Thakur
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Big data to be game changer for marketing in
India; organisations grapple with its complexity
For too long, marketing in India was divorced from
technology. It was regarded as a function meant to
create buzz through more visible mass media tools.
But with digital rewriting the rules, big data could
well be the next game changer.
For the moment though, it is throwing up a number
of challenges for Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs).
Mayank Pareek, COO (Marketing & Sales), Maruti
Suzuki , says that while big data is as important as
creative insight, it is of no use if the marketer
cannot decipher it. "We are a 30 year old company
with a database of over 9 million customers. The
complexity is enormous."
With an expanding middle class and the FMCG
market size of over $13.1 billion, diligently tracking
consumer shopping and purchase behaviour across
regions is a monumental task. As per Sunder
Muthuraman, managing partner, Meritus Analytics, a
WPP company, "Every marketer is spending big
bucks on building or acquiring technology and
grappling with connecting this to return on
investment (ROI)." To that add the grey area of
having data and not knowing how to apply them to
engage with consumers.
It's been a struggle even for financial services, a
category fairly ahead of the curve in data
management. Shares Ajay Kakar, CMO - financial
services, Aditya Birla Group, "Most of big data are
highly unstructured as they come from various
sources in a conglomerate like ours, more so since
we represent nine line of businesses - digital, social
media, call centre etc." Integrating consumer data
with transactional data is the next big challenge for
the category.
Independent analytics company, Hansa Cequity which
works for clients including Club Mahindra, Axis
Bank , Aditya Birla Retail and Tata Sky , believes that
CMOs have historically managed data of different
kinds: from research, media related data, sales and
marketing numbers. "With big data, they have to
handle totally different complexities. There are three
Vs of Volume, Variety and Velocity", says Nishad
Ramachandran, VP, Hansa Cequity.
Volume refers to the sheer quantum of big data,
variety the number of sources they come from and
velocity the speed at which they come in. These were
some of the predicaments when Indian FMCG
company Marico commissioned the US based Tableau
to resolve some big data issues. Deepak Ghodke,
country manager, Tableau India says that the
company has introduced a set of tools to address
each of these challenges. For instance, "We have a
tool for data blending. Our tool can mash up stories
and present insights to the CMOs."
The company also has a patented technology which
helps marketers build a picture from data. "For
example, Marico tracks each of their primary
dealership throughout India and the markets they
are servicing and sales figures on specially designed
geographical maps. On these maps they can see
actual figures in numbers or pictures", explains
Ghodke.
However, he points out big data cannot be
implemented if the benefits are not communicated
through traditional advertising . For instance, even if
insights gleaned from data reveals that automatic
transmission is the wave of the future, the
immediate challenge is to communicate its benefits.
"We took the challenge of communicating the
benefits of Auto Gear Shift Technology by organizing
100,000 test drives in first 20 days. This was
supported by massive 40 city customer connect
initiative. So unless I communicate brand attributes,
how do I sell?"
Going forward, analysts predict that CMOs will wear
the dual hat of marketing cum technology officers.
Gartner has predicted that CMOs will be spending
more on IT than CIOs by 2017. There are cases of
new CXO roles being defined to specifically bridge
this gap: the CMT or Chief Marketing Technologists,
for instance.
For companies like Maruti though working with big
data has moved beyond nice to have into the need
to have space. Last year it claims 4% of its sales
came through being able to mine data better. This
year it's gunning for 10%.
India; organisations grapple with its complexity
For too long, marketing in India was divorced from
technology. It was regarded as a function meant to
create buzz through more visible mass media tools.
But with digital rewriting the rules, big data could
well be the next game changer.
For the moment though, it is throwing up a number
of challenges for Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs).
Mayank Pareek, COO (Marketing & Sales), Maruti
Suzuki , says that while big data is as important as
creative insight, it is of no use if the marketer
cannot decipher it. "We are a 30 year old company
with a database of over 9 million customers. The
complexity is enormous."
With an expanding middle class and the FMCG
market size of over $13.1 billion, diligently tracking
consumer shopping and purchase behaviour across
regions is a monumental task. As per Sunder
Muthuraman, managing partner, Meritus Analytics, a
WPP company, "Every marketer is spending big
bucks on building or acquiring technology and
grappling with connecting this to return on
investment (ROI)." To that add the grey area of
having data and not knowing how to apply them to
engage with consumers.
It's been a struggle even for financial services, a
category fairly ahead of the curve in data
management. Shares Ajay Kakar, CMO - financial
services, Aditya Birla Group, "Most of big data are
highly unstructured as they come from various
sources in a conglomerate like ours, more so since
we represent nine line of businesses - digital, social
media, call centre etc." Integrating consumer data
with transactional data is the next big challenge for
the category.
Independent analytics company, Hansa Cequity which
works for clients including Club Mahindra, Axis
Bank , Aditya Birla Retail and Tata Sky , believes that
CMOs have historically managed data of different
kinds: from research, media related data, sales and
marketing numbers. "With big data, they have to
handle totally different complexities. There are three
Vs of Volume, Variety and Velocity", says Nishad
Ramachandran, VP, Hansa Cequity.
Volume refers to the sheer quantum of big data,
variety the number of sources they come from and
velocity the speed at which they come in. These were
some of the predicaments when Indian FMCG
company Marico commissioned the US based Tableau
to resolve some big data issues. Deepak Ghodke,
country manager, Tableau India says that the
company has introduced a set of tools to address
each of these challenges. For instance, "We have a
tool for data blending. Our tool can mash up stories
and present insights to the CMOs."
The company also has a patented technology which
helps marketers build a picture from data. "For
example, Marico tracks each of their primary
dealership throughout India and the markets they
are servicing and sales figures on specially designed
geographical maps. On these maps they can see
actual figures in numbers or pictures", explains
Ghodke.
However, he points out big data cannot be
implemented if the benefits are not communicated
through traditional advertising . For instance, even if
insights gleaned from data reveals that automatic
transmission is the wave of the future, the
immediate challenge is to communicate its benefits.
"We took the challenge of communicating the
benefits of Auto Gear Shift Technology by organizing
100,000 test drives in first 20 days. This was
supported by massive 40 city customer connect
initiative. So unless I communicate brand attributes,
how do I sell?"
Going forward, analysts predict that CMOs will wear
the dual hat of marketing cum technology officers.
Gartner has predicted that CMOs will be spending
more on IT than CIOs by 2017. There are cases of
new CXO roles being defined to specifically bridge
this gap: the CMT or Chief Marketing Technologists,
for instance.
For companies like Maruti though working with big
data has moved beyond nice to have into the need
to have space. Last year it claims 4% of its sales
came through being able to mine data better. This
year it's gunning for 10%.
