The Next Wave

So we have gone digital, what's next?? A question that is bothering many marketers.Many companies have reaped benefits out of practising digital marketing, but it is a fact that a lot of grounds still remain uncovered. Though one can argue that digital marketing is only for those who are tech savvy, there are hardly anyone who has not ventured into this mesmerizing digital space. It is a fact that digitization is enabling the next wave of collaborative marketing.

The next wave:

Take luxury fashion retail chain Zara, which is modeled on the concept of fast fashion, where the brand goes from ramp to rack in a matter of weeks.

Part of its success can be ascribed to smart marketing and store display. A bigger factor is its ability to predict fashion trends and produce merchandise in time for delivery to the far-flung outlets. That calls for a very efficient supply chain. As one doesn't know what will actually end up flying off the shelves, it is also important to decide when to run a promotion and what percentage markdown (discount) should be given. Further, different audiences come to different store locations, and different merchandise will move differently at different outlets. A lot depends on its ability to give discounts depending on the location catered to. All these facts are based on very sophisticated analytics.

"A lot of Zara's success can be put down to its markdown model and its supply chain, which highlights the importance of data. Here too, one sees how marketing is required to work in collaboration with functions such as supply chain, pricing, finance etc," says Kumar. Data - whether one talks of 'big data' or internal transactional data - can then be the new source of competitive advantage.

North Face - the outdoor equipment retailer - is another example of how companies can use analytics to create personalised customer experiences.

The company is experimenting with a virtual shopping concierge, Fluid Expert Personal Shopper, that is powered by cognitive computing capability, IBM Watson. If a customer simply tells Watson (through its app) about an upcoming camping trip to, say, Vermont in February, the technology will immediately anticipate the camper's needs and come up with a list of supplies that the customer might not have thought of. This is a way to use technology to help customers get exactly what they need.

The mobile way:

Forget digital-first strategies; marketers may soon have to think 'mobile-first', and with good reason. The mobile phone is probably the first gateway to the internet for many. Cracking mobile data can give a marketer contextual information about the user, location, interest etc. The IBM study suggests that by 2015, there will be 20 times more mobile data and 40 times more mobile transactions in India compared to 2010. "That is the kind of growth we are seeing," says Kumar. After all, people have their mobile phones next to them for 18-20 hours a day.

Social media too is making its presence felt in determining business results. Red Funnel, the ferry carrier in Europe, was looking for ways to make its passengers' journeys more efficient. When an IBM Master Inventor devised a solution designed to predict the actual arrival and departure times of each Red Funnel ferry, the company was keen to explore the customer service benefits. By applying data analytics to information gathered from sensors onboard its ferries, Red Funnel can inform customers of the arrival or departure of its vehicles real-time via Twitter. Imagine the value it offers to its 14,000-strong fleet and 23,000 Red Jet passenger sailings every year!
Courtesy: Business Standard, afaqs

Digital analytics- Tools to improve marketing performance

When you market a product or service to clients, it’s difficult to know who’s being reached and whether they’re likely to respond to your message.

But what if you could predict which of the people you contact are more likely to respond? In that case, you could save time and money marketing only to those who might respond to your communication, rather than those who’ll simply discard or disregard it.

This is the idea behind predictive analysis – which is rapidly becoming a widely used marketing tool. One way of expressing predictive analysis is with a lift diagram.

A lift diagram is a way of representing the benefit of targeting your marketing audience. In doing so, you might contact less people but get more return compared with randomly contacting potential customers – forming a curve, or ‘lift curve’ when represented on a graph. From a perspective of maximising profits, it’s actually better to stop after you’ve contacted around 25 per cent of customers.

However, predictive analysis can help you meet other business objectives. If you’re looking for max exposure on your business without losing money, you can see from the lift diagram that it’s best to stop after you have contacted about 70 per cent of customers.

When customers are not targeted, costs outweigh return and you end up making a loss.

Now we know the lift curve exists. But how can your business harness this potential to increase sales and reduce profits? By bringing together all the information you know about your customers, their buying behaviour and how they have responded to previous campaigns, you can rank them on which are most likely to respond to marketing – and contact them first.

The bottom line for your business is that raising the lift curve through predictive analytics can increase your profits and decrease your spending on contacting customers.

Reference: Websalad

OUR BRUSH WITH DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital Marketing- a word that creates a buzz among the marketers and the customers alike. Digital marketing is seen as the strong potential weapon to attract the Gen Y customers. So does it mean traditional marketing has lost its charm?? A debatable point.

