Digital has been a powerful force in the disruption of commerce, and now the consumer demand for personalised digital content through a multitude of channels has changed, not just the external marketing channels, but the entire internal marketing infrastructure. Throughout this blog series, we’ve introduced new strategies and concepts with a view to driving businesses to react quicker to engage with consumers: Post 1 – Recognising the challenges of a changing marketing landscape, Post 2 – Succeeding in the new marketing landscape, and Post 3 – The Marketing Factory Foundation. In this, our fourth and final blog series post, Adopting a data-driven marketing approach, we explore how data-driven marketing provides a number of key solutions to maintain a constantly evolving relationship with consumers and to successfully scale business on a global level, whilst keeping ahead of the competition and achieving sustainable profitability.
Post 4 Adopting a data-driven marketing approach
The Marketing Factory approach co-exists hand in hand with data-driven marketing strategies, which are devised using the insights gathered from campaign data and interactions with the consumer. We have already stated the importance of a capable and structured technology ecosystem as a foundation for content management and performance. And, in addition, data-driven strategies rely heavily upon an integrated and sophisticated management system that can organise, analyse and manipulate existing data with new data, to hone marketing efforts.The core of a data-driven approach is to understand and act on consumer behaviours which leads to key benefits:
- Personalised Marketing Personalisation is no longer an option, it’s essential for brands to survive. Data-driven marketing helps to create custom campaigns and assets to increase conversion.
- Virtuous Circle of Improvement Alongside personalisation, data-driven marketing can be used to further enhance the customer experience and pinpoint improvement areas for products, services or within the business, by harnessing feedback loops.
- Multichannel Approach Distributing data-driven, automated campaigns across multiple channels will ensure your message is consistent and amplified, delivered to each consumer’s channel instantly.
- Profitable Targeting With so much powerful data, marketers can segment and target audiences more accurately and profitably.
- Tailored Research and Development Using data-driven marketing to establish a better understanding of consumer behaviours to develop products that are tailored and better suited.
Adidas leads the way in data-driven marketing, it uses an iterative test-and-learn approach to maintain a constantly evolving relationship with its customers and successfully scale business across global units. Adidas runs experiments with dynamic and personalised content across its eCommerce website, using the virtuous circle of the Marketing Factory feedback to drive more consumer engagement. Adidas’ incredible data-driven culture is helping them win big, so much so, that they have discontinued all TV advertising. Kasper Rorsted, Adidas CEO, said “Our primary interface now is through digital media, there is no TV advertising”[1], he added, “the most important store we have in the world is .com”[1]. Rorsted stated that in 2017 “the online store grew 60%”[1] and, in 2018, he proudly announced “record sales, the highest margin in our history”[2]. Moving from traditional marketing to data-driven marketing requires company-wide focus and a need to break down the silos of traditional mindsets. In the recent digital transformation project undertaken by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Raakhi Sippy, GSK’s Global Head of Marketing Operations & Third-Party Partnerships, succinctly summarises, “[…] moving from traditional marketing to data-driven marketing with a laser focus on driving exceptional customer experiences [means] stepping up a technology platform for digital asset management and promotional copy approval, [and] overcoming organizational challenges—such as gaining internal buy-in at multiple levels […]. Beating the industry standard simply isn’t enough for us. We must stay ahead of the game and truly leapfrog competition.”[2]Winning companies, like Adidas and GSK, are committed to continuously improving and adapting customer experiences using the Marketing Factory approach, while improving the financial sustainability of the company. There’s no doubt, transitioning to a data-driven culture is ambitious. It’s a transformation process that many companies have already started. And, with the right partner, a sound technology infrastructure and a mindset shift, a data-driven marketing operation provides the winning combination, for companies and consumers.
In conclusion
Throughout this blog series, The Marketing Factory, we’ve introduced concepts and philosophies and touched on processes and cultures that are all part of adapting to the changing marketing landscape, adopting the new mindset and transforming to be future-ready – from traditional marketing to data-driven marketing. The move is bold but progressive. Take steps now to radicalise your company’s marketing anatomy, you can be seen to be either leading from the front, or trailing behind.
This article was created and written by Luigi Matrone – CEO & Founder of the eBusiness Institute.At the eBusiness Institute, we have extensive experience of working with numerous brands on their digital transformation. We understand the importance of an optimised consumer experience to drive your brand’s sales online and offline. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you.
Sources
[1] https://www.adnews.com.au/news/adidas-shuns-tv-ads-launches-new-app-focused-on-personalisation
[2] https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2019/adidas-delivers-record-results-2018/
[3] https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/blogs-data-driven-marketing#search
