Global Flight Paths
08 October 2008
There have been a few attempts on the web at visualising flight paths, but this is the first global one we've seen and certainly one of the most impressive.
It's created by Zhaw (School of Engineering) and they have a live version on their site.
The concentration of flights on the East coast of Australia highlights the frequency of the Sydney to Melbourne route. Also if you keep an eye on the shift in daylight throught the 24 hour period you should see the strong relationship between time of day and number of flights across the world.
DP
Mind The Gap
19 September 2008
If you ever needed evidence of the power of well presented analytics then the series of 'GapCasts' from the guys at Gapminder would probably be Exhibit A.
The combination of good data visualisation techniques, enlightening content and an enthusiastic presentation style results in compelling viewing.
The full range of GapCasts can be viewed here
DP
Matrimony and Marketing
28 August 2008
Today I came across an article titled Wedding Invitation Recipient Psychology. I can’t even think about what I could have been searching for that is remotely linked too this- I am too young for marriage.
However,with scepticism I began reading it only to find that coming from a direct marketing background the words started to form into symbols and my mind began to concoct. I would like to compare the experience as something similar to Russell’s in A Beautiful Mind however I question if it was that ‘phenomenal’ and Fox Studios still haven’t called…
Invitation, offering, recipient, target audience, psychology, response. Who would have thought marriage and direct marketing shared so much in common? Beyond this comical relationship (mind the pun) there are some simple principles which this article addresses that can be applied to direct marketing. For example when designing a wedding invitation it goes beyond the advice of; ‘as long as you like it and it fits with your wedding theme anything rolls’ to state that there are more factors that should be part of the consideration process. If we tap into our Beautiful Mind what it is illustrating is that while consistency in branding and communication are critical at all consumer touch-points, when it comes to direct mail we have to look beyond internal agendas.
As marketers we must put ourselves in the shoes of our wedding guests and think ‘while this is in-sync with our brand image, and is a champion idea that the person previously in this position would have never thought of, does it actually offer value and appeal to my target market?’ To achieve this it is becoming increasingly important to personalise our creative work and our offerings to ensure that we truly are communicating with the customer on a one-to one level. With regards to wedding invites I personally think it’s a bit extravagant to adapt your invitation to suit each of your different guests. They love-you-long-time and will still be your friend and bring a present regardless of what the invitation looks like. However, will your customers?
Unfortunately when it comes to customers if they don’t like the invitation they won’t come to the wedding –there’s also a bar mitzvah on that day offering free cake and its only 2minutes from home. As consumers lives become more hectic they are becoming more choosy in who they let talk to them and why- a similar approach that modern day single woman are adopting too…With the ability to understand different characteristics, motivations and needs of customers through data analytics, Geodemographics and research there is no excuse for generic, irrelevant customer communications. Just as there is no excuse to buy anything but Tiffany’s now that it can be ordered online. It makes sense for us as marketers to invest (diamonds are a girls best friend) in understanding our customers so we can tap into their sphere and form a relationship that is profitable and valuable to both consumer and business.
SM
http://www.myexpression.com/ArticlesWedding/Recipient.cfm
Here Be Dragons
20 August 2008
I really enjoyed the Channel 7 show 'Dragons Den' that ran a couple of years ago, it was essentially 'Australian Idol' for entrepreneurs. Contestents would pitch their ideas to a panel of successful business people (the 'dragons') and they would decide whether to invest their hard earned cash and business experience into the initiative. The ideas ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous and in line with the 'Idol' format, the viewer at home had the pleasure of admiring ability and scoffing at stupidity. Sadly Channel 7 didn't decide to run a second series due to poor ratings... I'm not sure what that says about me?
To help fill the void, recently I've been keeping an eye on the website 'Show Us A Better Way'. This UK Government Initiative is offering a £20,000 prize to the person that submits the best idea on what government data should be made freely available and how it could be used ('Dragons Den for the data world' if you will). To date ideas have ranged from the inspired to the err... somewhat specialist, either way it's great to see people actively seeking public information that they have the rights to as a tax paying citizens.
This initiative is further evidence of the recent growth of freely available data from governments and organisations on the web. Following the 'Open Source' mentality that has embraced the online world, the intention is that by putting data in the public domain it will increase the sharing of information and expertise, drive innovation and collaboration, and ultimately benefit the end user. Advantages for governments include the contribution that innovation makes to the country's economy and non-for-profit organisations benefit from pooling resources and raising awareness.
