TURNING TO BIG DATA FOR EFFECTIVE LOCALISED MARKETING

Back in 2006, Harvard Business Review hailed the concept of using information about consumer behaviour to influence local marketing efforts with respect to “big box” retailers. The write-up characterised the concept as a move toward individualisation, a carving out of a retailer’s identity that stood out from the other big box stores at the time.

Today, the massive collection of what we call Big Data is making localised marketing efforts affordable and more effective for small businesses as well as the big box retailers. The term “Big Data” is still evolving. It refers to the voluminous information that comes to businesses through many different sources ranging from business records to campaigns to information collected via sensors in the so-called Internet of Things. Big Data comes in disparate types and at high velocity. Big data may be structured data (spreadsheets), unstructured data (documents) and semi-structured data (not raw data but not organized in a traditional sense). The important thing for businesses is to figure out how to mine Big Data for consumer insights.

How Localised Marketing Works

When a business turns its efforts to localised marketing, it studies the available data on the habits, interests, and other detailed history of customer behaviour in the local market. By using this more personal information—in comparison to general marketing techniques—businesses can target their consumers in the local market to match their marketing promotions to very specific market segments’ interests and desires.

Studies show that consumers respond positively toward marketing techniques that are aimed at their personal desires. We are talking about increasing brand loyalty here. For instance, a report from Retailing Today said that 78% of customers become repeat customers after they receive a promotion geared toward their personal preferences. Out of that 78%, a majority of the consumers (74%) buy a new product.

Another study by eMarketer conducted in 2015 showed that consumers want promotions based on their geographic area, age, personal style, and favourite products. A majority (71%) of the eMarketer survey’s respondents indicated they used personalised promotions in emails, but half of the consumers targeted by companies said the promotions they received did not match their preferences. In addition, 81% of consumers surveyed said they just wanted to find the product they seek, read product reviews and recommendations, and then buy the item when, where, and how they want. Welcome to the age of the empowered consumer.

Some Companies Have Had Great Success in Data Mining

Walmart is a huge enterprise which has two million employees, 20,000 stores in 28 countries, and has recognised the value of Big Data for a while now. It uses the insights to forecast demand in specific geographic areas. According to Forbes.com, Walmart used data mining to get emergency flashlights and other equipment to Hurricane Sandy victims. It also found that strawberry poptarts were in demand in other areas hit by bad weather. Walmart routed these items to the appropriate area in time to meet customer demand. Without the real-time analytics of Big Data, it would have taken weeks or longer to determine the trend, losing out on sales during that time.

Rolls-Royce is another large enterprise which has certainly benefitted from Big Data. The company manufactures huge engines used by 500 airlines and 150 military forces around the world. With such large volume, Rolls-Royce recognises the value of Big Data mining in three key areas of its business: design, manufacture, and sales support. The after-sales support area makes use of hundreds of sensors in its engines that record details on the product’s operation. The sensors also report changes to engineers in real-time so they can decide what to do faster.

So, I Have All This Data. How Do I Use It?

Accurate interpretation of Big Data is the key. Your staff must have a way to clean voluminous data streams quickly so that they gain insights in real-time. Your staff must analyse the data that comes from various sources and is quite disparate in its native form. The transformation of this data into easily understandable formats is key to agility and relevance. Marketing Nirvana would seem to one by which your audience is able to be accurately segmented, the content personalised, and then targeted by relevance, media, and timing! Your staff must therefore be able to accurately decipher the insights Big Data holds so that you can move closer to this marketing Nirvana.

You have to understand that, at its heart, Big Data and consumer empowerment have fundamentally changed the way customers interact with businesses. It’s up to every business to:

• leverage the insights from Big Data;
• accurately decode and identify consumer wants in real-time;
• gear your company’s marketing efforts toward local customers’ preferences; and
• satisfy your customers’ desires no matter where they are at any given moment, and on what device.

When you successfully leverage Big Data insights, you will reap the rewards of increased sales, customer loyalty, and existing customers buying new products. By properly collecting, identifying relevant data points, and interpreting data—especially harmonised input on consumer habits in relation to local trends and geographic locations—you’ll also be able to devise more accurate localised marketing campaigns which your target audience will be able to relate to better, giving you more repeat purchases and increased customer loyalty. Failing to do so however allows competitors to gain opportunities within a given market that otherwise would have been yours for the taking.

Latize’s Ulysses software makes it possible to maximise the use of Big Data by properly fusing and harmonising data, including combining internal and external data sets into a usable and relevant collection of data on people, products, locations, markets, and even competitors. This allows you to create more effective campaigns and processes that are truly data driven, improving many areas of your business—from sales and customer service to marketing, and supply logistics.