We see traditional marketing everyday, say for example, Billboards, TV ads, print media, catalogs that fill our mailboxes etc. These forms of marketing has become an integral part of our life. While waiting in a traffic signal we get excited looking at that huge billboard showcasing the new offer a recent fast food chain has come up with and the same time get annoyed by the number of pamphlets that come up with our newspapers everyday!! In simple words, every coin has two sides. Traditional marketing is no exception.

Some of the main shortcomings of traditional marketing:

• It is expensive
• Outcomes not easily measurable
• Harder to target audience

In the recent days, digital marketing is slowly replacing traditional forms. For B2B marketers who measure ROI, 64% say Digital marketing is the better choice compared to traditional marketing. 

Main benefits of digital marketing:

• It is measurable
• Targeting our audience is easier. This form of marketing lets us talk to the people who care about our products and services, which means people are more interested in what we are selling and we don't waste money talking to people who are not.
• Cost effectiveness
• Mobile accessible
• Viral value

Both forms of marketing can work in tandem, but for those who want targeted messages and results, digital marketing works the best. Digital marketing is here to stay..

B2B Vs B2C in Digital Space

In today’s fast growing dynamic world, the battle has shifted from the traditional space to the online space and without exceptions have changed the definition of landscape and terrain.  Market place has given way to market space and keeping in mind as future marketing managers, we need to  change our perspective and look a little closer at the adjustments needed to fit two very broad types of business into an eCommerce environment: B2Bs (Business to Business) and B2Cs (Business to Consumer).

 Two Tribes: B2B & B2C Customers

The crucial differences between B2B and B2C eCommerce all come back to just one thing: The customer. Similar as they may seem, businesses and individual consumers purchase for radically different reasons and want to do business in completely different ways.

Understanding their mindsets and requirements is the key to accurately tailoring your eCommerce offering to fit the bill. Here’s a very quick rundown of some of the key considerations for each customer type.

B2C Customers

The selling process for B2C customers is typically less labour-intensive. Like B2B customers, they may require carefully pitched marketing in the run up to a buying decision, but once the conversion process begins, their needs remain relatively straightforward and predictable.

In these instances, pre-packaged shopping carts can work. Feeling safe, secure and informed throughout the process is essential. Clear direction throughout a buying journey is also important.

  

These customers tend to purchase with their heart, not their head. After all, studies show we tend to buy with emotion and justify the facts. Purchases are often one-off, standalone buys which do not require any form of aftercare or follow-up; though customer care can be a huge differentiator for your brand.

Each B2C customer is likely to be fairly similar in their ultimate goals (though the often emotional motivations behind each purchase will differ), which is why a one-size-fits all, globally familiar B2C eCommerce checkout process can be successful, even across different product groups.

B2B Customers

Business customers approach online purchasing differently. While emotions are invariably a part of their purchase decision (they affect us all) Their decisions are cold, hard and logical, based on which provider ticks the most checkboxes on their list, who can accommodate them flexibly and who they can trust. Arguably, the emotion that rules their purchases is fear; because they have others above them to answer to, the purchaser must make a very wise and careful decision. Impulse buys are not par the course. There are, inevitably, multiple people involved in the purchase decision, which also differentiates this customer.

Gate Keepers can keep the buyer from receiving your e-mail or sales pitch, while management has veto power and will need to be convinced on their own.

As such, a lot of communication and individual tailoring (customization) is generally necessary from an early stage, before a conversion process can begin, in order to make B2B customers feel secure, valued and informed.

While solid design will be important (and is a trust factor), a B2B eCommerce website must focus less on standing out from the crowd with ultra-flashy design and more on providing as much useful information and customer service as possible in as short a time frame. You must make the purchase decision easier – not necessarily faster or more spontaneous.

Once a B2B customer has completed their conversion process, however, they are generally repeat customers with big orders. This makes aftercare and features like customer log-ins extremely important to B2B eCommerce. Long-term relationships are key in B2B.

How Does This Affect eCommerce?

Design & Online Marketing

B2C eCommerce sites need to look the part. With so much competition in eCommerce marketplaces like food and fashion, there’s no space for wallflowers. To get noticed and to keep bringing in fresh customers, B2C eCommerce websites must stand out from the eCommerce crowd, offer something no one else does – and shout about it with lots of interaction via social networks, PPC campaigns and alternative online marketing channels.

B2C means lots and lots of visitors, a fairly steep bounce rate and (typically) lower value conversions. To play the numbers properly, B2C eCommerce sites need to bring in as much good quality traffic as possible and do everything in their power to push visitors towards a conversion.

B2B sites, on the other hand, can stand to take a less “bells and whistles” based approach to making their eCommerce site convert. Instead the focus needs to be on quickly establishing a strong rapport and demonstrating that you can solve the business’ problems; your callouts will be centered on offering as much accessible information as you can.