Many people have speculated about what this cultural shift in information accessibility means for companies who specialise in the collection and sale of data, but one thing seems certain... the growth in freely available data is here to stay and as a result the opportunities to extract information from the world around us has never been greater. Of course the knock on effect is greater importance on how that information is collected, analysed and presented... but I guess I would say that wouldn't I?
The winner of 'Show Us A Better Way' will be announced in September, but in the meantime lets hope that the Australian government takes note of this initiative and continues to make information freely available so that Australian consumers and businesses can benefit from greater visibility and access to information about our immediate environment.
In the event that the Australian government launch a similar competition, I'm quietly confident that my 'Pub to Public Transport Proximity Plotter' (or 'PTPTPP') idea could well have the prize in the bag!
DP
http://www.showusabetterway.co.uk
CRM. Whats stopping you?
19 August 2008
CRM has been around for years and the technology now available for capturing and managing data is the best it’s ever been, so why then does it appear that CRM remains elusive for many organisations?
Corporate mindsets, not technology, has always presented the major barrier to successful implementation of a customer management strategy. Customer management is one of those business disciplines that is very easy to talk about – because it is for the most part undeniably intuitive – yet generally tricky to do.
Ten or fifteen years ago it was fashionable to blame the demise of CRM initiatives on IT systems that failed to deliver, either because they were too sophisticated, or not sophisticated enough, or a combination of the two depending on which disgruntled executive you spoke to in the organisation. While it is undeniable that truly clunky systems help no-one, in many instances the desire to blame the system was a convenient excuse to avoid the real barrier – the completely natural desire to protect turf and resist change.
In the final analysis, for most businesses, the introduction of a comprehensive CRM approach can represent one of the biggest change programs the organisation will ever face. This is because to truly capitalise on the potential offered, the business has to operate as a single whole in delivering the customer experience, and not as the sum of the constituent parts. Technology can of course help in joining the dots, but this is really about the willingness of business disciplines to work together.
The best way to illustrate the fact that we have not yet arrived in CRM Nirvana is to analyse where most CRM initiatives continue to be ‘headquartered’ within businesses. Generally this is the Marketing Department, because ‘they look after customers’ or because ‘that is where the loyalty budget is located’. The issue here is that, as a result of where it is domiciled, CRM is perceived by the rest of the business as the sole preserve of marketers, in roughly the same way that Accounts Receivable belongs to the finance department. The key difference here of course is that the latter is a tool that helps business function, while the former, arguably, is business.
Studies from organisations such as OgilvyOne-owned QCi have shown over the years that the CRM initiatives that have succeeded are led from the very top – the Chief Executive or the Managing Director heads the steering committee, allowing the resulting initiatives to cut across fiefdoms and create genuine and lasting changes which customers notice.
Are organisations fully utilising the customer knowledge at their disposal? Why/why not?
The interesting thing is that a ‘joined-up’ organisation tends to be in much better shape to make the most of what it knows about customers. For example, successfully communicated CRM means that the front-line staff really do understand the importance of their contribution, even if their job title does not include the word ‘customer’. A few years ago, I worked with a large car dealership who couldn’t understand how they continued to receive large amounts of returned mail, even though the marketing department regularly arranged for the database to be cleansed. They eventually realised that the service department had no understanding that any errors they made when updating customer records – and they had more contact with customers than anyone else in the business – were carried straight through to the database.
Equally, many organisations do not undertake a systematic review of all their customer ‘touchpoints’ – no matter how mundane they might appear. This is sometimes because, like the car dealer’s service department, they are not part of a ‘campaign’ but rather just workaday contact. This generally means that many opportunities can be missed – for example, when was the last time the service department of the dealership you go to asked you if you were happy with your car, or asked if you had recommended the marquee to anyone else? Collecting these vital pieces of information tends to be seen as ‘marketing’s job’ and there, sadly, is where many businesses seem happy to leave it.
An alternative approach might be to attach a relative value to different pieces of information and then select the best touchpoints at which to attempt gathering this information from customers. Web technology now makes it very straightforward to do this virtually anywhere in the globe, in real time, when and where it is most convenient for the customer.
Equally, when high potential data has been successfully collected and stored, businesses can be at a loss at what to do with it. ‘Data rich but information poor’ describes this type of situation, and normally comes down to the tools and capabilities the client or their key suppliers have at their disposal.
What can organisations do to best leverage their customer data and analytics? How can they go about this?
