s marketplace.
I attended a conference recently, Brandfest 2019, and while it was an action packed two days full of thought provoking topics and panel discussions (thank you, BFM), it seemed that there were two distinct camps: data driven, and intuition driven.
Before we get into it, let’s clarify what exactly is meant by “intuition” and “data” driven. Both, are essentially, insights. Insights, that guide the marketers process (whether agency or brand) when it comes to conceptualizing and creating campaigns for their intended audience.
“Data-Driven Marketing” seems to be the nifty buzzword that everyone seems to be throwing around these days; with agencies and brands going out of their way to collect precious statistics in order to glean a glimpse into the target user’s behavior, goals, pain points, and challenges1 so as to create a more personalized, specified, and targeted campaign that is sure to work. I mean, you have all that data! “Intuition-Driven Marketing” on the other hand, is a term to describe the process of creating a campaign based on what you know, knowingly, as a consumer yourself, the challenges you face, and observations you make, with the added advantage of being an experienced marketer.
Now, let’s take a step back, in a day an age where nearly everything is tracked, measured, compared, and counted, it seems only natural to use these available data points as leverage to create better targeting, refine campaigns as they go on, as well as increasing consumer engagement. But my question is, is it really all that necessary from the get-go?
Don’t get me wrong, the importance of refining the trajectory of any and all campaigns as they progress based on reports, even for something as simple as nailing down the exact preferred visualization of a social media posting on your client’s FB page speaks volumes for itself. However, speaking from a fairly realistic perspective of not having the resources to access insights tools that can help in the conceptualization of proposals, the question of whether i have missed something by not deep diving into the consumer’s psyche plagues me to no end.
It’s argued that by investing in extensive market research beforehand, we can derive a clearer picture or understanding of the natural “path to purchase” experience a consumer might take, in order to create a campaign that integrates more easily / naturally into the market, and optimizes your budget spending to where it’s predicted to deliver the most ROI (2). It may even reduce product failure rates as these insights will shed some light on what people are actually looking for, compared to what you think they’re looking for.
Path to Purchase: Meeting The Consumer Along the Journey from Awareness to Conversion (image source: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/13-03-2018-how-to-create-a-customer-journey-map)
One of my favourite examples of this was an ad campaign run by The Amanda Foundation, a nonprofit Animal Rescue, that used consumer analytics to match individual users to their ideal pet based off of their digital footprint (3).
The idea centered around collecting generic personal data like age, location, family size, and interest to build a digital “owner” profile, and matched this to the rescue animal whose digital pawprint aligned best with theirs. Following that, programmatic banner ads were customized to target users according to this match made in pet heaven. Why this is so amazing and heartwarming is because not only does it mean that more pets get to find the right homes, but it’s also a testament to how marketers can come up with simple and elegant solutions based on creatively using the data that is available to them.
And yet, we’ve also nailed things on the head purely by reading secondary research available for free online, scanning through Facebook & Google comments, setting ourselves down in a room with office colleagues that we anticipate would be the “ideal” consumer (or as close as possible) and just having a clear conversation about what they go through, what they expect, and what their ideal solution would be. Often though, we come to the conclusion that even they don’t really know what the latter should be either.
On the other hand, there have also been times where we weren’t able to answer a client’s brief without the use of simple surveys sent out to friends within our network to answer, in order to confirm / justify conflicting insights that we may have; deriving statistical data from there to bolster our propositions, and refine our campaign messaging to suit the findings. Which in itself begs the question, do we follow the data, or should the data follow us?
A great example that comes to mind to illustrate this point is MyTeksi, better known as GRAB Malaysia, our local e-hailing tech giant. It is a little known fact that the original idea for MyTeksi actually came from an experience that CEO, Anthony Tan, had where his friends faced common issues with our taxi services trying to get to his hometown (4). Without even needing to consult any data analytics, we can already pick out key pain points that if solved, would change the game entirely. It’s known worldwide of the deplorable state of our taxi cleanliness, impolite drivers, and of course, highly overpriced taxi fares.
Grab Malaysia Started Off It’s Journey As MyTeksi (image source: https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/27/grab-grab-grab/)
With this intrinsic knowledge, Anthony set out to change the way taxi services worked in Malaysia with the goal of creating “win-win” scenarios for both drivers and passengers. Thus, MyTeksi was born. However, it’s important to note that following the data, and using it as a compass for growth was integral to building the brand, and winning the hearts of Malaysians.
The biggest takeaway from the conference was the consistent theme of “knowing your consumer,” as well as “meeting them where they are”, whether it may be in terms of establishing your brand’s values, or conceptualizing your next creative campaign. But these are fundamental, foundation ideals that transcend time, and now has evolved into something so mechanically cold, akin to engineering something in a lab to be released into the market as a sure fire way to hit your KPIs. But, I remember a time when marketing was emotional, creative, and most importantly – human; at its core, shouldn’t marketing still be about people talking to people?
Given this, I think it’s more about how marketers can use the data to guide the creative idea, rather than having optimization and metrics take the forefront of the creative conceptualization process, After all, wouldn’t marketing be more exciting and innovative if we all took a leap of faith once in a while?
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Illani Azalia is a budding strategist in the award winning Experiential Communications agency, Cake Experiential Communications Sdn. Bhd., and works within the EPIC Group to coordinate integrated marketing campaigns across a wide range of industries. The Strat Diaries are a collection of musings, questions, and insights drawn from years of experience, and trial and error.
Marketing from the ground up. Creating conversations, and seeking answers to questions you’ve probably asked yourself.
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References:
1 https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/marketing-needs-data-driven/
2 http://www.mediaspacesolutions.com/blog/the-benefits-of-data-driven-marketing
4 https://www.slideshare.net/ppnd/grab-taxi-46368147