The key thing is to ensure that customers see a benefit from the information they supply. Consumers are undoubtedly increasingly aware of the power they wield – the power of choice – and recognise that knowledge is the key to that power. Therefore, it is a value exchange – they will provide information in return for a benefit. This might, in some cases, be preferential treatment or an enhanced service or it might simply be a genuinely relevant offer that meets the customer’s needs at that point in time.
What sort of results can organisations expect to see when they are effective at CRM? Any examples?
CRM can, quite simply, change a business beyond recognition. This is because, as the name implies, it can change the relationship between the customer and the organisation. For example, more organisations are starting to employ the type of data manipulation that on-line store Amazon has successfully used for years, piecing together what is known about customers and their past purchase behaviour, in order to recommend future purchases they might like to consider. A simple recommendation can be highly valued by the customer.
Reward and loyalty programs are also increasingly tied into a wider relationship management approach where customers are differentially rewarded for certain key behaviours. For example, many US retailers now offer additional reward points to encourage new cross-category purchase behaviours. This is a good example of how far we have come, as its not that long ago that different categories were often separate profit centres under different buyers with limited interest in supporting the other’s growth.
AW
The Driving Seat
05 August 2008
I recently read about a great principle in reference to knowledge management:
hindsight + insight = foresight. In my view, the principle is also applicable to customer databases as they are themselves a source of ‘knowledge’ that need to be managed. Knowledge is power. But all too often this knowledge lies dormant, untapped and unexploited.
The first barrier for any marketer keen to exploit this knowledge is to extract information. In my experience, generally all the important information exists somewhere, it is just not easy to get. The problem is that data exists in the context of the purpose it has been built which is often for operational or accounting purposes. This type of data infrastructure needs adapting for marketing purposes, primarily to enable the data world to be viewed in terms of the customer. E.g. not just the number of products sold each day, but the number of products sold each day by each customer. In turn this creates the ability to identify some of the basics e.g. when they last purchased (recency), their purchase cycles (frequency) and their revenue (value).
Once the ability to extract information is achieved the next challenge is to extract the knowledge from the information. To build knowledge, a distinction must be made between quantity and quality of information. Marketers are facing a surge of information which I believe is part of a growing trend towards database marketing. This has also been further boosted by the increased use of digital channels taking us further down the road to the ultimate goal of ‘customer information on tap’.
The challenge is not to get drowned in this information. Take ‘marketing dashboards’ - designed to visually display the key indicators for the marketer to monitor. Whether the dashboard is for a marketing campaign or more strategic issue for something like churn, the principle is the same: Simplicity.
A car dashboard has the essential details visually represented and the ability to attract attention when required. A high temperature guage allows you to be proactive and stop the car before the car stops you. Equally the petrol guage warns you when you’re running dangerously low with a stand out signal or sound – which I often still ignore! The dashboard isn’t overloaded with less important info: tyre pressures, recline angle of passenger seat etc etc. The focus is (and should be) on the essentials.
This is true for marketing dashboards and indeed database marketing as a whole. Focus on the essentials first and then evolve. The 80:20 rule of pareto is a common theme observed in analysis of customer data, and I also think is applicable to database marketing strategies themselves. The principle acknowledges that a disproportionate amount of gain (e.g. 80% revenue, profit etc) is often generated from a small proportion of customers (20%). I believe this is true for the actual inputs and outputs from database marketing strategies. A disproportionate gain (profit from understanding) can be achieved from a given level of input, simply by focusing on the essentials first. Getting the database management and analysis basics right will give you a significant amount of gain. Thereafter, additional inputs such as including additional data in the database and adopting test and learn campaign strategies will all achieve extra gains, but these will be disproportionately small compared to the gain from the basic inputs. So to minimise resource inputs and maximise gain, focus on the database marketing essentials first; the quick wins.
And so back to the wholly grail of knowledge management and how it could be applied to database marketing: hindsight + insight = foresight. Once you have the ability to extract the information from the database, and maintain focus on the essentials, marketers will be in a good position to clearly see and understand:
- The hindsight – data analysis which identifies and monitors past behaviour to understand the ‘who’, ‘what’, ’when’ and ’where’.
- The insight – data analysis which adds a layer of understanding by profiling and segmenting the customers to help you understand the ‘why’.
- The foresight – data analysis based on the hindsight and insight, which predicts the future I.e. ‘who’ will do ‘what’ next, and ‘when’.
The marketer must then strategise ‘how’ they will influence the ‘future’. And this is where the final (and very big) piece of the database marketing jigsaw fits in; combine all this understanding with the ability to target tailored, messages direct to the customer, and then you really are in business.
NL
http://safari.oreilly.com/0130128538
